Coco Mademoiselle Eau de Parfum
Chanel (2001)

I'm hard pressed to find a fragrance so stridently synthetic that I enjoy so much. It's so blatantly fabricated, so brashly out-there, I have to believe it's the way it is by design and wit. I admire the balls it takes to produce something like this under Chanel and pass it off with a straight-face (specially at the time it was launched - less so nowadays). It's a joke. But what a good one. The Chanel with the most out of control joie de vivre, it also has nowadays the added bonus of being so ubiquitous you can be anything and anyone wearing this - because anyone and everyone who has been or done anything and everything has already worn it before you. It affords you an anonymity, a blending in, a not standing out for uniqueness. Who are you in a crowd when you're wearing this? Anyone and no one, which is a special kind of superpower - and a special kind of comfort. Like so many Chanels, it's also a no-brainer for those to whom it appeals: spray it on, walk out the door - what day it is matters not. Bravo.

From its launch on, it seems to be everybody's favourite. As you can't go wrong by buying it or even wearing it.
The words "Never trust a pink perfume!" keep echoing in my mind every time I sniff it. I don't remember where or when I heard this. But it sure holds true...

This has grown on me. I'll leave the original review below, but my opinion has changed. Chanel fragrances always seem to do this. I always start by thinking, "It's a quality fragrance, it's just not my thing." But then something funny happens. I keep coming back for another whiff... then another... and another... and another... until I eventually admit that I'm never going to stop wanting another whiff, and I should probably just buy it because apparently I love it. LOL I still find Coco Mademoiselle a little too pretty for my tastes, but I remembered that I've got an Aveda hair product I never wear because the patchouli-based scent is too ugly. Too pretty + too ugly = just right :)

Original review: I found this underwhelming. Don't get me wrong, it's a perfectly pleasant fragrance. It's well balanced with a nuanced composition. It's just... kind of... boring. To be fair, this is the THIRD Oriental Floral with similar accords (citrus/rose/patchouli/vanilla) that I've tried this week! Based on the release dates, it seems like Coco Mademoiselle is what started this trend, and the one that everyone is trying to mimic. I'd say it deserves the flattery. None of the others I've tried have come close to capturing the quality of Coco Mademoiselle. Its sillage and longevity are off the charts, but it's nuanced and complex enough that it never feels cloying. It's just too pretty for my tastes. I like a little bit of ugly in my fragrances :)

Half asleep flying home from a business meeting I got this wonderful whiff everytime one off the stewardesses passed me. Just had to ask here what she wore. Promptly ordered a bottle for the missus and I just hope it'll be as good on her as it was on that stewardess.

A true Chanel. Classy and well put together.

10/10

Bitter, tangy citrus to start. Moments later it becomes a bit sweeter. Then, some floral notes appear. Seems rather "mainstream" in its profile so far.
It's pretty thus far - just not my style.
None of the heart notes scream louder than the others - there is that. They are muted, but nicely mixed.
Patchouli moves in rather quickly.
Turns more floral with an amber accord sweetness - vanilla-esque. A vague 70's musk. This was maybe designed for the modern 20-something crowd?
In my youth, I may have been all over this scent, if I could've afforded it. Bits of vetiver, jasmine, and other "pretty" notes take over. Tomboy as I am now mostly, I wouldn't wear this with any frequency. However, I do think it's pretty. Safe.
I'm rambling. Kiera Knightly, come save me!

Coco Mademoiselle - Chanel
A very Chanel-unworthy perfume that smells like a tiredsome excercise to impress young women with something that radiates quality because it reads Chanel on the label but in fact smells very mediocre. Almost if it was made by an old grumpy free-lance perfumer who is out on ideas and hates to work on monday-mornings.

