Chanel No. 5

Now, if I were smart, I probably wouldn't write about Chanel No. 5. So many better noses than mine have offered their opinions over the years. But this is not a review -- more of a personal memoir.

Chanel No. 5 happens to be the first "grown-up perfume" my father ever bought for me. I was probably 16 or 17, and easily impressed. And it smelled so good! I did not know the history of this fragrance, and probably if I did know that it was the first ever synthetic perfume to hit the big time back in the 1920's, it wouldn't have meant much at the time. Who was Coco Chanel?

I still like Chanel No. 5 because it smells grown-up. But now I know why it smells the way it does -- an aldehydic floriental. The mix of neroli and ylang ylang with the aldehydic top note really carry through the blend with middle notes of jasmine and rose and a lovely sandalwood-vetiver-vanilla bottom. And it's very tenacious. A little perfume goes a long way. Probably due to the synthetic civet used as a fixative in the blend.

In any case, I think I have always had at least a small bottle of Chanel No. 5 in my collection. It's one of my favorites.