What Does Princess Leia Smell Like?

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Or more specifically, what does Slave Princess Leia smell like? Well, you’ll soon be able to find out because the Star Wars Shop has a bottle of this women’s perfume on pre-order. I can’t say I’m interested in a full bottle but I am highly curious as the scent. I just don’t know where one would track down a decant of such a fragrance.

According to the Star Wars Shop, the Slave Leia parfum‘s notes include a “mix of cashmere woods, musk and night-blooming jasmine”. Funny, I didn’t know they grew jasmine in space.

For the men out there, you can get a bottle of Eau Lando which is said to smell like “mandarin warmed with incense and lotus flower, exotic woods, dark violet and sensuous musk”. I can’t help but sit here chuckling at the bottle though. It’s wearing a cape for goodness sake.

Going by this same vein are the Star Trek fragrances which have actually been out for a while. The choices in that line include Tiberius which is said to smell of “citron, black pepper,  cedar,  warm vanilla, white musk and sandalwood”.  It doesn’t sound half bad. There’s also Red Shirt (green mandarin, bergamot, lavender, leather and grey musk). And a large variety of others such as Ponn Farr (named after the Vulcan mating ritual, I’m not kidding), Sulu (can’t find the notes for this one), Khan (limited edition and smells of citrus, bergamot, vetiver, smoky ambergris scent) and I assume others I haven’t yet heard of.

Strangely enough, these gimmick fragrances are harder to track down and purchase than most niche fragrances. Who’s niche now?

Discontinuation: BPAL Aug 12

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I think this information might prove useful or informational to some readers who may not know where to find this. You can always read new updates from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab on their news page, but here is the most recent discontinuation of General Catalog scents from BPAL as of August 12, 2010:

  • Hi’iaka
  • Jester
  • The Lady on the Grey
  • The Mock Turtles Lessons
  • Queen Mab
  • St Germain
  • Tempest
  • Yvaine

You will no longer be able to put in an order for these scents but these can probably still be purchased on the secondary market.

Bleu de Chanel

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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. Bleu de Chanel

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.