# The Body Shop — Indian Night Jasmine

> Indian Night Jasmine is an inexpensive, vegan jasmine floral that The Body Shop launched in August 2012 within its "Scents of the World" collection — a five-EDT lineup themed around global locales, th

## Essence
Indian Night Jasmine is an inexpensive, vegan jasmine floral that The Body Shop launched in August 2012 within its "Scents of the World" collection — a five-EDT lineup themed around global locales, this one built on the romantic image of a moonlit Mughal garden, with a Taj Mahal silhouette printed on the bottle. Its appeal is value and mood rather than novelty: a warm, slightly green, sandalwood-backed jasmine-and-orange-blossom accord at a drugstore price, which earned it a small but genuine cult following. It has since been discontinued in its original form and effectively replaced by The Body Shop's "Wild Jasmine."
## Scent Profile
This is a soft, approachable white floral rather than a hyper-realistic or indolic jasmine. The opening reads as sweet orange blossom with a light jasmine lift, the listed violet leaf adding a fresh, dewy, slightly green quality that keeps the flower from going fully candied.
The heart is the main event: jasmine and orange blossom intertwined, described as warm and lush rather than sharp. In the drydown the citrus-floral recedes and a creamy sandalwood — which some read as amber or a touch of vanilla — gives the composition body, though several wearers report getting little to no sandalwood and feeling the floral simply fade.
Linearity is high once it settles; this is a simple, comfortable scent rather than a shape-shifter. Worth noting that the EDT, the fragrance mist and the separately formulated perfume oil differ noticeably, with the oil widely considered the richest and most realistic and the EDT sometimes reading sharper or more synthetic on skin.
## Performance
Longevity is the consistent weak point, with many wearers reporting little to no sillage and the EDT often fading inside five to six hours; The Body Shop's fragrances are broadly known to under-perform, and this is no exception in EDT or mist form. A dissenting minority find it lasts surprisingly long on skin, hair and textiles, so skin chemistry clearly matters. The reliable workaround is layering with the matching lotion, shower gel and especially the concentrated perfume oil, which is repeatedly singled out as both stronger and longer-lasting.
## Wearing Context
This is a spring and summer, day-into-evening floral tied explicitly to warm, humid nights — the blooming-jasmine-on-a-summer-night image recurs throughout its reception. It suits everyday, low-stakes wear: light outings, daywear and a soft evening or bedtime floral, and several wearers of Indian background connect it to cultural nostalgia around night-blooming jasmine. It is too simple and soft to serve as a formal or office statement, and it leans mildly feminine.
## Comparisons & DNA
The clearest reference is The Body Shop's own discontinued Neroli Jasmin, which many describe Indian Night Jasmine as a near-identical replacement for. For shoppers cross-shopping serious jasmine, the obvious step up is Serge Lutens A La Nuit, a far more intense, indolic, honeyed three-jasmine soliflore against which Indian Night Jasmine is the cheaper, softer, more wearable option. One reviewer also draws a parallel to Bvlgari's Omnia Indian Garnet, which shares basic features but leans more on mandarin. The most relevant current alternative is The Body Shop's own Wild Jasmine, reported to smell roughly 95% similar.
## Reception
Reception is warmly positive on scent-for-the-money and consistently negative on performance. Wearers praise it as a gorgeous, comforting, warming jasmine, with excellent value, a collectible Taj Mahal-themed bottle and a strong nostalgia pull. The recurring criticisms are weak longevity and sillage in EDT or mist form, an occasional synthetic or plastic edge, and a sandalwood or late-stage sour-orange turn that bothers a few. Disagreement clusters on two axes: whether it captures real jasmine — Indian wearers mostly say no but love it anyway — and whether the perfume oil or the EDT is the version worth owning. On value the verdict is firm: a low-risk, low-cost buy for anyone who likes soft sweet white florals.
## Versions & Reformulation
This is not a single composition. At least three distinct products carry the name: the 2012 Eau de Toilette, a fragrance mist, and a separately formulated concentrated perfume oil with its own pyramid (freesia, neroli and violet leaf up top; orange blossom, jasmine, night-blooming jasmine and magnolia in the heart; sandalwood base). First issued in the 2012 "Scents of the World" collection, it was re-released with new packaging in 2015 within the "Voyage" collection, then discontinued and effectively replaced by Wild Jasmine.
## Acquisition Notes
This was a budget product, with the 50 ml EDT priced around $18 and routinely discounted well below that, and the concentrated perfume oil sold in India for roughly 895 rupees. Now discontinued, it trades on the secondary market at collector markups, often flagged as rare. There is no meaningful counterfeit problem or batch-code culture at this price tier. For something current and nearly identical, the authentic channel is The Body Shop's own Wild Jasmine, though store closures have made availability uneven.
## Notable Facts & Lore
- Inspired by a moonlit night in a Mughal garden, with bottle art depicting the Taj Mahal under a new moon.
- The name references the way jasmine releases its strongest scent at night, the "queen of the night."
- The Body Shop marketed it on the romantic claim that the jasmine is "hand-picked just before sunrise."
- Perfume historian Elena Vosnaki praised it on the Perfume Shrine blog as "possibly the nicest fragrance in the company's current rotation."
- It is vegan, in keeping with The Body Shop's house positioning, and no celebrity tie-ins or controversies are documented.