Jo's Scent Notes: Chanel No5 L'Eau Drop (Limited Edition)

CHANEL No5 needs no introduction. It is the most famous perfume in the world, timeless despite being 100 years old and counting. In line with all those clichés about being catapulted down memory lane by a mother who leaned over your bed on her way out to a glamorous soirée, leaving a cloud of perfume in the air – well, yes, my mother did wear No5, and I never smell it without thinking of her.

But, love it as I do for all sorts of emotional reasons, and out of sheer appreciation for what was at the time a completely revolutionary construction, I DO NOT WANT TO SMELL LIKE MY MOTHER. In fact, I think it would be downright weird.

However, eight years ago, CHANEL Perfumer Olivier Polge did something amazing, as if opening the windows and sending shafts of sunlight streaming into CHANEL No5. His creation is CHANEL No5 L’Eau, and I have worn it every summer since – a scent that is now riven with memories of my own.

The date for the launch of CHANEL No5 L’Eau happened just before I celebrated a Very Big Birthday. From the first aldehyde-powered rush of the scent, I knew I’d be taking it to Paris to celebrate – because I am a big fan of new scents for big events, specifically chosen to trigger memories in years to come. It’s something that brides often do – but to mark only a marriage with a new scent is missing an opportunity, in my book. Celebrations and special events of all kinds can be imprinted on the memory so, so effectively by wearing a brand new scent.

Thus, Arquiste The Architect’s Club reminds me of a tastebud-dazzling lunch at NOMA, in Copenhagen. Sisley Eau du Soir takes me back to the first time I was lucky enough to go to Glyndebourne, to hear the opera (and I have always worn it on subsequent visits). And as for CHANEL No5 L’Eau – well, that’s an incredible weekend spent at the former home of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Wallis Simpson), a mill built from Cotswold-like golden stone on the outskirts of Paris, which I rented for aforementioned Big Birthday (very reasonably, through The Landmark Trust), for 30 friends and family. (Read more about it here – sadly, it has indeed been sold and is no longer available for rent.)

Chanel-scented festivities at the Moulin de la Tuilerie

We danced. We walked to the market and bought boxes of fresh cherries and white plums and wheels of truffled cheese on which we feasted. There were MANY cocktails (always pays to have a couple of professional mixologists in your group), while proceedings kicked off with an ‘ennoblement ceremony’ at which each guest was bestowed at a title, with a plastic sword – but only after I’d made them listen to the FULL Abdication speech (eight minutes, and I thoroughly recommend it), because I wanted everyone to understand the history and significance of our party venue. And I spritzed CHANEL No5 L’Eau with abandon all weekend, thinking: ‘Wallis would approve’ – for I’m sure she never went anywhere unveiled in perfume, Chanel or otherwise.

Since 2016, then, CHANEL No5 L’Eau has become a Little Black (Summer) Dress staple, in my wardrobe – more recently, applied via one of the chic black and white Eau de Toilette Twist and Spray atomisers, into which slips a 30ml vial that’s really useful and light for spritzing on-the-go.

But now it’s all change, on that front – because a stunning limited edition ‘Drop’ bottle of CHANEL No5 L’Eau has just launched: completely clear, elliptically shaped like a sparkling drop, echoing the shape of CHANEL’s gorgeous handbag-friendly, easy-squeezy hand cream bottles. It’s a flash of design brilliance, honestly, and also light to carry around.

So, take off the egg-shaped cap, spritz – and enjoy a gust of citrus notes, propelled out of the bottle on those aldehydes. As those slowly soften (they last for a surprisingly long time, for citrus notes), the white floral notes come drifting through – jasmine, rose and ylang ylang, that last of which I’ve realised is a really key pillar of CHANEL fragrances. Then at the end, it’s all wrapped up in a halo of gauzy white musks and a pencil-sharpening of cedarwood. The result is clean, crisp, fresh, utterly modern, incredibly wearable. A tribute to one of the world’s great scents, an echo, a ghost – but a modern masterpiece in its own right.

Importantly for me, it catapults me back through time and space to the Moulin de la Tuilerie, outside Paris. And I’m pretty sure that whenever any of those guests lined up in the photo above smell it now – on me, or a stranger – they’re also whisked right back to that weekend, too. Because THAT is perfume’s true superpower…

So, thank you for the memories, CHANEL No5 L’Eau.

£120 for 50ml – buy here