Perfume-Chanel Christmas Miniature Parfum Wardrobe

A photo of the Chanel wardrobe, with five miniature popular Chanel scents.

This is a Chanel Fragrance Wardrobe, with five really popular Chanel commercial perfumes in Parfum version. I just can’t help but show off this cute little collection here. I bought this set three years ago, little did I know, this Chanel wardrobe is a Pandora’s box, opens up all my fascination to a world where emotions blends in with aesthetically pleasing pieces of vanishing arts.

Even though I’m not a Chanel fan, but I do find this Chanel wardrobe covers a quite good basis of what the iconic Chanel really is about, from the very glamorous 1921 when No.5 was introduced, to the very modern days like now

It seems that it’s a Christmas routine thing for the Chanel counters sell this Chanel Wardrobe collection. At a bit over AUD$100, for five X 3.5ml miniatures (No.5, Coco Mademoiselle, Allure, No.19 and Coco, all in Parfum strength); I guess it’s a rather irresistible, eye-catching box of jewels most perfumistas would cast their eyes on, and lurking after.

Perfume-Chanel-Coco Parfum

Coco (Parfum) by Chanel starts with a bit aldehyde hinted sweet-spiceness (something alone star anise line), rich, golden, nostalgically pleasing. I guess most people can tell immediately Coco is not a modern scent (like most of the sugary sweet fruit bomb released so fast that I’ve already lost count), it has an old school charm somehow makes me picturing a poster with burlesque dancer from the 30s or 40s.

Soon after, the scent gets warmed up in to this balmy, spice, sweet somewhat gourmand and velvet floral bouquet with spice.

The final dry down is lovely, sweet, tamed (as in less spice) version of the above. Quite a gourmand candy experience!
Marilyn Moore might adored No.5; but to me Coco would be more a versatile yet comfy scent to wear to bed, especially for cooler nights.
However, be warned, I don’t think the majority of 20something guys would appreciate Coco as much as a perfumista does, possibly due to some weird association with an auntie or even someone’s mum.

Perfume-Chanel-Coco Mademoiselle Parfum

Coco Mademoiselle (Parfum) by Chanel is one of the rather popular Chanel perfume among the younger generation of perfume users, which is clear—on a regular Friday or Saturday night, on the street I can smell at Coco Mademoiselle from at least one person and most of the time, it’s virtual walking clouds of Coco Mademoiselle’s. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, it’s just sometimes when something gets popular due to the heritage (a.k.a Chanel) and the seductive sex-sells campaign (featuring Keira Knightley), I get a bit critical and more rational about the perfume itself.

Well, about the perfume itself, the Parfum version, it starts with a really defined sweet chypre-floral opening, so sweet-chypre that somewhat a slightly watery aspect can be clearly smelt. The notes includes quite a handful of citrusy stuff like Sicilian grapefruit, Calabrain bergamot and Sicilian orange, but to my noses, none of the individual notes is detectable and everything ends up in a rather pleasant hue.

Several minutes later, when the top notes disappeared, the middle stage is a rather sweet, a bit sugared tart citrusy pie mixed with a little bit chypre/watery undertone. Somewhat I can understand why many perfume with similar middle phase like this have been released one by one to the market since 2000, largely due to the success of Coco Mademoiselle I guess? Is it a kind of mass-media and mass-preference induced preference illusion/obsession? Well, I guess I’m too cynical because overall the scent is nice in comparison with many others.

With a rather transparent-cello-plastic-wrap infused kinda sugary smell and a faint hint of watery patchouli and other sweet tart notes from before, I’m not overly impressed by this Chanel.

P.S.: I heard many people complaining that Coco Mademoiselle is too masculine, I guess it’s due to the watery start? Think, most of the perfumes marketed towards guys these days have significant aquatic accord, no wonder…
What I can say, well, perfume was and still is genderless, it’s the marketing and media pushed this ‘For Her’, ‘For Him’ idea in the consumers’ heads, just because a perfume has some notes resemble a large majority of others fumes labelled ‘for Him’ doesn’t mean anything to me, and it should not, in my humble opinion. The right personality can pull off anything…

Perfume-Chanel-Allure Parfum

Allure (Parfum) by Chanel starts with a rather odd aged scented eraser smell, which is barely there. Somehow I’m not entirely sure why Allure is the name.

Soon enough there is a certain mild spiciness nicely blended in. So…fruit (mostly discreet banana) scented eraser being lightly spiced up is the only way I can describe Allure for now. Allure does not evoke any emotion to me except for some childhood eraser-associated memories. Applied with a light hand I guess this can be mistaken as a woman or a man’s skin scent due to the near-zero sillage and the way it smells.

