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Chanel No. 5 is the first fragrance launched by Parisian couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, and has been on sale continuously since its introduction in 1921. It has been described as " the world's most legendary fragrance ," and ranks on the top places in the perfumery sales charts. It remains the best-selling fragrance of Parfums Chanel , and the company estimates that a bottle is sold worldwide every 30 seconds. The scent, which is characterized by its overdose of a 1:1:1 accord of aldehydes C-10 (decanal), C-11 (undecanal) and C-12 (dodecanal), had been created by the French perfumer Ernest Beaux.
Legends
The creation and conception of this exceptional perfume is surrounded by many legends, to which Coco Chanel and Ernest Beaux contributed themselves considerably:
- According to one of these, the 0.6% overdose of the aldehyde accord should be due to a mixing error of Beaux’s assistent, who dosed the aldehydes in pure instead of 10% dilution. However, taking into consideration the perfect balance of the rose–jasmin accord with the aldehyde complex, this seems rather unlikely. It seems much more likely that the composition is the result of systematic and careful composition studies.
- According to another, reported by Constantin Weriguine, a student of Ernest Beaux, the composition was inspired by Beuax's military station on the Kola Peninsula during the Russian Civil War 1917–19, with the intention to capture the scent of extreme freshness of the northern lakes under the midnight sun. However, also this is unlikely since Beaux himself used aldehydes already in 1913 in the related » Bouquet de Catherine «, which had been inspired by Robert Bienaimé' s big success » Quelques Fleur « (Houbigant, 1912). It seems also unlikely that Beaux was fully equipped with the perfumery raw materials during this military action.
- Most probably seems what Beaux’s perfumer colleagues Jean Carles and Edmond Roudnitska reported, which is that » Chanel Nº 5 « was in fact a remake of Beaux’s » Bouquet de Catherine « ( Buket Ekaterina ) and » Rallet Nº 1 «, respectively.
» Bouquet de Catherine «
Ernest Beaux had his first big success in 1912 with the »Bouquet de Napoleon«, a florally accentuated eau de Cologne. A female counterpart was to follow on the occasion of the tercentenary of the rise of the Romanov dynasty: The »Bouquet de Catherine«, an homage to Catherine the Great. To this purpose, Beaux was studying » Quelques Fleur « (Houbigant, 1912), a recent successful launch, in which Robert Bienaimé had used synthetic aldehydes for the first time . As gas chromatographs had not been invented yet, there was no other possibility for Beaux than to find out by trial and error, which aldehyde Bienaimé had used and at what level. So Beaux started experimenting with a 1:1:1 complex of the novel aldehydes C-10/C-11/C-12, upon which he discovered that these purged the fattiness of the natural rose and jasmin oils. He consequently incessantly increased the level of the aldehydes and the jasmine–rose accord of » Quelques Fleur «. The result of these studies was launched in Moscow in 1913 as the » Bouquet de Catherine « by A. Rallet & Co. , the biggest Russian perfume house and purveyor to the courts of Imperial Russia. The success of the » Bouquet de Catherine « was far from spectacular, and since the German descent of Catherine the Great was held responsible for that, the scent was renamed »Rallet Nº 1« at the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Due to the difficult economic circumstances at war time, and the october revolution »Rallet Nº 1« was however not more successful than the » Bouquet de Catherine «.