Coco Mademoiselle (2001) is a fruity ozonic update to the original Polge-penned Coco Chanel (1984) coming in a clear bottle full of bright pink liquid, bearing only the slightest resemblance in the heart but otherwise being of an entirely different character. Most major designers releasing scents like these (particularly men's iterations) have long ago discontinued them when the youth-targeting ultra-tart genre proved to not age very well once it left the mid 2000's, while Coco Mademoiselle has not just endured, but also spawned various concentrations/semi-flankers to boot. The style is admittedly garish and flamboyant, featuring a ton of "sour candy" and denatured patchouli in the note tree. Normally I hate "fruitchouli" with a passion but this speaks to my flamboyantly gay side so much I am drawn to it like a moth to a flame. I can't say there is a single lick of unisex potential with Coco Mademoiselle, but I'd still wear it; make of that what you will. Coco Mademoiselle feels both like a scent blatantly catering to youth, but also irreverent to the concept of age-targeting in the perfume with the way it finishes.

The opening blast of Chanel Mademoiselle is almost obnoxiously bright and puckering in tartness, almost scary for the first few moments because of how it resembles the aforementioned "sour candy". Lots of bergamot, lemon, ozone, and grapefruit. Ozonics of this period had the olfactory profile of a Jolly Rancher for the most part, and super-tart lychee sneaks into the opening from the heart, followed by a sweet jammy rose. There is some jasmine hedione in the heart too, and galoxide is definitely part of the profile too, so expect a bit of that "Fabuloso" vibe into the patchouli base. Dihydromyrcenol makes its presence felt too, and the unabashedly synthetic bounce of Coco Mademoiselle would rip most perfumes apart, but Polge seemed to have designed Coco Mademoiselle around this bounce, as the rose and patchouli from the original connect in a way that this feels like a Coco flanker, but will never be mistaken for Coco. A boozy vanilla and musk tone finish up with the patchouli, helping calm down the rakish top but retaining the sour candy vibe. The final finish is crystalline sour-sweet and only a smidgen animalic, like a set of training wheels prepping you for the original Coco, but still a lot of fun with performance to match.

A lot of perfumistas will rake Polge over the coals for making something like this, and blaspheme the name of Chanel in anger, but I appreciate the risk taking here, for is it not so different from the risk taking he did with Coco or even Antaeus (1981)? This will likely have maximum appeal with the generation it was made for, who are all approaching 40 by the time of this review, and ready to receive slightly more-mature flankers like Coco Noir (2012) and Coco Mademoiselle Eau de Parfum Intense (2018) with open arms. Coco Mademoiselle really was like Abercrombie & Fitch Fierce (2002) but for women, or because it came out first, is it the other way around? Still, this neon pink fruity radioactive patchouli isotope with the half-life of a Hostess Twinkie is just too loveably tacky to find harmful, like a Hawaiian shirt on a significant other or a dubstep remix of Burt Bacharach, and when appropriately worn in warm weather during casual days out, will only reassert whatever mirth is present in a day full of fun activities. That's really the secret of Coco Mademoiselle's success methinks: It doesn't take itself seriously and neither should you. Thumbs up.

I've tried sooooo hard to like Coco Mademoiselle.

I keep trying because I adore the house of Chanel, generally speaking.

But man oh man, this is a PILE of cheap plastic froooot swimming in a headache inducing synthetic aquatic mess.

NEVER AGAIN.

Sensual, classy perfume from Chanel.

This is a floral-rich scent that is full of aromatic goodness, with the patchouli standing out from the other notes, with drippy rose petals, gorgeous jasmine and surprisingly strong lychee fruit pungence at the heart. Vetiver is dry and simple, seemingly holding hands with vestiges of the hesperidic head-note trio that lingers throughout the wear cycle. Musk is a light, white variety that adds a tiny bit of sexiness on the edges, next to the dab of subtle vanilla playing a background accenting role.

Coco Mademoiselle seems suited more so for formal evening occasions. A really nice part of the Chanel perfume collection!

If Aphrodite, Hera and Athena were combined in a single goddess, this would be the tribute to her scent.

Soft and elegant frutal, different from all the sirupy, over-the-top floral crap commercialized nowadays. Very fresh and citric, with a slight sweet touch, very subdued. A sensual fragrance for young women. It cannot be possibly overdone as the smell is so pleasant that it can be very strong yet will still not be over the top. One of the best female scents ever.

"An affront of fake fruit and brain-eroding chemicals."

"My dog looks severely unimpressed." Wise counsel from an animal whose nose is much finer than our own basic model.

The EdT "smells a bit like an ashtray" and the body lotion even more so.

It's not just that I've got a bad sample then...