Misia

Misia Sert was a pianist, a patron of the Ballets Russes and, by Gabrielle Chanel's own account, the only friend she had. Chanel quotes that line directly on the product page. The fragrance named for her arrived in 2015 in Les Exclusifs de Chanel and is widely reported as Olivier Polge's first composition for the house after he succeeded his father Jacques, though Chanel does not print the credit.

The house description is a single sentence: a flamboyant Parisian life, an ambery eau de parfum whose rose-violet accord combines with iris pallida, warmed by benzoin and tonka bean. That rose-violet accord is the whole fragrance, and it is a deliberate period reference. Violet and iris were the signature of theatrical make-up in the early twentieth century, and Misia smells unmistakably of a dressing room: lipstick, loose powder, warm skin, greasepaint.

It opens briefly with aldehydes and a soft fruit note, then goes straight to the powder. Turkish and Grasse rose sit over violet, with a raspberry facet that keeps it from being purely retro. Iris pallida supplies the cool, slightly rooty texture that separates real orris from a synthetic violet, and it is the reason the fragrance never tips into sweetness. The base is benzoin, tonka and vanilla, warm and resinous and much closer to skin than to the room.

It is worn by people who like their perfumes soft-focus and a little nostalgic and who are not looking for freshness. Evening suits it, cold weather suits it, small rooms suit it. A Cape winter dinner is exactly its register, and it makes far less sense in January heat.

On performance, Misia benefits from being a Les Exclusifs eau de parfum, since Chanel converted the whole range from eau de toilette in 2016. Six to eight hours is realistic. Projection is modest by design, because this was never built to fill a room, and after the first hour it settles into a warm powdery halo close to the wearer. If you want it to carry further, put it on a scarf or a collar rather than on pulse points.