The Famous Vial Nº 5
End of 1919, Beaux arrived as one of the last former employees of Rallet at Chiris in La Bocca, France, which had bought Rallet earlier. To adapt his perfumery formulae to the raw materials available there and the price situation then, Beaux continued his work on Rallet Nº 1. This was how the series of adaptation trials originated, from which Coco Chanel should later chose the vial Nº 5. Initially, however, Coco Chanel disapproved perfumes and in her days with Etienne Balsan in Royallieu was reported to have said: "Women perfume themselves only to hide bad smells." Like pearls and lace, perfumes may have suggested to her the status of a kept woman, and so she did not compete with her fashion designer-rival Paul Poiret when he launched his Parfums de Rosine in 1911, which were the first designer fragrances on the market. However, things changed with her new lover, the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia, who introduced Ernest Beaux to her, and prior to that probably also the » Bouquet de Catherine «, which Dmitri′s sister was using. In the late summer of 1920, Coco and Dimitri met with Ernest Beaux on a trip to Cannes, and also visited his laboratory, where he showed his creations to them. Originally intended only as a Christmas present to her best clients and limited to 100 flacons, Coco Chanel chose the vial labeled Nº 5 from the two series of Rallet Nº 1 adaptations that Beaux presented her, and that were labeled 1–5 and 20–24, respectively. When Beaux asked her how she would name the perfume, she replied: "I always launch my collection on the 5th day of the 5th months, so the number 5 seems to bring me luck – therefore, I will name it Nº 5 " Her intention in launching the scent was to give women a perfume with the scent of a woman rather than the scent of a flower bouquet . "I want to give women an artificial perfume," said Chanel. "Yes, I really do mean artificial, like a dress, something that has been made. I don't want any rose or lily of the valley, I want a perfume that is a composition." Although aldehyde C-12 MNA (2-methylundecanal) had been used by Robert Bienaimé in Quelques Fleur (Houbigant, 1912), and synthetics were introduced to perfumery by Paul Parquet in 1882 with his famous use of coumarin in » Fougère Royal « (Houbigant), Chanel Nº 5 became famous for its overdose in synthetic perfumery raw materials, the aldehydes in the top note. When the customers who had been given the scent as present asked for further supply » Chanel Nº 5 « was officially launched in 1922. The original flacon was produced by Brosse glasswork in the image of a Charvet toiletry bottle belonging to the travel set owned by her lover and companion, Captain Arthur Boy Chapel, who had died in a car accident. The famous signature flacon of today was designed in 1924 by Jean Helleau . Chanel Nº 5 was originally available in three strengths: Extrait Perfume, Eau de Toilette and Eau de Cologne. The Eau de Cologne was discontinued in the 1990s, and an Eau de Parfum introduced instead. All differ slightly in their formulation, and only the Extrait Perfume contains rose oil and jasmin absolute from the Grasse region, and is sealed by hand. The Eau de Toilette and the Eau de Parfum differ also from one another not only in their concentration but also their forumla, and are bottled and filled by machine.
The Scent
Chanel º 5 is classified as a floral-aldehydic perfume. Its top note is dominated by the radiant, fresh, slightly metallic-waxy-smokey scent of a C-10/C-11/C-12 aldehyde complex (1:1:1, 0.6%), with its typical reminiscence of waxy rose petals and orange peel. These hesperidic-citrusy facets are extended and underscored by bergamot oil, linalool and petitgrain oil. The heart note is made up by the classic flower bouquet of Quelques Fleur , which is formed by jasmin, rose, lily of the valley (hydroxycitronellal), orris butter and ylang-ylang oil as cornerstone materials. Already in his first adaptation trials of the » Bouquet de Catherine «, which Beaux showed to Chanel, the content of real rose essence and jasmin absolut had been reduced, since the perfume would have become unaffordable otherwise. He achieved this with the help of the commercial jasmin base Jasmophore and an own rose base » Rose E.B. « ( E.B. for Ernest Beaux). The flowery-floral heart is nuanced by the incoporation of ionone ( Iralia ), powdery-voluminous violet odorants that take up and extend the orris theme. Spicy accents of cassie and isoeugenol introduce liveliness and lead into the fond of the composition. Unusual for the fond of a feminine fragrance is its vetiver note ( Javanese quality ), which constitutes a masculine counterpoint at the beginning of the base note. This is a signature of Beaux which is absent in Quelques Fleur . This woody note is nuanced by sandalwood and patchouli oil. Vanillin, coumarin and styrax lead the way to a distinctly sensual musk complex that dominates the final scene of the composition and consisted in the original of 1921 of genuine musk and civet infusion in an interplay with the nitro musks Musk Ketone and Musk Ambrette that are beguilled by traces of oak moss and cinnamon bark. Since for instance genuine musk has been banned from perfumery use to prevent the extinction of the species, and since nitro musks were limited in use due to their phototoxicity, the formula of » Chanel Nº 5 « w
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- 19.07.10 / 3am
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