Bleu de Chanel Eau de Toilette (2010)
by Chanel

Bleu de Chanel EdT: everything it’s cracked up to be and more. And less?

This just smells so damn good and agreeable, and is so popular, that it’s become the “Kleenex” or “Band-Aid” to sophisticated blue fragrances. Does it get any better than this? Sure, probably, but I may live my life without finding out.

Is this the best smelling thing in my wardrobe? Nope. Lots of contenders for that. But is anything as versatile? Or as easy to reach for? Or as generally satisfying? Maybe not.

A delightful elixir. One for the ages. A smooth criminal.

Don’t overspray! Damn near choked myself out, and too much of this at one time will drown the “sunshine in your eyes bright” citrus opening, which is magic. A couple chest sprays (make sure to get some on your shirt) brings this out perfectly. Plus a spray on the back of the neck for luck (and a gorgeous scent trail). Maybe a spray or two on the inside of each elbow would enhance. I will experiment.

Have fun with this one. I don’t think you have much of a choice really. You’d have to work hard to screw this up.

I've been racking up a bunch of awesome fall/winter scents over the last few months, including Parfums de Marly's Carlisle and Layton, and I've purchased a few fresher scents lately, such as Terre d'Hermès and Percival. Nevertheless, I still am on a quest to find the perfect freshie, which I'd use for occasions that are more casual than those during which I'd use either of the aforementioned fragrances.

Online reviewers have managed to point me in all sorts of interesting directions, and obviously Bleu de Chanel is mentioned so often as a landmark freshie/iconic "blue" scent, I had to try it out. And I just did, so here are my thoughts.

I do enjoy the first few minutes to a certain extent, however once the nice vibrant citrus notes in the opening dissipate through the dry down, Bleu de Chanel becomes too warm/spicy for my personal taste and for the use that I intended to make of it, unfortunately. More roundedness in the scent as a whole and better accords could have saved the day, but I personally find that, in Bleu de Chanel, those spicier and heavier notes like vetiver and incense don't nest together so successfully and make the scent heavier than I wish it was. It's not repulsive, but neither is it particularly enjoyable.

Make no mistake, this is not a terribly-crafted product, but as it relates to my current collection, even if I were to enjoy that product, I wouldn't be able to find it a proper slot. I'd much rather wear Terre d'Hermès on formal occasions during summer and spring, as it has a way more classy and unique feel to it; I'd much rather wear Percival on more casual occasions all year round, as it is more versatile, more sophisticated and much less spicy. And on top of that, both these fragrances perform way better than Bleu de Chanel, whose projection is very average, and longevity sub-par. On my skin, it becomes a skin scent in less than two hours. Very disappointing, poor performer.

To all of those who say that Bleu de Chanel is the Mona Lisa of "blue" scents, my personal opinion is that the award belongs to Percival, with which I am absolutely in love (on a side note, Percival is way more expensive than Bleu de Chanel, though). Needless to say, I don't get all the hype surrounding this one at all, although I do agree that it is a versatile fragrance...for as long as it lasts.

I don’t understand the love for this.

Some call it “safe”, but it’s banal, uninspired. It has fuzzy-scratchy synthetic ingredients in spades...not my idea of “pleasant.”

The edp makes marked improvements - sort of a focus-group-in-a-bottle. I can see the appeal in the edp (have not tried the parfum). In 20 years, if you were looking for a fragrance to exemplify 2010’s perfumery, Bleu edp might serve.

But the edt? Blech. How this made it to market is beyond me. I don’t even get the usual 10 minutes of “hmmm, interesting” top notes usually loaded into designer fragrances to hook the bros at the fragrance counter. This is bad from top to bottom.

Smells to me like the fragrance equivalent of a blue plaid flannel shirt.

Classy, sophisticated, pleasantly understated with good depth. I'm curious if anyone else has experienced this, but today I walked outside briefly in very light rain and it caused the scent to come to life in a marvelous way. (I applied 4 sprays 8 hours earlier) This is also my go-to golfing frag.