The History of Chanel No. Five

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Chanel No.5 was the first perfume from Parisian fashion legend Coco Chanel. It was also the first perfume to include a designer’s name. Known as the world’s most legendary fragrance and Chanel’s most famous perfume, Chanel No. 5 is ’the smell of woman.’ The fragrance is the personification of glamour and femininity.

Created by Ernest Beaux in 1920, Chanel asked for perfume that was mysteriously feminine. Mademoiselle Chanel herself stated, “I want to give women an artificial perfume. Yes I really do mean artificial, like a dress, something that has been made. I don’t want any rose or lily of the valley, I want a perfume that is a composition.” No. 5’s composition is heavily made with jasmine, which was at that time the most expensive perfume oil in the world, due to the fact that Coco wanted make the costiest perfume in the world. Another important ingredient was synthetic floral aldehydes, which it was the first perfume in the world to us in such great quantities.

On the fifth day of the fifth month of 1921, Coco Chanel presented Chanel No. 5. 5 being her lucky number. But it wasn’t until the perfume reached the US in the 1950s, when it escolated to  the climax of its success. Everyone wanted to smell of Chanel. In 1953 when asked what she wore to bed, Marilyn Monroe famously said, “Why Chanel No. 5 of course.” Later becoming a spokesmodel for the fragrance, Mariln Monroe was not the only celebrity to bring the perfume to life. Catherine Deneuve, Carole Bouquet, Estella Warren and Nicole Kidman have all been spritzed with the smell of Chanel proving that even though times change, the smell will always be Chanel. Even after over 80 years since it was first sold, the Chanel company estimates that a bottle of Chanel is sold worldwide every 55 seconds. Chanel No. 5 is the smell of success, and is a luxurious part of beauty history.