Chanel fragrances have a “Chanel-ness” to them in the same way that the Guerlain’s have the Guerlinade. It’s a sense of loftiness, for lack of better description. While I like several, they all feel too Blonde on my naturally brunette self. When I was a kid, I always envied the popular-well-dressed-blonde girl (oft named Jessica), and I think that there’s a part of me that rebels against Chanel for this reason. With the exception of Eau Premiere—the bouncy golden lab in this family of blondes—I can’t quite commit to any of them.
Today I’m wearing 28 La Pausa, and it’s a really great iris scent. It begins somewhat rooty/carroty/earthy, but just for a few moments. After the initial blast of topnotes waft away, the heart is a salty, velvety, abstract aria. Sung by a blonde. Like I said before, it’s a great fragrance… however, I think that, like other Chanel’s, it lacks sensuality.
With my Hermione inspired hairdo, Xtratuf boots, and plastic framed glasses, I depend on my perfume to provide sensuality.
Read a great review on this fragrance by Robin over at NST.
28 La Pausa is $210 for 6.8oz
Photo of Diana Dors
beauty on the outside 
I’d never thought of it, but it’s an interesting point you make about Chanels lacking sensuality. If you get a chance, have a look at a new book by Tilar J. Mazzeo, _The secret of Chanel No 5: the intimate history of the world’s most famous perfume_. That author suggests that in developing her ideas on No 5, Coco Chanel was searching for a lushness, opulence and sexiness AND cleanliness – hence the aldehydes. The author’s theory is that CC believed in her youth that prostitutes and kept women wore overtly sensual fragrances such as musk and patchouli. Respectable girls wore simple scents like rose and violet. What CC was trying to do was produce a perfume that encompassed both styles.
I picked up the book at the airport on an interstate trip, and enjoyed it. It’s well done, I think, though the prose a bit breathless and, well, hyperbolic (I thought) in places.
That’s interesting! I really didn’t know anything about the history of the Chanel fragrances; each one that I’ve tried just strikes me as… sexless. Like the clothes. Not to say that you can’t look sexy in Chanel (goodness knows you can), but it’s an Anne Hathaway kind of sexy, not an Angelina Jolie kind of sexy 🙂