Chanel • Coromandel • Fragrances

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sillage on 5/10/2013 12:01:00 PM more reviews by sillage

Age: 56 & Over   Skin: Normal, Fair, Cool   Hair: Brunette, Straight, Medium   Eyes: Brown    

Coromandel is a beautiful warm rich amber-wood-patchouli (earthy, rustic, bohemian), but it's sooooo strong! It's too strong for me, and that's my problem with it. Whoa, what a wallop it packs!

I love the scent, and at the time I bought it, Chanel was only selling the ginormous bottle, so that's what I bought. I've barely made a dent in it, because you only need a drop -- and then I feel like it will still fill an entire room, and they'll smell you coming and going. This stuff is strong! It makes me as self-conscious as if I'd sprayed Angel, Youth Dew, or Cinnabar -- that's the type it is and how strong it is.

Coromandel smells almost **identical** to Prada original -- or Jessica Simpson Fancy Nights -- they all smell just alike, to my nose. Honestly, if you own Prada original (inexpensive now at discounters), you don't really need Coromandel too -- there is minimal difference.

Except that Coromandel is much more well blended than Prada -- it's a much higher quality perfume -- it's just smoooooooth -- smoother than Prada -- and Coromandel also seems to have a chocolate-y feel to it to me that Prada doesn't have. There's no chocolate note listed in Coromandel, but it seems a bit chocolate-y to me.

It might just be me -- or my imagination -- but I feel extremely self-conscious when I wear Coromandel -- I feel like a walking perfume bomb. I was once in Blockbuster wearing Coromandel (feeling self-conscious), and a man nearby told me, "You smell good!" -- but I felt like that whole store could probably smell me, and after I left, they'd probably be able to smell it lingering in the air for days.

I wore Coromandel to work once -- only once -- and I was so self-conscious! There was one comment from a coworker that it smelled like a cigar in the office -- "it smells like a cigar in here!" -- and I figured it might be the Coromandel. I never wore it to work again.

So I now have a huge enormous 8oz spray of Coromandel in my closet that I seldom wear -- and when I do, it's a teeny tiny spritz -- and only when I know I won't be in crowds or confined spaces. It's an excellent scent -- a beautiful warm oriental -- but since it's so incredibly strong to me, my bottle will probably last me 7 lifetimes. I'll leave it to my son in my will.

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babaleah on 3/12/2013 6:47:00 PM more reviews by babaleah

Age: 44-55   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Warm   Hair: Blond, Wavy, Medium   Eyes: Blue    

This is a really big frag. Very bold, smoky/ambery with a bit of spice. I can't quite place what it reminds me of, but it was in the 70's and something like a perfume oil I bought at a "smoke" shop, but with some restraint and refinement. A bit like Prada Amber. Ultimately, I know it's well done, but not a scent for me.

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*TOP REVIEWER* Anda on 11/16/2012 4:06:00 AM more reviews by Anda

Age: 30-35   Skin: Normal, Fair-Medium, Warm   Hair: Black, Wavy, Medium   Eyes: Brown    

If Greta Garbo were a scent, I imagine she would smell like Coromandel.
It's dry and milky, earthy and sweet. There is a quiet, stoic exoticism to it, and it's a weird balance of contrasting facets that are seldom placed this close together; .

I can appreciate the brilliance of this composition but it's definitely not an everyday scent for me because it is very heavy on the patchouli. This scent is too unique to ever be a crowd-pleaser like Coco Mademoiselle, but if you don't like the idea of smelling like a million other women on the street, check Coromandel out.

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*TOP REVIEWER* tessture on 3/4/2012 12:28:00 PM more reviews by tessture

Age: 44-55   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium   Hair: Brunette   Eyes: Brown    

At first attempt, I got warm soft spices like coriander or cardamom with soft wood and a murky greenish note that's slightly off, like body odor, which threw it all off. And there was another note a bit like mildewed leather lurking in the back. I wanted badly to scrub this but I waited and then suddenly it was beautiful, a rich mellow blend of green wood with a touch of forest floor gently spiked with benzoin and powdery dry leather. If you can wait out the change, it's compulsively sniffable, but that onset was a challenge. Hmmm.

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*TOP REVIEWER* MissLori on 2/7/2012 5:03:00 PM more reviews by MissLori

Age: 44-55   Skin: Normal   Hair: Blond   Eyes: Blue    

I am in love. This is the fragrance I had hoped I'd find in the house of Chanel. Sophisticated, sexy, warm and beautiful. It's patchouli, but where Coco and Coco Mme fail for me, Coromandel shines. This is not the patchouli from those scents, nor from the Angels, Pradas, or Flowerbombs. There is a soft sweetness, not too dry or dirty, yet the sultriness is quietly present. There is a whiff of that Chanel cyphres note at first, but that blends in well and fades quickly into a lush, lovely scent. This is currently rivaling Serge Lutens Chergui as my favorite fragrance, and that says a lot.

