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Top Review
Knitted with a hot needle?
When a new fragrance from one of my favorite labels is announced, my curiosity is naturally piqued. Especially when it’s part of an Exclusif series, for which I have a specific thread, an aura, a certain idea in my mind. This is the case for the Privè scents from Dior, for Guerlain, at least for the older perfumes, and of course also for Chanel.
So far, there hasn’t been a scent from the house that I dislike. While N°19 and Cristalle will always be considered my basic staples from Chanel, I particularly love the Exclusif perfumes, which, with the exception of Jersey and Beige, which are too light for me, will occasionally accompany me. Even though Chance or Coco Mademoiselle don’t align with my preferences, I would certainly wear them if I received them as a gift. N°5 occupies a special place anyway.
The idea of a Chanel scent always begins for me with a strong yet clean and transparent top note. Would that be the case with Misia as well?
But that’s already the first surprise. I don’t smell the silky powdery top note I expected, and I don’t feel transported to a theater dressing room; instead, my experience with Misia is somewhat akin to Teint de Neige by Villoresi: I feel as if I’ve blown too hard into a laundry detergent box. The scent makes me want to sneeze, and I can feel it on my tongue. It’s as if Misia activates my trigeminal nerve rather than my sense of smell. It doesn’t smell; it stings, just as I perceive spicy food not as flavor but as pain. I feel similarly about various Iso-E-Super scents. They take my breath away.
I have to endure for quite a while before I can recognize the theme of Misia. Then a very powdery, feminine, slightly nostalgic scent reveals itself to me. The charmingly old-fashioned violet also rises from the initial glaring cloud of dust, and while this is not my preferred direction, I don’t want to deny Misia its beauty at this stage.
But that’s about it. Nothing more happens on my skin, and that’s the second surprise. I lack refinement, I lack volume, I lack any kind of progression, and I lack the feeling of having a Chanel scent in front of me. I keep thinking that something must still come, but there’s nothing. There’s no harmoniously concluding base that rounds off the fragrance.
I can’t complain about the longevity. Applied in the evening before going to sleep, a fine, floral-powdery veil remains on my skin in the morning. Mind you, on the skin, because the sillage, aside from the explosion in the opening, is hardly worth mentioning.
Perhaps I am biased, but just as I feel with Guerlain, I also have the impression that with this fragrance, the change of perfumer reveals a different handwriting. This may be a figment of my imagination, but it influences my perception and thus my evaluation. Misia Sert was probably a very interesting and creative woman; the theme should have certainly turned out to be more dramatic, at least more expressive. Therefore, it doesn’t bother me so much that I don’t like the scent. I also accept that Chanel is addressing a completely different clientele with Misia. One doesn’t always have to put old wine into new bottles. It’s not a bad thing that the Coromandel, Sycomore, or Gardenia lovers are not being catered to. Rather, I find it disappointing that more wasn’t made of the intriguing theme. Great top note and disappointing progression; we’ve seen that before with Coco Noir.
So far, there hasn’t been a scent from the house that I dislike. While N°19 and Cristalle will always be considered my basic staples from Chanel, I particularly love the Exclusif perfumes, which, with the exception of Jersey and Beige, which are too light for me, will occasionally accompany me. Even though Chance or Coco Mademoiselle don’t align with my preferences, I would certainly wear them if I received them as a gift. N°5 occupies a special place anyway.
The idea of a Chanel scent always begins for me with a strong yet clean and transparent top note. Would that be the case with Misia as well?
But that’s already the first surprise. I don’t smell the silky powdery top note I expected, and I don’t feel transported to a theater dressing room; instead, my experience with Misia is somewhat akin to Teint de Neige by Villoresi: I feel as if I’ve blown too hard into a laundry detergent box. The scent makes me want to sneeze, and I can feel it on my tongue. It’s as if Misia activates my trigeminal nerve rather than my sense of smell. It doesn’t smell; it stings, just as I perceive spicy food not as flavor but as pain. I feel similarly about various Iso-E-Super scents. They take my breath away.
I have to endure for quite a while before I can recognize the theme of Misia. Then a very powdery, feminine, slightly nostalgic scent reveals itself to me. The charmingly old-fashioned violet also rises from the initial glaring cloud of dust, and while this is not my preferred direction, I don’t want to deny Misia its beauty at this stage.
But that’s about it. Nothing more happens on my skin, and that’s the second surprise. I lack refinement, I lack volume, I lack any kind of progression, and I lack the feeling of having a Chanel scent in front of me. I keep thinking that something must still come, but there’s nothing. There’s no harmoniously concluding base that rounds off the fragrance.
I can’t complain about the longevity. Applied in the evening before going to sleep, a fine, floral-powdery veil remains on my skin in the morning. Mind you, on the skin, because the sillage, aside from the explosion in the opening, is hardly worth mentioning.
Perhaps I am biased, but just as I feel with Guerlain, I also have the impression that with this fragrance, the change of perfumer reveals a different handwriting. This may be a figment of my imagination, but it influences my perception and thus my evaluation. Misia Sert was probably a very interesting and creative woman; the theme should have certainly turned out to be more dramatic, at least more expressive. Therefore, it doesn’t bother me so much that I don’t like the scent. I also accept that Chanel is addressing a completely different clientele with Misia. One doesn’t always have to put old wine into new bottles. It’s not a bad thing that the Coromandel, Sycomore, or Gardenia lovers are not being catered to. Rather, I find it disappointing that more wasn’t made of the intriguing theme. Great top note and disappointing progression; we’ve seen that before with Coco Noir.
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22 Comments
In my nose, it's especially very floral, but on my wife's skin, it's quite fleeting and somehow boring.
What a shame!!