A Tale of Three Perfumes

My first tryst with Chanel No 5 was as a teenager. It was a gift from an indulgent aunt and I wore it with as much joy as I did a body mist from The Body Shop. Youth is so obviously wasted on the young.

On my first trip to London with our son,at a particularly crowded Harrod’s shop floor,I found myself elbowed in at a Jo Malone counter. The husband asked me to choose a fragrance,I tested a few and picked Lime Basil and Mandarin Cologne. I also learned here there is no such thing as ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ in perfume. You are supposed to wear what you like,the rest is marketing malarkey. Each time I wear this perfume,I am transported to my warm serviced apartment at Gloucester Road and pram-pushing evenings at Kensington Gardens.

Once,a friend suggested a flacon of Annick Goutal as a must-buy from Paris. I found a niche in the terribly touristy Champs Elysees and discovered a fragrance that would change my nose forever. ‘Songes’ was intense,captivating and very sensual. As are many perfumes,but it didn’t allow me to wear anything else. (Incidentally,my son was three then,he played tic-tac-toe and chose the bottle for me.)

The lure of specialty perfumes — or fragrances made by high-end perfume manufacturers — was life enhancing. These are more expensive than others,sometimes thrice the price,but for a damn good reason. My Armanis and Calvin Kleins have all been gifted away.

It is often hard to find a perfume-house perfume when you need it. Jo Malone has standalone boutiques at several airports now,but Goutal is only available in France.

There is the odd fragrance that fills this gap. Estée Lauder’s ‘White Linen’ is one them,Thierry Mugler’s ‘Angel’ is the other. And then there is Chanel.

Almost every scent from Chanel is a winner. But it all began with the first: Chanel No 5. Its history is well remembered. Mademoiselle Chanel picked the fifth vial from perfumeur Ernest Beaux’s selection because five was her lucky number (as random as my son’s tic-tac-toe). She didn’t care much for perfume,she sold it to Jewish investors Wertheimers,and owned only 10 percent of its shares,which Chanel No 5’s insane success forced her to renegotiate.

The perfume,much like the woman it is named after,is both modern and iconic at once. It revolutionised much for women (although I know of one or two men who wear No 5 too). It introduced a very fine and expensive synthetic ingredient called ‘aldehydes’ which enhanced its scents and gave them longevity.

Chanel No 5 is composed of the favourite flowers and spices in perfume: ylang-ylang,neroli and aldehydes at the top,jasmine and rose in the middle,and sandalwood and vetiver at the bottom. It became the ‘perfect scent’,brought to a beautiful dry-down by its aldehydes. Yes,it smells fresh and powdery even the next morning.

Chanel No 5 became popular for a variety of reasons: Marilyn Monroe endorsed it and the legal wrangle between Coco and her investors added to its allure. But mostly because it wa7s an unusual and modern scent,it was neither floral nor musky. Diana Vreeland said a woman “can wear it anywhere,anytime and everybody-husbands,beaus,taxi drivers-everybody loves it”.

My second bottle of No 5 was five years ago. It was also a gift,this time from the beautiful former Parisian model Marielou Phillips,now the representative of Chanel in India. But it is now the only perfume I buy for myself.