Bleu de Chanel Parfum
Chanel (2018)

Bleu de Chanel Parfum is a fresh, woody aromatic fragrance that was released in 2018. This fragrance is part of Chanel’s Bleu line of edt, edp, parfum and L’Exclusif. BdC Parfum is fresh, elegant, refined, deep and sophisticated. Top notes are lemon zest, bergamot, mint and artemisia. Heart notes are lavender, pineapple, geranium and green notes. Base notes are cedar, sandalwood, amber wood, Iso E Super and tonka bean. The scent is lush, citrusy, aromatic, woody and slightly sweet. The pineapple note is especially refreshing.

BdC Parfum is well-suited for spring, fall and winter use. This also works in the summer with proper application. BdC Parfum is great for casual wear, evening wear, date nights and formal wear. I think it’s pretty versatile all in all. This scent has good longevity at approximately 7 hours. Sillage is solid but a little less than the edp and edt.

BdC Parfum is my favorite of the Bleu line with the right blend of citrus, lavender and wood. I also enjoy the edt, L’Exclusif, and edp in that order. I find the Parfum the smoothest, most subtle and refined of the BdC line. I think Chanel probably has the Bleu line adequately covered with the four offerings. I’m not sure where they’d take it from here.

BdC Parfum is classy and sophisticated. I highly recommend it. Thumbs up.

When I first tried BdC Parfum I thought it was quite pretty. It thought it had an understated elegance to it that was captivating - as you'd expect of Chanel. Unfortunately, the head and heart notes if better and handled with better care could take it to the next level; but this was a perfume meant to check marketing boxes, therefore they aren't of the highest quality, or handled well, and are very, very short lived. You can catch the faintest whiffs of lemon, bergamot, and pineapple trying to break free amongst the fully dominant base accords of sandalwood and cedar. When all of those accords mingle in few and fleeting moments of harmony, the perfume is great. It's just unfortunate that only the base accords seem to have been given the right levels of thought and attention. Though, I have to say that the sandalwood and cedar, and the tiny hit of tonka bean, are great; precise, clean, and energetic. The overall performance, during the first wearing, was decent.

Then came subsequent wears, and my how perfume perceptions can change with time, weather, mood, experiences, etc. The second, third, fourth, etc. wears differ from "confident like" in the first wearing to now just being OK with it. The honeymoon has been over for some time. I still think it gets far too much criticism, but the criticism is fairly levied since many perfume enthusiasts know that Chanel can do a lot better. In my opinion, the parfum version of Bleu is still good and easily the best version of the Bleu line. The lemony and minty top notes (supposedly) are very short lived every time I have worn the perfume, but in cool wet weather the lavender and geranium have greater voices than they did in drier and higher heat weather. They are quietly aromatic and very powdery (in typical Chanel style), choosing to accent their floral qualities more so than their herbaceous qualities. I do also pick up a hint of pineapple, particularly in higher humidity, that adds an interesting fruity sweetness. After the dry down the sandalwood and cedar pick up the powdery and soft-spoken mantle from the lavender and geranium. Performance is certainly more of an issue in cool weather, and it seems to work a lot better on clothes than skin (uh-oh).

Final thoughts: a solid fragrance undeserving of a good bit of the harsh criticisms it has received, because it is actually pretty decent. But, it is inconsistent, and many wears confirms that it was made quickly, with not much care or quality materials, and is purely focused on the business's bottom line. Therefore, I have no argument against the criticism that Chanel were perfectly capable of making BdC Parfum much better without much more effort or cost. I had hoped BdC Parfum would finally be a Bleu perfume worthy of Chanel's reputation, but Chanel chose for BdC Parfum to do exactly what the Bleu line was always meant to do: be their money rake, and nothing more than that.

A very well blended clean generic men's fougere with a touch of sweetness and powder. Interesting how even men's perfume is becoming sweeter. I guess we can't get enough sugar.

The best version of the Bleu series. Performance is like a cologne which doesn't match the price. Must be the synthetics causing nose blindness.

Here we have Bleu de Chanel in its various formulas and vests (Edt, Edp and Parfum), namely one of the top creations of the Blue Fragrances-League and (in this case) an Oliver Polge's piece of woody/musky/ambery refinement. Perfectly blended, versatile and mass appealing but at same time classy and performing. Definitely a well known protagonist of contemporary designer perfumery. The classic Jacques Polge's Chanel Bleu Edt (2010) is dry, shadowy/translucent and enigmatic a la Pomellato Uomo (fragrances as Pomellato Uomo, Enrico Coveri Pour Homme, Chopard Heaven, Oscar de la Renta Pour Lui, Byblos Uomo or Guy Laroche Horizon - each of them with its own specific aromatic fougère or woody-musky peculiarities - represent the ancestors of the modern blue fragrances). The Eau de Parfum (2014) following version (still Jacques Polge) was basically an intenser and more ambery faint revisitation of the original Edt formula. This Parfum-formula (Oliver Polge), introduced by Chanel in the course of 2018, namely few years later the Sauvage's bombastic launch by its main competitor Dior (and almost in contemporaneity with the Sauvage Eau de Parfum's inception), is on the contrary a pretty different kind of fragrance (once you compare it with its older cousins, especially considering the different dry down) and is the Chanel Bleu's version which probably I prefer on my skin, the most intense and "presenceful" (and probably the darkest and most saturnine). While the EDT and EDP introduce an acid, pungent and really fresh citrus aromatic opening ending down to be gradually blended with dusty frankincense, sharp spices and dry woods this Parfum-version smells since the beginning fresh and dry-fruity but a tad less freshly citric and sharply floral while I detect a stronger aromatic barbershop initial twist (almost without or anyway with less of the Edt's aldehydic presence) before it keeps sliding in to this deeply woody and almost inky blue smell enhanced by dark amberwood, synth musk, sandalwood and tonka bean. The introducing tart citrus are soon supported by an excellent aromatic-fougère lavender, a tad of pepper and a twist of herbal camphoraceous mint. Pineapple plays just an accessorial role of citrus-support just adding hints of tartness to a most developed modern herbal-laundry aromatic roar (slightly a la Sauvage Elixir). I detect less spices and less fruitiness as comparing it with the previous Edt and Edp. Once this aromatic status slightly recedes (just passing across a fleeting dry floral transition) this quite dark synth woody-ambery base reaches its dominant vest providing a solidly dark, woody and warmly virile dimension longly and powerfully operating on my skin. Iso-E super provides a tad of synthetic muskiness all around supporting amberwood and aromatics. Super dark and uncompromisingly virile piece of contemporary olfactory work for the metropolitan well trimmed urban fellow. This is a four seasons truly versatile perfume (actually could be at once an office scent or a night out fragrance) really bossy and assertive.

Bought a 5ml decant. I love the sandalwood when it gets in the drydown. Lasts 6 hrs on my skin. Not offensive and can wear it as a summer scent. 10/10

Slightly better than the EDP? I don't get that much "offness" because of the frankincense like I do from the EDP. But this one is less blue in general to me and a bit more dark/black to my nose.

I'll end it the same way I did my EDP review: There's like a hundred much better (and maybe cheaper) blue scents out there: AdG Profondo, Ralph Lauren Polo Blue, Invictus/Hawas, ...