One Brand Forever

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Let's play a little game in which each of us are limited to wearing fragrances from a single brand--forever. What company would you choose?

Without thinking about it for very long, I'd pick Chanel.

Perhaps at one time I would have gone with Guerlain. There are 16 Guerlain scents in my collection today, including a few from the Aqua Allegoria line, multiple Shalimar flankers, and three from L’Art & La Matière collection. Guerlain releases 3-4 new scents per year, so I'd always have plenty to choose from. But to be very honest, I have found the newer releases to be less and less interesting and certainly not worth all the $ (to me). Of course, if I limited myself to one fragrance company for the rest of my life, the price would not be as much of an issue as it is currently, what with my promiscuous perfume-buying tendencies and all. Still, it would be nice if they put out a well-priced scent once in a while, one that's not an Aqua Allegoria. It seems that they're stuck on cranking out expensive L'Art & La Matière scents and La Petit Robe Noir clones (over 30 so far). They do like flankers, to be sure. 

Why Chanel? While they don't offer quite as many fragrance choices as Guerlain, overall their scents are more to my taste. I own 6 of their creations so far: No. 18; No. 5 Eau Premiere; Cristalle Eau Verte; Coco EDT; Coromandel; and Paris-Edimbourg. And that handful has all the seasons covered. Cristalle Eau Verte is perfect for the heat of summer while Coromandel has all the cozy winter vibes. No. 18, Eau Premiere, and Paris-Edimbourg work in all seasons. And Coco has been my out-on-the-town evening scent for decades. Two others that I have owned and used up but haven't yet replaced are Allure Sensuelle and Eau de Cologne. I feel that the Cologne is among the very best.

I would be happy to add most of the rest of the Paris-City series (though Paris-Paris is a snooze), La Pausa, 31 Rue Cambon, 1957, Sycomore, and Le Lion to my collection. So far, I haven't fallen in love with anything from the Chance line; it's quite commercial and I have fairly niche body chemistry. It's possible, however, that the next release, or the one after that, would be more to my liking. And while Comète was vaguely disappointing, there are bound to be future additions to the Les Exclusifs line that will turn my head.

Perhaps if I allowed myself to investigate some of the niche brands with more than a handful of fragrances in their inventory--Xerjoff, Diptyque, Ex Nihilo, Micallef, Montale, Mizensir--I might find another house that offers scents that fit all my moods. Other than Hermes, I'd probably stay away from designer brands. It seems that so many of the newer fragrance companies rely on overloading their perfumes with synthetic aromachemicals like cashmeran, hedione, caramel furanone, ethyl maltol, etc.--ones that intend to create more of a vibe than to reproduce a scent that exists in nature. To my nose, these scents are boring, sweet, and smell like at least 10 others already on the market. If you like 'em, fantastic. They're just not my bag--and believe me, I've tried a lot of them. Right now, I am going to stick with Chanel.

What house would you pick to be your number one forever?

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks
Note: this post is my opinion. I am not affiliated with the companies mentioned in this post or any other companies.