Chanel No 5: Love it or Hate it

/ Sandra

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Sandra

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Hi there APJ.

I was introduced to Chanel No 5 in my late teenage years when somebody gifted me a bottle for my 18th birthday. It was a symbolic gift congratulating me on entering adulthood. I was not quite sure if I liked it or not as I was monogamous with Ungaro’s Diva at the time.

Chanel No 5: Love it or Hate it

As time went on and the seasons changed, I tried wearing Chanel No 5 on and off and finally came to adore it. I now had two perfumes that I could not live without. Over the years, I bought bottles of Chanel No 5 and actually tried all of the different strengths. For some reason the Eau de Parfum struck a chord with me and stuck. If I had a bottle of the Extrait I would wear that on special occasions, but the EdP was my daily go to.

As the years went by I noticed that my beloved Chanel No 5 did not smell the same anymore. The depth was gone. It did not feel as rounded and smooth any longer. My husband, bless his heart, adores Chanel No 5 and could not understand that his latest gift had been barely used. So, I used that bottle up when he was around and then asked him to kindly buy me another perfume. I was giving up.

Since that last bottle of Extrait, I banned all Chanel No 5 from entering the house. I felt cheated and betrayed. That is when I started exploring other houses and other genres of perfume and started buying different perfumes trying ever so hard to find something similar to my long lost love. Nothing came close, nothing. But that does not mean that I did not love other perfumes. No, not at all. I was awakened to the world of perfumery and all of its glory, sniffing my way through life.

All of that changed Christmas 2018 when Chanel launched their first ever coloured iconic bottle of Chanel No 5. Colour me happy! The red is stunning and I bought the EdP for the sole purpose of decorating my bedroom with the limited edition bottle. Never in my wildest dreams did I even consider wearing the perfume. Ridiculous I know, but I was still chasing the memory of the past.

After nearly 18 years of not wearing Chanel No 5 I took the plunge and sprayed myself lavishly with the new EdP. Wow! It is like falling in love all over again. The memories that it conjures up are pristine in my mind.

Perhaps the elapsed time has allowed my brain to let go of the olfactive memory and it all smells new to me. Perhaps it is just my wish to have something from my past near me again. I do not know. I do not care.

Chanel No 5 still smells amazing and I am willing to give it skin time once again. It tingles my senses and reawakens my love of perfumery. Of course it does help that the bottle is stunning.

I wonder if Chanel will do something similar this year again. I would love to see a coloured bottle for Chanel No 19, another love of mine.

How do you feel about Chanel No 5? Do you love it or hate it? What do you think about the red bottle? I dragged the red bottle to an iris garden here in Basel.

Until next time.

Oodles of fragrant kisses – this time wafting Chanel No. 5.

Sandra xo

66 thoughts on “Chanel No 5: Love it or Hate it”

  1. Love it. Wore it as a child in the 70s and then all the way into the late 90s in EDC, EDT (had one of those Portia black lacquer canisters with the gold rim) and pure perfume. Haven’t sniffed it in about 20 years. Love that red bottle!

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    • Ahhh Brigitte, you loved it when it was its best! I too had one of the black lacquer canisters and loved it. The red bottle is to die for.
      Sandra xo

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  2. Great post Sandra. I have been through several bottles of the Parfum over the years, and still wear it now. In fact you grabbed my last bottle for me in Vienna. I now have some vintage which Portia sent me. I absolutely love wearing it but am equally happy with the current Extrait – it‘s just as beautiful. ❤️

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  3. I’ve never been a No. 5 fan (or even a Chanel fan in general) but I do love the pretty red bottle. I love coloured bottles – like my Annick Goutal Mon Parfum Chéri par Camille and Nuit Étoilée.

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  4. Sorry but no. I’m firmly in the hate it camp. I first smelled this as a young teen as my friend had a bottle (very glam, I thought) but didn’t like the scent at all. That red bottle though 😍

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  6. I have always enjoyed Chanel fragrances and adore No 5, ever since my first sniff as a teenager. I don’t wear it as often because I now have so many fragrances and love exploring. It will always remain in my top 5 favorites. I don’t love the red bottle though. I prefer to be a traditionalist with the clear glass.

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    • Hi Kathleen. I am glad to hear that you love No. 5 and also through the years. To be honest with you, I have heard it from several people that they do not like the red bottle. Traditional is also beautiful.
      Sandra xo

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    • Hey Perfumelover67. As I acquired bottles, I lost sight of what I actually owned. The last two moves have been wonderful so that I can actually see what I have and use it.
      Sandra xo

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  8. Afraid I’m on the hate list. #5 smells like alcohol and blah alcohol at that. I have purchased a full bottle of #19 and #22 also. I liked #22 but it did not move me enough to re purchase. This was back in the 70’s.