Towards the dry down, Allure is a the above with a tiny bit vaguely jasmine-y white floral hint and a weird dried non-orange-smelling vaguely orange peel smell added in; while the scent is getting closer and closer.

I have to say, actually this scent is quite nice after the bizarrely weird opening, it’s vague in the nicest way that I’ve ever smelt from a mainstream perfume; and I can see it being a perfect skin scent on the right person.

Perfume-Chanel-No.19 Parfum & EDT

No.19 (Parfum version) by Chanel smells like lush vegetation, really green, no flower at all in the beginning. The vegetation is more to an opulent, round end instead of the sharp crispy end.

Then it becomes more powdery, as in cool violet powder/waxy way, still no sweetness at all. Later on some dusty powder notes joins in and it is really close to skin. Soon after this phase, it starts to bloom! To me it smells elegant, still cold, but much less mean than before. It is in a refined cool way, something like talc/baby powder kinda cold freshness emits.

The dry down has a little bit weird but still nice rubber-like undertones, which is quite Chanel.

The EDT has a sweeter and fresher opening than the Parfum. The vegetation is more crispy and young in a slightly more optimistic way. Soon I can smell some floral hint, something like Anais Anais’, but rounder and refined and the floral notes just gets better and better with time. Like a discreet rose plus cleanness of lily-of-the-valley. It makes me think that it could be what a little elegant white chiffon dress smells like. Similar to the Parfum version, it is close to skin but the EDT has better projection.

However, the dry down of EDT version makes me feel sick as I’m so not a fan of overly obvious leather notes, it’s like leather plus rubber :S oh, well, surely the right person can pull it off, but…not me.

Chanel No.19 is wearable because it’s really quite and close to skin, but to me, it lacks some kind of warmth I want. Not my cup of tea, but I’m sure it would suit some independent business guru in a meeting.

Perfume-Chanel-No.5 Parfum

Chanel No. 5 is actually one of the perfumes which open up the door to the world of perfumes to me. Glad that I started with this perfume, and I’ve got the Parfum version (because I find the edt or edp quite different), and it’s an instant “wow, it’s intriguing, and not bad or old-fashioned smell at all”, despite the fact that floral aldehyde isn’t my usual taste. The bergamot blended so well with sensual ylang ylang and many other notes, with a touch of ylang ylang infused, relaxed-in-luxury feel of aldehyde.

Later on, it gets rounder; the citrusy bergamot combo gradually wears off, and left a more relaxed, and self-assured concoction on me, it feel like been wrapped around by white chiffon clothes, not exactly cuddly or cosy (like some of the vanilla perfumes evoke), but comfy enough to make me feel like a carefree teenager princess in the 17^th or 18^th century; yet still with a touch of elegance and a low-key beauty, like some little piece of gorgeous renaissance arty accessories/deco in a modern day study.

Then the warm, cosy, slightly velvet feel of musk and other ingredients combo kicks in, and it feels like a pair of nice soft vintage gloves. While I generally hate the presence of leather in my perfumes, the leather here, along with other “animal” notes which I don’t normally like, just blended in a lovely fashion and I simply adore it out of half craving for nostalgic comfy scent, and half just the enjoyment of the scent itself. Every now and then, from the cosy animal nots combo, there’s a certain kind of ivory soap smell becomes relatively more dominant, but it’s quite shy and hides for a bit, then comes back. Somehow, despite the conventional ‘heavy’ and glamorous associations I have with Chanel No 5, I find somehow from another point of view, it’s just like a nice blanket perfume, or a supportive friend there for you. No wonder I read it somewhere, something like this: “in the turning point of a woman’s life, when she doesn’t know what to wear, she can always turn to Chanel No 5…”.

Since I’ve tried a bit of those big scents with similar feel to Chanel No.5, I once thought No.5 is just a “yes that’s nice”, but somewhat when I come back and rediscover it, I find that there’s a certain character inside No.5, which is so gracefully there, while absent in some other big guns like Fracas, Tobacco Blond, Trouble…(not saying these are not nice scents). Maybe it’s the inner strength of No.5 makes it a legendary perfume which is still popular today.

From my heart, I would recommend everyone Chanel No.5 (Parfum version); but my logic tells me, well, I hate to say this, but…maybe, in public, not those under 25 (yes it includes me, I feel the strange looks when once I was wearing No.5 to uni, I guess nowadays people expect certain group of people to smell like certain things), and this is purely because the certain social association with Chanel No.5 is mainly made up of imagines of those more mature woman and mostly quite successful in some way.

