La Panthère For Women

Mathilde Laurent built La Panthère around gardenia treated as an animal rather than a flower — the brief, by her own account, was a cat rather than a bouquet.

It opens with a bright, slightly green gardenia and a touch of citrus, and the heart is all that flower: creamy, faintly fleshy, more skin-like than floral. Musk and oakmoss underneath give it a soft chypre growl. The bottle is the panther's head in moulded glass, which for once is not merely decorative — it tells you what the fragrance is doing.

Eau de toilette, 3.3 oz. For women.