Tag Archives: Chanel 5

Perfume gods smiling down on me

I've been thinking, Perfume review, Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume July 29, 2021 Comments: 6

A while ago I wrote about whether my collection should contain classics, if only for reference purposes. And lamented the fact that I don’t own a vintage variant of Chanel 5.

Well, that is no longer true. 😀

Like the title says, it seems the perfume gods were really smiling down on me and put half a bottle of vintage Chanel 5 in front of me. I cannot describe my happiness upon coming across it (the story is a bit macabre so I’m not going to share it).

And it smells nothing like the modern variant! Oh, it smells amazing.

The luck didn’t stop there though.

The small collection of perfumes I came across also contained bottles of Balenciaga Michelle, Max Factor Blasé and unopened bottle of Givenchy III that looks like it came from the 80s.

I have to say that the woman whose collection this was obviously had great taste in perfume.

Except for the happiness this brought me, I also came to a conclusion. The Balenciaga perfume house seems to be neglected in the perfume world (or at least by me) because everything I have tried so far was amazing. OK, it was only 3 perfumes that I recall, but randomly trying 3 perfumes from one house and being amazed how great they are is a good sign in my book.

So, I’ll be trying their perfumes some more. If you have any favorites from them, please share.

Should your collection contain classics?

I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume May 3, 2021 Comments: 13

Even if you don’t like them or plan to wear them.

I dreamt of Chanel 5 last night, and how it smelled great on a woman in my dream. And then (still in the dream) I wanted to try it on myself because I wanted to remind myself of how it smelled. Now I want to do it for real.

Didn’t get to do it in my dream but it got me thinking.

Photo by SAZRELLA STUDIO on Pexels.com

Should I (as a retired perfumista 😀 ) have classics in my collection even though I know they are not really what I would wear?

Because having them would give me an instant reminder of what they smell like and why they are classsics. I would basically need only samples or miniatures for that purpose.

What do you think? I’m leaning towards yes.

The more complicated part is which perfumes would those be? Some of them are so changed from their original formulas that they don’t count, some no longer exist which makes having them an exercise in futility, and what actually constitutes a classic nowadays? A cult following?

I wonder what are your thoughts on the subject and which ones would you recommend?

I do think I’m fine with the Guerlains though. 😀

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky – the movie

I've been thinking, World of Perfume February 16, 2014 Comments: 6

I saw it two days ago and I’m still under its influence.

The main thing I got out of that movie is the fact that whoever tried to write a biography of Gabrielle Chanel probably failed. As I haven’t read any of them, I don’t want to sound like I’m passing judgment on books I never read, it’s just that this movie brought to life the complexity of who Coco Chanel was that I don’t think anyone trying to write about her life can encompass her personality and keep true about it.Coco_Chanel_&_Igor_Stravinsky

I’m aware this also sounds very presupposing after only seeing one movie but I’m blaming it on the director (Jan Kounen). After all I’ve read about her and now seeing this movie, all I can say is she was obviously a personality larger than life that kept her thoughts to herself and went through her life doing what she felt she should. Smiling a mysterious, mischievous smile of hers and dropping men to their knees after saying anything in that smoke-battered voice of hers. At least that is how I imagine her after seeing her brought to life by Anna Mouglalis (who was masterful).

The strange thing is, I now think of Igor Stravinsky as a loser. A weak man when it came to women. Again, I have no idea what their relationship was like but the idea I got is that he couldn’t handle her being more successful and well, richer. Men rarely do. 😉 I could be wrong on account of Igor though…

Basically, after seeing this movie, I feel a renewed wish to understand fashion and enjoy it more, but also to smell the original Chanel perfumes – the time depicted in the movie is around the birth of Chanel 5.

But most importantly, I would love to have met her in real life. Woman ahead of her time, one probably reviled by the women of her acquaintance but still strong and successful and enduring.

I wish I knew where women like that get their strength from. So I could find it in myself as well. She might have made some dubious choices in her life, but she made them and went on. We all make mistakes, but ours aren’t made public. How many of us would be willing to forge our way ahead in spite of them?

 

P.S. Even though the movie depicts Stravinsky’s work and worries, I admit, I didn’t really care much for his part, I just loved the way Coco was portrayed. I did enjoy the music in the movie immensely though. 😉

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