Can you put the essence of a woman or womanhood in a perfume bottle? Well, that’s possible and Chanel No. 5 is proof of it.
Madmoiselle Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel had met a perfumer, Ernest Beaux and told him to produce a scent that captures the essence of a woman. She also wanted a fresh and clean smell unlike the floral scents that were popular at the time.
Her preference for a clean scent was attributed to the fact that she had worked as a laundress before her introduction to high society and she complained of the body odors prevalent among the elite women of her time.
Tasked with putting womanhood in a bottle, Beaux got to work. Ernest Beaux produced a portfolio of samples for Madmoiselle Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel to try and she chose the fifth one because five is her lucky number. Hence, the ‘No. 5’!
When it was initially created, its unique selling point was the fact that it had abstract ingredients unlike the more popular flowery perfumes which were trending back then.
Chanel No. 5 definitely smelled fresh and clean. However, it is rumored that the perfection of the fresh smell was due to a mistake. It was said that Beaux’s assistant had added an overdose of aldehyde to the formulation which later became Coco Chanel No. 5. The aldehydes heighten the perfectly blended scents and create an airy clean smell from the floral notes.
Coco Chanel was launched in 1921 and it has consistently held a place among the top five best selling perfumes ratings. According to the NPR, a bottle of Coco Chanel No. 5 is sold every thirty seconds.
Composition of the perfume
The scent has notes of jasmine, rose, ylang-ylang, iris, vetiver, patchouli, sandalwood and vanilla. So, you know it wasn’t completely devoid of flowers which were trending at the time. But it carefully evolved the perfume preferences without a complete overhaul or floral scents. Over 80 ingredients are carefully blended to produce this perfume through a complex multilayered formulation process.
This perfume that contains natural and synthetic ingredients is not famed merely for its expensive ingredients or its initial marketing. Everything about it is a work of art. The labor that goes into it is not to be underrated. Originally, each bottle of Coco Chanel No 5 was manually sealed by applying two rows of black pearl cotton yarn and wax double C seal to ensure that it is airtight and tamper-proof.
An icon immortalized the already iconic perfume
In 1954, Marilyn Monroe went further and deeper to immortalize the perfume. An icon of everything a sexy woman was, Marilyn said she wore just five drops of Chanel No. 5 to bed and nothing more.
Of course, Chanel’s famous No. 5 has undergone some minor variations to the ingredients in recent times. But the scent has not lost track of that original scent of 1921, rather, it has evolved to become more powerful. The bottle itself has undergone some changes.
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