Review: Chanel No.22 (1922)

Review: Chanel No.22 (1922)

Mum's refillable case from the 1980's

Chanel No.22 is one of my favourite scents, very "Chanel-esque" and super classy. It is also one my mother's signature scent, if No.5 is a mature classy lady - No.22 would be that same woman in her younger years. No.22 was composed by Ernest Beaux in the year 1922 for Mademoiselle Chanel, hence the name 22. Chanel herself adored the simplicity, clarity, and modernity of this scent. Beaux is the same man who composed some of most archetypal Chanel fragrances, No.5, Cuir De Russie, and Bois Des Iles.

Parfum Bottle

EDT Bottle

Presentation:

Currently No.22 is part of the Chanel Les Exclusifs line, available only at Chanel and Chanel cosmetic boutiques. Elegantly presented in Chanel's signature rectangular bottle with a magnetic cap, comes in 75ml or 200ml EDT. Pure parfum version also available in 15ml sizes. Refillable cases (Main picture above) and Eau de cologne version had been discontinued.

The Scent:

Serpent-like mist of Aldehyde

The scent it-self, in my opinion, is one of the finest aldehyde ever composed....Guerlain knows their vanilla and Chanel sure knows their aldehyde! Opens with a sparkling clean aldehyde top with faint pulses of powdery floral notes. Some may find this opening a little strong and "mature", I can tell you one thing....this doesn't make me picture a mature woman at all...I had always pictured No.22 as a "young woman's aldehyde". The opening is a little reminiscent of Estee Lauder's - White Linen and Robert Piguet's Baghari....but warmer with more vanilla.

Misty Garden - A.Sisley

Becomes less squaky clean and sharp about 30 minutes into the wearing as your body heat warms up the fragrance, it becomes the most elegantly immaculate interfusion of powdery flowers (ylang-ylang, jasmine, lily of the valley, neroli, and tuberose), vanilla and aldehydes I have ever smelt. A serpent-like mist of aldehyde slithers amongst a flower garden engulfing and smothering the scent out of each blossom of that she happens to glide pass and selfishly making it her own. Like a genie, No.22 is now captured in a bottle waiting for women who wants to be effortlessly noticed to release her slowly spray by spray. The mid and the dry down base stays quite linear and does not change much.

Deux femmes dans une loge, 1881-82

Here is a little review I wrote on fragrantica which I really love and will re-use here.....It pretty much sums up my perception of this scent. . . In a prestigious function hall filled with chaos and other glammed up women trying their best to draw the attention of rich gentlemen attending the costly event. No.22 is the polite and enigmatic young woman in the corner of the room dressed in a plain but classy beige Chanel dress, she the one that gets instantaneous attention without having to do a thing, or say a word....everyone notices her and wants to be up close to her. Gentlemen are drawn to her elegance, beauty and grace, other ladies with caked-up faces and over the top, avant-garde gowns gazed at her with jealousy... She doesn't even want attention but gets it effortlessly. Notice the men staring at the lady in white on the right side of the picture?

This scent is pure sophistication, a gentle and polite powdery aldehydic fragrance. It's soft....yet it has excellent silage and longevity. In EDT concentration, it lasts over 8 hours on my skin and for about a week on my clothes. Smells very unique and not very widely used these days, I can assure you will smell unique with this one. One of the scents from the Chanel Exclusifs line worthy of investing in!

Review: Signature Fragrances (Niche/Indie house)

Signature Fragrance:

After finally finishing my university exams, I am now back to reviewing! Today I will be reviewing some scents from the newly established niche/indie perfume house based in London - "Signature Fragrances". The owner and nose of the brand Solomon had been kind enough to send me some samples of his creation "Deja Vu", "Oud Memlaki", and "Woody Conjure". All these are perfume oils and are quite concentrated.

From the words stated on my sample, "Signature fragrances are hip, diverse, and tenaciously pungent. Our aim is to bring back purpose to perfume". I would say that the quality is definitely there, the scents lasts a good while on the skin and for weeks on your clothing. I might also add that the samples I had received are very Arabian inspired and has the middle eastern vibe to it.

You can contact Solomon on his website http://www.signaturefragrances.co.uk 
or directly on his Instagram account http://instagram.com/signaturefragrances

Fragrance Review:

Woody Conjure: 

This is probably my favourite scent out of the 3 received. Very calming and serene, I can detect a lot of oak moss, woods, incense and some flowers that I can't exactly identify accurately. There's not really any official notes list out for any of these scents yet, so I will try my best to accurately describe and guess the notes. This scent makes me imagine being in wood cabin inside a lush, green and damp forest. Inside the cabin there is a fireplace with an assortment of woods burning inside, especially pine wood, giving off the most wonderful smoky and woody aroma. Occasionally the essence of the  forest that you are in would sneak through the gaps between the wooden walls of the cabin. You lay there in front of the fireplace enjoying the unusual combination of both warm and smoky wood as well as the wintry pristine aroma of a misty green forest. Woody Conjure is definitely woody and highly recommended for wood lovers, such as myself!

Oud Memlaki:

What a tough name to pronounce...! Most of the time if you tried oud based fragrance before you would expect something deep, thick, and very cloying....well at least from my experience. Oud Memlaki is surprisingly clean smelling and not the typical rich,cloying oud fragrance that is out there. I do detect oud, not the typical sweet oud, but a medicinal band-aid type of oud, and some animalics. Very different from anything I have ever experienced before, a metallic, medicinal non-sweet oud with a gentle animalic undertone slithering about. Makes me imagine a hospital and the chemicals used to sterilize equipments...As you can tell I am not quite a fan of this one....yet.

Deja Vu:

Yummy! that's my first impression of this fragrance. A mouthwatering and delectable aggregation of treats we love chocolate, honey, coconut, jaffas, and caramel. This is so delicious, it's like being a kid and discovering the candy store for the first time ever in your life, you are basically captivated and mesmerized by the walls of sweets towering over your petite body, you honestly do not care if you die right there....THAT....is your "happy place", so happy your could die... Gourmand lovers, coconut lovers this one is for you, you will be guaranteed to crave desserts and sweets after sniffing this scent, I might even say that you might be tempted to lick your own wrists.....it just smells so realistic and absolutely delicious.

Guest Review By Lily : Imaginary Authors - L'orchidee Terrible (2012)

Imaginary Authors -  L'orchidee Terrible (2012):

Image from Lily's Instagram page linked below

This is a guest review by my wonderful friend and fellow fragrance lover who I met on Instagram, Lily. She regularly reviews fragrances on her Instagram account http://instagram.com/redlily10, please check it out and follow her, you can also contact her directly on there. When I first read her reviews I just though there are very insightful, detailed and should be shared to a wider range of audiences other than just a personal Instagram account, plus it is a great way for my readers to experience reviews other than my own (a change of wording and structure perhaps) + scents that I do not own nor yet thought of ever reviewing. Full credits to Lily for sharing her reviews here.

L'orchidee Terrible was released in 2012 by the niche perfume house "Imaginary Authors", it is an aldehydic floral fragrance with strong emphasis on aldehydes, musk and orchids. The nose behind this fragrance is Josh Meyer.

The name for starters is a juxtaposition in that when you think of an orchid the words delicate and fragile come to mind, certainly not terrible or awful. For me, this perfume is delicately formidable.
fine powdery, effervescent aldehyic, fresh musk and shear honey perfume. Normally aldehydes role in a perfume is as accents, generally in the top notes but with this fragrance they seem to have a more dominant role. An ostentatious orchid is the main inspiration of the scent, I find this perfume to be mostly linear, that is I don't positively identify a 'beginning and end' the notes stay consistent throughout.

Aldehydes, in my opinion, provide innocence and pure class to a perfume, as with Chanel No.5, I sense faultless finesse. L'orchidee Terrible is truly a tribute to the art of fine french perfumery. I also believe the satin note adds texture by inference so that you can 'feel' as well as smell the perfume story. The honey is there but doesn't detract from the orchid or aldehydes, the musk adds brightness and a soft feeling as well.

An original and unapologetic fragrance, recommended for wear when you want to appear to be a little vulnerable and slightly naive, although you are the complete opposite. I would agree that L'orchidee Terrible is unisex as the floral notes are synergistic with the musk and honey. I have already received several compliments with this perfume therefore I rate the sillage as great and considering this intense scent stayed on my skin from morning through to evening, the longevity is superb lasting 8+ hrs. Thank you again to @fragrancereviews for my sample, highly appreciated as this scent has been on my wants list for awhile now.