Ormonde Jayne Gatsby 22 Review (Linda Pilkington) 2022 + Modern Day Jay Giveaway

October 16, 2022October 16, 2022

Ormonde Jayne Gatsby 22 photo collage by Michelyn (Illustration to the Great Gatsby by Sam Wolfe Connelly and Bottle via Ormonde Jayne)

Post WW I, the world is being deconstructed and remade in new rhythms. Jazz makes discords that dance; in the new machine age, Deco fashions geometry into futuristic glamour; O’Keefe canvases melt mountains into shadows and de Lempicka paints women into statuesque Galateas. Even golden boy Jay Gatsby is a remade man, old sport, an invention of the times. In this new age, abstract is all the rage, and nothing is what it was.

Robert Montgomery, photo by George Hurrell, 1932

It makes perfect sense, then, that Ormonde Jayne’s Gatsby 22, is an abstraction, a jazz riff on Jay Gatsby set at just that moment when the sun sinks, the afterglow of its heat radiating into the night party’s glitter. Linda Pilkington’s latest is not your typical Gatsby-inspired fragrance; there are no champagne notes, no aromas of Long Island shoreline and driftwood, no diamond-flashing florals. Rather, it is a sleek, urbane citrus cocktail, gleaming as a blond bob, angular as high cheekbones, and keen as a well-placed bon mot.

Linda Pilkington, Creative Director and Perfumer courtesy of the brand

Ormonde Jayne Gatsby 22 plays with tempos, alternating scintillating citrus and pink pepper top notes with later, smooth baselines of leather and vetiver. Gatsby 22 flings open the door on a band in full swing: the first spray brings a mouth-puckering squeeze of lemon, green-tinged and bitter, rounded out with bergamot blaring like an olfactory brass section. Osmanthus comes up rather quickly, adding a complementary fruity-floral note that softens the edges just a bit, but a rather frisky, fruity pink pepper foxtrots right up behind it and bounces the fragrance back to sharp. For a few minutes, the beat is bouncy; staccato hits of lemon and pepper volleying with something woody and clean – possibly ambroxan – while the osmanthus joins with a hint of violet that emerges. The coolness and subtlety of the violet works a treat, here; it adds a slender quietness that starts to head the perfume towards a more deliberate pace.

Sampled afresh, Gatsby 22 is a summery, urbane fragrance, quite modern in feel: a 1920’s man seen through a 21^st century lens. It is in the later stages that this fragrance feels most like an oblique biography of Jay Gatsby. Velvety vetiver and a touch of driving glove leather announce a more masculine direction, while a drop or two of orange blossom act as a scented silk square carefully placed in the breast pocket. But except for the vetiver, the later notes never become overt; they remain close to the skin, their backs turned like guests in the far reaches of a large room while the vetiver steers the lemon and bergamot combo out on to the dancefloor.

Jay Gatsby (Leonardo diCaprio) and Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan) 2013 “The Great Gatsby”

In its dry down, Gatsby 22 gives off aromatic classic barbershop vibes with the arrival of some soapy, clean musk. On me, though, the flowers, particularly violet, become more noticeable the longer I wear it, and the soapy, cologne quality gradually dissipates in favour of a transparent woodiness. It’s peppy, zingy, and yet also a little remote. I can’t quite put a finger on it, but I get a sense of detachment from this perfume, the same way I often do from expensive Italian colognes: that impeccable, tailored quality that says come close but not closer. It’s perfect as a signature for Jay Gatsby.

Ormonde Jayne’s Gatsby 22 is zingy, yet smooth and would not smell out of place behind the wheel of Gatsby’s Rolls-Royce or on the neck of a present-day Jordan Baker. Grab your glad rags, spritz on some Ormonde Jayne Gatsby 22, and head out to New Egg. The heat is rising, trombones are wailing, and Jay Gatsby’s party is just getting started.

Notes: Bergamot, Sicilian lemon, pink pepper, osmanthus, violet, orange blossom, vetiver, leather accord, tonka bean, musk.

Disclaimer: bottle of Ormonde Jayne Gatsby 22 very generously gifted to me by Ormonde Jayne. My opinions, as always, are my own.

Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor

Editor’s Note: Please read Linda Pilkington’s Creative Director in Perfumery essay here

Ormonde Jayne Gatsby 22 courtesy of the brand

Thanks to the generosity of Europerfumes, U.S. distributor for Ormonde Jayne, we have a 50 ml bottle of Ormonde Jayne Gatsby 22 for one registered reader in the U.S. You must register or your entry will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what strikes you most based on Lauryn’s review of Gatsby 22, your favorite Ormonde Jayne fragrance and/or who you would cast in a movie to play Jay Gatsby in 2022. Draw closes 10/20/22 and the winner will be announced within ten days after.

Available at Twisted Lily

This is our Privacy and Draw Rules Policy

We announce the winners only on our site and on our Facebook page, so like CaFleureBon and use our blog feed…or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume.