Coco Eau de Parfum

I wore Coco EDP in my early 20s, not long after its release, and I loved it with a singular devotion, until I ran out of it and never replaced my bottle. I haven't smelled it in decades, but something came over me recently, and I felt a strong urge to start wearing it again--not as my signature scent but just every so often, when I want to remind myself of the person I was when I wore it to the exclusion of all other perfumes. I always loved fragrance, even as a toddler, but this was the first expensive grown-up perfume that I chose for myself (even if I sweet-talked some ex-boyfriend into buying it for me). Now I am a married lady of a certain age, and I can afford to buy a little bottle of Chanel for myself every so often. I just hope the reformulation lives up to my memories of the 1984 version. I'm trying to remember why I chose it in the first place, when I was in my early 20s, and I think it must have been that delectable Shalom Harlow 1920s-looking ad campaign, which ran in Vogue and Glamour every month back then. What can I say? I was and remain a simpleton. It's just fortunate that I picked an iconic fragrance, even if I did it for the worst and most shallow and basic of reasons. I look forward to finding out whether that clove-kissed rose is as radiant as I remember. If you can't go home again, and you can never enter the same river twice, at least you can sometimes catch a faint whiff of a beloved fragrance that conjures up a younger, quicker (but dumber), sharper-sensed version of yourself. Update: Wearing it today, I'm getting faint glimpses (Proustian Lite) of the Coco I remember, but I can't tell if the reformulation is weaker or if my nose is simply different--it doesn't smell quite the same to me, but my frame of reference has changed a lot since then. I have smelled many other fragrances, including classic vintage scents that inspired Polge, including Diva, the fragrance he made the year before Coco, and now I'm smelling it in that context. It's a wonderful scent--a clove-kissed rose, with peach and amber and mandarin colluding with mysterious clean balsams and a rich floral vanilla--but it doesn't make me feel like I'm 22 years old again, the kind of person who needed this fragrance to feel like a real grown-up. Now I wear fragrance mostly for myself (although I prefer to wear ones that my husband doesn't actively dislike--saintly of me, no?), and I think I'll put this one on when I want to enjoy a gorgeous scent bubble. It's not a time machine, but that would be a lot to expect from 50 ml of EDP, even a Chanel. Update: The drydown really is glorious. It occurred to me that I might actually have a much sharper sense of smell now, in my relative dotage, than I had when I was a pretty young thing because back then I smoked cigarettes, a habit I kicked for good more than 17 years ago. I suppose back then I must have smelled like Coco and Camel Lights--yick! I'm going to add this to the regular fall rotation. Damn you, Chanel (and Guerlain): Why must you flaunt your superiority so flagrantly! What is it about your snobby French asses that render my other perfumes common and cheap by comparison? It can't just be the branding (or can it)? But wearing this is making me seriously consider confining my collection solely to the perfumes I love as much as this one, and that would mean getting rid of 80% of my collection. Too drastic, surely, but the alternative is knowing I could be wearing this (or Samsara or L'Heure Bleue or Nahéma) when I am wearing a "like" and not a "love." I suppose most people would save their best scents for the big occasions, but I mostly just wear scent at home, where I also work, so it's immaterial to me. I'm not really into this obsession for the compliments.

[24.08.2024] Well, as a man I have never worn Coco EDP, but as a perfumery passionate, I can confirm it is an amber genius from another era. I will remind myself the smell of it to be more precise and than will write maybe some review. [09.09.2024] update Smelling this, you can easily feel the style of the formula. This perfume has an old-school, 'vintage like' character, what you can connect with the period of 50-90s smelling this blind without knowing this is Coco EDP from 1984. You can't really compare it objectively with modern French perfume projects. Telling what is "better" Jazz from 60s or Pop from 2000s doesn't has any sense xD, you know what I mean... . I find it quite fascinating, how everything is made in the chemical synergy. It's not hard to guess that it has gone through many reformulations, however, there is lots going on inside the bottle, in my opinion. It seems to be built upon 1 generation Musks (Musk Ketone, Musk Ambrette), there is also Musk Xylene, but this is banned to use in cosmetic industry, because this stuff is used in production of explosives like TNT. Why 1 gen. Musks? - they give lots of powdery facets, especially with Ionones, Vanillin and its derivatives, Coumarin as well. It is very powdery, sweet, has some subjective amber sparkle feeling to it. Some clean fractions of Patchouli also come to mind. I detect some animalic facets in trace. There are lots of spicy and rosy elements coming through as well. Some top notes like Terpenes are quite high, especially Linalool, Linalyl Acetate or Ethyl Linalool -> you can find some of them labeled on the back of the packaging, I don't know which exactly because I haven't looked on allergens xD haha. Seems quite generic to name something labeled on a fragrance while describing it right? I can smell lots of Linalool or its softer artificial version Ethyl Linalool inside the fragrance. These are quite common raw materials in classic French perfumes. Generally, you receive balanced, sweet, powdery Amber being fresh and lively and smoothly blended with everything else in the same time. This perfumer really knows how chemistry works, fascinating once again. I am not surprised, that opinions are quite controversial. This EDP goes very far from modern trends and taste of social majority. It can be outdated or immoral and always irrelevant for you. A big big question of preferences. Do I like it? Yes. I appreciate this in the way like a well written book, really well made wine or painted portrait. Not in the way I would apply the fragrance on the skin. I rock modern formulations of YSL Kouros EDT, so nothing strange I like it xD. This epoch just speaks to me. Fair play to people who like "old school" perfumery times, me too. This is strongly feminine and elegant, to my nose ofc...

