Les Exclusifs de Chanel: Where to Start, by Taste

Gabrielle Chanel kept an apartment at 31 rue Cambon in Paris, above her couture house, and slept at the Ritz across the street. She filled it with Chinese Coromandel lacquer screens; she is believed to have owned 32. Chanel's US site quotes her: "I almost fainted with happiness the first time I saw a Coromandel." In 2007 the house named one fragrance after the screens and another after the address, and set them beside four perfumes Ernest Beaux made for her in the 1920s. It called the collection Les Exclusifs de Chanel.

It now holds 19 fragrances, and the Eaux de Parfum we priced all start at the same $355, so taste decides. For amber, start with Coromandel. For powdery iris, Comète. For creamy sandalwood, Bois des Îles, and for leather, Cuir de Russie.

How the collection came together

Ernest Beaux was born in Moscow in 1881 and trained at Rallet, the perfume house that supplied the Russian imperial court. In 1920, by the usual account, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich introduced him to Chanel, and the next year she chose No. 5 from his samples. He went on to make No. 22, Gardénia, Cuir de Russie and Bois des Îles for her. Chanel reissued those four in the 1980s, most of them reworked by its perfumer Jacques Polge, and sold them mainly in its own boutiques. In February 2007 it gathered them with six new fragrances by Polge, working with Christopher Sheldrake: 31 Rue Cambon, No. 18, Coromandel, Bel Respiro, 28 La Pausa and Eau de Cologne. Most of the new names point to Chanel's own life: the Paris address, the house's jewelry boutique at 18 place Vendôme, the screens, the villa she bought at Garches in 1920 and the house she built on the Riviera in 1929.

Additions followed: Sycomore and Beige in 2008, Jersey in 2011, 1932 in 2013. Olivier Polge, Jacques's son, joined Chanel in 2013 and succeeded his father as its perfumer in 2015. His entries are Misia (2015), Boy Chanel (2016), 1957 (2019), Le Lion de Chanel (released in the Middle East in 2020 and elsewhere in January 2021) and Comète (2024). In 2016 the original Eaux de Toilette gave way to Eaux de Parfum, and 28 La Pausa became La Pausa. In June 2026 Chanel brought back Extraits de Parfum for ten of the fragrances, a couple of years after the earlier extraits were dropped. On Chanel's US site, every Eau de Parfum we checked starts at $355 for 75 ml, and the Extraits de Parfum cost $510.

Powdery: Comète

In November 1932 Gabrielle Chanel showed Bijoux de Diamants, a collection of diamond jewelry, on wax mannequins in her own Paris apartment. Its best-known piece, the Comète necklace, is a shooting star whose tail wraps the neck and stays open at the front. Chanel named this 2024 Eau de Parfum after it, and its launch copy described a luminous trail of stardust. It is the newest fragrance in the collection, and Olivier Polge's.

Chanel lists four materials: a cherry blossom accord, iris, heliotrope and white musk. Matt Morris, reviewing it for Fragrantica under the headline "the House's Best Iris in Years", found cherry and almond over a soapy orris at the start, then iris tangled with heliotrope, then cloudy musk. Other reviewers compare the drydown to face powder. Parfumo voters rate its longevity a little above its sillage, so it wears as a soft haze close to the skin, which suits offices and warm days. The blogger behind Leave No Cologne Unturned got 6 to 8 hours from it and called it "airy and eminently wearable".

Start here if you like iris but find some irises cold or rooty. Misia, the other powdery Olivier Polge entry, sets its iris with violet and rose; Comète is brighter and sweeter, with heliotrope's almond. Chanel sells the 75 ml bottle at $355.

More powder: No. 22 and Misia

No. 22 is dated to 1922, the year after No. 5, though some histories put its wider release in 1926. Bois de Jasmin repeats the story that it was among the samples Beaux showed Chanel when she chose No. 5. It opens on aldehydes that Victoria at Bois de Jasmin calls "slightly starched and metallic", over jasmine, orange blossom, rose, tuberose and lilac, and settles into incense and vanilla. If you love No. 5 and want something whiter and softer, try this one. The 75 ml bottle is $355, and the Extrait de Parfum is $510.

Misia was Olivier Polge's first fragrance for the line, in 2015. Misia Sert was a pianist who studied with Gabriel Fauré, sat for Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec, and helped fund Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. She met Chanel in 1917, and when Misia died in 1950, Chanel prepared her body for the funeral. Polge said he wanted to convey the Ballets Russes and "the smell of makeup from that time". Robin at Now Smell This found sugared violets and rose drying down to a creamy iris, and called it "utterly charming". It costs $355 for 75 ml.

Woody: Bois des Îles and Sycomore

Beaux made Bois des Îles in 1926, and Chanel calls it the first woody fragrance for women. The original was built on Mysore sandalwood; that wood has since become scarce, and Jacques Polge's 2007 version reaches the effect with other materials. It opens with aldehydes and soft florals, then turns to creamy, spiced sandalwood; Now Smell This noticed a gingerbread warmth after about an hour. In Perfumes: The Guide, Tania Sanchez gave it five stars; if the best Chanels are little black dresses, she wrote, Bois des Îles is "the one in cashmere". Kafkaesque found its sillage moderate enough for the office.

