PARIS — Coco Chanel had her personal view of luck, famously crystalized within the phrase: “I noticed a possibility, and I took it.” Now, the style home is delving deeper into its company heritage by launching the fifth Probability perfume, known as Eau Splendide, on April 15.
Developed by in-house perfumer-creator Olivier Polge, it’s the first perfume to come back out beneath Simona Cattaneo, president of Chanel Perfume and Magnificence.
“I really feel very honored and privileged to have joined such an iconic home that I’ve been taking a look at with a number of respect for all of my profession,” mentioned Cattaneo, in her first interview since becoming a member of Chanel in September 2024. “I’m nonetheless within the studying mode.”
Cattaneo described the home’s method to perfume as distinctive.
“At Chanel, the creation is de facto on the coronary heart of all the pieces,” she mentioned. “We’ve got in-house creators, for all our classes. What’s exceptional is that they’ve true inventive freedom.
“From the very starting, for the reason that creation of No.5 in 1921, the temporary that Gabrielle Chanel gave to Ernest Beaux was that she wished a lady’s fragrance with a lady’s scent,” continued Cattaneo.
On the time, the fragrance trade was stuffed with recognizable single-flower fragrances.
“She wished the sort of summary fragrance with an undefinable scent,” mentioned Cattaneo. “So this imaginative and prescient that perfume is a way of thinking, a sort of attract — is a vital idea for Chanel.”
She added: “Chanel perfumes specific a stye and thought. It’s extra concerning the imaginative and prescient. Our fragrances, our perfumes, ought to give individuals the ability to develop into who they wish to be. It is a imaginative and prescient that’s not in any respect a stereotype. This angle is sort of distinctive in perfumery.”
Simona Cattaneo
Courtesy of Chanel
Cattaneo has additionally been struck by Chanel’s means to be according to its method to perfume for greater than a century, throughout which era it has had simply 4 perfumers conceiving its scents.
“The second level of distinction for Chanel fragrances is that this proven fact that the home has whole management over a very built-in worth chain,” she mentioned. “It is a dream once you work in perfume.”
Chanel has a improvement laboratory, in addition to the flexibility to fabricate its personal perfumes.
“We personal our formulation and management the composition,” she mentioned. “Chanel, for example, grows a big portion of the jasmine flowers and roses in our fields in Grasse.”
That offers management of the complete worth chain, together with fragrance substances’ high quality and traceability.
“This type of mastery is totally distinctive within the sector,” claimed Cattaneo.
The primary Probability fragrance was launched in 2003.
“Since then, it has develop into one of many main perfume collections out there,” mentioned Cattaneo, explaining that is true in all elements of the world.
She didn’t talk about rankings, however in line with Statista, Probability positioned fourth in america, sixth in Brazil and 10th in France, among the many hottest ladies’s fragrances in 2023.
Probability joins a constellation of different Chanel perfume franchises.
“No.5 is the unapologetic female power. Coco Mademoiselle is the liberty to develop into who you wish to be,” mentioned Cattaneo. “Bleu de Chanel is the expression of thriller and complexity. However Probability is completely different — it’s vivid, joyful, optimistic. And it’s a assortment of perfumes.
“In terms of our imaginative and prescient of luxurious, Probability brings one thing completely different — an expression of easy luxurious,” she defined. “Probability embodies refined lightness and luminosity. It’s a luminous assortment.”
Probability Eau Splendide joins the Probability lineup, which might be thought-about an olfactive interpretation of luck.
“It brings one thing new to the gathering, with a really particular aspect,” mentioned Cattaneo, explaining Eau Splendide is the primary fruity floral perfume for Chanel. “It’s a brand new olfactive territory for us.”
Chanel executives wouldn’t talk about gross sales projections, however trade sources estimate Eau Splendide will generate 100 million euros in first-year retail gross sales.
“Generally I’m requested what’s the hyperlink between every of these Probability [fragrances],” mentioned Polge. “After all, you possibly can at all times discover the uncooked materials, however I believe it’s extra appropriate to explain it as a way of thinking.”
Olivier Polge
Courtesy of Chanel
There’s a floral factor, but additionally a sense and impression, in line with him.
“There’s something direct, which I like, about Probability,” mentioned Polge, calling its fragrances additionally vivid and colourful. Every Probability perfume is contemporary, with a placing olfactive opening. For Eau Splendide’s prime notes, he regarded into several types of fruits.
“I ended up being inquisitive about one accord that smells like raspberry,” he mentioned. “I showcased it in an accord as a result of other than the purple fruit and this peach one way or the other that it brings, it differentiates itself from the opposite berries, as a result of it has already the beginning of a violet undertone, a rosy undertone. I believed: ‘Ah, that’s the beginning of the fragrance.’”
The scent was developed with a pure extract of geranium rosat leaf, partly grown in Chanel’s fields.
“It has this rosy, very pure impression,” mentioned Polge, who added notes of musks and cedarwood in Eau Splendide’s base.
“It’s a cedarwood that we have now redistilled, barely cleaned of any sort of darker tones to help the scent within the brightest method,” he mentioned.
Eau Splendide is available in a round bottle, much like the opposite Probability scents, however with a violet juice. Probability is golden, Eau Fraîche from 2007 is mint inexperienced, Eau Tendre from 2010 is pink and Eau Vive from 2015 is peach-colored.
Eau Splendide might be priced in France at about 122 euros for a 50-ml. eau de parfum and 168 euros for a 100-ml. edp.
“Luck, in a method, has its half to play in happiness, nevertheless it takes a number of work to summon it,” mentioned Cattaneo. “It’s not a passive state, however it’s a results of an motion. That is what Gabrielle Chanel thought and what Chanel immediately needs for girls — this concept of luck that’s extra about them seizing their future and each alternative that presents itself.
“That is additionally the declare of the gathering — ‘take your likelihood,’” mentioned Cattaneo. “That’s intentional on the earth of Chanel.”
