Chanel N°5 Perfumes: 5 Reasons Why They Are So Popular Around the World

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5 Reasons Why Chanel N°5 Perfumes Are So Popular Around the World

1. Celebrities actually wear

Initially, Coco Chanel was her perfume’s own ambassador, even posing for a full-blown photo shoot in her French apartment for a campaign published in Harper’s Bazaar. Later on, Marilyn Monroe helped boost the perfume’s popularity by telling a news reporter that it was the fragrance she put on right before going to bed.

French actress Catherine Deneuve was another star who helped bring the fragrance to light. Andy Warhol even used the perfumes as a muse for some of his artwork. In fact, his Chanel paintings are currently still on display at the Museum of Modern Art.

Most recently, Nicole Kidman and Gisele Bündchen have become the faces of the perfume. Gisele starred in a short film for Chanel in which she candidly discussed the deep connection she has with nature and fragrance. She also talks about the power of scent and memory in the second part of the film.

This short film is said to be a sequel to the 2004 short film that starred Nicole Kidman. The film was also shot for Chanel and is one of the most expensive ads shot, costing around $33 million to make. It’s about a wealthy and well-known woman who flees her responsibilities. Both of Chanel’s short films were shot by well-known director Baz Luhrmann.

2. The Original Fragrance Has an Interesting Back Story

Chanel N°5 was created in 1921 after Coco Chanel teamed up with celebrity perfumer Ernest Beaux to come up with the scent. Apparently, Coco Chanel wanted to create an “artificial fragrance” for women that would be simple yet still seductive. At the time, fragrances on the market were over the top and tended to focus on just one floral scent. The names of the fragrances were also overly sexualized and provocative.

Wanting to do something different, Coco Chanel named her fragrance N°5 simply because it was the number of the fragrance sample she was presented with by Ernest Beaux. The name clearly stuck and became known throughout just about every household in the world. Because of the simplicity of the name, it was easy to remember and women could easily ask for it when going shopping.

Chanel N°5 was considered a “modern” fragrance among the rest and was only made more popular thanks to the minimalistic design of the bottle. The original bottle was made out of glass and was said to resemble a whiskey decanter. This in turn, helped set the bottle aside from the rest when it was put on shelves.

3. It’s a Unique Fragrance Unlike Any Other

As mentioned earlier, Chanel N°5 didn’t center around just one specific scent. In fact, it has more than 80 ingredients in it that are heightened thanks to the aldehydes used. The fragrance is blended perfectly – to the point where it’s hard to distinguish each individual scent.

The primary scent used, however, comes from a flower called ylang-ylang, that is native to the Philippines. The method of extracting the scent is incredibly meticulous and involves steaming the flower petals to make sure that only the most pure essential oils are being collected from the plant.

Another unique ingredient in this fragrance is that of Rose Centifolia, a special type of flower that blooms once a year for a short amount of time. The flower also only grows in one specific part of the world – Grasse, a town located on the French Riviera. Being one of the most popular fragrances in the world, there’s no surprise that jasmine is in the mix. The best part about jasmine is that it takes on a unique scent on everyone that uses it, depending on the environment.

4. Excellent Marketing

When it comes to advertising their perfumes, Chanel doesn’t hold back. Interestingly enough, Coco Chanel chose not to advertise her perfumes until after a decade from their original launch. Until then, news of the fragrance spread through word of mouth.

But eventually, their marketing team upped the ante. After WWI, the team at Chanel decided to give every single American GI a free bottle of Chanel N°5 to take back home with them once they were back. Chanel was already popular in France, but it was after this stint that it became a household name in the United States. Soon enough, magazines were advertising the perfume and expensive commercials were being shot to advertise the fragrance. The rest, as they say, is history.

5. It Changed the Standards for Women

Back when the first perfume was created, it was during a time when women were expected to wear simple perfumes that included just one scent from a flower. If you wore a perfume that was too musky, it was considered provocative. These types of perfumes weren’t worn by “respectable” women.

However, Coco Chanel came and changed all of that by introducing her line of perfumes, which included dozens of ingredients. She decided to embrace her femininity and sexuality and refused to let anyone get in the way of that. In turn, she wasn’t afraid to create the icon scent that we know and love today despite risking disapproval from society.

Over the years, the N°5 collection has grown to include many other perfumes, all unique in their own way. Of course, there’s always the classic that will, quite frankly, never go out of style. 

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