It is a moving experience to take in the first whiff of a fragrance that you know you will love; one which will accompany you on various destinies, and resist the passage of time. Coco Noir is one such rare creation that makes your heart go aflutter, yet it seduces with a rare subtlety and elegance.
With just a touch of androgyny, the fragrance oozes uncompromising sex appeal. Like all the stories recounted by the house, the perfume inherits the essence of Gabrielle Chanel’s love of Venetian baroque and her penchant for the colour black. The bottle is proof of this. Jacques Polge and Christopher Sheldrake, the in-house perfumers, have concentrated on the perfume’s base notes of woody and musky scents and created an opulent ‘black’ scent with top notes of lively pink peppercorns and grapefruit. A seductive heart of jasmine, rose and rose geranium leaf follows, before the magnetic woody base of sandalwood and patchouli is uncovered. The final stroke includes a hint of white musk, frankincense and bourbon vanilla. A wholly deserved tribute to a favourite fragrance, it’s a winner all the way. Finalists (from top): L’Ambre des Merveilles by Hermès; La Vie Est Belle by Lancôme; L’Eau de Chloé by Chloé; Florabotanica by Balenciaga; Blackberry & Bay by Jo Malone; L’Eau Exquise Mon Jasmin Noir by Bulgari; Manifesto by Yves Saint Laurent; La Petite Robe Noire by Guerlain; Gucci Première by Gucci.
A daring design and a fresh fragrance is what you get when a classic like La Petite Robe Noire is cast in a new-age romantic saga. And sure enough, it cast a spell on the awards jury of the Marie Claire editions around the world. That it comes from the illustrious house of Guerlain adds to the charm and proves that you can carry your legacy with élan, anchor it in modernity, and still be scintillatingly original. The bottle comes with an illustrated silhouette, sketched by famed Parisian visual artist duo Olivier Kuntzel and Florence Deygas, and revisits the cult designs of Mitsouko and L’Heure Bleue, with the shoulders of a woman and the inverted heart as a cap. Perfumer Thierry Wasser created this LBD of fragrances by marrying a delicate hint of almond and black cherry to the trail of vanilla, iris, patchouli and tonka bean. Everything is smiles, surprise and refinement, and like its famous fashion counterpart, it works for any occasion. Finalists (clockwise from top): Coco Noir by Chanel; Dahlia Noir by Givenchy; Manifesto by Yves Saint Laurent; Fame by Lady Gaga; La Vie Est Belle by Lancôme; Florabotanica by Balenciaga; Gucci Première by Gucci; Roberto Cavalli by Roberto Cavalli; Dot by Marc Jacobs.
Beauty is often accentuated by a hint of the unexpected and the mysterious. This offering from Balenciaga is an ode to modernism, and falls easily in the league of couture. Nicolas Ghesquière, the creative director, had a clear vision – to create a perfume that paid homage to the beautiful and mysterious plants of the botanical gardens of the 18th century. “We imagined a bottle that would speak of scientific techniques, antiseptic lines and a play of mirrors like those dishes you find in laboratories.” The bet is won with this glass body which traverses the perfume like a test tube, as though capturing the essence of a flower. It is the perfect vessel to house the provocative floral scent, made of experimental rose and carnation extracts, paired with a mysterious green note. Brought to life by perfumers Olivier Polge and Jean-Christophe Hérault, the fragrance is dangerously addictive and we love it all the way. Finalists (clockwise from right): Coco Noir by Chanel; Dot by Marc Jacobs; Fame by Lady Gaga; La Vie Est Belle by Lancôme; La Petite Robe Noire by Guerlain; Valentina Assoluto by Valentino; Manifesto by Yves Saint Laurent; Miss Dior by Dior; Pleats Please by Issey Miyake.
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