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*TOP REVIEWER* cocorocha on 12/29/2011 3:48:00 AM more reviews by cocorocha

Age: 30-35   Skin: Combination, Fair, Warm   Hair: Blond, Straight, Fine   Eyes: Brown    

At freaking last!!!
this was a very grown-up love at first sight type of scent, which I yearned for a long,looong time...but it was to expensive, too short-living and too-much sizeways(75 ml at the time, seemed like a 2 lifes reserve of patchouly)...so I've waited...and waited....
but never getting it out of my head...
and one day I had a epiphany,sold most o my confectionary perfumes and earned some nice amount of money...and that was a sign!!
went to my Chanel studio and bought 75 ml....omg.....a box.....a bottle....a magnet stopper......a scent......
yup, that's why I love Chanel...and brand's unbeliavable style,quality and aristocratic way of treating the BEAUTY in life,fashion and perfumery in generall...
the scent is heavenly chocolate/resinoid, dark vanilla with loads of earthy patchouly.....very cozy, not piercing to my nose in any way...mysterious, gothic, yet, very tame and wearable.....somebody mentioned Montale's Patchouly Leaves and compared them two...nope, PL is heavy, sweet,beautiful but oily patchouly which is kind of a ''manly'' patch...Coromandel is a ethereal,feminine patch with a gourmand touch...i couldn't see a comparation with Prada Eau de Parfum, cause Prada is sooo labdanum and incense-laden that after a while made me sick to my stomack....yeah, Prada went to the ''confectionary sale...''
the only thing kinda simmilar to this nectar is a small, modest and fantastic little scent called Neonatura Cocoon by Yves Rocher...NC has cocoa,patchouly, vanilla and it really is a full grown gourmand...and the patch in it is almost identical to Coromandel...but Ncocoon has a lot of cocoa, is linerar and without spices...
drydown of Coromandel has the most gorgeous drydown ever...it's very soft,silky and mysterious....wow....almost makes my mouth to water...
sillage is moderate and allthough Coromandel is the heaviest in the Les Exclusifs line, it lives too short....it has staying power of cca. 5 hours on my skin and than completely fades away....but on the textile materials it can last for days.....
it is a perfect companion for the bed, just before you fall asleep....and in the morning (like in dreams)-there will be nothing but a soft whisper of a magical,dreamy scent......
totally FB worthy!!a classic,a masterpiece!!

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*TOP REVIEWER* cerulfox on 10/18/2011 3:28:00 PM more reviews by cerulfox

Age: 25-29   Skin: Sensitive, Tan, Warm   Hair: Black, Curly, Medium   Eyes: Black    

Coromandel is my go-to comfort scent. I would classify it as a milky-oriental, with its creamy vanilla-chocolate notes, soft spice, and warm woods. It's like curling up wrapped in a golden-brown cashmere wrap on an antique velvet mahogany couch, sipping a creamy spicy chai while watching your favorite movie.

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*TOP REVIEWER* WentworthRoth on 10/10/2011 2:45:00 PM more reviews by WentworthRoth

Age: 25-29   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Warm   Hair: Blond, Wavy, Medium   Eyes: Blue    

Notes: amber, incense, benzoin and wooden accords.
 
The fragrance opens with woodsy notes enhanced by resinous and ambery notes. The accord is multifaceted and very well done - the pungent woods harmonise well with the sweet and salty resins and amber. The fragrance is sophisticated and timeless; however, it is better suited for an adult in their forties. This means although I really like the scent and appreciate its beauty, I would not wear it right now, as I consider it too mature for me. As the fragrance develops, the woods gently recede and make way for the resins and amber to take centre stage. I now see a mineral, earthy facet in the composition that in my mind conjures up the idea of clay. This aspect however is not long-lasting and towards the dry down it vanishes, so the scent is again all about wood and sweet amber. The more I analyse the fragrance, the more I am certain of the olfactory image of an old lacquered drawer in my grandmother’s musty attic. Lasts six hours on my skin.

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*TOP REVIEWER* SNIFFMEALLOVER on 9/21/2011 4:12:00 AM more reviews by SNIFFMEALLOVER

Age: 25-29   Skin: Combination   Hair: Brown   Eyes: Blue    

Oh my, this smells so delicious! The patchouli did remind me a little of Angel,but Angel I would not wear. This however is light, powdery, fresh and slightly sweet. Delightful!

