N°18

N°18 was among the first bottles offered for sale, and the least one can say is that this beautiful fruity floral managed to stand out through its dark clear notes, poised between the brightness of ambrette, the elegance of iris and the mystery of woody notes.

N°18, or the brilliance of Chanel jewelry in perfume form

Each fragrance in the Les Exclusifs collection was designed by Jacques Polge to evoke a legendary address or a precious moment closely tied to the house of Chanel. While some emblematic fragrances created under the aegis of the great Coco reappear here, such as Cuir de Russie, others were composed by Jacques Polge exclusively for this collection, as is the case with N°18.

N°18 is a jewel of a fragrance. N°18 naturally refers to the beautiful Chanel jewelry house located at 18, Place Vendôme, but it is also intimately connected to Gabrielle Chanel’s great love of the purity and brilliance of diamonds — a precious stone she dared to use for her very first jewelry collection in 1932, at a time when all currencies and gemstones had been devalued. This was a bold move for a woman who was, until then, “only” a fashion designer. Yet, as was often the case with the great lady, her audacity paid off, and the Chanel jewelry house quickly achieved great success.

N°18 was therefore composed by Jacques Polge to be the fragrant embodiment of this audacity, of this bold gamble that led Gabrielle Chanel to a Place Vendôme whose codes she barely knew. Radiant, shining like a diamond with a thousand facets, N°18 also knows how to play with its shadows, adorning necks and pairing beautifully with a lovely solitaire.

A rare ambrette seed magnified by an exceptional N°18

To compose N°18, Jacques Polge showed the same audacity as Gabrielle Chanel with her diamonds in 1932. Indeed, the perfumer did not hesitate to source a beautiful ambrette seed, a rare and very expensive raw material in perfumery, with musky facets, of course, but also powdery ones with a mineral whiteness. Ambrette is nothing less than the star of N°18, so much so that the beauty of its two faces gives the fragrance all its splendor and complexity.

N°18 first opens on the metallic, almost alcoholic notes of the first facets of the ambrette seed accord. Then the radiant whiteness of ambrette gives way to fruity, almost syrupy notes, opening onto a delicately powdery iris heart. This elegant and, again, very expensive raw material blends into dark, intensely woody depths, casting its spell all the more powerfully.

N°18 achieves the feat of being both complex and disarmingly simple, as if self-evident. And truthfully, one could drink it. Grain de Musc on N°18 by Chanel.