Good evening you snoopers! I come to a very special smell tonight. A scent that seems to be not only world-famous (well, I only knew it by name until now and until recently I didn't even have it under my nose! Yes yes, shame on my head and all... :D), but also apparently one of the best women's fragrances ever, as it appears again and again in the top fragrance lists.
Of course I'm talking about Chanel's "Coromandel", which I present here in the new EDP edition from 2016. Right, Coromandel! And no, this is not almond scent :D
The name of the fragrance comes from the wall screens (also known as Spanish Wall or Screen) from China, which Chanel herself liked so much. These screens, which are traditional Chinese furnishings, were exported from China to Europe via the Coromandel Coast in India and were therefore given the name Coromandel screen. And in case you wonder why the word "almond" is in the name... well, that's just the derivation of the original name from the Tamil language (belongs to the Indian languages): Chola Mandal, where Chola was a South Indian dynasty and Mandal stood for the Mandalam region there. Both together, i.e. Chola Mandal, finally resulted in Coromandel (I hope that's true so far :D).
Anyway, Chanel found these screens absolutely outstanding, so that she even decorated her apartment with them and collected some of these folding walls. It is said that she bought over 30 walls in the course of time. This fragrance (or rather its predecessor from 2007) is dedicated to Coco's love of these wonderful objects of art. It's so beautiful that it can even effortlessly compete with a masterpiece (like No 5) composed by Coco herself and therefore looks as if Coromandel had been created by Coco Chanel herself. Of course, you might ask yourself why Chanel herself never named a fragrance in her lifetime...
But talked long enough. Let's see what he really smells like!
The smell:
Despite the listing of bitter orange, neroli and lemon in the top note, for me the fragrance starts mainly with soft-warm benzoin and slightly earthy patchouli. Neroli can only be smelled a bit afterwards. Well, bitter orange may flash up briefly, then mixes quickly with neroli, which is of course not bad, as it smells nice anyway. Then there are quickly other gentle scents like iris, which makes the scent more powdery. In the fragrance list it says iris root, but for me it's more the iris itself because of the mentioned powdery notes. An iris root smells to me rather carroty, especially like grated carrots (which I find great as a fragrance, by the way!).
In addition, like No5, the fragrance has classic and mature scents that remind me a bit of aldehydes, but which are not as pronounced as in No5 (and are probably not aldehydes at all here), as this fragrance comes across much more gently and becomes even more gentle as it progresses. Only a little later the incense appears, which goes especially well with benzoin and patchouli.
A little later you can still smell soft and resinous scents, which come across very nicely. The sweetness of the fragrance now also comes a little bit of vanilla, which, in addition to the resins and the iris, of course provides an additional, powdery radiance. Then woods follow, which form a wonderful basis for the base, where it now smells a little more like patchouli, but of course still of the mentioned, gentle resins. The vanilla becomes a little stronger and thus goes very well with the resins. That's it, and I think that the fragrance is rightly so popular.
The Sillage and the durability:
The sillage is quite good, because you are enveloped in a larger scent cloud for a longer period of time. So there is no need to exaggerate with the dosage, even if you might have the feeling that the scent might be weaker due to the gentle aura. The durability is quite good, the fragrance lasts for about 12 hours.
The bottle!
The fragrance belongs to the Les Exclusifs and therefore comes in a bottle that is uniform for the deer, but noble. Even if the bottle seems a bit too simple for me, it's still very high quality. It is rectangular, high and shows the name of the fragrance on a simple, square label. The glossy cap is black and shows the Chanel logo on top. The lid is also magnetic, which I like very much. A beautiful, but somewhat simple bottle.
Conclusion:
Oh yes! The smell is absolutely beautiful! I think it's really wonderful, even though many parts of the fragrance seem very familiar to me because of my many fragrance tests. Because I really often had such powdery, soft scents under my nose, and this one is one of the really super made scents, because the composition works really well. The fragrance has a great aura without being overwhelming. It is free of smelly synthetics, which is of course always great. It has a slightly more mature or classical approach, but also smells modern-powdery, so that it is equally suitable for every woman, no matter if younger or older.
And since I'm talking about women: Yes, although some people here feel the fragrance is more of a unisex, my opinion is that this is a pure women's fragrance, because it simply smells very feminine with its soft, sweet and also slightly floral scents. Of course everyone can wear whatever they want, of course, but for me this is simply a women's fragrance. Can be used anytime, but best in autumn and winter. On special occasions it can also be used freely, but I would recommend it most for the evening and generally for going out.
Coromandel is a very elegant and testable fragrance. I always thought that everyone here exaggerated with Coromandel, but it's actually true. For some frequent testers the scent might have lost a little bit of its speciality (especially if you got to know the scent quite late), since you have tested such scents quite often until then, but I would also recommend them to test this scent as well, if they haven't done so already.
Yes, I'm completely convinced of this scent. And yes... it seems so beautiful, so feminine, so... and it was clear that this is the next step... so yummy and tasty, he he :))
Well, that's it, then. Thanks to Flaconesse for the opportunity to test the fragrance! Well then, have a nice evening and see you all next time!
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