Coco Noir Chanel perfume – a fragrance for women 2012

“Vous n’auriez pas vu Coco?”

Not everyone is going to like Coco Noir. After all she is not what they expected. Coco has a reputation in town for being uber-chic and almost always a perfect thing. But tonight she just wants to have fun.

THE OPENING: Bergamot, Grapefruit,

Where is the party Coco? It all begins around 10 pm in a cabaret in Pigale .Coco Noir is a party girl ripe and ready for flaming a night on the town from one end of Paris to the other. Don’t let the little black dress fool you or the gold jewelry so artfully placed lead you to think she is above scandal and a little naughty fun. Liquor sweet as cotton candy is passed around the club to girls for rent by men who light their cigars with 10 franc notes. Coco likes to mix it up with the hoi polloi and in so doing she finds herself dancing on the bar and singing her old song to the rough customers down from Montmartre.

“You have not seen Coco?
Coco in the Trocadero
Who has seen Coco?
Hey! Coco! Hey! Coco!
Who has seen Coco?
Hey! Coco!”

The crowed is singing along with her, hands grabbing at the hem of her skirt. They are laughing. She is laughing and ready to move on.

THE HEART: Rose, Jasmine, Narcissus.

It is after midnight when Coco makes her escape in a taxi to the elegant calm of Maxim’s. Her entrance causes a stir among the well dressed upper croissant of Paris. They are ALL talking about her. Some say she is too much, others that she is not enough and a few that she is heading for a fall. Where she is heading is to a private table for a late supper with a certain special Englishman. Here in the posh Maxims Coco Noir relaxes and enjoys the glamour that she infuses into the scene. All eyes are on her cool elegance as she flirts with the Englishman and sips Champagne cool and bubbly. She may laugh a little too loudly but she doesn’t care.

DRY DOWN: Sandalwood, Olibanum, Vanilla-Tonka Bean, White Musk, Patchouli.

Always the capricious coquette it is now on to the left bank. She and the English man along with a few Coco fans cross the river on foot singing her song, this time not quite so fast or as loud.

“Qui qu’a qui qu’a vu Coco?
Eh! Coco!
Eh! Coco!
Qui qu’a qui qu’a vu Coco?
Eh! Coco!”

Ending up in Le Chat Noir jazz club just off the Boulevard Saint Germain Coco leans lazily into the crook of the Englishman’s arm. Softly, dreamily she hums along to the cool slinky jazz sax. She could stay this way for hours, luxuriating in the lush smoky atmosphere of the end of a perfect night on the town. When the hangers on drift away she smiles up at her Englishman then winks.

As they walk arm in arm across the Pont Saint-Michel in the chilly pink dawn Coco Noir rests her head on his shoulder and sings softly to him.

“Qui qu’a qui qu’a vu Coco?”

The opening of Coco Noir is very bright and fizzy with bergamot and grapefruit. There is the pink fuzzy feel of cotton candy to me in the opening. That passes very fast as the bottom note olibanum snakes up to take its sensuous hold. Then the heart notes rose, jasmine and narcissus come in to play softly and with a stayed elegant enhanced by the grounding geranium and the upwardly moving bottom notes of vanilla and tonka bean. All through this center you get the arrival of the final dry down notes. Fist the sandal wood followed closely by the white musk and patchouli. It has a fine silage and last very long on my skin.

Coco Noir is not dark and mysterious as one might expect from the name and the beautiful black bottle. It is all about fun. This is a scent for a night out including anything from the Opera to a nightclub. Aside from the early cotton candy sensation that is only there for 10 minutes it really is not that overtly feminine so I would say it could be worn by both sexes.

Coco Noir is the kind of mademoiselle that when you wear her at night, anything could happen.

FIVE GOLD STARS ****