Coco

The Orient according to Chanel, for Now Smell This

On December 7, 2009, Angela of Now Smell This judged that in 1984 Jacques Polge wanted to marry Chanel’s elegance with the fashion for grand orientals launched by Yves Saint Laurent’s Opium. She finds in it the aldehydic top of the house’s classics, softened and thickened by orange.

A jewel of a perfume for Bois de Jasmin

In late July 2012, Suzanna, who writes for Bois de Jasmin, admitted she had first disliked Coco, which she now cannot part with. It is, she says, the perfume that has earned her the most compliments, and a good example of a perfume worth retesting.

Nearly thirty years after its creation, she does not find it dated: an assertive perfume from an era when women wore a signature scent as an accessory. She sees it as an adornment, the finishing touch to a silhouette.

A measured reformulation

In a comment, Victoria of Bois de Jasmin compared an older bottle with the current version that same year: the sandalwood accord seemed less creamy to her and the musk different, but it is still Coco, and she refuses to call it disfigured.