The iconic Chanel fragrace, N°5, broke records and traditions in perfumery. Considered ahead of its time, that the scent was called a number was at once scandalous and alluring. What could it smell like? Its name certainly wouldn’t say. Of course, today, every woman and her mother can detect it from a mile a way — that powdery, floral, musky enigma of a scent.
Is it crazy that Chanel is launching a namesake scent, 95 years later, when the original remains successful? Not quite. Perfumer Olivier Polge, of course, knew what he was doing. The challenge was to create something that would be just as timeless, but also fresh and now. Enter N°5 L’eau, a scent composed of 80 different raw materials — not just one flower, or one fruit.
Polge, being a new generation perfumer, uses new generation raw materials. He took apart the original formula, reverse engineered it, to understand each one. In L’eau, Polge gives preference to aldehydes, which gives it a soapy scent. The scent’s dynamic accords includes citrusy, bright and multifaceted winter lemons; the floral accord is anchored on ylang-ylang from Comoros; clean and fresh cedarwood makes up its vibrant accord, and while May rose and jasmine from Grasse bloom in its emblematic accord.
If you, like myself, don’t speak perfumer, let me break it down for you: it’s not floral, but you can smell a flower; you can’t smell the lemon, but you can tell it is citrusy; it smells fresh, but more. It’s a complex kind of freshness, almost like the fragrance itself decided, “I’m going to be fresh.” It’s adult and self-sufficient enough to do that — just like the women who would wear it. It’s not a cologne and it’s definitely not Chanel N°5 lite. It’s an original fragrance that’s very Chanel, circa now. It’s crystal clear bottle and crystal clear contents add to its modernity.
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Chanel N°5 L’eau is available at Rustan’s The Beauty Source.