Chanel Le Lion

 

Chanel Exclusifs Le Lion Eau De Parfum

I have a confession - whilst I am generally slightly cynical about many of the things life throws up, I have a soft spot for what some people might call spiritual hooey. Tarot cards, fortune tellers, Wiccan based witchcraft - talk about any of these things in my presence and my ears prick up. I'm also gaga for personality tests - Myers-Briggs (I'm an INFJ in case you're wondering), Enneagram (Type 5), Love Languages, Apology Languages, anything at all like that and I'm all over it. Astrology and zodiac signs are like the perfect clash of these two - it's a wonderful blend of a bit of that spiritual hooey you need to be willing to make the leap to get on board with and being about people's personalities, characteristics and the way different things in different houses can interact (yes you bet I've done my full star chart and I'm a Cancer sun and moon with a Capricorn rising if you want to know.)

All of which is to say - when I heard Chanel were launching a new fragrance into their exclusifs line themed around the lion because of Coco Chanel's deep connection to astrology, to her starsign being Leo and the way she adopted the lion as her symbol because of this, it ticked a lot of my boxes.

Chanel herself said, 'August 19th is my birthday. I was born under the sign of Leo. I am a Leo and, like a lion, I use my claws to prevent people from doing me harm, but, believe me, I suffer more from scratching than from being scratched.' 

She was superstitious and it's a well known anecdote that when she was presented with perfume samples numbered one to five and twenty to twenty four, she picked vial number five without even smelling it because five had always been her lucky number. She is quoted as saying to the perfumer, Ernest Beaux, "I present my dress collections on the fifth of May, the fifth month of the year and so we will let this sample number five keep the name it has already, it will bring good luck." 

It's little coincidence then, that Leo is the fifth Zodiac sign and Gabrielle Chanel's gravestone, which she designed herself, has five lion heads on it. 

Chanel's perfumer, Olivier Polge, says of his Le Lion creation - 'I was much more interested in the emblematic Chanel lion than the animal... For Chanel, the lion represents everything from the Zodiac sign, to Gabrielle Chanel’s totem animal, the sculptures in her apartment on Rue Cambon, the symbol of Venice, or the inspiration for sparkling pieces of jewellery. These multiple visions of the lion are what interested me, and the common denominator is a certain notion of power that is always conveyed with elegance.'

That notion of power conveyed with elegance is exactly what the Le Lion fragrance embodies. 

It has a physical power, it ensures it is noticed by being a fragrance with a projection and a lasting power that rivals most of my collection - no mean feat when loud orientals tend to be my favoured scent family.

Loud orientals - which Le Lion certainly is - can walk a very thin line between sophisticated and sexy versus being sexy in a very overt and potentially slatternly way. (Which, to be clear, I'm entirely here for from time to time - some days a girl wants a Lady Danger red lip, all warm and spicy and intoxicating and inviting and other days she wants a Ruby Woo red lip, blue based, perfect, crisply matte and a very clear message of 'look do not touch', it's all two sides of the same coin in my mind.) But this Chanel Exclusifs offering stays resolutely on the side of elegance. 

Whilst it remains elegant and sophisticated, these can sometimes be buzz words for perfumes that err on the side of 'old lady.' (Once again, I'm inclined to mention here that I don't mean this in a derogatory sense - I personally never mind a bit of an 'old lady' scent, in fact there's something I absolutely love about powdery sweet smells like Chanel and Dior lipsticks, Max Factor face powder and Guerlain's Meteorites.) But that's not what Le Lion is.

Speaking of Guerlain, I've seen this, understandably, compared to their offering of Shalimar. The two fragrances are similar in their citrus opening, but whilst Shalimar dries down to something warm, sweet, vanilla, soft and powdery, the dry down of Le Lion that lingers through to the morning after you've applied it, is warm and ambery, but resinous, almost slightly smoky and incense like .

I find Shalimar, warm, soft and romantic, I find Le Lion warm, with a spiced sweetness and intoxicating. If Shalimar is a waltz, Le Lion is a tango. They're so very different to my mind that there is absolutely room for both in a fragrance wardrobe.

All in all, I have loved the execution of Le Lion as much as I wanted to love it when I first read about the inspiration behind it, and I am thrilled that that is the case - I'd have been so disappointed otherwise. 

I took these pictures when I first received the bottle as a gift in July and as of now - October - I have used enough of this perfume that the juice is sitting almost below the label. That might not sound like much, but it's an impressive feat when it's a fragrance that really only requires a few sprays even for someone like me who generally likes to ensure people smell her from the end of the corridor and who has a robust fragrance selection and a distaste for committing to any one for any length of time. 

Fans of Chanel's Coromandel or Byredo's Altar will absolutely enjoy this fragrance, if you're near a counter that carries the exclusifs range I highly recommend going for a sniff.