What it says
The tiare speaks of welcome and belonging. In Polynesia it is offered on arrival, worn behind the ear, strung into garlands. It is a flower of social bond far more than of private feeling.
Worn on the left, it traditionally signals that one is taken; on the right, that one is free. Behind both ears, that one is open to persuasion.
The plant
It is a gardenia, Gardenia taitensis. A white flower of seven petals — sometimes six or eight — thick and waxy, strongly scented: honey, tuberose, coconut, with a green edge. Like every gardenia it browns at a touch and is handled by the base.
Monoi
Monoï de Tahiti is a protected appellation, granted in 1992. The specification is precise: tiare flowers picked in bud in French Polynesia, macerated in copra oil from coconuts grown on Polynesian coral soils, at a minimum of ten flowers per litre, for at least ten days.
A bottle labelled simply "monoi", without the Monoï de Tahiti appellation, may have nothing to do with that specification. The appellation is the only claim that binds.
One peculiarity
Monoi solidifies below about twenty-four degrees. That is not a fault — warm the bottle in your hands. A product that stays liquid in the cold contains other oils.
our piece on flower symbolism places the tiare among the flowers of transmission.