Yazhini ManimudiChanel has defined and transformed fragrance since its beginning in 1921. Here are just a few of the best Chanel perfumes that work wonderfully even in 2025.
Chanel N°5 L’Eau
Key accords: citrusy, aldehydic, fresh, woody
Feminine
This is not the first time Chanel has attempted to modernize the iconic N°5. There was the N°5 Eau Premiere in 2015 before the L’Eau of 2016. Though the classic N°5 is a classic, it has earned a reputation with the younger crowds as old and dated. Opening with a cornucopia of citruses, the perfume evolves into a clean laundry kind of fragrance that is very popular these days. The aldehydes are toned down here in comparison, less soapy and more airy. I will always like the original more, but the L’Eau is simply more of the time.
Chanel Coco Mademoiselle Intense
Key accords: citrusy, vanilla, patchouli, sweet
Feminine
This feels like a betrayal to the original Coco Mademoiselle, especially after I just raved about it discussing perfumed lotions. But I had to put the Intense flanker on the list instead. This version retains the bold femininity that has come to define the fragrance but feels more modern. There’s a more ambery accord with a fruity woodiness. If the Coco Mademoiselle is the woman on a motorcycle, the Intense is the same woman in the corporate world and when she speaks, you listen.
Chanel N°19 Eau de Parfum
Key accords: green, earthy, woody, mossy
Feminine
N°19 is a hidden gem. Well, as hidden as a Chanel fragrance can be. In a world without N°5, this multidimensional green floral would be the star. It opens bold with neroli and the freshness of bergamot. It dries down to a creamy, mossy, leathery base. It feels like nature comes to life as the vetiver and sandalwood combine for an earthy, woody base with a calming softness.
Chanel Chance Eau Splendide
Key accords: fruity, violet, fresh spicy
Feminine
This 2025 release is a playful sweet perfume that softens to the powdery floral of violets. It takes the delicate violet note that was popular and considered the most appropriate for good, well behaved girls. The opening is a fruity raspberry and peach that feels more young as compared to violets and the iris in the heart. It’s pleasant, joyful and apt for the young woman about to enter the workforce.
Chanel Chance Eau de Parfum
Key accords: musky, powdery, spicy
Feminine
Pink pepper may be a trendy ingredient now, but when Chance used it in 2005, we only had a fraction of the pink pepper perfumes we have now. It’s carefree and youthful, but not a pop of excitement that Eau Splendide gives me. Clean, soft, floral and if you squint, herbaceous. Chance shows that what’s modern can also be sophisticated.
Bleu de Chanel Parfum
Key accords: woody, citrusy, spicy
Masculine
A citrusy fresh opening with an herbaceous tinge, the parfum is the better concentration in the line. It evolves to a much more warm woody feeling with sandalwood, cedar, amberwood, and Iso E Super. Somewhere in the middle, there is a juicy metallic brightness that is balanced out by a calming green freshness. It has more character than the original, which some consider to be quite boring.
Chanel Platinum Égoïste
Key accords: citrusy, spicy, fresh
Masculine
It’s an old school barbershop fougere from 1993 that still holds up well in 2025. Platinum Égoïste starts with a metallic freshness and boasts the hallmarks of a fougere with oakmoss, lavender, and geranium. With some amber, the fragrance brings an unexpected touch of warmth. This is definitely Chanel’s most popular men’s fragrance.
Chanel 1957
Key accords: powdery, aldehydic, woody, white floral
Unisex
1957 is an amalgamation of French and American perfumery. It’s comforting in its creamy softness but powerful rather than quiet or shy. It’s airy and bright, like a comfortable morning nestled in your white linen sheets after a long but satisfying evening when nothing burdens your heart and you can spend more hours indoors simply reveling in the honeyed sweetness of life.
Chanel Coromandel Eau de Parfum
Key accords: ambery, woody, spicy
Unisex
This luxurious, resinous fragrance was inspired by the coromandel screens in Coco Chanel’s apartment. Dark, warm, and of a different time, the fragrance is all about infusing high art and luxury into things as mundane as screens and perfumes. It welcomes you with a refreshing start that belies the rich, heavy base of woods, olibanum, incense, benzoin, and woody notes that are the perfect sensory expression of the piece of art that strikes wonder in the heart.
Chanel Paris – Paris
Key accords: citrusy, rose, patchouli
Feminine
Part of the Les Eaux De Chanel collection, Paris – Paris is a rose perfume that doesn’t look as exciting from the notes as it feels to the nose. The notes are deceptively simple for a complex fragrance. The rose is plush and more intimate but the patchouli projects more. It gives ‘rich girl’ while rose fragrances usually have the reputation for projecting rich lady energy.
Yazhini Manimudi
