Introduced in 1991, White Diamonds is an elegant, smooth, floral fragrance. It is comprised of notes of neroli, lily and tuberose, with softer heart notes of rose, orris, narcisse and jasmine, with a sensual base of sandalwood, oakmoss, amber, and patchouli. Pure class!

I'll be honest. I wasn't really expecting to like this. I don't know why, really, but I just wasn't expecting to enjoy this perfume much. I'm happy to say I was suprirsed by it (and that's one of the nicest things about perfumes; sometimes they surprise you!).

The opening is a big blast of floral and aldehydes. Whew! (I don't hate aldehydes - organic chemicals that have a powerful diffusive effect, magnifying the effect of whatever they're blended with - but they can be a bit overpowering at first whiff, I find.) Thankfully, that initial flurry of floral topnotes settles down fairly quickly into the much more subtle and pleasant heart notes.

There is no gardenia in this as far as I can find, but for some reason, it reminds me of gardenia. Something in the combination of rose, orris, jasmine, and narcisse has the creamy, soft, sweet character of gardenia, or at least it does on my skin and to my nose.

Eventually the heart notes settle down into the ambery, slightly more woody floral base. This fragrance isn't a clingy one (not on me, anyway).

This is a somewhat old-fashioned floral, probably not something that young women would enjoy wearing. Even older women should probably apply with a light hand, as it can be quite strong and too much of this would almost certainly turn into an "old lady" fragrance in a hurry.

It's nice, though, I find I do very much like it. It's classic and it's classy, one of the old-time multi-flower bouquet type perfumes. Very nice. It's good to be surprised sometimes.