Les Exclusifs de Chanel Misia

Thanks to a very lovely and generous fellow MUA member I finally got to try Misia! I am very much into cosmetic-inspired fragrances so Misia seemed to be my dream perfume! The thing I love most about Misia is how dry the powder note is, making it smell just like makeup! This is probably the most realistic makeup-y perfume I've tried because of the dryness. Also, Misia is very 'cold' rather than warm and cuddly- lending to the cosmetic vibe! The 'coldness' is something that I kind of associate with Chanel as well. Comparisons in reviews on Fragrantica and comments on MUA to both Meteorites and Lipstick Rose are spot on. Lipstick Rose smells a lot more aldehydic (this may be the 'waxy' note that people mention, I'm assuming?), more sparkling, and not as powdery to my nose. Meteorites (the room spray/EDT) is not dry, not really powdery, not aldehydic, has a lot less iris, sweeter, and very simple (the focus is on the violets). Honestly, Misia smells more like Meteorites powder than the room spray/EDT does, crazy enough! Also, a couple of reviews compared Misia to Balenciaga Le Dix. I can see why! Le Dix (I own a vintage mini parfum and vintage EDT) is floral, aldehydic, and powdery, quite classic and lovely. Misia smells like a fresh, modern take on this sadly discontinued fragrance! This is one of the rare perfumes I've tried where I like the opening more than the drydown. I detect violet, iris, powder, and rose. I'm not sure exactly what orris root smells like but based on Fragrantica's description I'm sure it's there. The drydown is mostly dry powder on me, a little vanilla (benzoin/tonka bean?) but sometimes I can smell traces of the opening which is so much like Lipstick Rose. I'm getting a little L'Heure Bleue in the drydown too (perhaps due to Guerlinade elements and violet/iris????) but it reminds me most of Chanel No. 5! I don't have much experience with Chanel perfumes. I've only tried No. 5, Eau Premiere, Coco, Coco Mademoiselle, Coco Noir, Chance, and Allure. Perhaps the base I was smelling was the 'Chanelade' people talk about? My one issue with Misia is the sillage. It's pitiful, I have to stick my nose as close to my skin as possible without touching it to smell it, even right after I spray it! Sillage is even softer than some of the weakest perfumes I own: Apres L'Ondee EDT, Kenzo Amour, Vol de Nuit EDT, Balenciaga L'eau Rose, and Guerlain French Kiss (but I will say, this one lasts for hours and hours on me and is probably one of the longest wearing perfumes I have, making up for the poor sillage). One of my biggest pet peeves is perfume sprayed on clothes, I hate smelling the traces of the scent left behind, it irks me lol! But for testing Misia I sprayed a small bit on my shirt sleeve and it definitely projects more from clothing as opposed to skin! Longevity is decent, about 8 hours, better than most EDTs I own. All in all, I adore Misia but I still prefer other cosmetic-inspired scents such as Lipstick Rose (good sillage, great longevity) and Ombre Mercure (same reason as LR, plus I love its complexity and prominent vanilla notes). I definitely want to get a full bottle someday, and hope Chanel releases a parfum too. UPDATE 7/19/2015: I have now tried La Violette by Annick Goutal and the violet in it is similar to Misia's violet, so they do smell alike, but Misia is way more complex and drier. I do not find Misia comparable to Flower by Kenzo, Love Chloe, or Bvlgari Pour Femme whatsoever scent-wise, only in concept (which is powdery floral).

I smell Sycomore. No, Misia is not a vetiver perfume; olfactorily they have nearly nothing to do with each other. I smell Sycomore EdT’s personality in Misia EdT. Christopher Sheldrake composed the original Les Exclusif Sycomore EdT to be a brutish, angry old goat of a perfume that pushed the strident woody character of vetiver so far to the forefront you felt like you were inhaling sawdust. Sycomore EdT gave an uncompromising view of the more stately characteristics of vetiver to the point where it felt completely unpliable, impenetrable, and unforgiving. Misia does the same for orris. The opening starts off friendly and familiar with fruits and roses and orris presenting a classic lipstick/makeup type accord, but this falls away quite quickly to a dry, starchy, and rooty orris. This orris is completely parched of all moisture - don’t expect any of the buttery silkiness orris can often have, it’s not here. The sandalwood sitting underneath is sanded smooth and has been left in the sun to be zapped of all water and sap as well. There is a sweetness that comes from fruits and roses in the heart but they have been dehydrated; the fruit is nothing but pith and skin and some crystalline sugar, and the rose petals crumble at the slightest touch. As time goes on, and it does so quite slowly for an EdT (Chanel really know how to make an EdT when they try), the orris gets darker, deeper, and more animalic thanks to a benzoin note that barely peeks its head above the surface, with the overall result a super stiff brown suede leather type accord. Just like Sycomore EdT, Misia EdT is an odd and fairly pushy perfume. It is decidedly a Chanel Les Exclusif without question: excellent materials, meticulous attention to the formula, and the prim-and-proper Parisian chic that Chanel is known for, but it also has a slightly unnerving quality to it that is hard to pinpoint - in general actually, it’s a pretty difficult perfume to read. It’s hard to know exactly what it’s saying, and it is certainly going to say different things to different people. To go from bright, chip-and-cheerful, fruity rosey lipstick all the way to a sandy and desiccated brown orris that comes across as suede is quite a trip indeed. What it does tell me, though, is that for Olivier Polge’s first Les Exclusif I am quite impressed. We hopefully aren’t going to get just pretty commercially-friendly perfumes from him, some of them are going to be curious and intellectually stimulating as well. Though, other than being quite a complicated character herself, I have no idea what this is supposed to do with Misia Sert.

