Chanel — Les Exclusifs

Coromandel

Patchouli and white chocolate, lacquered and deep.

75ml EDP

Amber & Sweet

Coromandel — named for the lacquered Chinese screens that lined Gabrielle Chanel's apartment on rue Cambon — is Jacques Polge and Christopher Sheldrake's patchouli masterwork. The patchouli is cleaned of all earth and dressed in a white-chocolate accord, benzoin and a sigh of frankincense; the effect is glossy, dark and faintly powdery, like running a hand across polished lacquer. A brief citrus opening gives way quickly to that long amber heart, which wears close, warm and impossibly elegant for the better part of a day. It suits both dinner jackets and bare shoulders, in every season but high summer. For people whose taste needs no announcing.