Chanel - Coromandel (Les Exclusifs)

I have noticed that "several" established, skilled and talented perfume bloggers seem to be strucked with some kind of perfume tiredness now and then. That is not that strange, if you live with perfumes the kind of way that is necesarry to write review after review. Personally I not at all tired with perfumes, but when testing scents I can realise that I am really longing for that kind of scents that have that little extra.


Since I try a lot of scents I have discovered that I can test 20 or 30 perfumes in a row that are nice, well made, good ingrediences, but all of them lack that certain something that makes a perfume standing out in a crowd. Most perfumistas I know of have those magical kinds of scents that dances, glow, whispers, caress and tells stories on your skin. Scents that you couldn stop smelling and that you wish to go on smelling like that for ages. These scents can be different from each other as day to night, but they have in common a certain charm, a personality that makes you return again and again.


That Chanels Coromandel is one of those scents come as a big surprise for me. Usually Chanels scents don mixes well with my skin chemistry, and apart from Chanel No 5 Eau Premiere, they all have a scent of wet diapers in common on my skin...


Well, Coromandel is as far from wet diapers as possible. This is in all way a cozy, soft and also interesting scent. The one thing about it that isn so good would be the price tag and the fact that it is quite hard to get.


With Coromandel I feel totallt contempt to just be, I don have to sniff it all the time, I can feel it surrounding me with a strong precense, even though I would say it has quite an average sillage.


Coromandel is a rich, sweet, full bodied scent with notes of wood, incense and amber. The opening is a warm, slightly animalic amber. The amber in Coromandel is both mystic and living but also soft and powdery. Coromandel is one of those scents that changes a little between every time I sniff it.


Some time the element of incense is more prominent, but after that I can feel that the woody notes are dominating. During this time of year I don think Coromandel is as its best, but I sure it would be lovely during the cold and dark months that are on their way.


The drydown is soft, woody and warm and with some kind of soft spicy scent. The patchouli note recognised by others are not at all strong on me, just barely there. Coromandel has great lasting power, I can still smell it on me skin at least after 10-12 hours.


Coromandel is a must try for all lovers of woody and oriental scents. I really, really likes it, but for a perfume with THAT price tag I must admit that it dont really reaches all the way, but almost. It has charm, presence, high quality ingridiences, but lack a little of originality.

How should a man smell?

I think my husband always smells good, he don´t need any perfumes for it. I like how he smell in the morning, warm, cozy and soft after sleeping. When he comes home after the training, sweaty and hot, but still clean and fresh underneath. After a hot summerday at the beach or when he comes home with oily hands after fixing with the car.

I like to try perfumes supposedly for men once in a while and I do have some favourites among them, but honestly I prefer most men perfumes on a man, especially my man. Some unisex fragrances become wonderful on him, but just bland on me.

My all time favourite on my husband is Frederic Malle´s Musc Ravegeur. I know a lot of women using it and even having problems to imagine it on a man... but the they haven´t smelled it on my man. I really like my husband almost all the timne, but when he is wearing Musc Ravegeur he got an almost magnetic aura. And it works not only on me, female friends and relatives don´t want to leave his side and female shop assistants are never so helpful and friendly as when he wears Musc Ravegeur. His male skin chemistry make the most brutally animalic notes to show (Musc Ravegeur make our dog growl!) while they don´t on me! And my husband really loves Musc Ravegeur as well.

Andy Tauer´s Lonestar Memories isn´t at all bad either. Tary, smoky and even meaty. Somewhere in the distant a pine forrest. This is a perfume for a man with Clint Eastwood-eyes, and since only Clint Eastwood got them, it´s aperfume for everyone that wish for such eyes. On my husband Lonestar Memories turn out quite soft after a while, but on me only harsh and even monotone.

A'Men by Thierry Mugler is a perfume I cant resist, I really like to wear it now and then. This si strong, sweet, coffee, liqourice and a lot of other good stuff. Easy and youthful, still very manly. I am very curious about the new version, A*Men Pure Malt, is it someone that have tested it?

We have a small sample of Histoires de Parfums 1740 Marquis de Sade that is very popular. Clean, stiff and very black leather at it´s best. Work on women to that like strong leathery scents, I use to layer it with some soft vanilla. Sorry enough, it is only available in huge bottles and are quite pricey. But I guess we´ll have to get a decant of it when the sample is finished.

