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"I want to give women an artificial perfume," said Chanel. "Yes,
I really do mean artificial, like a dress, something that has been made. I
don't want any rose or lily of the valley, I want a perfume that is a
composition." For the first time, large quantities of aldehydes, synthetic
substances, were used in perfume to lighten the heady flower notes and to raise
their sensuality toward refined seduction.
It is said that Ernest Beaux found the olfactory inspiration
for N°5 around 1920, on his return from a military campaign that had taken him
inside the Arctic Circle. During the midnight
sun, the lakes and the rivers give off a very special fresh fragrance, which
the perfumer was determined to recreate.
In an interview given at the airport in Japan, Marilyn
Monroe told a reporter that all she wore in bed was a few drops of N°5. The
anecdote played a large part in sustaining the legendary reputation of the
fragrance.
N°5 is immortalized as an icon of the 20th century in a
series of nine silkscreen prints by Andy Warhol. In 1959, the packaging secured
a place for N°5 in the permanent collections of the Museum
of Modern Art in New York.
Scent category:
Aldehydic floral. A bouquet of abstract flowers with an indefinable femininity. Launches with bewitching notes of Ylang-Ylang and Neroli, then unfolds with
Grasse Jasmine and May Rose. Sandalwood and Vanilla round out the fabled
composition with unforgettable woody notes.
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