Every time I pick up a bottle of Bleu de Chanel, or one of its flankers, I’m hit with a little touch of synesthesia. The masculine men’s scent has always struck me as an earnest attempt to answer the question, What does blue smell like? Its newest iteration, called Bleu de Chanel L’Exclusif, which I’ve been wearing every day since its launch earlier this week, offers the most sophisticated answer we’ve received from the house yet.
L’Exclusif, like the other three Bleu scents, was crafted by Chanel’s in-house master perfumer Olivier Polge. But unlike them, it offers a much more nuanced and intimate wearing experience. You can smell the earlier iterations coming from a mile away, with all their ambery, cedar notes leaving a distinct sillage—the aroma that lingers in the air after someone wearing a strong fragrance leaves the room.
But while L’Exclusif is powerful, I don’t find it overly potent. In fact, I think because it’s formulated with a higher concentration of perfume oil than its predecessors, the scent’s design can achieve a more interesting interplay of ingredients. Its makeup includes leathery, resinous notes of cistus labdanum, the rockrose bush native to the Mediterranean region and northern Africa; a distinct dose of amber, which gives the Bleu line continuity; and perhaps its most important ingredient, sandalwood sourced from Maré, an island in the archipelago of New Caledonia, off the eastern coast of Australia.
Sandalwood is often used in men’s fragrances, but there’s something particularly inviting about its expression here. Its dense, rich, aroma gives L’Exclusif structure and balance, and it’s the last thing you’ll smell at the end of a long day of wearing this scent. The interplay between the wood and resin gives it a warming quality that’ll be especially comforting once fall’s real chill starts to set in.
But what I like most about this new scent is that, at least on my skin, it doesn’t announce itself with quite the same loud voice that other, more concentrated men’s scents seem to do. In other words, it’ll get you compliments, but only from the people you let get close to you.
Bleu De Chanel L’Exclusif is available at Chanel Fragrance and Beauty Boutiques in South Africa.
R5 375 (100ML) – R3 805 (60ML)