Highly recommend to try the Parfum version :-)

Perfume-Chanel-No.5 Eau Premiere

Chanel No. 5 Eau Premiere is a perfect modern day interpretation of the original Chanel No 5, Eau Premiere is much brighter and lighter, with a sweeter and citrusy bergamot beginning, instead of the more tart bergamot in the No 5 Parfum, somehow it makes me think of some kind of household cleaning product, but with royal blood and a lot of elegance.

Later on, it hits an aldhyde-soapy scent stage, with a bit ylang ylang and sweet muted orange-y smell dance around, which emits a clear-cut, kind of business woman feel in it. Not entirely sure why Nichole Kidman is the face for Eau Premiere, until one day, I find the resemblance of Nichole’s cold, posh, stereotypical a-bit-spoiled English princess attitude/personality somewhat matches the new No.5 perfectly. Build upon the original No.5, Eau Premiere has some kind of heritage, as if it’s a royal member in the perfume world, and somehow it just has to show it these days, to distinguish itself from other normal blood perfumes (even though some of them might smell more royal than the royals). I know I might sound a bit mean, but by no means I ever intended to be negative or harsh on this scent, in fact I like it a lot. However, personally I find it’s a scent you can wear, and the combo of you and the scent might be a powerhouse, but you just don’t feel it will ever really be yours. Like a sly and gorgeous cat who’s just not gonna be tamed, but be adored by many -- Chanel No 5 Eau Premiere wanders around and be chased, loved, cuddled at one moment, but the next, and most of the time, it just stands by itself, enjoying the solitude of being a shining perfume, on display, usually in one of the best positions in a shop.

Perfume-Chanel-Chance, Chance Eau Fraiche, Chance Eau Tendre

I guess Chanel is getting smarter and smarter in their commercial perfume marketing, besides the old charms, after the let-sex-sell Coco Mademoiselle, Chance and its flankers has been rather popular, among many who were previously not that much a Chanel fan due to the rather refined (somewhat old fashioned) association that yonger (20 something, or even 30something) group have with fragrances from this house.

I guess years ago, before I start my perfume world exploration, one of the first perfumes got my attention (and even fascination) is Chance Eau Fraiche from Chanel. However, after tasting a bit more others, nowadays I might look and laugh at how naïve I was.

Recently I revisited the Chanel counter, well, brilliant marketing! The sales woman told me, the Chance range were designed to reminiscent the feeling of holding a wedding ring. LOL. However, it does get you, in a millisecond scale or a larger, year scale. I guess most woman are somewhat romantic creatures; dreaming about the moment of saying ‘I do’ might appeared in our fantasies since an early age due to all the media etc. Then here comes Chanel, the perfume literally mean ‘Lucky’ in English, with the above marketing trick, well, smart! Maybe that’s what leads to the weird phenomenon among younger Chanel users whom literarily claim that Chance is the best Chanel perfume ever. :S

However, to be honest, the scent might be nice/tolerable, but it’s far from what greatness, not to mention marvellous.

So…How what do I really think about the Chance flankers?

• Chance Eau de Parfum

Chance starts with the sweet, nearly-watery, yet non-commercial aquatic kind of clean feel, which is refreshing yet warm enough to make me picturing it be worn for some romantic summer balmy nights. It reminds me a lot of Coco Mademoiselle, for both of them have this nearly sporty patchouli-sweets-chypre blend.

Gradually the watery fresh sweetness goes fainter, leave the perfume to develop in to something rather balmy, a bit gourmand, sweet. Somehow, it oddly refinements Chanel No.5 Eau Premiere for the bright yet a bit powdery aldehyde-pushed floral notes; Coco Madmoiselle for the fresh sweetness-infused patchouli note and Coco for the slightly spice sweet accord which comes and goes.

Then the dry down is a bit rushed in my opinion, it’s like a bunch of aged and muted typical white flowers mixed with some rather warm, balmy, gourmand sweet and a little bit orange-y notes, and every now and then, there’s this busy slightly woody accord comes and goes.

Somehow, I find Chance, the original might be the best chance among the three, for it actually have some rather defined structure and more well-,mannered and the notes are rather nicely blended.

