Bleu de Chanel is the latest mainstream release of men’s fragrances by the house. If you’ve been following Chanel’s fragrance releases, you might notice they’ve taken a few steps back from their classic style of fragrances and have gotten a bit more mainstream and mass market. Bleu de Chanel is just another indication of that. 
In Bottle: Smells like Cool Water by Davidoff. Also smells like Bath and Body Works’ Dancing Waters scent. Heck, while we’re still here let’s throw in a dash of Lacoste Essential. Yeah, I just compared a Chanel to Cool Water, Essential, and Bath and Body Works.
Applied: The truth is, Bleu de Chanel does one thing very, very well. It combines every aquatics based sporty men’s fragrance together to form this amalgamation of sport men’s fragrances. If you own a bottle of Bleu de Chanel, you could conceivably replace every other bottle of aquatic sporty men’s fragrance you own. It’s just that generic. Bleu de Chanel opens with a sweet, sharp, clean aquatic note that reminds me immediately of aforementioned Dancing Waters, Cool Water and Essential combined together. Let it dry down a bit and it will evolve into a mixture of Dolce and Gabanna Light Blue pour Homme and Acqua di Gio. In truth, it’s got a fresh, spicy, woodsy mid-stage with an aromatic backing. Fairly on par for the course. The last act is a woodsy base with citrus dashed in there for good measure. Also not particularly fascinating but highly wearable.
Extra: Hard to believe that Bleu de Chanel came from the same house that made No. 5, No. 22, No. 19, Coco, Coromandel, Sycamore. But times change and while a lot of perfumistas are going to be disappointed with Bleu de Chanel, this fragrance is a sign of the times. I hope that Chanel sells Bleu de Chanel very well. I hope it draws in a new following of perfume lovers but keeps the classics around and releases some some fragrances reminiscent of Chanel’s long heritage of sophistication.
Design: Bleu de Chanel is bottled in a gorgeous dark tinted glass rectangular bottle with a metallic cap that’s reminiscent of their Les Exclusifs line of fragrances. My favorite part of this fragrance is honestly the cap. I’m a sucker for magnets, what can I say? The quality of the packaging is excellent, as should be expected with Chanel, and the design is simple but very nice.
Fragrance Family: Fresh Aromatic
Notes: Bergamot, lemon, grapefruit, aqua, peppermint, pink pepper, nutmeg, ginger, jasmine, cedar, vetiver, patchouli, labdanum, frankincense.
I know a lot of perfume lovers are hating on Bleu de Chanel right now. I don’t blame them. I’m just as disappointed with this release as they are. But beneath the disappointment Bleu de Chanel is a pleasant, well-blended, easy to wear fragrance. It really does combine a good proportion of the aquatic sport men’s fragrance genre together to make a coherent and ultimately well-composed scent. I do highly recommend people who are looking for a really good aquatic sport fragrance to give Bleu de Chanel a sniff. It’s a good scent. It just doesn’t smell like a Chanel should.
Reviewed in This Post: Bleu de Chanel, 2010, Eau de Toilette.