Chanel No 46 Chanel perfume – a fragrance for women 1946

In the last few hours, Ive read a small handful of reviews (in fact all I could find online) of Chanel No. 46. Several tout this rare scent as somewhat similar to Chanel No.5, but after an hour or so passing this under my nose; I find it is in fact more dissimilar than it is similar. No.46 was Coco’s perfume that celebrated the end of the war and was launched the same year as its name might suggest. Whilst one might imagine a bright and optimistic perfume to commemorate a newfound hope and liberty, No.46 in fact retains some of the austerity of the suffering years… it feels mature and considered and pregnant with rumination. Its flight boasts a bright citrus/evergreen prickle which charms the receptors, before veering away into a rich, floral heart steeped in ylang, jasmine and rose. This dense nucleus flits between floral and slightly plummy, and calls to mind Roudnitska’s post-WW2 masterstroke “Diorama” (1949) with its clipped refinement and grown-up sophistication. A husky orris/musk base presses up from below lifting tendrils of sandalwood and vanilla with it. No.46 stands alone in the Chanel stable as it does not call to mind any other release (except perhaps the sublime Chanel unicorn “Ivoire”). It resides in an olfactory register of wistfulness and scattered shadows; stylistically, something akin to Guerlain’s “Vol de Nuit”. A solemn and restrained perfume whose life was cut short at a time of renewed hope and optimism, there is no wonder No.46 was never a hit; but like most beautiful works of art, greater clarity often comes when you put a bit of distance between yourself and it.
No.46 is utterly sublime