Perfume-Chanel-Les Exclusifs de Chanel-No.18

Chanel No.18 (edt) by Chanel, in its Les Exclusifs de Chanel range, is not the typical floral fruity perfume you’d find in a shopping mall these days, despite that it is marked as floral fruity. On the right person, it might be a great grown-up fruity-woody-musk perfume. Just like Mure et Musc by L’Artisan.

The opening is like dry woods mixed with some kind of bizarre (yet kind of addictively intriguing) blueberry type of smell, served fresh, no sugar; weird enough, there is this peculiar sweetness ( somewhat along the line of patchouli) surfaces around from time to time.

As the middle notes start to surface, I find No.18 is extremely similar to Mure et Musc, there is this type of muskiness which I find hard to pull off—it is definitely musky, but more on the dirty, animalistic end. Somewhat I find it too sharp and the thoughts of dark 18^th centery workshop and caged animals live civet cats just haunts my mind; especially with the oddly blueberry skin type of sour fruitiness added in.
After this stage, No. 18 goes pretty linear and the muskiness is getting more and more tolerable.

If you love Mure et Musc, you might have a high chance to love No.18. However, if weird musky fruity floral is not your thing, skip No. 18, you won’t miss out much.

Perfume-Chanel-Les Exclusifs de Chanel-Coromandel

Coromandel (edt) by Chanel, in the Les Exclusifs de Chanel range, is one of those big bold slightly old-fashioned smelling perfume I know I would love as soon as I got it on. It is sweet, woody-sweet; something along the line of patchouli mixed with dried vanilla. Somehow, I keep on having déjà vu’s when I smell the opening of Coromandel because it has a similar entrance personality as Shalimar by Guerlain, but of course, with an emphasis on patchouli-woody element.

As time pass by, Coramandel gradually develops its own personality, it’s getting warmer, cosier, kind of sweet-y amber-y and much less woody or patchouli-y than the start. Which intriguers me a lot, since patchouli is normally smelt in the base notes, not sure why I can already smell it this early.

The dry down is just a smoother, more amber-y version of the above. I find Coromandel a lovely and a bit shy version of a versatile, totally wearable oriental woody scent for almost any time. However, as much as I like it, I can’t help but sighing that Coromandel does not have that much a stunning personality, despite the promising foundation it’s based on. I guess this is the type of perfume I don’t mind to be gifted a bottle of, but would not really crave for one.

Perfume-Chanel-Les Exclusifs de Chanel-No.22

No. 22 from Chanel's Les Exclusifs de Chanel range is somewhat like a sister of the famous No.5, with a little bit twist. The start is a bright, typically sharp aldehyde opening and as time goes by, there is this quasi-incense smokey quality gradually added in. If No.5 (Parfum version) has this grand golden feel to it due to the ylang ylang, then No. 22 definitely feels a bit bitter and shy without as much ylang ylang. With the smokey accord, somewhat this is more like an illegal cross between No. 5 and YSL Opium.

As the scent develops, it becomes easier to wear, closer to the skin and leaves a rather oriental floral type of ivory soap type of smell infused with a bit smoke and a tiny hint of plain dry wood. Then gradually the scent is covered by a bit candle-wax-y scent on top of whatever that’s already there.

Not bad, especially if you do not want to wear the same perfume as everyone else, if you were a No.5 or Opium fan. However, as a perfume from the Les Exclusifs, I find it a bit disappointing.

Perfume-Chanel-Cristalle EDT and EDP

Cristalle, one of the quite popular Chanel scent many 30something people find quite versatile to wear, I find it rather a hit-or-miss one to the 20something demographic. I guess now is the time I push myself to give it a go, somewhat feeling really obliged for no particular reasons.

Despite sniffing perfumes for about two years, I can handle niches fine, but I still find there’s something odd in the commercial Chanel scents like No. 19 and Cristalle, which makes me feel a bit scared, like a little kid who’s scared of a family friend (whom to the kid, is ultimately foreign).

