Cristalle Eau de Toilette (1974)
by Chanel

Cristalle EDT was love at first smell back in the early 80’s. I’ve been through many 100ml bottles which are hard to come by these days. The juice has paled literally along the way but my flaming desire for this scent has not. Check the other reviews for eloquent note descriptions, they are well done. I love Cristalle because she loves me so fiercely that I am unfailingly ignited with passion anew with every spray. "I am my beloved, and his desire is toward me.—Song of Solomon 7:10" expresses it much better than I could.

Green aldehydic floral tinged with a little civet-like note in a chypre-like arrangement? Wow! I'm impressed, for CRISTALLE opens up very much like Guerlain's legendary chypre, Mitsouko, even if it doesn't delve quite as deep. Where No.19 goes powdery with orris root and a more prominent vetiver base, Cristalle opts to stay dewy and favors the oakmoss. An excellent EDP rendition of Henri Robert's 1973 EDT creation.

*** This review is of the EDP ***

Aldehydes and citrus are what you get when you apply Cristalle, joined almost immediately by sharp, bitter green notes and a balancing dose of sweet flowers. Cristalle’s components come rushing in at high speed, and arrange themselves with equal haste into a clean, grassy floral heart accord, wrapped in a shimmering cloud of aldehydes and resting on a nutty chypre foundation. The blending of components is exemplary here, so that it soon becomes extremely difficult for me to isolate individual notes.

Cristalle settles into bright green floral chypre territory for several hours, with only moderate projection, but paradoxically persistent sillage. As Cristalle ages it does not so much develop as very slowly fade away, its soft chypre base accord being the last element to exit. Cristalle is one of those cases - like some of the Diptyque scents - where I enjoy the heart accord so much that I’m happy that it remains relatively linear! After spending some time with it, Cristalle impresses me as a very well-made and alluring fragrance in a style well removed from Chanel’s accustomed powdery floral manner.

Starts out sharply, composty green, but dries down into a much nicer chypre: sweet-and-sour, juicy green notes on a dusty dry, crumbled up, brown oakmossy base.

A truly stunning fragrance. Starts off quite green reminding me of fresh cut flowers. Dries down to a lovely soft and feminine bouquet. Unfortunately, as with most fragrances, Cristalle is not long lasting on me and has no sillage to speak of but my clothes seem to hold the scent longer and smell gorgeous when I "accidently" spray them when dousing myself.

Cristalle is a brighter, cleaner Diorella in many respects. The aldehyde burst lets free a lovely green floral that reminds me most of the Freesia alba, not those ultra-sweet modern freesias in electric colors, but the humble ivory and green blossom that to me is the ultimate green floral note. Both are assertive, but playful. There is a hint of lemon, but definitely not your Lemon Pledge variety. Cristalle's delightful chypre is only slightly metallic and has some richness that I can't put into words. This note stays around the longest, relatively unmodified until it eventually fades away.

After many years away from this fragrance (it was one of my regulars), I tried it again yesterday. In my opinion it has withstood the test of time very well and I'm considering a bottle for old time's sake. Perhaps it's a fragrance more suited to someone young, but smelling it made me feel awfully young at heart.