Misia is perfection to my nose. I recently decided that it was insane to hoard my refrigerated roughly 70% full bottle of the 2016 formulation, which I have kept in my second-floor refrigerator for almost the entire duration of its life (I received it new, a generous gift from a friend, and I loved it immediately, even though she bought it blind). I know I have reviewed this a bunch of times already, but I'm going to write another review, simply because I recently decided to use it and then risk disappointment with the new formulation, assuming I ever spring for another $300 bottle of this wonderful stuff. Let's face it, the more I use it, the more oxygen enters the bottle, even in the dark refrigerator, so I should probably use it and share it with the few deserving eneficiaries I can think of. I have had it for quite some time, and I have several other perfumes I could wear instead. But I will genuinely mourn the last few sprays of this powdery rose-iris-violet scent, which has similarities with, say, Kenzo Flower and Guerlain Insolence and Lipstick Rose and Iris Poudre and some others, but is not so much like these other perfumes as to be adequately replaced by them. A well-traveled friend who has visited China told me that the litchi (lychee?) in the formulation I have (I sent her some by mail) is the only realistic simulation of the fragrance that she has encountered, and she once traveled with a big basket of them on her bike while traveling there, so she knows the scent well. I wouldn't know about that, but I do relish the fruity notes at the top, which linger surprisingly long with the powdery "makeup" accord of the rose, iris, violet. I never tire of this one--a worthy tribute to the charismatic Misia, Coco Chanel bestie, turn-of-the-century trophy wife, salon doyenne, gifted pianist, and muse to Ravel, among others. (Ravel included musical ciphers of her name in some of his compositions.) I keep wondering if Misia will be portrayed in The New Look on Apple TV, along with Binoche's Coco Chanel, but so far I have just seen two episodes, and she hasn't popped up yet. A fascinating person nonetheless. Update: If you love this and can't justify the high price, try Fire Element by the Dua Brand. I'm wearing OG Misia on my left elbow and Fire Element on my right, and they are very, very close. After about a half-hour into the drydown, I cannot tell them apart.

Misia Sert a Polish pianist fav girlfriend of Coco Chanel. I don't know where to start it. I love the love story behind the pretty name Misia... it sounds so European and adorable... I am speechless... Incredible high class of French aristocracy... artists... lovers and passion, Art and high end lyrics. . . Of course you have to know Misia...in my opinion is one of the strongest from the whole collection. do I feel scent of cosmetics.. till yesterday I was thinking I don't... today I have checked my sprayed top.. and what I feel is..a red-orangy pomade from the end of 70 back to Poland. It was in black round box and this is smells like this ... When I spray it... I feel kind of citruses.. and medicine type of perfume like. I don't know what and how I say it but this is what I feel. Spray after 12 h is good. It's classy it would smell great on a man playing.... golf somewhere in Fairmont hotel... back to Princess Dr in Scottsdale... It's definetly scent of PAris.. and wild times of ...Toulouse Lautrec... Redon... and... other artists enjoying all kind of passions ...with poems.. and paintings.. I like how classy it is...and how much French it is. I see ...paintings...Paris.. Russia... and atelier... maybe changing room... somewhere behind the cabaret scene.... ... Unique...not for everyone ... and don't force yourself... to love it... just because you want to follow up with Exclusifes... from Chanel house... It's for a very specific of audience... and ...users... it's so unique... I am happy of the price...because I won't feel it in mainstream..... as I do Madmoiselle.... Different..."level" and I mean it. If I look at the biography of such a talented ... Misia Sert.. I can imagine how incredible persona was she. .. This scent is like her biography .. . . Love and Storms... high end music... it's like the moment ... she put her finger on her piano.. and started...composing her emotions .. in to the Music... You need this moment.. as pianist need... before he starts to play. When you are in symphony orchestra... you can see a pianist... She sit... it's quiet.. and then she starts.. you need these seconds... of... focusing... before you spray it... Later... just be.. and let it tell you the story.......

I had to get Misia. At first it is a bit sharp and almost hard to handle but I waited knowing that Chanel fragrances have many layers just like roses do. The magic comes when the scent is in full bloom so to speak. Misia is mainly Iris, Orris Root and Violet as soon as the initial sharpness wears off. Mostly Violet. The Powder note to me is not overbearing but present at this point as well. The Rose notes which are beautiful come out about twenty minutes later on me as the Iris, Orris and Violet calm down giving off a very vintage feel. Misia at this point brings to mind my father's Swiss-German mother, who wore Guerlain's Apres l'Ondee, with her long pearl strands, her Chanel purse and her 1920's style elegance that is missing so much these days. Her inherent class of being is only a memory for those lucky enough to have known such ladies. The movies never have been able to depict the ladies of the period properly as they were from the most unique of times for women. This perfume does cause me to want to relish the memory of Oma Kauffman. To imagine her vibrant and young in the '20s sipping Champagne before she was anyone's mother. She said she was quite the flapper and had much fun then in her new home of Manhattan, America with her beautiful, almond eyed, soft-spoken, Swiss self....my young, handsome, stern Opa Kauffman very near. Her skirt never going above the knee I am sure. She taught me to be a proper Hausfrau and along with my other Welsh grandmother she taught me how to be a lady of distinction. I was the first woman in my family to divorce in 1996. Oh the horror! Back to Misia... The Tonka Bean and Benzoin are evident in the drydown when Misia morphs into a more creamy Violet floral for the duration. So amazingly soft feminine Misia in my opinion is a fragrance for ladies of distinction not for women on the prowl. We have Coco for that. It does remind me of the scent of some of my expensive lipsticks but it is so much more. Outstanding and gorgeous! Great commendations to Olivier Polge for his first from Chanel.