Chantal Thomass (2002)
by Chantal Thomass

Sweeter even, I think, than Pink Sugar. This is a super sweet one… It’s a fruity floral with a very berry strange opening featuring, among others, raspberry, cranberry, and tomato, in a not very refined accord. The florals of the middle are powdery and super sweet and the only floral I can identify is heliotrope. The base is warm, sweet, powdery: It’s woody, ambery, and musky with a thorough layer of opoponax. Chantal Thomass might have been an okay fragrance, but, as it is, it’s just too sweet.

16th December, 2008.

A rather conventional, sweet mixture which is not very interesting. I bought it because of the nice bottle and design, but the fragrance is not very tempting and not at all seductive. It has a lot of soapy elements in it, head-notes of fruits and flowers, enhanced by alehydes. Slightly reminiscent of Le Dix by Balenciaga.

13rd October, 2006. (Last Edited: 8th March, 2010.)

Lots of sugary sweetness, concentrated blackcurrant juice and lashings of liquorice - sums up this Chantal Thomass fragrance. I did like it at first but I have always had a quirk when it comes to perfume of being attracted to a frag mainly because it is 'different' or 'unusual'. Have been trying for years to recognise that 'different' and 'unusual' do not immediately translate as 'beautiful perfume' in any language!!!! Sometimes, as in this case, I forget.

15th August, 2006.

Some of the descriptives I've found for Chantal Thomass include: seductive, enchanted, sensual, playful, sweet, delicious woody oriental type fragrance, quirky and irresistible, the essence of femininity, ultra-feminine floral, tempting, voluptuous, cheeky musky fragrance, passionate, enchanting, irresistible.

I would describe Chantal Thomass as a fruit explosion. Walls, floor, ceiling covered with fruit -- imagine a food fight, using fruit pie fillings and imagine the mess. To my nose, that's how Chantal Thomass starts off, a sweet-fruity mess. It also seems very chemical on "opening" and lots of alcohol -- not entirely unbooze-like, actually, with all of that fruit in the mix. Maybe it needs these chemicals to lift the heavy sweetness. It's a great relief when at last it becomes soft, warm, and powdery -- on my skin that's about an hour and a half to two hours after application; a long time to wait for the good part of it. But still there's the INTENSE sweetness to contend with -- the fruits and the heliotrope and all the extra notes heliotrope itself brings with it, not to mention the amber. This is the "good part" for me because I love heliotrope and amber anyway, but it just didn't need all those fruits. Did it?

I agree it's cheeky, quirky, and perhaps playful in terms of a fruity food fight. It doesn't impart anything remotely seductive or sensual, enchanting or passionate to me until deep drydown, and even then it's "iffy".

From Sephora: "This ultra-feminine floral, dresses the body like a piece of lingerie." Yes, I can see that. Unfortunately, for me, like a too-frilly, very uncomfortable, ill-fitting piece of lingerie -- too loose here, too tight there, itchy, scratchy, riding up in the wrong place at the wrong time (not sure there is a right time), so it's finally a relief to shuck the lingerie altogether. I will say, however, that if Chantal Thomass started off as it finally ends up, I would possibly (maybe) consider wearing it on occasion, if I had not a drop of anything else to wear. But seriously, as it is, I find Chantal Thomass too fancy, too fussy, too busy, too much.

Its composition seems to be (in no particular order): cranberry, blueberries, raspberry and raspberry leaves, love apple (tomato), heliotrope, red rose, black violet, orange blossom, muscs, sandalwood, amber, patchouli (and I think, but am not certain, kitchen sink and refrigerator).

29th December, 2005.

To me this smells exactly like Boone's Farm "Strawberry Hill" wine (a very cheap wine at $2.99 a bottle) which all the teenagers would share before they were employed and could afford Mad Dog 20/20. Way too foody & sticky sweet.

25th November, 2005.

You must be a fan of exceedingly sugary scents in order to appreciate Chantal Thomass; I like sweet scents, vanilla scents, sweet powdery scents, fruit scents, you name it, but this is a little over the top even for me. At least that's the case in the initial application, which comes on like an tsunami of raspberry Kool-Aid and makes you honestly scratch your head in wonder as you ponder the connection between a childhood beverage and the very boudoir-esque, black lace-gartered bottle in which the actual fragrance is housed. There seems to be a very curious disconnect at this stage. Then, once the big, big berry !!blast!! simmers down, the fragrance moves into more identifiably coquettish territory with a combination of rose, powdery deep violet and almondy heliotrope. This stage is somewhat evocative of L'Artisan's Drole de Rose, excpet that instead of Drole's honey note, here you have - tomato? Yes, it's true, it's a discernible note in the Chantal Thomass composition, and incredibly bizarre as it may sound, when paired with very sweet ingredients (this is true in culinary preparations as well), tomato can take on a honeyed quality. Try a very sweet tomato jam if you ever get the chance and you'll see what I mean; tomato plus lots of sugar really has a honey-like aspect to it. Anyway...the Chantal is not as smooth or gentle as the Drole de Rose and has a harder edge to it, which is actually a bit of a plus if you're not thrilled with Drole's staying power. Chantal sticks around for quite a while, believe me. Basically, Chantal is Drole's big and slightly brassy sister, slugging down her Kool-Aid for all she's worth and going the distance, black garter and all!

19th September, 2005.