WHAT I SMELL: Chanel 1957 opens with a bright and sparkling warmed bergamot that is quickly met with a soft and slightly creamy iris tinged with citrus. It’s so pretty, rather ethereal and incredibly inviting. In short time the perfume begins to powder and grow, but without giving up it’s soft demeanor. The perfume seems to radiate around an inch off of the skin where it feels as if you’re snuggling your nose up against the soft fur of the underbelly of a kitten. The florals are sweetened in the lightest of ways on top of a tempered wood and the musk is lush and full without suffocating all other aspects of this soft and pretty dream of a perfume. 1957 is probably one of the prettiest perfumes in the Chanel collection of fragrances, albeit rather linear in development. It’s perfectly uncomplicated and I love it.
From the Chanel website:
In 1957, Coco Chanel was rewarded for her world-renowned talent and audacity to seize, reinvent and magnify rare materials. The 1957 fragrance embodies this spirit, which is signature to the heart of every CHANEL creation.
A sensual accord of white musk is delicately fashioned with floral notes of bergamot, iris and neroli, woody notes of cedar, powdery accents and a hint of honey. A luminous scent, a statement to the timeless style of CHANEL.
WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: Audrey Hepburn in “Funny Face” 1957.
THREE WORDS THAT DESCRIBE 1957: delightful, easy, happy
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT 1957: CaFleureBon, Chemist in the Bottle, The Black Narcissus
BOTTOM LINE: 1957 is another Chanel that is so wonderfully beautiful in its’ simplicity and for it ease of wear. And even though the name is 1957, there’s something timeless about this beauty of a perfume. There really is an art to making a perfume so ethereally uncomplicated, yet refined.
- Bone Rating: 4.5 out of possible 5 bones
- Scent: Aromatic
- Nose: Olivier Polge
- Classification: Leans feminine
- Expense: $250 for 2.5 oz. eau de parfum
WHAT I SMELL: The opening of Corpus Equus is anything but quiet with its burst of birch, soured leather and hint of a soft floral that quickly moves completely to a urinous birch tar. The composition is cool and rather damp and it smells as if a campfire has been doused by cold water and where the smoke from the fire has infused into your clothes. Sometimes that can be a comforting smell. Here, it just feels pungent, soured and rather jolting. The leather does come out slowly and it does help to pull the perfume away from the fire and in doing so it helps tame it to a more wearable stage. Corpus Equus continues to settle and with it comes a sharpened note which helps to continue to cut the birch tar. Here, the perfume becomes more of a leathered radiant forcefield which is more earthy and grounded in its feel. In the end, a smooth buttery layer begins to come forward along with a soft amber. What started off as a raging stallion has turned into a rather tame pony.
WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: A dude ranch. For city folk, the ranch may initially be a shock to the senses, but soon enough the scents of the ranch are smoothed out for their suburban patrons.
WHAT I SMELL: Mixed Emotions opens with a beautiful minty fresh cassis which moves ever so slightly to the evergreen in a rapid manner. Almost immediately, the perfume feels as if it resides on the edge of the forest where the green and the fruits seem to beckon all living things to commune with its ripened juice. After a short while, the fruit begins to quiet and soften, but the blackcurrant sweetens with the addition of a hint of violet while a soft tea note begins to enter. Here the perfume becomes more contemplative. Did I say contemplative? In a very short time, the perfume starts to move towards the semi-funky when wafts of light sweat come into play. For non-perfumistas that may sound like a horrible thing, but for those in the know, it can be enticing; and in this case, it’s exactly that. As the perfume continues to develop, a light violet begins to occupy the space where the blackcurrant resided along with the lightest of tea and incense. Here, the perfume is once again contemplative, soft and engaging and to me, very, very pretty. In the end you’re left with a quiet, lightly sweet musk of a perfume. Mixed Emotions is pretty and rather intimate in just the right kind of way.
WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: Mixed emotions? Maybe. But to me, it’s sweet emotions. (And to clarify further, that means sweet related to love vs. sweet related to sugar!)
The Scented Hound 