Égoïste Chanel 1990 Eau de Toilette

Those of us who didn't just hatch out of the egg yesterday may still remember this absolutely dreadful commercial in which a handful of windswept puppies rattle the shutters and shout egoist.

I still don't understand this low point - indeed, absolute zero point - of advertising! But do I understand what was advertised there?

From an egoist, an alpha animal, you expect an appearance with rough edges. So do angular droplets fly out of the spray head into our noses? Well, the opening is straightforward on the one hand, but it is not really understandable. It's a strange melange of woods plus a little citrus and cinnamon, which doesn't just shamelessly push its way to the front. Rose and carnation provide a strong base that is very reminiscent of the (sun) creams that you could buy at the launch of Egoist and even before. The Egoisten Parade ends on a faintly leathery note, the flowers still sweetened like vanilla tobacco. What reads briefly here feels like it lasts forever, because the old egomaniac certainly has stamina.

The fragrance has few facets. It levels out for the first half hour and then nothing more happens. With egoists, there's usually always action, the world revolves around them and they're always bickering and bitching, the spoiled characters. But no action here. As straightforward as the torque curve of a turbo diesel engine.

What about Eck's and Kant's? By the standards of the time, the corners and edges were already there. But not in the form that the name suggests: Harsh and masculine. And what do you get? Contrary to all claims, nothing overly masculine, but a unisex fragrance before this category even existed.
Jil Sander took up this concept just a few years later and put the finishing touches to it with her milestone background. Was there ever a men's fragrance by the good Jil that couldn't be considered a milestone? Never mind, another topic. Take Jil's Background, throw out the raspberry and replace it with a wimpy mandarin, which is overwhelmed by tropical wood and pulsating cinnamon and you have - Egoiste! And now you can rattle your shutters.