Chanel Coromandel Perfume Review

Chanel Coromandel Eau de Parfum is supposed to be a “soft and voluptuous embrace” with “intense amber notes.” It is a scent that begins with citrusy, not-quite-ripe orange notes that get milkier, sweeter, and less definable as the flora heart notes come forward. The base notes are incredibly blended together and create a dry down that is creamy, almost chocolaty with the lightly spiced woods and resinous-like sweetness. Chanel lists Coromandel’s notes as: patchouli, frankincense, and benzoin, but a more complete note list seems to be:

• top notes: bitter orange, neroli, citruses
• heart notes: orris root, patchouli, rose, jasmine
• base notes: musk, woody notes, white chocolate, amber, olibanum, benzoin, incense

It opened with a blast of subtly, sweetened orange and its freshly-peeled skin off to the side. Only a few minutes went by before the patchouli came forward and only a slightly sharp citrus feel is left, less definable as orange and the sweetness less noticeable as it became creamier, smoother, and milky.

As the top notes faded, the heart of the fragrance resulted in a rich, heady floral quality with a touch of sweetness coming from citrus that has become creamier, smoother, and ripened.

Over the next few hours, Coromandel became warmer, spicier, and smokier as the amber and incense made their presence known. It developed a more resinous quality, but everything felt so blended that individual notes were hard to discern. There was slight woodiness and earthiness, a touch of spice (which pervaded through most phases of the scent), and almost vanillic benzoin/amber.

The dry down was more of a skin-scent, with the notes detectable from an inch or two above my wrist, and remains on the creamier side with lightly spiced woods, a hint of powderiness, and resinous sweetness. The initial dry down seemed to start after four to five hours, but heady, resinous amber gets more and more prominent from there and supplants the creaminess to some degree.

For testing, I blind bought the smaller of the full-sized bottle options–I like to live and spend dangerously, apparently–but it came as a strong recommendation from a personal friend who has a good sense of my perfume tastes. For testing, I used two sprays, which were applied to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. I use an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise.  It was long-lasting (over 10 hours and still detectable as a skin-scent) with moderate sillage for the first two hours with moderate projection for the first three hours.

Subjectively, I’ve been enjoying subsequent wears of Coromandel, since I have a full bottle, and certainly have no regrets about my blind-buy. I prefer it to Xerjoff Richwood, which has a lot of similarities in its scent progression, but Richwood stays sharper and heavy on the citrus top notes for much longer than Coromandel, which I prefer. I deeply enjoy the dry down with its sweet, ambery resins, spicy woodiness, and tendril of incense.

Available Sizes

• 2.5 fl. oz. for $250
• 6.8 fl. oz. for $400

Where to Buy

• Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Chanel