Égoïste

Few fragrances arrived with as much noise as Egoiste. Chanel released it in 1990 and it is commonly attributed to Jacques Polge, though the house prints no nose. It began life in the 1980s under a different name, Bois Noir, which Chanel abandoned before the international rollout; the house then bought the rights to the name Egoiste from the publisher of the French magazine of that title. The launch campaign, directed by Jean-Paul Goude, built a facade of thirty-six balconies in Brazil, filled them with women shouting the name to Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights, and took a Gold Lion at Cannes. Thirty-five years on, the advert is still better known than most perfumes.

The fragrance itself is not a joke, and it has aged far better than the marketing around it. Chanel classifies it woody-spicy-ambery, and the centre of it is sandalwood: creamy, dry and dense, with rosewood and mahogany giving the wood an almost furniture-polish smoothness. Above that sits one of the most confident spice-and-flower accords in men's perfumery, cinnamon and carnation over Damask rose, which is why Egoiste smells old-fashioned in a good way. Coriander and Sicilian mandarin brighten the first fifteen minutes and then get out of the way. Tobacco, vanilla, leather and ambrette carry the long tail, and the drydown is warm, powdery and faintly sweet without ever tipping into gourmand.

This is cold-weather perfume. A Cape winter evening, a fireplace, a coat. In midsummer heat it becomes overpowering fast, and one spray too many is a genuine mistake with this one.

Longevity is excellent by eau de toilette standards, typically eight hours and up, projecting strongly across the first two. The caveat is honest: Chanel has never published a reformulation history for Egoiste, and wearers with old bottles consistently report a richer, more resinous sandalwood than current stock. Sandalwood sourcing has changed across the whole industry since 1990, so this is plausible rather than proven. What is certain is that the fragrance still sold today is recognisably the same composition and still has very few equals in its style.