Launched in September 2023, Eau de Parfum Lumineuse extends Chloé's Signature line with a rose warmed by vanilla. Ane Ayo opens on sambac jasmine, gives rose the center, and leaves at the base a vanilla with balsamic and amber tonalities.
Sambac jasmine at the top, rose at the center, vanilla at the base: the departure from convention is the first thing to note. No citrus opening, no green note to launch the flower, no woody accord to hold it back. The fragrance goes straight ahead.
Sambac jasmine does not play the role of a white soliflore here. Placed at the top, it gives the rose a slightly milky, fruity relief, that fleshy quality that sets it apart from grandiflorum jasmine, more indolic and greener. Its function is to open the flower, not to draw attention to itself.
Rose holds the center. It is the same flower as the one carried by the line since 2008, taken here in its full register rather than its fresh one. The house speaks of a rose wrapped in sunlight, which describes the effect quite well: the flower is lit from below rather than from above.
Vanilla holds the base. The balsamic and amber tonalities perceived in the drydown do not come from an added material, they are the extension of this vanilla, which thickens as it dries and gives the fragrance its gourmand roundness. This is what places Lumineuse among warm florals rather than sun-kissed florals.
The contrast with the line's two other eaux de parfum is clear. The 2008 version lights its rose from above, with peony, lychee and freesia, and closes it on cedar. L'Eau de Parfum Intense takes a third route by melting the flower into raspberry, Ambroxan and Cashmeran. Lumineuse is the only one of the three to put nothing between the rose and its base.
On skin, the consequence of this economy is twofold: the fragrance is immediately legible, and it develops little. What one smells right away does not change in nature, only in temperature.