My relationship with Coco is a tale of enemies to lovers. I’ve sniffed this and disliked it many times throughout my life. As recently as 2020, it was still a dislike. There’s a powdery facet somewhere in this fragrance that made me stop in my tracks and put it down. But then something changed about the way I perceived this fragrance and now I can’t get enough of it. I want to replace all the water in my hot water tank with Coco and shower in it. I want to fill up an Olympic-sized pool with it and swim a 1500m freestyle event. Buy a sensory deprivation tank and spend hours floating in the dark, just Coco and me. I don’t know why it happened. Hormones? Dysosmia? Seasons? I have no real explanation, I just know that it did. I like to retry my “dislike” fragrances every once in a while just to see if my feelings about them change, so on a recent trip to the perfume counter, I did just that with the Coco EDP tester. I dismissively sprayed it on the back of my hand and went about my business. A few minutes later I was standing at the register waiting to pay for a purchase, and I was suddenly swept away by the scent of orange, clove, and amber. I wasn't sure where the scent was coming from at first; I only knew that I had to have it. I looked around to see if anyone was standing near enough to smell, or if something else was being sprayed. Then I reached my hand up to my nose and realized it was me. It was Coco EDP. Confused, I left the register to spray my other hand with it. I needed to confirm this was what I was smelling because it was so different than how I remembered it. The Coco in my memory was a powder-bomb — but THIS Coco was all opulence, warmth, and sumptuous spice. So I bought a bottle, and I’ve been wearing it every day since. That powdery facet is still present, but it’s not the lead. It’s just a fluffy, musky, pillow for the sultry, spiced fruits and rose to rest on. On a paper strip I think Coco smells a bit vintage, but on skin, it doesn’t come across dated at all — just sophisticated, warm, and seductive. It makes me want to smoke clove cigarettes and paint my nails bright red. My clothes are already mostly black, but if they weren't, this perfume would make me want to wear all-black. I’m not sure how this will play out in the summer. It’s cold here now, the perfect weather for this type of scent. It’s hard to imagine Coco in hot, humid weather. What will I do when summer comes? Is the EDT a viable option when it’s warm out, or will I have to wait until autumn comes back around to enjoy Coco again? I guess I’ll find out in a couple of months.

How disrespectful of me to sleep on this gorgeous beautiful perfume - starting out on my fragrance journey aka addiction, I was around 23 years old. I smelled this once in store and immediately wrote it off as the dreaded “oLd LaDy” smell and regretfully bought the teeny bopper fragrances such as viva la juicy and all the other same but different smells. I am 33 years old now and let me just tell you all- I circled right back to this beautiful classic and feel like I’m home again. This one is everything. It’s nostalgic and reminds me of my grandmother but NOT when she was in her elderly years, oh heavens No. it reminds me of how I remember her when I was a young girl; this perfume reminds me of my grandma when she was in her 30s. The pictures I’ve seen she was breaking necks and wrecking hearts. A fashionista of the 70s , as a little young girl I remember her being so ... vivacious and full to the brim of life- she was always smiling, laughing, and fun yet strong, looked up to, and needed in her world. Everyone loved her and I still do. She was invigorating, deep, complex, with many sweet and wonderful layers. She was also pretty spicy too she cropped all her tshirts, and made all her jeans into daisy dukes to garden lol. My grama was the woman dancing at every party , comedian at the dinner table, loud, outgoing, kind, and warm - she made EVERYONE feel at ease and welcomed. You could hear her from a mile away - and smell her too. She smelled just like this it kind of brings a tear to my eyes how I never realized it. She had great style and such great personality. Gosh I miss her so much. This fragrance reminds me to live loud, proud , and be UNAPOLOGETIC for who I am in this world. It smells so classy and to me smells like money. It has a special place in my heart. I’ll forever repurchase this one because it’s just a little gift I get to experience everyday. It’s a great perfume and im so sorry to myself that I didn’t appreciate this when I was younger but then again maybe I was just not ready for it like I am ready now. Definitely not for those who don’t understand how special it is. Major love for me.

ATTACK OF THE GENDER-BENDER Being a rose-lover, not even Coco's iconic status as a "symbol of feminine class" could keep me away for too long. The weird thing is that this was one of those magic elixirs a woman could use to seduce me. I was very nervous about even approaching a Chanel counter to sample a female Chanel fragrance, of all things. But diving deeper into perfumery changes things. When I tested this the first time (mid-2010), I brought a female acquaintance with me. I totally understood why the saleslady who sprayed me was perplexed. A middle-aged woman with a conservative look, she had probably NEVER seen a man want to sample Coco for himself. Well, Coco settled and everything that would have made me putty in a woman's hands was absent. Was my nose playing tricks on me? I asked my acquaintance for a straight-up opinion. She LIKED it on me... I took a mental note of that but was still afraid to buy it and wear it. I still remember that scent haunting me for that whole day. That has haunted me for a whole year..... Fast-forwarding to the present, I am now a proud owner of Chanel Coco EDP. I recently tried Coco again, was enchanted again and finally decided to man up. I would STILL love to smell this on a woman and it's probably still that magic elixir that the right woman could use to seduce me. But on MY skin, this is PERFECT! Roses, spices and smokey incense take center stage. Longevity is insane and the sillage is STILL outrageous. I love this enough to wear it, regardless of the perceptions surrounding it. Why? Because I love it. In today's perfume trends, where cavity-inducing gourmands (especially vanilla) and watery florals are the norm, Coco could pass for an extremely sophisticated masculine/unisex. For those of you who might be wondering, "How dare he?!?", I must state that Coco Mademoiselle passes for a fresh aromatic unisex fragrance on my skin. This was recently the general perception of an all-male staff. The power of skin chemistry. The power of Chanel...