Chanel continues the Coco Mademoiselle fragrance story with Crush Absolu

Reporter Aleesha Harris is pictured in Paris where she was among the first journalists to smell Chanel's newest Coco Mademoiselle fragrance. Photo by Aleesha Harris /Postmedia

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The glass bottle of perfume, with its frosted cap and gold details, was so luxurious. I immediately felt more confident and glamorous whenever I spritzed it on.

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To this day, when I smell the sparkling, ambery elixir, I’m reminded of key moments in my 20s, including when I walked into The Vancouver Sun newsroom for the very first time, excited and nervous for what might come next.

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While my fragrance wardrobe has grown significantly since those early days as a reporter, my appreciation for this particular fragrance has never waned.

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Earlier this spring, I was among the first journalists to smell the latest addition to the Coco Mademoiselle fragrance collection.

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In an upstairs floor of an unassuming office on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, I met with celebrated Chanel perfumer Olivier Polge to discover the then-top-secret new fragrance release called Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu.

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The new Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu builds on the popular fragrance collection from Chanel. Photo by Aleesha Harris /Postmedia

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Seated in front of a coffee table covered with small bottles of labelled raw materials and accords, along with slim strips of paper blotters for testing, we slowly toured the key fragrances in the Coco Mademoiselle collection along with the notes that make up the newest elixir.

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“When I create a perfume, I like to be able, at certain points of the creation, to live with the scent as it is at that time,” Polge explains of the year-long fragrance creation process. “I try to find ways to be surprised. And to live with the perfume in different sceneries. At work, obviously, and at home.”

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In between explanations, Polge audibly sniffed the blotters, taking long, slow inhalations, seeming to hold the scent in his nose before softly exhaling. Mirroring his approach, I found myself doing the same.

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“An important starting point, maybe, is to reconsider what Coco means to us,” says Polge of the fragrance collection that is inspired by the boldness and femininity embodied by founder Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel. Rather than start with more recent fragrances in the range, Polge went back to the very beginning.

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“My thought was, right away, to the first Coco that came out in the ’80s. In ’84,” he says.

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Olivier Polge, Chanel perfumer. Photo by Chanel /Handout

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That original Coco Eau de Parfum, which was created by Polge’s father Jacques Polge, was floral but spicy at the same time, he summarizes, with notes of Sicilian mandarin, ylang-ylang and orange blossom.

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“With a little hint of woods, which maybe influenced Coco Mademoiselle, which came out in 2001,” he says of the second fragrance, which he refers to as being “much fresher, colourful and woody” than its predecessor.

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The popularity of the Coco Mademoiselle fragrance collection prompted the release of Coco Mademoiselle Eau de Toilette in 2002, Coco Eau de Parfum Intense in 2018, and Coco Mademoiselle L’Eau Privée in 2020.