Geoffrey Beene´s Grey Flannel is also a favourite to me. It´s quite different from the rest. this i a perfume for an older guy, but with lot of confidence, style and elegance. A perfume to wear when dressed up in strict gentleman suit and sharp- sexy- gentleman shoes. This is for a genuine man, not for boys! Not for that straight forward hormon filled sexiness, but for the more laid back... it´s guaranteed to make a certain kind of women weak in the knees. One problem tough, my husband isn´t so found of it. He claims it is some note in it that remind him of some medicine he use to give to the patients. :(

To find Bvlgari Pour Homme Soir on this list is maybe a little unexpected? At least it was for me, we get a little sample in a swap and oh, it´s so charming! Fresh and kind of aquatic with a really nice tea-note, but underneath the fresh notes there are some really animalic basenotes, almost as magnetic as Musc Ravegeur. The sample went away quickly, and I feel an urge to get more of it as soon as possible! Don´t miss it!!!

J'Ose EdT av José Eisenberg is the male version and it is as sultry as the female version. This is a timeless sexy scent, works on a beautiful 25 year old as well as a handsome 60 years old. It has to be a man comfortable with himself and his sexyness tough. Really good, but forget about that I would wear J'Ose EdP at the same time, it would be as wearing the same clothes as my husband. Honestly I find coupples wearing the same outfit a little frightening!

Egoiste by Chanel isn´t in my collection but I have sprayed in my husband when stumbled upon it, and well, it´s great. Classic, warm and fierce at the same time. Mmmm.

Borneo 1834 works well on both me and my husband, but if we get more of it, I am sure to wear it more often since I like it so much.

Encre Noir, M7 and Lolita Lempicka Au Masculin aren´t yet tried, but I´ve heard a lot of good stuff about them. Do you think we should by some samples of them? Do you have some male favourite perfumes you think deserve to being mentioned? Perfumes don´t have any age, but there are some that works better on a 2o years old than on a male about 50. Do you have any tips on good perfumes for a fit and beautiful hunk of 51? ;)

PS. It´s isn´t the husband on the pic above, it´s a classic photo "Man in polyester suit" by Robert Mapplethorpe... but it could as well be my husband... kind of!?


PPS. Someone know where I can get my hands on a sample of Amouage`s Reflection Women?

Some of my disliked perfumes.

I am quite entusiasthic as a person, especially when it comes to perfumes. Readers of my blog can easily belive that I really looooooove everything that I encounter, but that is of course not true. Among ten tried perfumes, maybe I swoon about 1 or 2 at most. Sometimes, even if it is rare, I come across an entire line that I really like, as Odori. The usual is that among ten perfume I find about 6-7 ok, nice but not at all good enough to make me go ooooooh. From time to time I even come across perfumes I don´t manage to wear at all, all I want is to run and scrub myself.

Today it´s time to write about the perfumes I´ve come across during the winter and that I don´t like at all. I know I´ve write very positive about some of the oils from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, but I´ve also experienced oils from BPAL that is horrible. Do you feel like smelling like poison mushroom, slowly rottening and molding in a damp cave? Well, then I think you should try Destroying Angel from BPAL. Honestly, I didn´t think it was really a scrubber, but my husband tought it smell like a relative when he has a hangover, so my husband beg me to wash it away, so of course I did. Another from BPAL I have to scrub off was Oya. It smell like something acrid, sedating and headache inducing, the closest I can think of is some kind of narcotic tranquiliser. Not good! Both Oya and Destroying Angel make me shrud when I think about them. The picture above is of Destroying Angel, I find it quite beautiful, but it is one of the poison mushrooms killing most people in US what I can find out. Obviuosly among the one´s that eats mushrooms, I guess more people die of heart diseases and cancer, but you get it.

Another disapointment was Hermes Eau de Merveilles, not a scrubber, but so boring. I try to like it, many do, but on me it smells like something old and stale. Rue de Cambon from Chanel is also a bad one on me, something in it make me think of wet diapers and something moldy. Thanks, but no thanks.

And, Amouage, oh really. For 195 euro/bottle I do expect something more than a nice and strong floral! I have only tried Gold and Lyric, but they don´t manage to make me curious about the others.

And also, CdGs Stephen Jones, that I loiked so much when I´ve got the sample a coupple of months ago. I tried it again some days ago, and no, it didn´t do anything for me no more. It was so artificial and cold, all I could think of was that it would stop smelling.

Well, one good thing is that I´ve order Luckyscent´s samplepack with Le Labo perfumes. I am looking forward to try them finally, it was about time, wasn´t it?