Bleu de Chanel L'Exclusif Chanel 2025

Ok ok ok, so, the price is absurd. Depends. Surely. Maybe.
The L’Exclusif of the Bleu family is pricey, BUT it is the most innovative, boldest, and richest Bleu yet. Isn’t that what we fragrance nerds want?

The sandalwood in here is incredible. The star in the fragrance for sure. Clear and creamy. Very rich.
Amber, leather, and labdanum is also very present. It makes the fragrance much darker than the Parfum which it is quite similar to in the first 10 minutes.

Overall, the L’Exclusif is, to me, the greatest Bleu de Chanel yet.
It is not however, the most versatile one.
This is very classy and maybe darker than you think if you haven’t tried it.

To me, the Parfum and L’Exclusif is different enough to have them both. But in the end, the question of money and how you spend it is up to you.

Chanel trying desperately to mimic Dior’s success with Sauvage Elixir by trying to experiment with amber aromachemical overloads. The problem is, it isn’t revolutionary anymore if you’re not the first to do it.

It has a bit of the creamy citrus effect of Outlands and Bal d'Afrique Absolu de Parfum (along with their amber boosters in the base), and it combines it with aquatic/ozonic notes of its predecessor Bleu de Chanel Eau de Toilette and the amberwood of Bleu de Chanel Parfum. The effect just ends up being bland and trite. Trying to play it too safe in an era where everyone is experimenting and wants to find the next new thing.

Edit: gave this one a full wear for the first time (my review was based on a couple of sprays on the arm at a department store from a tester bottle), and it's worse than I gave it credit for. The positives from my review, namely the creamy citrus opening, don't really make an appearance in the air/scent cloud, and the amberwood appears way sooner. This could easily be mistaken for a 20 year old scent, and not in a good way. If it was released as a new fragrance line by Boss or Prada or a similar brand, and wasn't *Chanel* and *Exclusif* it would be getting universally panned like "Paradigme | Prada" is. Lowering my score appropriately.

Few fragrances we've seen released over the last few years have attracted the vitriol that BDC L'Exclusif has. It got an absolute hammering when it came out and the spittle and wide-eyed malevolence it attracts on the comments and reviews from some people shocked me.

In my opinion, it is an absolutely majestic fragrance.

I loved it from the moment it was thrust under my nose in Dubai Mall last year for the first time and I still do. It is of the BDC DNA for sure, but it is so far away removed from the EDP and EDT concentrations. It has this inimitable niche finesse. I'll try to explain it to you as if you've not smelt it. It just smells impossibly well put together and incredibly refined. There is some sticky amber dripped across some ink and labdanum and one of the loveliest - I mean really, *really* good - sandalwoods you'll ever come across in the base. It sits atop a high castle of heavy, big money Ambroxan, fortified with powerful Iso E Super that gives it rock solid powerhouse performance. There is no freshness to it. There are no citruses in the head or aromatics in the middle but the echo of the BDCs is there, floating around the middle like the memory of yourself at the peak of your powers.

This is about as good as a nighttime wearer Sandalwood-centric fragrance gets in my opinion. The only one I can think of offhand that gets anywhere near this of the same profile is Santal Precieux by Caron which is itself one of my all time favourites. This is darker and richer but wears similarly. L'Exclusif is not a daytime wearer really and doesn't have the universal wearability that its forebears have. Indeed, they are so different that I have no issue in recommending owning the EDP and the darker, even more sophisticated L'Exclusif for the evenings. I own both.

The problem the fragrance community sometimes has is that there are sections of it that hate everything the designer mainstream does, everything they release. It gets absolutely demolished in the reviews in many cases without the reviewer trying it. Too expensive. Too short-lived. Too mainstream. Too derivative. Doesnt perform. Performs too much and is headache inducing. All that stuff. Is L'Exclusif overpriced? Probably. But I would contend that if I was going to pay $300+ for a designer with niche quality, it would be this one, Tuxedo by YSL and a few of the LVs. I'm almost glad it is very expensive because it means it will stay nicely away from the general mainstream and because of that will stay special. Things this special should be special. I get a huge kick out of wearing that that no other Chanel has ever given me. It is absolutely magnificent. A truly special fragrance.