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ellacinders on 1/28/2011 1:26:00 AM more reviews by ellacinders

Age: 36-43   Skin: Combination, Fair, Neutral   Hair: Red, Curly, Fine   Eyes: Brown    

Wow, this is patchouli? This smells nothing like the oils my hippie friends wore. Coromandel is gorgeous. Rich, deep, sweet and creamy, not at all prickly and overly dark like my past experiences with patchouli. I smell amber, vanilla and chocolate over warm spices and woods. On me it's a cinnamon hot chocolate and then along comes a salty caramel in the drydown. Normally I don't like wearing dessert, but the woody note keeps me fascinated. I've been wearing it to bed just to sniff myself off to sleep.

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metje on 1/12/2011 9:21:00 AM more reviews by metje

Age: 30-35   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium   Hair: Blond   Eyes: Other    

Great fragrance! Its a softer version of SL Borneo 1834, more weareable. I wish the Les Exclusifs would come in edp!!

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*TOP REVIEWER* KKAI on 11/11/2010 3:01:00 PM more reviews by KKAI

Age: 30-35   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Warm   Hair: Red, Curly, Coarse   Eyes: Hazel    

This is straight patchouli on me. Strong and linear. It certainly lacks Prada's sweet feminine vibe, as this is rather "scratchy" Glad I tried it and wrote it of my list.

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*TOP REVIEWER* DebbieB43 on 9/23/2010 12:05:00 AM more reviews by DebbieB43

Age: 36-43   Skin: Dry, Fair   Hair: Brunette   Eyes: Blue    

A favorite of mine to pull out as the weather cools down! An oriental beauty, with blends of amber, patch, vanilla, incense and woods.
The opening on me is a moderate dose of patch, but quickly the amber comes in to calm. Vanilla and woods are soft, and the drydown lends itself to a touch of powder. A gorgeous concoction that will always have a place in my collection!

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kelly1600 on 6/13/2010 11:38:00 AM more reviews by kelly1600

Age: 30-35   Skin: Combination, Fair, Cool   Hair: Brunette   Eyes: Blue    

A bit spicy and patchouli when first applied, if I remember correctly. Then the drydown is just too masculine and too much patchouli for me, also get a hint of cigarettes. I just don't care for this one.

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*TOP REVIEWER* msm4slm on 5/12/2010 7:03:00 PM more reviews by msm4slm

Age: 44-55   Skin: Oily, Fair   Hair: Brown   Eyes: Brown    

Soft, powdery patchouli. Well composed and very elegant. Part of the upper end "les exclusifs" line, this is not available in pure parfum. Instant "no full bottle for me" on that alone as the Chanel perfumes set off allergies in any form other than extrait. It is more of a fall/winter kind of scent and worth a try if Chanel works well for you.

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chrystelica on 3/22/2010 3:23:00 PM more reviews by chrystelica

Age: 25-29   Skin: Dry, Fair, Warm   Hair: Brown, Straight, Fine   Eyes: Blue    

Let me start by saying I am not Chanel's biggest fan. The only ones I like on me are 28 Rue La Pausa, and No. 22 is pretty nice... but not something I would ever need full bottles of, being an occasional user, a decant would be fine. That particular "Chanel" trademark scent quality, I'm not sure what it is, but it smells musty, artificial and quite ugly on my skin. This particular scent quality, I have no idea what that is, but only exists in Chanel fragrances, disappears into nothing on some, but an acrid, sharp scent stands out on me with some fragrance molecules that smell like a bathroom deodorizer mixed with hairspray. I am really not a good match for the house of Chanel. I don't like any of their makeup either... same with Lancome. I sort of put them in the same class...
The fake, cleaned-up patchouli scent (that I hate, it smells so linear and non-oily, non-earthy, just the yucky, dry parts of the patch not sweetened with the real essence) is almost all I can smell in this fragrance. That and the 'Chanel' trademark scent previously mentioned. The middle notes and drydown makes it more palatable, a soft ambery note prevails, but that Chanel smell...... is too apparent and doesn't disappear, even through to the end.... it is kind of a musty, old, dark, dusty odor that I find disagreeable, like a house no one bothers to clean, but the owner thought enough to spray some strong, cheap, masculine-smelling air freshener. Kind of reminds me of the visual image of a dark-haired woman's moustache, paired with the scent of lingering Old Spice, or Caswell-Massey's Aura of Patchouli. Wow, I really sound like a Chanel hater! I don't mean it to be so harsh, but I am trying to describe what it is to me that I don't like...
EDIT-- After 7 hours, the drydown really does smell nice, but that is a bit long to wait. If the whole scent smelled like this on me, I would probably love it. I can tell this is a well-blended, and lovely perfume, it just did not love me at all!! The next morning when I woke up I could still smell this quite nice after-smell, even after scrubbing it off well in the shower the night before.

