Why is Chanel No.5 a perfume legend nearly 100 years old?

The scent makes every infatuated generation of women extracted from the best flowers in the famous Rose De Mai field of Provence, France.

Chanel No.5 - The pinnacle of perfumes in the world

In 1921, Coco Chanel created a revolutionary scent in fashion history. During more than 94 years of reign, Chanel No. 5 is always on the list of the best-selling expensive perfume, the symbolic scent of the upper class, especially women. Chanel house is estimated to have one bottle of Chanel No. every 55 seconds in the world. 5 sold. According to Independent data, in the UK market only in 2012, fashion houses collected £ 460 million (equivalent to more than VND 15.8 trillion) from Chanel No. sales. 5.

To own a golden brown liquid bottle, the "gods" spend an average of $ 100-200 (about 2 to 4 million) depending on the purity. Some "Limited" versions of this scent cost up to thousands of dollars , for example Chanel No. 5 Grand Extrail is $ 2,100 (about 47 million VND) for more than 200ml and 4,200 USD (nearly 95 million VND) for 900ml.

The mystery that creates the attraction for nearly 100-year-old perfume is always a question that many people are curious about.

• The story of the classic perfume is not everyone knows

Invented by perfumers and fashion pioneers

In the early 1920s, after reaping a lot of success in the garment market, Coco Chanel started thinking about attacking the cosmetics market. After a meeting with a Russian duke and Spanish painter couple in Monte Carlo (France), she rekindled the idea of ​​inventing a scent that is a combination of French classic, upstream of Russia and the rise, modernity of Spain. The idea became even more intense when the lover of Coco Chanel was the great Russian Duke of Dmitri Pavlovich introducing her to Ernest Beaux - a master of perfumes on the French Riviera.

Ernest Beaux at the time worked for A. Rallet & Co, a famous perfume company in the Russian royal family about the ability to create "deadly" scents. One of the most popular scents was extremely loved by the Russian Queen Alexandra Feodorovna, Rallet O-De-Kolon No.1 Vesovoi (Rallet No. 1 for short) - a combination of rose and jasmine .

Pictures of sexy Marilyn Monroe in bed with perfume bottle Chanel No.5 becomes a symbol of class and charm for a while.(Photos: Pinterest).

When working together, Ernest Beaux was constantly reminded by fashion legend: "I want to create a perfume with a characteristic smell of women. I want to give women an artificial scent. I am here from a variety of different flavors. "

Chanel No. 5 was born in late summer and early 1920s , only a few months after Ernest Beaux took orders from Coco Chanel. It is based on the basic aroma of Rallet No. 1 . To create this legendary liquid, he synthesized 80 different flavorings. But the basic scent of Chanel No. 5 are the main ingredients: rose, jasmine of Grasse, bitter orange (neroli), sandalwood and aldehyde

In addition to perfume 5, Ernest Beaux invented other aromas that were numbered from 1-4 and 20-24 respectively. However, only one fragrance was chosen by Coco Chanel. During the public debut in 1921, she chose the name for this illusory liquid, Chanel No 5. "I introduced my designs on May 5, so we put the perfume This number 5 holds the right name, it contains luck, " explained Coco.

Initially, Chanel No. 5 is given free to all visitors to Chanel's clothing store. The fitting room is also sprayed with this perfume to impress the "gods" . By the end of World War II in 1945, Chanel No. 5 has become the world's best-selling perfume. The image of American soldiers standing in a long line on Cambon Street, Paris to buy a perfume for his wife before coming home became an unforgettable mark in fashion history at that time. With a selling price of about 300 USD for about 30ml of perfume, Chanel No. 5 became "monster" in the aromatherapy village at that time.

In the 1950s, famous artists Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali turned the legendary scent into inspiration for their work. The sexy image of Marilyn Monroe in bed, wearing nothing but the frivolous scent of the French fad made Chanel No. name. 5 steps to a new level. By the end of the 1950s, with what was gained, Chanel's legendary perfume bottle was exhibited by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, USA.

Sophisticated production process

Chanel No. 5 created is not a jumble of flowers, musk. Before owning the drops of fragrant essences, Coco Chanel, Ernest Beaux and colleagues had to spend no effort to hold the best materials.

The two main ingredients of Chanel No. 5 are roses and jasmine only taken almost from the flower fields Rose De Mai in Grasse district of Provence, France. These two types of flowers here are most appreciated for scents.

However, the French house does not order bluff. Chanel only accepts flowers from the Muls family - a family that owns the largest flower fields in Grasse district. Each year, they have to supply from 50 tons of roses and 20 tons of jasmine to the producers. Experts said that for every 350-400 flowers, the house will have about 1kg of petals for flavoring.

The best flowers are distilled from Rose De Mai field to create Chanel No. perfume bottles.5 cult.(Photo: Blogspot).

Christopher Sheldrake, Chanel's director of research and development, said the amount of jasmine that the company bought accounted for a third of the world. Every time you buy, the French brand gets enough for the whole year, not seasonally. All are stored in Chanel's factory in northern France. In recent years, the price of jasmine jasmine in Grasse has increased by 7-10 times compared to normal so the house is forced to find other supplies from India and Egypt. However, Chanel controls the quality very closely.

"Every year, we only offer a fixed list of suppliers. They have to send the sample company to test. We evaluate the samples as the way wine companies try materials." , the director said.

One of the factors that makes Chanel No. special. 5 is aldehyde . This is the first artificial flavoring used on perfumes. It is an alcohol-based organic chemical compound that stimulates the fragrance of perfumes. However, the dosage of natural and artificial fragrances contained in the famous French brand's perfume bottle is not easy to imitate. According to Christopher Sheldrake, the original recipe of Chanel No. 5 currently only three people - are senior figures of the company - know well.

Style icons like Gisele Bundchen are used by Chanel to make a face for the legendary perfume line.(Photo: Chanel).

Marketing master

To keep the legendary position through a century, Chanel No. 5 not only thanks to the creative elite but also the adept promotion policy of the fashion house through the ages . "Women who do not use perfume do not have a future" - Coco Chanel's proclamation almost becomes a memorized lesson for female generations whenever they step down the street.

For more than 100 years, in every advertising campaign, Chanel gave a change of woman image corresponding to the era but held a single perfume. It all seemed to confirm the longevity of that mesmerizing golden-brown essence. It was a fierce Gabrielle Chanel (Coco Chanel) in the 1937s, Marilyn Monroe sexy in 1952, Suzy Parker loved the years 1957, Catherine Deneuve was fresh in 1972, Carole Bouquet sexy in 1997, Nicole Kidman seduced into in 2004, and later Gisele Bundchen.

With the fierce competitiveness of the fashion market, fashion houses are racing to create new fragrances with more variations and tests. However, with the delicate fragrance and philosophy of the lifestyle that Chanel "spreads" to worshipers, No. 5 do not have to worry about having to step down the throne in the world of scents.