Coco Noir

Chanel describes Coco Noir as a modern amber with luminous notes. At the launch, Christopher Sheldrake, a house perfumer, spoke of a luminous, transparent oriental. The house’s current description is limited to five materials, over three tiers.

Bergamot at the top

The opening rests on bergamot, which the house describes as a sparkling, refined burst. The notes published in 2012 paired it with grapefruit and orange, two citrus fruits that brighten the opening of a perfume meant to carry black.

Rose and geranium in the heart

The heart pairs rose and rose geranium leaf, which Chanel calls a singular note. The launch notes added jasmine and narcissus; Angela of Now Smell This smelled a green, mellow rose in it, lifted by geranium and a touch of jasmine.

Patchouli and tonka bean in the base

The base comes down to patchouli and tonka bean, which according to the house draw a magnetic trail. The 2012 notes added sandalwood, vanilla, white musks, and incense, and specified an Indonesian patchouli.

What stays out

The peach, benzoin, and clove often associated with Coco Noir appear neither in the 2012 notes nor in today’s. Clove nonetheless appears among the declared ingredients, in the form of an essential oil.

What the label declares

After alcohol, fragrance, and water, Chanel’s label places bergamot oil in fourth position. It also declares patchouli, orange, geranium, clove, and lemon oils, rose and jasmine extracts, and sandalwood oil.

It lists a synthetic amber wood, a lactone with musky accents, vanillin, and coumarin, echoes of vanilla and tonka bean. The list declares neither colorant nor UV filter, which the other fragrances of the Coco family do carry.

These ingredients say nothing of proportions: the label mentions only the substances that must be declared. It does make visible the geranium, sandalwood, and jasmine of the launch notes, and a clove the house never names.