Égoïste: An original fragrance for men with mysterious and amber charms... Chanel's Égoïste was born from the meeting of Bois des Îles, the 1926 fragrance by the talented Ernest Beaux, and Bois Noir in 1987, which did not meet its expected audience.
While the house of Chanel continued to offer, with great success, its extraordinary N°5, new releases were much rarer in the 80s. That was without accounting for the extraordinary creativity of Jacques Polge, the house's in-house perfumer, who, with a handful of fragrances, would shake up Chanel's codes. With his Egoïste, Jacques Polge offered men, who were waiting for exactly that, an unprecedented and daring fragrance. Egoïste remains, even today, a cult fragrance of the house of Chanel for its unforgettable imprint...
When Jacques Polge offers his daring, a beautiful Egoïste is born!
We are at the beginning of the 80s, and the house of Chanel maintains its fine aura through its legendary fragrances N°5, Cuir de Russie, N°22 or the most recent feminine fragrance: Cristalle. Yet this novelty dates back to the 70s, and since then, no new release on the horizon... Until the day Jacques Polge was named the house's in-house perfumer. The man wanted to preserve Chanel's heritage while also transforming it, in order to keep Chanel's aura shining with more modernity. And without question, Jacques Polge would completely renew the house's image. Egoïste, the precious masculine fragrance he would offer Chanel in 1990, would very certainly be its finest symbol.
Egoïste aims to be the fragrance of a sophisticated and highly elegant Chanel man, but also the fragrance of a generation of men seeking both a virile fragrance and a modern, mysterious seducer's fragrance.
Jacques Polge, very attentive to novelties and trends, would show that he could handle the classic citrus, aromatic or woody notes of masculine perfumery just as well as floral and fruity notes; the latter, however, are much more original, some even entirely daring.
ÉGOÏSTE stands as the fragrance of a man whose power of seduction rests on an assertive character. Independent and elusive. An uncompromising personality, attributed to Chanel for Egoiste.
Egoïste, when masculine perfumery undergoes its revolution...
Beyond the fact that Jacques Polge would once again bring an extraordinary wind of creativity to Chanel, Egoïste would go further than merely shaking up Chanel's codes: it would shake up the codes of masculine perfumery, which, in the 80s, sought above all the opulence of classic notes or the sheer power of virility found in Drakkar and other marvels.
In retrospect, it was a risky bet, attributed to Jacques Polge. Already because masculinizing a women's fragrance within a house of women's fragrances was misunderstood. And then, at the time, he recalled that on airplanes, businessmen smelled of aftershave. Madame Le Figaro on Egoiste by Jacques Polge.
For Egoïste has nothing in common with the other masculine fragrances of its time. In fact, it draws its roots from a feminine fragrance, Bois Noir, composed by Ernest Beaux in 1926. That alone shows how different it intends to be! Yet, already offered very discreetly to the public under the name Bois Noir beforehand, Egoïste would breathe subtle warm and cool airs that would completely captivate men by finally offering them the beauty of striking contrasts until then reserved for feminine fragrances.