• For Women, but Many Men Wear It
• Classic, Classy, and Bold
• For Evening Wear, but Many Wear It During the Day
• For Year-Round Wear, but Best in Cool/Cold Weather
• Long-Lasting Scent
• Strong Sillage
• Great Projection
• Not for Office Wear
• Not for the Timid
• Vegan? Probably
• Cruelty Free? Possibly

Chanel N°5

The most iconic and best-selling perfume of all time; Chanel N°5 was first created in 1921. It was reformulated in 1986. In 2016, Chanel released a lighter modern version of Chanel N°5, an eau de toilette called Chanel N°5 L’eau. This review is about the reformulated, and currently available, Chanel N°5 Parfum.

A favorite of many celebrities, including Marilyn Monroe, Chanel N°5 is complex and mercurial. This perfume has a lot of notes in it, but they’re blended very well. Different body chemistries will highlight different scent notes in this perfume, but ultimately it will always be recognizable as Chanel N°5.

Those with fragrance sensitivities might want to give this one a pass, at least the stronger concentrations like the parfum and eau de parfum. She’s a very assertive lady. The eau de toilette is lighter and softer with a more floral presence, but is still very much Chanel N°5, and might be more suitable for those with fragrance sensitivities.

The Opening

The opening is a blast of aldehydes: sweet, soapy, and citrusy. The peach and lemon notes are particularly evident. It’s very clean-smelling and bright. A baby-powder scent is immediately noticeable and quite potent.

This is a floral-heavy perfume. My nose isn’t sensitive enough to pick out all the notes, but rose and jasmine are quite prominent.

It doesn’t scream “old lady,” but it’s definitely a mature vintage scent. Teens and twenty-somethings would be less likely to appreciate this Grande Dame of Perfumery than someone with a bit more life experience.

*It’s important to note that this is a complex perfume that can be favorable to some wearers and not others. Chanel N°5 can be either pleasant at the opening and turn ugly in the dry down or vice versa. It all depends on body chemistry. If it works with your body chemistry, it smells divine and distinctly vintage.

The Dry Down

The sweetness diminishes as the dry down approaches. The scent remains powdery throughout. Chanel N°5 gets rich, musky, and woody in the dry down. It’s still potent in terms of scent projection. The best description of the dry down of this perfume comes from Lanier Smith, who has an excellent YouTube channel.

Lanier Smith refers to the civet note in Chanel N°5 as giving the perfume an animalic scent reminiscent of “sensuous warm flesh;” that’s such an accurate description that I can’t think of anything better. The dry down is as sexy and sensual as it is elegant.

You can view Smith’s video review of Chanel N°5 parfum under the video tab.

*A word of caution: that sexy, sensual, animalic note in the dry down can smell like rank body odor for some people, so bear that in mind if you try this perfume.

If you love Chanel N°5, but can’t justify the high price tag, you might want to give L’Aimant by Coty a try. It’s also a vintage floral aldehyde perfume, but is much more affordable. L’Aimant isn’t a clone of Chanel N°5, but it is similar. In fact, depending on your body chemistry, L’Aimant might smell similar enough on you that others will think you’re wearing Chanel.

Is Chanel N°5 Vegan?

There are 2 known animalic ingredients in Chanel N°5: civet and musk. Chanel stopped using natural civet musk decades ago due to concerns about animal cruelty.

Animal-derived musk has been outlawed in modern perfumery for many years and large fragrance houses like Chanel are compliant. The animalic notes used in the modern iteration of this iconic perfume are undoubtedly synthetic.

This perfume makes heavy use of an amber accord. Amber isn’t a single ingredient, but a mixture of notes to create the amber accord. The main ingredients are vanilla and/or vanillin, patchouli, tonka bean, and resins like benzoin and labdanum.

Musk can sometimes be added to the mix but, in modern perfume-making, the musk is synthetic. The amber accord smells warm, sweet, powdery, and animalic (often musky).

Both the civet and musk notes in Chanel N°5 are synthetic, so this perfume is most likely vegan.

Is Chanel N°5 Cruelty Free?

Chanel claims that it doesn’t test its products on animals. Check out Cruelty-Free Kitty for a full statement from Chanel.

Like many large perfume and cosmetics companies, Chanel sells its products globally, which includes countries that require beauty products to be tested on animals. Chanel, as a company, is not cruelty free.

Mainland China seems to be the biggest offender when it comes to mandatory testing of cosmetics on animals. Many cosmetics companies and perfume houses, including Chanel, have been pressuring China to relax its animal-testing laws and adopt modern non-animal methods of testing beauty products.

China is beginning to make some changes to its animal-testing policies. As of May 1, 2021, China is allowing cosmetics companies to forego animal testing on some beauty products if they can prove their products are safe via other means.

It’s unknown if Chanel is exempt from animal testing in China. Until Chanel releases a statement to the contrary, we must assume that at least some of its products are tested on animals. Chanel N°5 might be cruelty free, but it’s unlikely that all of Chanel’s beauty products are cruelty free.

Video Reviews of Chanel N°5 Parfum by Chanel