Sycomore, from 2008, borrows the name of a Chanel perfume from 1930. Jacques Polge and Christopher Sheldrake built it around vetiver, dry and slightly smoky, with tobacco and cypress. Victoria at Bois de Jasmin called it "an elegant and pared down vetiver", and Kevin at Now Smell This called it "a classic, and classy, take on vetiver". Among the line's Eaux de Parfum on Fragrantica, only Coromandel and Le Lion de Chanel have more ratings. Choose Bois des Îles for warmth and cream, Sycomore for something drier and greener.

Chypre: 31 Rue Cambon

The fragrance named for the address is a chypre, the family that sets bright citrus over dry, resinous depth, here in a light, modern style. Victoria at Bois de Jasmin found pepper, tart citrus and cool aldehydes at the start, then buttery iris against dry labdanum and patchouli, and gave it five stars. In Perfumes: The Guide, Tania Sanchez also gave it five and called it "one of the ten greats of all time". It wears lightly; Kafkaesque noted that most wearers of the original Eau de Toilette got about four hours. Wear it by day, with anything.

Leather: Cuir de Russie

Russian leather was a perfume genre long before Chanel; Guerlain and Piver both made one. Beaux's version arrived while Russian émigrés were filling Paris after 1917. Chanel has dated it to 1927, while several histories give 1924. Chanel has tied its smell to the birch-tanned boots of Russian soldiers, and its product page names her friends Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Diaghilev. Her biographer Justine Picardie read it more personally, as the bottled essence of her romance with Grand Duke Dmitri. Jacques Polge reworked it for its return in 1983, softening the smoke.

What you smell now is a soft leather inside a floral. Victoria at Bois de Jasmin describes aldehydes sweetened by rose, jasmine and ylang-ylang, a cool iris heart, and tobacco smoke folded into amber. Luca Turin gave it five stars in Perfumes: The Guide and called it "an undamaged monument of classical perfumery". It suits anyone who wants leather to read as suede gloves rather than a motorcycle jacket. Chanel sells it at $355 for 75 ml and $595 for 200 ml, and the Extrait de Parfum at $510.

Floral: Gardénia and Beige

Beaux made Gardénia in 1925, and Jacques Polge reworked it for the 2007 collection. Reviewers point out that today's version is built from green jasmine, orange blossom and a touch of tuberose rather than gardenia itself, which gives it a bright, fresh white-flower character. Beige, from 2008, is hawthorn, freesia and frangipani over honey; Saks Fifth Avenue in New York sold it first. Each starts at $355 for 75 ml, and each also comes as a $510 Extrait de Parfum.

Amber: Coromandel

Coromandel lacquer is a Western name. The screens were made in China, mostly in Fujian province, and reached European buyers in the 18th century through trading posts on India's Coromandel Coast. Chanel told the writer Claude Delay that she had loved Chinese screens since she was 18, and eight of hers stood in the rue Cambon apartment. She disliked doors, NPR reported after a visit, and set screens at the entrances instead. Jacques Polge and Christopher Sheldrake made Coromandel in 2007 as an Eau de Toilette. The Eau de Parfum replaced it in 2016, Olivier Polge added a parfum in 2019, and an Extrait de Parfum returned in June 2026.

Chanel calls it an amber built on patchouli, vanilla and benzoin. Parfumo reviewers describe a bright, slightly soapy citrus start that settles into earthy patchouli wrapped in benzoin and vanilla, with a thread of frankincense. Victoria at Bois de Jasmin placed its patchouli between Angel and Borneo 1834, with a "chocolate liqueur-like richness", and many wearers call the creamy late stage white chocolate. Parfumo voters rate its longevity above its sillage: it stays for hours but keeps close after the first one. It suits autumn and winter, dinners and quiet evenings.

Coromandel is the line's most rated Eau de Parfum on Fragrantica, with 4,068 ratings averaging 4.37 out of 5 when we checked on 1 October 2026. For anyone who already likes warm, dark fragrances, it is the easiest first choice in the collection. Chanel sells the Eau de Parfum at $355 for 75 ml and $595 for 200 ml, and the Extrait de Parfum at $510.

More amber: Le Lion de Chanel

Gabrielle Chanel was born on 19 August 1883, a Leo. After Boy Capel, the man who financed her first shops, died in a car crash in December 1919, Misia Sert and her new husband took her to Venice, where the winged lion of Saint Mark became one of her emblems. Lions turn up on Chanel buttons and jewelry, and on her tombstone in Lausanne. Olivier Polge said he was "much more interested in the emblematic CHANEL lion than the animal", and made an amber of labdanum, vanilla and patchouli under lemon and bergamot.

Sophie Normand at Fragrantica placed it "somewhere between Cuir de Russie and Shalimar"; Kafkaesque found it lasted more than 14 hours. Next to Coromandel it is more resinous and less earthy, with labdanum's leathery depth where Coromandel has patchouli. It is $355 for 75 ml.

If you can try only one

Try Coromandel if you already wear amber, vanilla or patchouli; on Fragrantica it has more ratings than any other Eau de Parfum in the line. Try Comète if your favorites are soft, powdery and floral. If you have worn No. 5 for years, go to No. 22, or to Bois des Îles if you want sandalwood under the sparkle. For leather, Cuir de Russie; for vetiver, Sycomore; for a light daytime chypre, 31 Rue Cambon. With the smallest bottle at $355, wearing two or three for a few days each is the sensible way to choose, and that is what a decant is for.