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    • Hi Morgana, Alcohol? Interesting. I enjoyed No. 22 back in the day but not enough to repurchase. I am however on the fence about buying No. 19 again. I am almost there though. 😅
      Sandra xo

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      • I just don’t get the jasmine and flowers that many rave about. I loved Coco when it came out, but somehow never bought a full bottle. I was into Opium and Cinnabar and Secret de Venus de Zibelene in those early 80’s. And then it was Magie Noir by Lancome, which I adored. #19 was a bit too green for me, I preferred Enigma by Alexandra de Markoff or Rabanne’s Metal for that feel of green spring.

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        • I enjoyed smelling Opium and Cinnabar on others. I am off to look up your favorite green perfumes now. Thanks for the tip. Xo

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  9. Chanel No. 5. The one that got away. I both love it and hate it. It’s actually a case of unrequited love. I’ve been fascinated with the fragrance since my teens. Every time I smelled it on someone else I loved it. My mother wore it beautifully. I tried it countless times, willing it to love me back. In the 70’s I had the perfume and the EDT in the black, gold rimmed canister. Each time I wore it, it smelled gorgeous, but always felt like it was a dress with too many ruffles or jeans that were just the wrong cut for me. Fast forward almost 50 years and many experimental wearings of No. 5 and it still doesn’t fit me. Despite it’s many reformulations it still smells gorgeous. Maybe I’ll give it another whirl today?

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  10. I love no 5. Very much. I have many versions, vintage, EdT, Extrait, EdP, and the flanker Premiere. I have a bottle that possibly is 80 years old, not yet found the moment to open it. My mother wore it, her mother wore it. I suppose that makes it timeless. What helped me to understand the beauty of it is a review on Bois de Jasmin, where Victoria describes Ernest Beaux creating no 5 to recreate the extreme freshness he smelled around the rivers and lakes he came across whilst travelling above the arctic circle. And LT’s review where he describes it as an ideally proportioned wonder, a monument of perfect structure and texture ‘and some people think perfume is not an art’. And I will try the current version Sandra, thank you for bringing it to my attention!

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    • Wow Hamamelis! An 80 year old bottle of No. 5! I too am not sure if I would ever find the moment to open it. I can actually visualize the rivers and lakes up north and imagine the air. There is nothing like the air up in Norway. Although, I must admit that the mountain air in Switzerland is pretty darn good. Let me know what you think when you try the current version.
      Sandra xo

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  12. A gorgeous post, Sandra. Some of our beloveds have been decimated to a point we can no longer abide by. No 5 is a definite case in point. Still, better to have what is on offer now than none at all.

    I enjoy No 5 in any form. It just hits all the right spots.

    As for a No 19 coloured bottle – YES, PLEASE! 😍

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  13. Chanel No. 5 was not instant like for me. It came across as old fashioned in the beginning but I have come to admire it. My favorite version is cologne from 70s and before since that feels a bit more animalic. I do have it in every concentration now including parfum, edp, edt, and edc. There is one concentration i do want to acquire which is early edp version since my edp is from around 2010s or so.

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    • I am sure you have an enviable collection Fazal. I can only imagine how much No. 5 has changed through the years. I would love to experience a bit more grrrr with it.
      Sandra xo

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      • Thank you Sandra. Perfume is my stress therapy, too and moreover, I also try to convince myself that i stay away from other vices such as smoking, alcohol, and drugs so this is a better alternative. Moreover, thanks to ebay, it is possible to reverse some of the money waste by selling in the future 🙂

        I think Chanel No. 5 changed sometime in 70s. I could be wrong but I feel Chanel changed both formulations and marketing strategies for Chanel 5 in 80s something. Instead of wide distribution at affordable prices, Chanel 5 became both more exclusive and more expensive as Chanel tried to re-position it as a luxury indulgence in 80s. Moreover, ban on things such as nitro musks plus possible management decisions also resulted in cleaner and a bit more modern Chanel 5 in 80s or so.

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        • Perfume as an alternative to other vices is what keeps me going. Not sure how my husband feels about it though. 😅

          It would be so interesting if a perfume house such as Chanel could take a couple of their iconic perfumes and have them in a museum which takes us through the years of inception to modern formulation.
          Xo

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          • that is actually a brilliant idea: a Museum dedicated to only the most iconic perfumes where each formula over the decades is available to smell. Focusing on only the most iconic perfumes will make it a practical venture, iconic perfumes such as Chanel 5, Shalimar, Eau Sauvage, Kouros, Opium, Poison, and so on. It will also be quite educational as reformulations sometimes reflect the taste and style of the era they represent.

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  14. I will be contrary-wise and say I am Meh about No.5. I have a decant of the Eau Premiere, the version I don’t really mind, but I rarely wear it.

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  15. I got gifted some Chanel No5 for my 18th, from my boss and his wife. That beautiful black, slick packaging and that scent was an awful lot for a young, naive girl. I was super impressed, knowing it was a pretty special scent, and gift. Will dig this out and re-sniff. I dont wear it anymore – i think my scent style has changed a lot since then. It’s a lovely trip down memory lane to younger, carefree days.
    And that red bottle – Oh My 🙂

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    • Hi Melanie, What a kind boss you had! Our scent styles change. TBH I have no idea what my style is. But I love the memories that perfumes can evoke.
      Sandra xo

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