I put on Cristalle, immediately I can smell a resemblance of No.19. However, Cristalle is a little bit less serious than No.19. Cristalle EDP smells of lush, green vegetation with a dash of tart violet, iris kind of powdery, non-sweetened floral hint. While the EDT version is a bit sharper, more clear-cut, more similar to No.19 at this stage.

When Cristalle EDP develops into something a bit old-charm chypre sweet, I finally can see some personality of this scent (odd enough, it actually reminds me quite a bit of the chypre in Miss Dior). On the other hand, the EDT simply gets bloomed, I smell some rather dominant violet mixed with other green-y vegetation kind of smell, which in smaller doses from a distance, makes me feel quite refreshing; however, the scent from skin makes me rather ill, like…say smelling floral notes, leather, dry powdery accord in an enclosed car when the air’s not fresh and the air conditioner is on a quite chilling temperature setting (somehow, this is the ultimate mum/working woman scent to me, and not sure consciously or unconsciously, I just cannot handle it).

The dry down of Cristalle is a mellower and quieter version of the above. I’d say, if floral green type of scent is not that appealing to you, or there’s a huge dislike towards green earthy vegetation type of violet-y scent, or a mere compelling reaction towards Chanel No.19 has occurred in your life, not much is missed out by skip sampling Cristalle.

Perfume-Chanel-Les Exclusifs de Chanel-Beige

Beige is another perfume from the Les Exclusifs de Chanel range. I guess it would be Chanel's take on 'everyday' luxury scent.


Beige starts fresh, and sweet, but not in an overly commercial girly fresh way. I can detect some freesia scent with some soft floral. Somehow it gives me nice association of spa, and relaxed holidays. It projects the impression that Beige will be really easy for anyone to wear.

Soon it gets a little bit sweeter and earthier with a tiny bit of powdery feeling, and honey undertone.

Then about two hours later, it becomes really close to the skin, really pleasant to wear. It feels sitting in the middle of a nicely and carefully maintained garden, and having a cup of flower tea that's sweetened by honey.

Even though Beige is pleasant, I am quite disappointed because it does not have any of the iconic Chanel-y edge. Good quality, nice honey touch, and pleasant enough to wear, but somehow I feel Beige really has a 'beige' personality, and kinda faceless in comparison with other Chanel perfume. Well, it may be a good choice when you want some 'low-profile' from a luxury brand.

Perfume-Chanel-Les Exclusifs de Chanel-31 Rue Cambon

It is time to try some of Les Exclusifs from Chanel. I guess humans are the kind of animal driving by curiosity, especially in my case here: the hard it is to get my hands on something, the more satisfaction I seem to get when somehow I actually got hold of a sample. Snobby or not, I guess there is somewhat a hidden nerve in many perfumistas, which, at some stage of our perfume-sniffing journey, makes us feel the urge to find that something more exclusive, more niche and even better, more a one-of-a-kind type of wonder, despite if there is any potential of actually wearing the scent out.

Well, here we come, the first one from the Chanel Les Exclusifs which I’ve tried:

• 31 Rue Cambon, in the Les Exclusifs de Chanel range by Chanel

Be aware! I highly suspect that Chanel 31 Rue Cambon is a scent that differs a lot from person to person, and even smells really differently on the same person under different temperature. So I guess it’s wise to try more than twice or even three times before you reach a definite conclusion.

Chanel 31 is like the merits combo of No.5 Eau Premiere + Allure + Chance. My apology here for my chronologically wrongly referring Chanel 31 to later and more commercially wider distributed Chanel scents, to describe how Chanel 31 smells.

Ok, about the scent:

Chanel 31 Rue Cambon starts sharp and clean in an intoxicating bergamot dominant citrusy/aldehyde kind of chypre, reminds me a little bit of the elegant Chanel No.5 eau Premiere.

Then it goes sweeter, smoother, rounder and woodier. There’s sweetness in a patchouli powdery way, with some floral hint. Really warm, in an elegant and confident way, plus a little touch of sensual feeling. This reminds me a much refined Chanel Chance + Allure. It's self-assured luxury without boasting.

The dry down comes smoothly, like a sheer version of what I’ve been experiencing til this stage. It’s comforting with the elegant and clean iconic Chanel-style edge.

Worth trying!