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Writer's pictureCathy Jenna

How Chanel N°5 Remains The World's Most Popular Perfume?

In 1921, Chanel N°5 perfume was launched. Its first advertising poster appeared in the form of an illustration, and the "starring" was none other than the brand founder, Ms. Coco Chanel. Compared with today's advertising blockbusters with budgets of millions and millions, it seems so "whimsical". This illustration poster was created by the French cartoonist Sem at the time. In the painting, Coco is wearing a Chanel-style dress, looking excitedly and happily at the bottle of No. 5 perfume. The poster is called "The New Woman".


Chanel N°5 1

When it comes to perfume, Chanel N°5 comes to many people’s minds unconsciously. Indeed, N°5 has been the best-selling classic fragrance for many years, and its success is unquestionable. It is equated with luxury and elegance. Its simple and transparent perfume bottle, complex and sexy yet clean and charming fragrance... every detail is refined, making Chanel N°5 timeless and new, becoming a legend in the perfume industry. The fragrance. Having gone through a century, it is the most legendary representative in the perfume industry. Behind it, there are many fascinating things worth exploring, let’s take a look!


First of all, Chanel N°5 is famous for its unique and exclusive fragrance. The French have a long history of using fragrance, but Ms. Chanel has been unwilling to follow established rules since she had the idea of creating a fragrance. She hopes that her representative fragrance belongs to modern art and a concept. "The perfumes used by many women are not mysterious at all. Women are not flowers, so why should they smell like a flower?" Ms. Chanel once said, "I want to give women an artificial fragrance, just like a dress created by people. I don’t want hollow roses or lilies, I want a blended scent.” This laid the foundation for Chanel N°5.


Chanel N°5 2

Ms. Chanel said, "A woman should smell like a woman, not a flower." At that time, many perfumes still used traditional single floral notes (Soliflores). Ennis, the perfumer of Chanel N°5. Ernest Beaux surprisingly created an unprecedented fragrance structure. In addition to the core May rose and jasmine, he also used up to 80 kinds of fragrances, combining many precious fragrances such as ylang, sandalwood, vanilla, orange blossom, etc. They are combined for the first time.


The roses and jasmine used in Chanel N°5 are all from Grasse, France. They are of the highest quality but also quite expensive. Chanel N°5 has become synonymous with luxury perfumes as soon as it appeared. It is said that it takes more than a thousand jasmine flowers and a dozen rose bouquets to quench a 30ml bottle of Chanel N°5 fragrance, which shows the huge amount used. Therefore, in 1987, Chanel signed an agreement with the Mul family, a local flower farm operator, to own an exclusive jasmine field to ensure sufficient sources of precious raw materials.


Chanel N°5 3

In addition to the exquisite flower materials, what makes Chanel N°5 legendary is the use of a special acetaldehyde fragrance, which removes the overly precise fragrance profile and makes Chanel N°5 smell like a large bouquet, but no specific floral scent can be discerned. With this can of Chanel N°5, Ms. Chanel seems to "copy" her own image with her sense of smell, so charming but elusive.


Secondly, you may be curious why this perfume is named N°5. Unlike other perfume brands in the early 20th century that liked to use romantic names, Ms. Chanel directly chose a simple number N°5 as the name of her perfume. Some say this number comes from sample No. 5 provided by the perfumer. It is said that when Ms. Chanel smelled a sample of No. 5, she said without hesitation: "No. 5. Yes, that is the scent I have been waiting for, a unique, feminine fragrance."


Chanel N°5 4

However, in fact, "5" has always been the lucky number for Ms. Chanel, who values symbols. She used to choose the fifth day of the month to launch her latest clothing series, including February 5th, August 5th, etc. When she thought this bottle of perfume was her incarnation, she chose this lucky number to make N °5 exists with a simple but meaningful name.


In addition, the bottle of Chanel N°5 also broke the over-decorated appearance design of perfume at that time. It adopted a simple rectangular bottle and was completely transparent, as clean and neat as the aldehydes used in perfume. The reason why it is so minimalist is to highlight the fragrance itself. However, there is a little ingenuity hidden on the bottle stopper. Ms. Chanel has marked her own code name on each perfume bottle stopper since 1921, which is the classic double C symbol, and this is still the case today.

Chanel N°5 5

In addition to excellent product quality, the success of the product also benefits from the sexy male and female celebrity spokespersons of the past generations. From Catherine Deneuve, Candice Bergen, Suzy Parker, Ali MacGraw, Lauren Hutton, Carole Bouquet, to Estella Warren, Nicole Kidman, Audrey Tautou, Brad Pitt, and Gisele Bündchen. N°5’s advertising has lingered in our minds. Even now, nearly a hundred years after its creation, its power of temptation and modern qualities remain unchanged.


What impressed me the most was Nicole Kidman, with her delicate face, sexy figure, elegance and charm of a mature woman. The TV commercial was directed by "Moulin Rouge" director Baz Luhrmann himself, making it a well-deserved visual feast. The commercial also conveys a clear message: If you want to become an icon of the times, then use perfume No. 5! Nicole Kidman has been the spokesperson for Chanel N°5 perfume for five years since 2005. It is rumored that her endorsement fee is as high as US$12 million, making her the most expensive advertising spokesperson in Chanel's history.

Chanel N°5 6

At present, N°5's audience has already moved from the niche to the public. While maintaining a high style, it has "moved" the entire original French perfume factory to the local area and created it in the form of modernization, black technology, and immersive interactive experience. An N°5 “theme park” that publicly presents everything about N°5 to visitors. In addition to perfume, Chanel Factory No. 5 has launched a total of 17 limited products, integrating the design concept of N°5 artistic elements into daily necessities, and divided them into three themes: kitchen, machinery, and painting. Products cover everything from bathing and body care to decorative tapes, portable kettles and other daily necessities.

Chanel N°5 7

These daily necessities are uniformly packaged in limited edition packaging with black characters on a white background. For example, the "paint bucket" contains a triangle package of shower gel, the "tea can" contains shower scented tablets, the "motor oil bottle" contains multi-purpose essential oils; the "round powder" contains The "box" contains perfume soap; the "milk bag" contains body lotion; the "lipstick tube" contains portable perfume; the "paint bottle" contains body gel; the "paint tube" contains body lotion and body cream; the "ice cream tube" contains "tube" contains hand cream... The contrast between simple packaging and luxurious interior is easily reminiscent of N°5's original simple packaging-a laboratory flask.


The success of Chanel N°5 is indispensable to the ultimate creativity of the inventor. While grasping the needs of users, he did not forget to update it to adapt to the trend of the times. So it has been famous for more than a century.

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