• Chance Eau Fraiche

Chance Eau Fraiche, true to its name, it is a more fresh, sparkling, summery, citrusy version of the original Chance. Both Eau Fraiche and the originally has this patchouli-sweets-chypre yet non-cloying bone structure there, while Eau Fraiche goes max on the citrusy part in the start, it’s so sparkling, so fresh as if you can actually inhale the juice (and this is one of the rare perfumes which really makes me feel like to inhale it in a hot summer day, to cool myself down). Somehow, it’s like a granda version of the popular Light Blue by Dolce & Gabbana, because both of them are rather citrusy in a summery breeze way. However, since Chance Eau Fraiche is a Chanel, it does retain the typical Chanel heaviness (or maybe I should say, elegance?) rather than the free-spirited carefreeness.

After the initial breeze of freshness, Eau Fraiche is actually not that fresh. It becomes more stale in the orange-tart-sweetness (I find Eau Fraiche is sweeter in the sharper, citrusy way than the original which has more the bright aldehyde-y floral sweetness in comparison), with well blend floral notes.

The dry down of Chance Eau Fraiche is quite bright, still sweet tart citrusy and to me, it’s not really the type of elegant dry down I would expect from a house like Chanel. Well…it’s still wearable, especially if you were gifted a bottle of this.

• Chance Eau Tendre

Chance Eau Tendre is a disappointment to me. It does start really nice and gives me the similar optimistic vibe that Eau Fraiche does, but in a sweet, pink, nice girly way (like most of the popular fruity floral pink la-la perfumes launched this days). I did fall at that moment, in the same fashion as most people would find/fall for most pleasing fruity post-2000 scents. It’s not offensive, somewhat fruity lolly-ish, harmless till you inhale too much. If it stayed that way, it could be a really pretty daytime perfume, or even an office scent if applied with a light hand.

However, here comes the horror: in less than 10 minutes, it smells just like Daisy by Marc Jacobs with a much longer Daisy strawberry/clean phase (I’m not a Daisy fan as the oddly synthetic strawberry notes and hay-like smell make me really nauscious).
Well, there is a floral-fruity infused musky dry down, which isn’t too bad, but…to live pass about 4-6 hours of the Marc-Jacobs’-Daisy-replicate reminiscent nightmare, I don’t think Chanel has done a good enough job to keep their latest release unique (a.k.a Daisy’s twinsister) nor generically pleasing (for I know quite a handful of people who are rather allergic to MJ’s Daisy).

It might be a nice perfume to some, especially to those who can pull off Daisy, but too generic to be a Chanel.

Perfume-Demeter Fragrance-Vanilla Cake Batter

Vanilla Cake Batter by Demeter Fragrance is quite a cheap thrill to me. It is a really real representation of the real life thing -- vanilla cake batter! It is vanilla-y, in a modest, quieter, simply vanilla way, plus the home-y gramma’s kitchen feel called to mind by the wet, cool smell of goo-y batter.

Vanilla Cake Batter is so far the only sweet foody scent from Demeter that I find not too overwhelming (and true-to-life), and I can comfortably wear day to day. It is somewhat a comfy scent close to your skin, and gives the carefree feel of childhood.

Perfume-Demeter Fragrance-Chai Tea

As a Chai Tea lover I love everything in Chai Tea from Demeter Fragrance. It is quite close to the real life Chai Tea scent, I cannot smell much of the notes listed by the house, it’s just like a cup of Chai Tea which is little bit heavy on the cinnamon and sugar, to my usual no-sugar Chai Tea.

Somehow I find the cinnamon quite charming, and energizing in the perfume; however, I’m not really sure about the sugar sweetness, surely it makes the perfume more wearable as in it’s closer to the usual standards of department store perfumes these days—sweet; however, I find it somewhat ruins the perfect Chai Tea experience a little bit, still, it’s a lovely close-to-real Chai Tea scent to enjoy privately (I’m not sure I will wear a beverage-scent to public), and it will be great for cooler days, and will work wonderful as a room spray.

Perfume-Demeter Fragrance-Bamboo

Bamboo by Demeter Fragrance starts really fresh and not demanding, somehow really makes me think of natural bamboo plants. It’s like newly-cut grass with a bit general fresh fruity hint.

After a while the grassy green scent becomes more tamed and the fresh fruity scent plays a more dominant role here, which is quite a nice experience: the fruity scent is not like any single fruit, rather…feels like the skin of a green apple, which has been freshly peeled off without the apple-ness.

Somehow oddly it makes me think of clean china just out from the dishwasher, and a bit sweet washing detergent smell can still be smelt from it.

It is one of the Demeter scents I find great to be an air spray, as well as a really easy and kinda quite scent to wear occasionally.