Eau de Cologne by Chanel
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Colonia instead of Corona. No. 6: Reformation Day.
So now I bought and read the “A-Z Guide” by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez from 2008/2009 (ok, not every single perfume review). I liked it a lot, but I was a bit disappointed. The general introduction was quite short and contained little that I didn’t know anyway after three years of perfume membership. And the individual reviews seemed a bit confused and unsystematically selected to me, more oriented towards the American market and now already at the level of over ten years ago (well, you can’t blame them for the last two things).
I was sometimes quite irritated by the content of the individual reviews and the evaluation. Some scents that I personally like very much, but which I also consider to be “objectively” important and very well made (like Opium pour homme, Obsession for Men or Annick Goutal’s Ambre Fétiche) are dismissed as trash with underground reviews, and vice versa, there are some scents that I find really bad, but which are rated with at least four stars. With the few “fives” of the two star authors, there is quite a lot of agreement with my own insignificant opinion about “excellent scents”, with Caldey Island Lavender and with Caron’s Troisième Homme even up to the reasoning. However, I notice here that the Pope and his Co-Popeess (why do I always have to think of “Christo and Jeanne-Claude”?), unlike me, like difficult scents. At Breath of God and Sécretions Magnifique (fragrance Olympus at T/S) I have to throw up
Well, since I’m in the process of exploring and mapping the world of Könischwasser, I took a look at what “Die Zwei” have to say on the subject. In general, they are not big cologne fans, it’s a bit simple for them, but if they are, then Chanel Eau de Cologne 2007, the best cologne in the world, that’s for sure. Ok, I thought I remembered having tested it and found it ok, and actually, I discovered an older statement of mine with 8 points. So I ordered another 5 ml sample and tested it again. Here the result:
According to the high price and valency of the fragrance I didn’t spray but sprayed it, but I sprayed it very abundantly: about 3 ml on neck and arms. After a few seconds of alcoholic-medical prelude (tuning of the instruments) we encounter a beautifully balanced mountain atrium. I used to think it was a lemon, but today I would say it is exactly half lemon and half bergamot. The rest is a citric accompaniment for fine-tuning, balancing and stabilising, there may be neroli, oranges and perhaps minimal floral and green stuff. But at the core: bergamot. And despite the high dosage, it is delicate, but zero creamy, but absolutely crystal clear. Crystalline citric. But still not sharply piercing or sharply cutting, but balanced and in balance. Very beautiful. I like it very much. But somehow it doesn’t inspire me to storms of enthusiasm. I miss that “certain something”. For me, it’s just a very beautifully successful classic cologne, but nothing more. The woman from Spee who was consulted at this point said: “Yes, quite good”. On my remark that this fragrance is the best cologne in the world according to the encyclical “De Coloniis” of the perfume pope, she merely put on a pitiful expression, which I would translate with “then I will become Lutheran”.
I wondered with this crystallinity, which already makes you think of snow chains, where now moscha and tonkus remain from the base note, especially since the scent seemed to have disappeared after about 15 minutes. But in fact, from minute 15 on until about four or five hours after application, an extremely tight-fitting residue remains on the skin, which then rather reminds of a nice sweet lemon cream or even a lemon pudding. This is a nice gimmick. However, you can only smell it if you press your nose really deep into your forearm, which is annoying in the long run. Or you leave it to your partner during lovemaking, but lemon pudding may not be the ultimate in this situation. So what really counts are the 15 minutes of freshness.
But for that the 140 Euro for 75 ml are too expensive for me. Not because I would expect a cologne (and here it’s a classic light cologne like 4711, not a titular cologne like Colonia by AdP) to have a long shelf life, no. But because for a very nice, balanced, refreshing short citric, there are products that offer almost the same quality for a fraction of the price, like Maravilla for 2.99 Euro per 50 ml. So it would also be very good to justify giving 8.5 points for this very valuable and noble looking fragrance (but that’s all, because it doesn’t really captivate me), but because of the clearly exaggerated price I stick to the 8 points I gave on the occasion of the statement. Here I stand and can’t help it.
And there is also a gimmick from me, namely again a reference to a Cologne that has already been commented on and is therefore no longer suitable for series production:
6 a) “Cologne Grand Siècle” by Pierre Guillaume from the PG-with number series: An atypical cologne with long-lasting citric and at the same time strict, dangerous-looking accompanying notes. Freshness with predator. Not really my thing, but very interesting isses already; 8 points generously awarded at that time: https://www.parfumo.de/Parfums/Pierre_Guillaume/Cologne_Grand_Siecle_No_7
