Review: Bleu de Chanel by Chanel

Waiting for the launch of Bleu de Chanel was tough, like a boy standing outside a candy shop sans argent. Everything about this fragrance visually is right up my alley. The bottle is square, sleek, masculine and heavy with a magnetic bottle cap, and blue is my favourite colour. I badly wanted the fragrance to blow me away, just like how Egoiste did, and Bleu de Chanel was almost there in packaging  ... the final answer lies with the first spritz.

I realised how ridiculously tough Jacques Polge's job is/was. You have the world waiting and hoping for you to create another shocking masterpiece (to add on to your resume of many) but at the same time, you have these sweet guidelines from the lovely people at IFRA, and more importantly, the executives at work hounding you everyday to make sure you create a commercial success while spending as little as possible. Of course, this is pretty much the situation for most perfumers, but when you are working for a legend of a company like Chanel, the hard becomes harder.

The final answer? This is a commercially safe fragrance and should satisfy the monetary expectations of a business, but it's not one to be remembered. It's not a scent that I'd ever crave for, but it's also a scent I'm happy to wear to the office on an unassuming day. Bleu de Chanel follows the masculine 'blue' trend with woody aromatic structure, a proven winning formula as seen in Versace pour Homme and the recent toxic spray can flanker Boss Bottled Night. In a way, it is a crucial strategy to gain dominance of the men's market.

The fragrance is very smooth and well-blended, opening with sharp citruses and pink peppers, into a synthetic cocktail of virginia cedarwood, sandalwood, jasmine and incense, that extends to the base supported by labdanum, coumarin and oakmoss. The overall effect is clean, fresh, masculine and sleek. It is neither original nor revolutionary, but just another conventional men's fragrance from a luxury house tailored to sell.

Rating: ***

Review: L'EAU by Serge Lutens

Honestly, I do not know where to start with this review. L'EAU is a fairly recent offering by Serge Lutens and is supposedly an 'anti-perfume' for the days you want to stay away from the roses, civet and patchouli. Shocking? No. This is not the first time we are hearing 'anti-perfume' as it has been marketed over and over again by CdG, Escentric Molecules was in my opinion along the same line and not forgetting CB I Hate Perfume. How about clean, linen-inspired scents? Original? No. Niche brand CLEAN has been doing it for years, and so has Demeter. Scent wise, this fragrance is hardly shocking nor original, but coming from Serge Lutens, it is both shocking and original. Thinking of analogies, perhaps an equally scary one is trying to imagine Christian Lacroix selling soft, clean, white, cotton t-shirts. Horror.

Marketing aside, the scent is more than detergent. It is lemon-scented starch spray. L'EAU smells like a spanking new luxury hotel room in all white; it smells like freshly pressed $500 shirt; it smells like you have a lot of money to spare. Compared to the harsh and sharp quality of CLEAN's scent, L'EAU is actually rather charming and refine. The clever combination of citruses, aldehydes, clary sage and magnolia smells naturally clean and the slightly salty ozonic and musk notes evokes purity and comfort.

The longevity however is a nightmare leaving me scentless in under an hour. Maybe that is the concept of the 'anti-perfume'. Regardless, I still do think this is a charming scent and it makes a perfect room spray for my clean white bedroom walls.

Rating: ***

Mensonge by Fragonard

 

Unless you are a fragrance enthusiast or you've taken one of those perfume tours in France, you may not have heard of Fragonard and you'll probably be surprised at how old this perfumery is. Fragonard was opened in 1926 as a tourist perfumery in Grasse and was named after famous Grasse painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard as a tribute to the town and its art. Visitors to Grasse today can do a tour featuring the Fragonard perfume museum and factory. 

Mensonge (Lie) is part of the Confidentiel line created by Givaudan for Fragonard. Fresh opening of citrus notes with well-balanced introduction of cardamon and ginger, (ginger tends to make me gag a little but it is good to note the ginger here is light and refreshing) the heart is a spicy infusion of rose water supported by a woody-lavender base.  Mensonge is the well-behaved mature but watered-down cousin of Polo Sport Extreme and the alikeness is uncanny. Don't let the name fool you for there's nothing secretive or deceitful about it. It is a safe masculine fragrance so don't expect the girls to go crazy unless you are George Clooney. Sillage is weak and it doesn't last a mile which makes this perfect to use it in place of your Brut or Old Spice aftershave or as a quick refresher after a workout at the gym.

Rating: *** 

The Fragonard range is available in Singapore at Senteurs de Provence. 

Sécrétions Magnifiques by Etat Libre d'Orange

 

With a name like that, I knew I had to get it, even if it means buying it blind. Etat Libre d'Orange (Free State of Orange) is a niche perfumery founded by the suave Etienne de Swardt who brought pop art, bold language and fragrance together. According to ELdO, Sécrétions Magnifiques contains accords of iodine, adrenaline, blood, milk, iris, coconut, sandalwood and opoponax. It's no rocket science that this perfume intends to shock (or educate) and buying it blindly certainly added more suspense.

My first spray shouted 'chemical cocktail!'. It was a very haute couture type of opening. Unexpected, a little strange, slightly familiar yet distant and definitely not a everyday prêt-à-porter. The top starts sharp, astringent, oily, aldehylic, metallic, greenish-mushroom and a little aquatic. It was a little hard to describe the metallic notes, but I can paint you the perfect sensation. Stick a spoon into your mouth and let it touch the metal amalgam and stick your tongue there. You get this metallic twang and it makes your mouth waters. That's how it feels and if you still can tolerate this, what you will find next is more agreeable as it unfolds and reveals the milk and floral. Still, it's not your usual creamy goodness or rose garden, but more like milk with iron powder and anodized iris. Once you get the top notes out of the way, it is actually rather pleasant when the lactonic notes dominate and the sandalwood and opoponax performs. 

This is definitely not something for the first date, job interview, or any occasion that requires you to leave a safe impression. It is wearable and non-offensive, but only if there's at least an hour gap between time of spraying to first contact with other persons. The sillage and tenacity is monstrous so less is more and I cap it at 2 sprays max.

Rating: ***