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Wednesday, January 24, 2007

More on Les Exclusifs de Chanel

My heart rejoices when I see an interesting article on perfume in a glossy magazine. This month Allure features an article by Judy Bachrach on Les Exclusifs de Chanel. According to the author, the new scents are "based on a complicated trajectory of the founder's difficult and flamboyant life. They are also the scents she cherished, outdoors and at home- the smells of iris and spice, of crushed roses and leaves. certainly, they are not suitable for everyone".

The article provides brief descriptions of four scents:

Bel Respiro - "a 'green' scent, evokes the smell of new leather and cut grass after it rains"... it "smells of mown grass and crushed leaves, although there is also an undertone of hay beneath the green scents".

31 Rue Cambon - "a mixture of bergamot, patchouli, oak moss, and cistus labdanum"..."Brimming with bergamot, this is perhaps the most nostalgic of all the new fragrances, the kind of scent worn by old ladies when they were very young and unabashedly sensual".

Coromandel - "an oriental fragrance using a tree resin called benzoin, which has vanilla-like properties"...Like Chanel's apartment that inspired it, it is not "innocent", it is "weighted by frankincense" and "contains a hint of the heavier spices of the East".

28 La Pausa - "a powdery scent based on the oil from iris pallida (known as sweet iris), one of the most expensive products available to perfumers...

The article, Channeling Chanel, can be found in Allure, February 2007, pages 178-181. The image is from Allure.

I understand that a similar feature is in February W (and probably will appear in most glossies at some point).

23 Comments:

Blogger marchlion said...

Wasn't that a great article? And in ALLURE?!?! I was so surprised! That's my 12YO's subscription but I guess I'll have to start reading it.

2:33 PM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Yeah! What's next? Analysis of JAR in People magazine? :-D

2:39 PM EST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can't wait for these. Coromandel especially sounds like me.

But, b/c they're so expensive, I can't help but pray that I hate them all. But I doubt that will happen.

4:21 PM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

MarkDavid,
Coromandel is calling my name, the loudest of all Exclusifs. :-) And I too half-hope I won't love the new Chanels :-)

4:26 PM EST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think Coromandel sounds very much in the vain of a real Coco Chanel creation - didn't she say something similar to "your fragrance should arrive a half hour before you do?"

Well, maybe I'm paraphrasing just a bit, but I think she would agree with me.

4:59 PM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

I agree. :-) This very article actually says that , "for Chanel, simple lines and tailored clothes had to be offset by a profusion of luxury". By luxury they mean jewelry, but it might as well be applied to perfume, I think.

5:08 PM EST  
Blogger Kelley said...

These sound fabulous. However, you mentioned expensive. Do you know how much they will be? New mown hay and leather and incense and spices...oh, my!

6:20 PM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Kelley,
They could actually be very reasonably priced if the bottles weren't so huge. 200 ml sprays for $175.00. Eau de Cologne will also be available in a 400 ml splash for $300.00.

6:25 PM EST  
Blogger Gaia said...

I can't wait to try Rue Cambon and Coromandel. They sound like bottles that need to live with me. I just wish they were of manageable size. I'm sure they know that their potential clients aren't exactly the McD supersize crowd.
I'm cracking up at the JAR/People mag comment. It's so wrong to think about Bolt of Lightning next to a Paris Hilton picture.

6:43 PM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

The non-blonde,
I would be happy to give good, caring home to those two bottles too, humongous as they are :-) Heck, I am willing to provide accommodation for all 10 new and re-released Chanels.

6:47 PM EST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oy - not usually much of a a Chanel fan but I gotta have the Bel Respiro and Coromandel! All the Chanels that ever sounded interesting to me were always the discontinued ones. This will change my mind about the line, I am sure.

2:20 AM EST  
Blogger chayaruchama said...

I can't wait for these...

A propos of the BIG sizing, an SA friend noted that this was a throwback to the large Bee bottles of Guerlain, and other companies , years ago. She feels that this was Chanel's intent.
That made a bit more sense to me.
What do you think ?

7:24 AM EST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I want Coromandel and 28 La Pausa. But who buys 200mls of perfume, or 400mls!?! %*&^$#!! Many-way splits are in order, I say.

7:59 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Flora,
They sound great, don't they!

8:28 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Chaya,
It's either that or they juice -somehow- wasn't that expensive to make, and were the scents to be sold in smaller bottles, the price would have been too small to look *exclusive* and chic, and so they opted for these jugs :-)

8:30 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

M,
Yeah, I know! Splits are the way to go here. :-)

8:30 AM EST  
Blogger lilybp said...

It was a wonderful article--and they also had a column by F. Malle (not as great) and another perfume-related thing I can't remember. I admit to having a subscription to Allure (well, look, it was FREE!!!), and to enjoying flipping through it regularly, but this was way above their usual level. I hope these are as good as they sound there. Someone--maybe Helg?--said on MUA that the juice was supposed to be watery and weak! Hoping that's not true. . .

10:43 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

J,
I thought Malle's little article was very typical of what glossy magazines publish about perfume (unlike the Chanel article). Very Obvious, you know?
I believe the comment about Les Exclusifs was supposed to have been made by a former Chanel employee. Maybe it's me, but I heard sour grapes bells a-ringing :-) We'll be able to judge for ourselves soon enough, I guess.

11:06 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

V,
Oh, I love the *form*. The Chanels were always my favorite bottles. So simple, so elegant. I just don't like the size of the new ones :-)

11:39 AM EST  
Blogger StyleSpy said...

Dyingdyingdying to sniff Coromandel, and I get to in 2 measly weeks! Woo-hoo.

I also heard that the bottles are so large because the frags are more in the line of splashes, like those %$#@ Marc Jacobs things. (Must EVERYONE do EVERYTHING Marc Jacobs does????)

BTW, isn't the tree called styrax and the resin called benzoin? Must look into this...

10:17 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

A,
It's just so hard for me to imagine a fragrance like Coromandel as a splash...

10:25 AM EST  
Blogger StyleSpy said...

M -- me, too. Hence my confusion.

(Oh, who am I trying to kid... I'm *always* confused.)

I will be sniffing them the wkend of the 9th and shamelessly batting my eyes at the Chanel SAs in hopes of scoring some samples. I'll try to post a review shortly thereafter.

10:29 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Please do!!

10:33 AM EST  

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