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Browsing by tag: chanel

Top 10 Fall Fragrances 2011

Posted by Angela on 31 October 2011 146 Comments

pumpkinpumpkinpumpkin

I always tell people my favorite season is summer. In truth, it’s autumn. I whisper this fact, because while autumn is heartrendingly beautiful with its crisp mornings and warm afternoons and a garden still full of dahlias and greens, autumn is also the harbinger of winter. Each delightful, knife-sharp afternoon is a reminder of the rainy days ahead. Each walk through a shuffle of parchment-red leaves portends months of dark, slushy cold. When I can forget all that and focus on the here and now, I love fall.

For courage, I queued up Ian Bostridge’s sad but glorious Schubert lieder and chose ten autumn situations and matching fragrances to write about for today’s post:

Making the seasonal transition: All of the sudden, a morning feels colder than the rest. Instead of grabbing a cardigan, you ponder a light jacket. You’re almost ready to fire up the furnace for the first time this year, but not quite yet. A warmer fragrance seems fitting, but you’re not quite tempted to give yourself over to heavy gourmands and orientals. Ormonde Jayne Tolu works nicely now. Its green heart lightens its rich, oriental base. Annick Goutal Eau de Charlotte is a good transitional fragrance, too. It is fresh, but offers the after-school treat of bread, jam, and chocolate…

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Chanel Jersey ~ fragrance review and a lavender poll

Posted by Robin on 11 October 2011 115 Comments

Chanel Jersey perfume

I was not excited when I heard Chanel’s latest addition to the Les Exclusifs collection, Jersey, featured lavender. It is not a favorite note of mine, although I love Guerlain Jicky, and oddly enough, also the first fragrance I thought of when I smelled Jersey, Brin de Réglisse. Like Jersey, Brin de Réglisse is a niche-from-a-mainstream-house sort of thing, in this case from Hermès, and the reason I thought of Brin de Réglisse right away is not because they smell alike, although I suppose perhaps they are the distant-est of distant cousins. No, I thought of it because of the lavender note in Brin de Réglisse, which as you may remember, was a molecular fraction (is that the term? I don’t know the term, and admit I am not very concerned about it either way). I’ll repeat a quote I used then:

[Perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena] asked them to slice natural lavender into 50 distinct groups of molecules, sniffed them all, discarded five and reassembled it. “My lavender had a much purer, cleaner smell,” he says, comparing it with the natural scent. “Then I had to find something to dress it up that would be a little unusual. I chose a touch of licorice.” (via Los Angeles Times, 10/28/2007)

As near as I can tell, they do something similar (presumably using cheaper methods) with many fragrances notes, which is why notes you used to hate — patchouli! — don’t bother you anymore, and why smelling materials in their natural state is no longer necessarily helpful to the budding perfumista…

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Chanel Jersey ~ new perfume

Posted by Robin on 7 October 2011 38 Comments

Chanel Jersey

Chanel has launched Jersey, a new introduction to the Les Exclusifs de Chanel collection…

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It can truly exalt a perfume

Posted by Robin on 20 September 2011 12 Comments

Perfumer Christopher Sheldrake of Chanel talks about iris and the new Chanel No. 19 Poudré. Found at J'aime Le Parfum.

Chanel No. 19 and No. 19 Poudre ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 29 August 2011 119 Comments

Chanel No. 19 Poudré

No matter how many fragrances Chanel’s line up features, Chanel No. 5 hogs the limelight. Yet supposedly Coco Chanel’s favorite, the one she named after her birth date, was No. 19. Rumor is she kept No. 19 out of mass production so she could wear it herself and give bottles to special clients and friends.

In 1971, after Mademoiselle’s death, Chanel released No. 19 to the public. Chanel’s website describes the fragrance, developed by perfumer Henri Robert, as “A rich blend of floral and green notes, followed by May Rose and Iris from Florence. The finale: a chime of Chypre with a subtle, woody Vetiver note.” It goes on to say No. 19 is “Audacious and assertive. Never conventional.”

If No. 5 is the grande dame with pearls and Champagne, No. 19 is the ingénue. While No. 5 sits in the living room with nattily dressed suitors, No. 19 is getting back from a ride through the forest on a summer day…

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