The first Ormonde Jayne perfume I'm sampling (chosen at random) is Sampaquita, a solidly crafted floral blend with a bit of a citrus kick at the start and a musky/mossy base.

Top notes are lychee, grass, oil, bergamot, and magnolia, and my first impression was that it was familiar, but not too familiar. It's a really nice, rich combination, surprisingly so for top notes, which tend to be rather light and wispy in most perfumes. This is quite beautifully clear, and I like it, particularly the grass oil in combination with the lychee (I'm not the biggest fan of lychee, generally, but this is good). I'm also not finding myself overwhelmed by the bergamot. I quite like bergamot, but a lot of perfumes that use it in the top notes smell like a cup of Earl Grey tea. Not so this blend.

The top notes lingered for some time before gracefully and elegantly giving way to the heart notes of sampaquita absolute (apparently, the sampaquita or sampaguita is the national flower of the Philippines, so there you go, learn something new every day), freesia, muguet, rose, and water lily. The first note of the heart that I could detect was the muguet, mostly because I like it and I can almost always notice it in any blend, but it's not overwhelming. The more the heart notes develop, the less obvious the muguet becomes. The jasmine-like sampaquita note is subtle but detectable, as is the rose. The note I most notice is the freesia, not really my favourite floral, but this is a quite sophisticated blend, and none of the floral notes are especially overwhelming to me or on my skin. In fact, the blend of heart notes is extremely well done, and once the heart is fully opened and developed, they work together in perfect concert to create a delicious, unique, and sophisticated floral character. On me, it's an intense floral that's quite close to the skin.

As the heart notes gave way to the base notes, the fragrance got even closer to the skin. The base notes are musk, vetiver, moss, and ambrette seed (also known as musk seed). I detect primarily the musky notes as the floral heart notes recede, with just a hint of the vetiver. The base is sensual and earthy, and, on me, very subtle. The rose heart note seems to linger the longest into the base, and then the base dries down nicely into the rather long-lingering base notes.

The entire development was very "close to the skin" for me, so if I were wearing this perfume just to wear (rather than to test/review), I'd make sure to put it in multiple locations and in sufficient amount to create good sillage, though I must say, the close-to-the-skin fragrances are very nice for summer wear or for wearing in a situation where you'll be in close proximity and you don't want to overpower with your perfume (office, threatre, etc.).

Overall, I'm fairly impressed with this fragrance, not so much for the specific notes, though I do like them, but for how really well-crafted it is. It's exquisitely balanced, the stages degrade so gracefully and elegantly! The notes are not particularly uncommon or rare, but they're expertly arranged. This is a high quality fragrance, from top to bottom, with unique character and tremendous elegance. Beautiful.