Fragrance has long been at the centre of the CHANEL universe. With Mademoiselle Chanel’s ground breaking first foray into the world of fine fragrance with CHANEL N°5, the house quickly distinguished itself as one of the premier perfumers. With each subsequent launch, CHANEL has continued to distinguish itself as a pioneer in the field of fragrance as both an innovator, trendsetter, and grande dame.
Building on the house’s incredibly successful COCO MADEMOISELLE scent, CHANEL released COCO MADEMOISELLE Eau de Parfum Intense in 2018. Having recently been introduced to this captivating and downright seductive new iteration of one of my favourite scents, I have quickly fallen in love. Olivier Polge, the distinguished Perfumer-Creator for the House of CHANEL, noted that he “wanted to remain close to the original formula, while giving it a wholes new dimension…I wanted to increase the proportions of fractionated patchouli. Push it to the limit. Unleash its power on the skin without alternating the freshness of the top notes.” In case you might be wondering what fractionated patchouli is, CHANEL broke new ground in the world of perfume twenty years ago when they came up with the idea of redistilling patchouli to develop the scent even further for new opportunities of use thus creating a new standard in the perfume industry.
COCO MADEMOISELLE Eau de Parfum Intense has beautiful notes of Sicilian orange and Calabrian bergamot intertwined with Indonesian patchouli with hints of rose and jasmine. However, Polge further developed this stunning melange of scents with a higher proportion of patchouli leaves and with Tonka bean and Madagascar vanilla for a truly deep and seductive scent. This gorgeous perfume has a sultry warmth about it yet it is not so heady that it can not be worn as an everyday scent.
Another COCO MADEMOISELLE launch that I have particularly fallen for is the Huile Velours Pour Le Corps or the Velvet Body Oil in the original version of the scent. A newer release, this dry body oil has the most incredible formulation. I typically find body oils to be quite heavy but this is instead totally light and airy, absorbing quickly and smoothly. Leaving the skin silky, it gives the perfect hint of COCO MADEMOISELLE’s more delicate yet no less seductive scent.
