Gardenia reminds me of my Gram, it was her favorite flower. She grew the plants in her house and went crazy for anything that smelled of gardenia. I'm usually not into white florals but I'm always drawn to gardenia scents as they remind me of her. THIS is the honey note (whipped honey) that I've been searching for! I was hoping to get a powerful honey scent akin to this out of Charisma Bonus but it hasn't developed as of yet. Back to my review of QB. On my skin this starts off honey dominant. After the first 15 minutes the pale fluffy honey and the creamy white gardenia are perfectly matched. I'm a happy camper in my own personal perfume cloud when I wear this gem. It's not very complicated but it doesn't need to be, it's perfection as is. This lasts around 5-6 hours on me. This wears on me as a 50/50 mix for the first 4 or so hours of wear. At this point the honey has disappeared and the gardenia has mellowed out wearing super close to my skin at the end point. Minus a star for the wear time. Nothing gets 5 stars from me unless it wears longer than 8 hours on my scent eating skin. That's nothing against the oil it's a skin chemistry issue I battle. YMMV and most will probably get more longevity out of Queen Bee. I prefer the gardenia note (softer and more refined) to the gardenia in NAVA's Crimson Gardenia. Nui Cobalt's is a more true to life gardenia smell. If you're a fan of both honey and gardenia notes then you absolutely cannot go wrong with Queen Bee.

This is all sweet creamy honey and waxy magnolia on me. I love magnolia but it can be a note that comes on too strong on me. The magnolia in this is perfect it's not faint by any means but it has that present but not overwhelming 'wafting through a breeze' quality that I love in some of my favorite Nui Cobalt floral notes (such as in the Bees' Cotillion although the magnolia is more the star of this show where the florals in Cotillion are more background dancers).

This is thick rich warm honey gorgeousness with a touch of gardenia. Its not too sweet nor is it too high pitched in it's white floral note. It reminds me of my grandparents home in coastal Florida where I would spend a lot of my time as a kid. As soon as I tried this, it was instant memory-induced choking up! I was walking through their house with heavy floral wafting through the windows warmed by the sun. You can actually smell the warmth of a coastal sun! How did you do that? ;)