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*TOP REVIEWER* julia178 on 12/21/2009 1:14:00 AM more reviews by julia178

Age: 30-35   Skin: Dry, Fair, Cool   Hair: Blond, Wavy, Fine   Eyes: Green    

Coromandel is the first CHANEL fragrance I had to have a full bottle of! I have really come to appreciate its complexity, how it opens with an earthy burst of woods and patchouli, then some iris emerges, and eventually amber and vanilla make for a wonderful skin scent. The lasting power is very good on me, it literally lasts the whole day which I love. Patchouli tends to be a hit or miss note for me in fragrances, it often times does not work for me. But in Coromandel, I like how it is present in all stages of the scent, as a confident opener, how it mingles elegantly with the iris and dances with the vanilla-ambery base notes. Certain aspects of Coromandel remind me of the original Prada EdP but where the Prada turns really cloyingly sweet on my skin, Coromandel does not and stays nicely grounded. To me, Coromandel is a perfectly blended masterpiece and one of the best of the series of CHANEL Exclusifs. The packaging is very clean and elegant, typical CHANEL. The price tag is also along those lines, $200 for 6.8 oz/200ml. A great perfume to own, and a repurchase when I finish the big bottle.

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innapark on 11/21/2009 1:17:00 AM more reviews by innapark

Age: 36-43   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium   Hair: Black   Eyes: Brown    

Coromandel is Coco Mademoiselle on sedatives.

Coco Mlle's edgy and sophisticated patchouli belongs in a swanky hotel lobby. Public. A bit of flash.
Meanwhile you will find Coromandel's patchouli languishing in a hidden corner of a luxurious opium den. You eventually discover it, then It begs you to linger.

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*TOP REVIEWER* Mac789 on 10/22/2009 10:01:00 PM more reviews by Mac789

Age: 44-55   Skin: Other   Hair: Other   Eyes: Other    

There are so many types of patchouli, and the note itself can be so distinctively arranged in fragrances that it is no surprise that similarities between fragrances featuring the note are so wide-ranging.



Reading reviews, you see that Coromandel has been likened to Borneo 1834, Fifi Chachnil, Yves Rocher Cocoon, and Prada. The similarity is that each of these has either a sweet or a semi-sweet note that smudges into the patchouli's greenness, camphoraceous, or medicinal tones and blurs it around the edges.



Coromandel is, to my nose, the most highly evolved of these patchouli scents, and it is closest to the Lutens while also being sweeter than it. With some wearings, comparisons to the Rocher scent are inevitable since familiarity causes the wearer to lose the ability to sense some of the kinetic qualities in the top notes. Patchouli is evident right at the top, where it seems fruity, warm, and enveloping. Here is where the Lutens steers in the direction of tobacco and Rocher goes to cocoa; it is also where Prada goes too thickly fruity.



The type of patchouli used in Coromandel is the same type of patchouli used in the mass-market Chance, with the important distinction that the confluence of patchouli and vanilla in Chance seems greasy (or oily). Coromandel's vanilla is more of a pod note, and its patchouli is brown while Chance's is more medicinal and green (the same is true of Coco Mademoiselle). In Coromandel, however, the patchouli touches only lightly upon both earthy and green nuances. It's haute couture patchouli made into a fashion icon.



Supporting notes include an iris that is made creamy, mildly powdery, and fluffy from the vanilla and amber in the base. Keeping the composition from devolving into undefined powdery amber is cinnamon, which is deftly employed. I always find a cinnamon note overbearing, but the perfumer here has kept it from smelling either like a nursery treat (yeasty bread with cinnamon sugar) or an ill-spiced cuisine.



The spices in the drydown are what make Coromandel for me. Overall, the fragrance leans towards the earthy, but this implies a rawness that simply isn't there. This is a sublime experience for lovers of patchouli. On me, there isn't a tremendous sillage; this is a skin scent that I need to refresh during the day. I had no trouble paying $200.00 for this enormous bottle, the size of which seems to suggest hubris--why on earth would you need any other scents?

(Except, of course, the rest of the Exclusifs range.)

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schadenfreude05 on 10/13/2009 1:26:00 PM more reviews by schadenfreude05

Age: 30-35   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium   Hair: Blond   Eyes: Blue    

An amazingly complex fragrance that is all over the map. Reading others' interpretations is fascinating, and while I agree with the woodsy, smoky, vanilla descriptions I certainly don't smell anything medicinal or patchouli-esque. I suspect this would smell very different on different people. While my HG remains MAC MV3, this is like a super high-end and sophisticated version of it. I did buy the ginormous bottle and am going through it slowly -- very grateful for its little cardboard "house" that protects it from light. It's probably too much for work, although I've done Prada to work without feeling self-conscious, so perhaps I'll give this a shot, especially as the weather cools.

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