Chanel – Coco Mademoiselle L’Eau Privée perfume

There are 5 reviews of Coco Mademoiselle L’Eau Privée by Chanel .

Coco Mademoiselle is not my personal jam, but I appreciate it for what it is, an elegant, and Trés Chanel, trés charmant, take on the current Modern Musky Floral, plus fruitchouli, fragrance that young women enjoy wearing, and that the young men love to smell on them. I can understand why it works, and it’s head and shoulders above most of the unimaginative, pandering claptrap that most major perfume houses aim towards the youthful fragrance customers who want to smell like juvenile confectionary. I like it. It is just not for me.

I hoped that Chanel’s Eau Privée pour La Nuit would carry over the best bits of its originating composition, but it doesn’t. The notes (from Chanel’s own packaging) are as follows: orange, rose, jasmine, and musk. For a fragrance “pour le nuit,” that does not sound like much, and it is not. It is a little like the current version of Miss Dior (the one that used to be Chèrie), with less conversation. I should know better, as these days, the “Noir/Black/nuit” variations on most mainstream offerings are usually, paradoxically, lighter, and more innocuous, than their original compositions. Nighttime Coco Mademoiselle follows this established formula, but less so. It has none of its mother perfume’s patchouli, none of its sparkling grapefruit, and no discernible Chanel DNA, unless the bottle design and price count.

It’s positively virginal. The only nighttime activities I can imagine its being appropriate for would be a preteen slumber party, or maybe milk and cookies before a strict 10 o’clock bedtime. Its only discernible feature is a more prominent musk, not the silky musk of Coco Mademoiselle, but something more like a laundry musk, although it is more finessed than the cruder laundry musks I’ve found in other mainstream perfumes from lesser houses. It’s not awful, just not what it could have been. It’s almost faceless, just a better kind of faceless.

It would be a nice starter perfume, for a very young person, for whom a perfume with more character might not be appropriate. I’m not even disappointed, even with its misleading name, as those misleading names are now par for the course. The price point is much too high for what it is, but that is also par for the course. Overall, it’s par for the course. I guess, even in my jaded state, I still wanted more. I can’t hate it, because it doesn’t smell bad, and it doesn’t commit any of the most egregious sins of modern perfumery, either.

I would give it a thumbs down, if I were comparing it to Chanel, and only Chanel. But, compared with many of the even more forgettable current mainstream pillar fragrances out there, it’s wearable and inoffensive. I just don’t understand the nomenclature; it brings back memories of the hypersexualization of young women from back in the early years of Y2K–Britney Spears’ jeans barely grazing her pubes, and the preteen girls I used to see everywhere dressed in even skimpier clothes. I am not a prude, I just believe that it’s unhealthy and even scary to rob young girls of their childhoods. Generic as it may be, and despite its faux sexy name (because, let’s face it–anything intended pour la nuit suggests some fairly adult activities), Coco Mademoiselle L’Eau pour la Nuit is a reasonably high quality option for very young women, and kudos to Chanel for offering something that is age appropriate, suggestive name or no.