Three Word Summary: The Ultimate Sandalwood

Layering suggestion: Try the EDP concentration of BDC over the top during the day. It is symphonic.

Outfit suggestion: dark blue jeans, Loake dark brown suede Chelsea boots, fitted white button-down shirt, designer belt, dark blue jacket, pocket square, IWC Ingeneur 40 on a leather strap.

Scent - 10/10
Sillage - 8/10
Drydown - 8/10
Bottle/packaging - 8/10
Performance - 9/10

43/50

Let's go... the classic and sophisticated very masculine opening of lavender, patchouli, vetiver and a fresh citrus accord with mint continues in this L'Exclusif version, bringing a discreet herbal touch, but different from the Parfum version where this green facet is more present. Patchouli and vetiver are more common as base notes, but here, they already appear at the top, bringing the earthy woody aspect. This departure is further complemented by warm spices and a subtly sweet woody amber accord. Those accustomed to powdery or sweet men's fragrances may find this accord old-fashioned. At the same time, I feel something like a wild floral, with a slight dirt, like a warm drop of an indole jasmine perhaps.

In the fullness of the center of this composition that is dominated by woody tones, mainly sandalwood and cedarwood. You can really feel the natural sandalwood here, the star of this version, the velvety texture of a sandalwood dry like raw wood chips, the sandalwood used here by Chanel is the New Caledonian one a variety of the Australian, it doesn't have the usual creamy milky raw facet of Indian sandalwood. And it also has a generous amount of woody cedar. This phase is mainly responsible for the classic masculine and elegant appeal of the previous Bleu de Chanel, maintained and amplified in this version in my view. Its iconic balsamic blue accord is probably present due to a touch of anise and/or licorice on the background.

Although this fragrance is very much based on ISO E Super, this makes its base elaborate around an accord of vanilla and musk, establishing an enveloping sensuality. And it is the basis of this composition, which surpasses all other Blue de Chanel fragrances in my opinion. Sure, it definitely has a lot of synthetic molecules mixed in with natural ingredients, but it smells really good, nothing chemical. It's woody, not powdery. It's hot and amber. A delicate vanilla sweetness emerges as well. At the same time, it carries echoes of the initial notes: both the lavender, patchouli and vetiver accord and the sandalwood/cedar accord. Practically imperceptible leather appears in drying. The performance is average to good; far from being too intense or bombastic.

This version in Extrait is mainly a resinous amber aromatic woody, it has lost the sweeter and more modern tones that have defined the atmosphere of the series since the classic Bleu de Chanel. The rather herbal opening, familiar at the exit of the Parfum, has been greatly weakened here. There's also nothing syrupy, sweet, or fruity. Instead, a hot sandalwood appears as the protagonist, a good novelty. In a few brief moments L'Exclusif can evoke a facet of Barber Shop, but with a high degree of refinement. Bleu de Chanel L'Exclusif captivates with its virility, depth, density and quality of ingredients. It is difficult to find men's compositions of this caliber nowadays. Still, I don't think it's worth how much is being charged for a bottle!

It's definitely a BdC flanker, and to me, it's almost like this is a different version of the Parfum that never got made, almost as if the perfumer made a handful of renditions and this one, because it's got some smoke, leather, and a small touch of something animalic, wasn't picked as the final version. To my nose, it's worlds different on strip versus skin, as on strip it's almost in between the EDP and the Parfum and very little of those dark notes come across. On skin (mine, at least), much more of those dark notes come out, especially when smelled up close. In the air, it's very close to the Parfum, and I'd say that if you have the Parfum, this is redundant. Personally, I've always wanted a bottle of the Parfum, and now that we have this, I may actually spend the extra money and get L'Exclusif. In the end, it has all of the characteristics of the Parfum, but it's slightly deeper, more interesting, and, most importantly, it actually projects. On my skin, the biggest drawback of the Parfum was that it didn't project or have much of a sillage to speak of, after the first hour or so. With this, the performance is much, much better, and if the Parfum had this kind of projection, I would've bought a 5oz years ago and never looked back. In my opinion, this is the best version of BdC so far, and probably what the Parfum should've been in the first place.

Scent: 4.5/5
Presentation: 4.5/5
Performance 4.5/5
Overall: 4.5/5