When it's a Beaver Moon, I cleanse my crystals – something predictably met with an eye roll by my friends. But when I wear a perfume inspired by a comet? They can't get their snouts close enough to my scented wrists, their nostrils flaring – vampire style – as they suck it all in.
They're not the only ones who have fallen under the spell of Chanel's Les Exclusifs Comète. Colleagues' heads turn when I spray it in the office and I've lost count of the number of people who ask what perfume I'm wearing when pressed up close to me on the tube.
It seems I've finally succumbed to having a signature scent. I still dislike the term in principle – the idea that you are only married to one scent seems archaic to me – but my excuse for my perfume polygamy has always been that I'm a beauty editor, so it's in the job description to test-drive an army of fragrances.
The fact that I've never trusted my nose and committed is closer to the truth.
As the name suggests, Comète is inspired by the celestial night sky. Coco Chanel was an avid astrology enthusiast and, in 1932, she created a dazzling star and comet-shaped necklace as part of Chanel’s first High Jewellery collection.
92 years later, Chanel's in-house perfumer Olivier Polge was thinking about both this necklace in the archives and the tail of a comet in the context of a new fragrance.
When creating Comète, “enveloping and luminous” ingredients were non-negotiable. Another consideration was to allow the scent trail to hang in the air long enough for someone else to catch a whiff of it – a little like star dust in the tail of a comet.
“I would love to create a fragrance that has the same effect as a comet, with a dazzling trail that leaves behind an equally unforgettable memory,” Olivier tells GLAMOUR.
How I tested Chanel Les Exclusifs Comète
You may be wondering why, if Comète launched in May, I didn't namecheck it straight away as my signature scent. Put simply, it wouldn't have been authentic.
At the time, I wrote about what a game-changing scent it was, and I adored the backstory, but for a perfume to become a true signature it needs to be a year-round favourite – not just the perfume of the moment.
This was perhaps a more pressing issue with Comète, as it's a skin scent – a family of perfumes with minimal projection that often fade faster in winter (perfume needs heat to work, so when the temperature is lower, perfume evaporates slower and it becomes harder to smell it).
I needed to see how it telegraphed without balmy temperatures – and the past few weeks have given me ample opportunity to test its full range.
.jpg)
.jpg)
Comète doesn't disappoint. Despite the recent cold, I still get day-long, tantalising puffs of the scent when I wear it on my neck and wrists. I also love to spray it on my jumpers. Comète was almost made to be worn with cashmere and there's nothing more cosy than pulling a rollneck over your head and sniffing a familiar, nuzzly scent.
What Chanel Les Exclusifs Comète smells like
I'm a big fan of skin scents – how they softly purr rather than shout, their luxurious intimacy and the way they mix with the chemistry of your skin to create a scent that is unique to you.
For Olivier this was front of mind, too, when creating Comète. “Over time, the skin brings the perfume to life, for a fragrance trail that changes depending on who is wearing it," he says. "There is a richness and complexity to it that envelops the skin and reacts very differently on each person.”
It's true – throughout the day, I can actually smell Comète changing on my skin. It teases a bright, fizzy, cherry blossom note on first spritz. But then marzipan-like heliotrope flowers, combined with iris and musk, begin to unfurl on your skin to create a constellation of warm, powdery, almondy scents.
That's not to say that I no longer rotate the other perfumes in my collection into my routine. It depends on my mood. If I need a jolt of energy, I might reach for Le Labo Thé Noir 29, while Victoria Beckham's vanilla-laced 21:50 Rêverie makes me feel immediately calmer.
But like a boomerang, I always come back to Comète. It melds seamlessly with my skin and somehow just feels right. It makes me square my shoulders. It's like a proverbial hug in a bottle.
Comète also manages to hit the sweet spot between hovering close to my skin and being just detectable enough for everyone else in my orbit to smell – and enjoy - it, too.
For more from Fiona Embleton, GLAMOUR's Associate Beauty Director, follow her on @fiembleton.
TikTok's next cult perfume.
