Chanel No 5 Eau Premiere (2015) Chanel perfume – a fragrance for women 2015

There seemed to have been some controversy/debate/questions round the internets over whether this 2015 version is the same juice in a new bottle or something altogether different. I have been fortunate in obtaining a sample of the new version* and I have a small decant of the older version, so I decided to do a side by side comparison today.
*My sample comes from the new shaped bottles now available but does not have the hashtags on the box that have been mentioned in some articles. The box was plain white with a black outline and reminds me of the boxes for the exclusives although it opens at the top like a normal box. The decant comes from an older bottle, the taller thinner one, exact age/batch unknown.
I sprayed the older version onto my left wrist, 2 small sprays and (having transferred the dab vial into a small spray vial) sprayed the newer version on the same place on my right wrist, again 2 small sprays. They were applied within 20 seconds of each other, onto freshly showered skin to which no other products had been applied.
To me, the scent is the same at the opening. I am struggling to discern any differences to be honest. Maybe the older version is slightly crisper and the new version ever so slightly softer, but that equally could be to do with age and the older sample being, well, older.
In the heart, again, there seems to be very little difference – I am searching for differences rather than anything jumping out at me. Possibly the ylang is slightly more dominant in the new version. I think the newer one is projecting slightly more but it is hard to say.
[Later]. Ok this could possibly be due to batch variation or related to the age of the older decant, but the newer scent is definitely projecting more and the aldehydes have remained slightly crisper while the scent itself, despite projecting better feels somehow softer in the newer version. I am definitely getting more ylang from the newer one. And the vanilla is slightly more prominent in the new one currently.

I will try to come back later and update this review as I move into the drydown so that I can comment on longevity and any differences later on. To me this seems – at the moment anyway – to be the same fragrance. The slight variations I have noticed could be due to age of the juice or batch differences. I don’t think (at this point anyway) that I would have known this was 2 allegedly different scents had I not applied them myself. The only real things i can notice as being different are ever so slightly more prominent ylang and vanilla in the newer one, which make it feel slightly more rounded and soft, and the newer one is projecting a little better. This reminds me of Guerlain Liu more than it does of the “standard” no5, of which I have decant of the edp. Either way this a truly beautiful scent and perfect for warm to hot summer days.

ETA – I have carried out my experiment twice now and my findings are thus: The scent of both the older version and the 2015 version are extremely similar. If I had owned the previous bottle and finished it then replaced it with this afterwards I honestly doubt I would have noted any real differences. There are slight variations but these could be purely due to batch variance as they did not alter the character or nature of the scent, in my opinion. To me this is essentially the same juice in a different bottle.
The differences I did note, both times testing were: The aldehydes in the older sample were perhaps slightly crisper through the opening and heart of the fragrance and slightly softer in the new version. In the heart and early drydown the ylang and the vanilla were a little more prominent in the new version which gave a slightly softer, rounder and creamier feel to it while the older one retained a crisper feel. But I must stress, these were not massive differences to me. The biggest difference between the two versions was that (barring the first 30 minutes) the newer version had better projection which became more pronounced the further we went into the drydown. By bedtime the older one had become a skin scent, detectable only with nose pressed to wrist, while the newer one was still projecting, albeit softly. The following morning, I could still smell a hint of the new version on my skin while the old had left some time in the night.

I hope this comparison will be useful to people deliberating over this new version.