Reading Time: 5 minutes

La Maison Chanel is revealing this week a new fragrance, Allure Homme Sport Eau Extrême, a flanker of Allure Homme Sport, already a flanker of Allure Homme. Purely disappointing. On the feminine side, Chanel always makes us dream. N.5 Eau Première was a beautiful creation and the Exclusive collection is for most of them real wonders. But in the masculine side, creation stopped with Egoiste in 1990.

EauExtreme

With Allure Homme Sport Eau Extrême, we have a less peaceful sport as we are moving from sailing to surfing. On the main advertising we can see the worldwide surfer Danny Fuller. He is officially the Brand sport spokesperson. In the adverting video we can see Fuller in the art of action. Check it here:

In term of Flacon, nothing really new. In deed we can see the original Allure Homme Sport flacon in a darker grey version. It is supposed to express the more intense version of the original fragrance.

Allure Homme Sport Eau Extrême

We cannot really say that there is a big artistic will behind this creation. The flacon and the name makes us think about the 1984 Dior Eau Sauvage Extrême. Same color universe, and almost same name. Don’t you think? Actually the Dior flacon is much more elegant and edgy.

Dior Eau Sauvage Extrême

In terms of fragrance, we have here a quite disappointing juice. There is a kind of minty note that brings a kind of functional aspect into the headnotes. As soon as the fragrance develops, it gets better but this start is hard. I would compare it with the 2010 rework made by François Demachy of the Eau Sauvage Extrême. Also with a Mint note that makes things much less elegant. I will not talk about Bleu de Chanel that was definitely a commercial product without Chanel soul. We wonder what is happening with Chanel as they were one of the leading fragrance houses for men in the 90’s. Flashback!

1955 POUR MONSIEUR
Pour Monsieur Chanel

A timeless elegant fresh aromatic fragrance. Pour Monsieur remains the gentlemen’s fragrance by Chanel. The coriander and the cardamom here brings a fresh, sparkling and chic touch in a traditional fragrance structure. Basically the perfect companion for the N.5 woman.

1981 ANTAEUS
Antaeus chanel

Not the big hit by Chanel but definitely in coherence with the power muscle of the 80’s. A strong leather fragrance for powerful man. The Advertising shown the mythological fight between Heracles and Antaeus a semi-giant. he only way to defeat him was to lift him from the ground so the contact with the ground (his source of power) does not exist anymore. Interesting fragrance but not an easy one, especially in the world of today.

1990 EGOÏSTE / 1993 EGOÏSTE PLATINUM

Egoïste was the big hit for Chanel. Or I should say Egoïste Platinum. Basically the first Egoïste was a tremendous spicy and woody fragrance with a clear distinctive trail. It got famous by this incredible advertising that challenged all the creative minds at that time. In order to make it a big worldwide hit, Chanel launched in 1993 the Platinum version. More fresh, orange flower than the original one. It is still one of the most sold fragrances inside Chanel. In some countries like France it is still ranked one of the top 50 best selling fragrances. The 2 versions deserves the attention as they are both beautiful creations. Interesting fact: when Chanel wanted to launch Egoïste in the USA, they realized that there was already another fragrance registered in the US administration with that name. As the launch was eminent, they decided to launch it in the US under the variant name L’EGOÏSTE with an L. It stayed many years in this way and after a while it changed.

1999 ALLURE HOMME
Allure homme chanel

We all remember the advertising of the masculine version of Allure. We could see accomplished men with lot of charisma like olympic champions, architects of businessmen. In terms of product it is a true Chanel made of olfactive paradoxes. It was a fresh oriental fragrance in which the sparkling power of green notes was playing and wrapping the soft and warm touch of woods and Tonka beans. A beautiful fragrance, understated and simply Chanel. An interesting commercial success at the beginning but then the marketing concept got a little tired.

2004 ALLURE HOMME SPORT
allure homme sport

With Allure Homme Sport, Chanel brought a big commercial hit into the market with a very interesting fragrance and reinterpretation of the Allure Homme Flacon in metal. The dazzling freshness and the soft yet strong masculine background makes it a nice, sportive and chic fragrance for men. It was one of the first modern worldwide hits simultaneously in Europe and the USA. Definitely the biggest hit of the Allure Homme line. I will not talk about the different flankers of this flanker but note that we had:

2008 ALLURE HOMME EDITION BLANCHE
2008 ALLURE HOMME SPORT COLOGNE SPORT
2012 ALLURE HOMME SPORT EAU EXTREME

2010 BLEU
bleu chanel

Here we cannot say that Chanel showed the best they had. Lot of people say that it is not a Chanel, others tend to believe that was a launch for the US and finally some others just wait for better days. Probably Bleu became more known because Martin Scorsese directed the ad film rather than for the product itself. Here again a Mint note trying to bring a efficient freshness that looses all the mystery and the feeling we are wearing an expensive fragrance. No interest.

So now with Allure Homme Sport Eau Extrême, we have a kind of half-Chanel and the big question is: why do they not come up with a great Chanel for men?
Waiting for an answer…
LA

 

Info sourced at chanel.com, osmoz.com, lecritiquedeparfum.blogspot.comwww.nstperfume.com. All inages are copyrighted and no reproduction rights available.