Chanel will follow Hermès (Hermessences) and Giorgio Armani (Armani Prive) into niche perfume territory next year with the introduction of Les Exclusifs de Chanel in February. The line will include ten fragrances, each in a 200 ml spray for $175. Four are from the existing range (Chanel no. 22, Bois des Iles, Gardenia and Cuir de Russie). The six new fragrances, all from Chanel house perfumer Jacques Polge, are:
Coromandel ~ "named for the Chinese lacquered screens Gabrielle Chanel collected, is a spirited oriental with amber and dry notes".
28 La Pausa ~ "built around an iris note, is named for a house Mlle. Chanel owned in the South of France."
Bel Respiro ~ "intended to evoke stems, leaves and springtime."
No. 18 ~ based on ambrette seed and "named for the Chanel fine jewelry boutique at Place Vendôme".
31 rue Cambon ~ an oakmoss-free chypre with a "dry, musky, nutty scent".
Eau de Cologne ~ "a lively floral.... with citrus, bergamot and neroli."
The Les Exclusifs de Chanel line will have its own counter at Bergdorf Goodman in New York and will also be available at Chanel boutiques. (via Women's Wear Daily, image of Coco Chanel at 31 Rue Cambon via metmuseum)
The Thymes will launch Azur, their first unisex fragrance, next month. Azur includes notes of sea grass, water lily, jasmine, amber and musk. (via Women's Wear Daily)
A new duo from Azzaro, Azzaro Now, will launch in March in Europe, in the United States in 2008:
Azzaro Now Women is a soft floral composed by Annie Buzantian and Alberto Morillas from Firmenich. The scent is formed around aldehydes, amber rum, white tea, and floral notes. Azzaro Now Men is a green woody accord by Lucas Sieuzac and Christophe Raynaud of Symrise. It includes notes of rose oxide, white leather and lichen. Created by Emmanuelle Royer (CBA Design), the bottles fit together like two bubbles in fusion. (via cosmeticnews)
Additional notes for Azzaro Now Men include frosted metal, cardamom, tea, violet, green notes, floated wood and amber. Additional notes for Azzaro Now Women include bergamot, passionfruit, tiare, jasmine, aquatic notes, pale woods, rosewood and musk. (via osmoz)
I love the way most of them sound…but why the heck such humongous bottles. Geez. The price for 100ml would have been almost…reasonable.
Those bottles ARE a little samsclubby, aren't they? Still, I just about wet my pants reading this post. An iris by Chanel? Be still my heart, stomach, bowels, and credit-card-number-entering fingers. I'm sending DH the link to this post, so he can start saving his pennies for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, First Day of Summer, Fourth of July…
…and the price for 50 ml would have been just perfect!
Considering the Armani Privé fragrances cost about the same but are only give you about, what, 50 ml?, these strike me as a screaming bargain. Buy in bulk. It will be worth it.
That's “but only give you” not “but are only give you.” That's what I get for posting before coffee.
I'm only on my second cup of caffeine so I”m not much better. Anyway, good point about the Armanis, and that is one reason I never even considered buying one. But these Chanels are crying out for a lovely little coffret of 15 ml bottles, LOL…
Yes, but think of all the joy you will spread and the friends you will make swapping or giving away or selling decants from your super-big bottle! The Chanels sound most interesting indeed!
There are two descriptions that immediately caught my eye: no. 18 “based on ambrette seed…and jewelry” and 38 Rue Cambon — “an *oakmoss-free* chypre – maybe that's like a chocolate-free cup of cocoa? 😉
A 15ml coffret is called for, R.
PS – nice scoop!
True enough! I'm really looking forward to these. Combined with the 12 new Private Collection Scents coming around the same time from Tom Ford, there should be lots of interesting smelling next year.
38 Rue Cambon sounds very interesting, but agree, a chypre without oak moss will never be a real chypre to me. Of course, since the big brands don't use real oak moss any more, maybe it is just as well?
And presumably these new niche Chanels are in addition to the mainstream 'Reve' by Chris Sheldrake? Wow, what a feast of riches! 200ml is going to be a hefty bottle, though, isn't it? That's the same size as the Marc Jacob Essences, which always seem to me slightly cheapened by the bulk of the bottles. Chanel is for delicate application to pulse points, not for splashing all over!
That's a very good point! Size does matter after all…Great big bottles always seem to belong rather to the cheaper end whereas precious, rare, dangerously delicious, all come in small packages. It would be interesting to know what their marketing advice has been as such wholesale splashy sizes doesn't make them seem very niche and special at all – when in fact that's exactly what they are aiming to be. They do sound fantastic though and worth sharing with friends – ideally not too close to one's own sphere of scented influence!
Well, the bottles look an awful lot like the MJ Essences bottles too so you're not going to love them, I think!
It seems to be something of a trend though…Guerlain has done several massive bottles recently, and I know there are others that I'm not remembering at the moment.
You're right – I'd forgotten The Diff Co does whopping 250mls in leather cased bottles for 350 euros. So gigantism could be the coming thing. You've just got be sure you like the stuff very, very much indeed…
Well then the TDC thingies make these look like a bargain, don't they!!
Real ambergris isn't used any more (correct me if I'm wrong), but that doesn't make ambergris scents any less real or wonderful. Synthetic oakmoss works just fine for me.
However, a chypre without oakmoss is like a floral without flowers. Chypre IS oakmoss.
That is true enough. The oakmoss makes me mad because it is being replaced w/ synthetics for what I see as a silly reason, unlike the ambergris.
And must agree…chypre is oakmoss to me too.
HOLEY-MOLEY! I'm with you too, 50 mls is perfect…hard enough for me to get over a 100 ml bottle without it going stale. As much as I love No. 22, I have the sinking thought of it going bad before I'm done with the 100 mls. As for Les Exclusifs, No. 18 and La Pausa leave me drooling! Anyone willing to co-op a bottle of each? Hehe!
I can't wait to try these new Chanels! The big bottle phenom IS weird. I was just splashing on my Guerlain 68 last night, wondering how in heck I'd ever use all of it, love it though I do. It IS fun to splash, though, I have to admit.
Dry, musky, nutty? CHANEL? Could it be? A Chanel for me?
Whoa wait stop hold it back up. HOW MANY mls? Uh, no. No, no, nuh-uh.
Some russian confidents began to write reviews about Les Exclusifs in LJ-blogs. Please, read it in Russian in Ezhinka and mine blogs.
Eau de Cologne was already reviewed.
I wish I could read Russian, would love to hear more!
Betting there will be loads of bottle splits happening over at MakeupAlley once these launch 😉
I cannot WAIT to try these. I think we need to round up 10 – 20 people and some purty atomizers and make our own coffrets! At that price they'd wind up being fairly cheap…
Joining you in having trouble envisioning the oakmoss-free chypre — although agreeing with Anya that it sounds like cocoa without chocolate.
Even if it isn't chypre-ish, it sounds good anyway! Dry and nutty is ok with me, even without oakmoss. And yes, we need to do a major bottle split!
Yes, the only one thing I dislike in Chanel Les Exclusifs collection is the size of the bottles. But other than that I enjoyed testing all these perfumes as a result of purchasing Coromandel bottle. I can smell patchouli, incense, dark chocolate wrapped in a smoky atmoshpere. It is a beautiful perfume and it captured me right from the first try.
So glad you like Coromandel! I do wish they'd do smaller sizes and heavier concentrations, although Coromandel is fine as it is.