Here’s a fact: Chanel will soon release a new men’s scent called Bleu. And here’s another fact: most bloggers haven’t had one solitary sniff of it. Put these two facts together and you get… pages and pages of blog posts in which writers and readers tell you what they think of Bleu. Confused? So you should be, and while you’re at it, you could add ‘dismayed’ and ‘disappointed’ to the mix.
There’s no question that the proliferation of blogging has allowed people from all over the world to share their perfume obessions with each other in a way that was, quite literally, impossible a few years ago. But I guess every silver lining comes with a cloud. Yes, we do now have access to a huge stash of useful information, but we also have to put up with considerable amounts of unsubstantiated, ill-considered nonsense, the most depressing of which is the type that comes up when you stick ‘Bleu Chanel’ into Google. The perfume community – if such an entity exists – has got its hands on the official list of top, heart and base notes and has decided that this new release from the house that gave us Antaeus and Pour Monsieur is going to be an embarrassing disaster. This may well turn out to be true (although it raises questions about whether dedicated perfume lovers are placing unrealistic expectations on a company that makes no secret of its commercial agenda… although that’s a topic best left for another post…). But what’s more worrying is that, by their sheer volume, the negative voices will create a self-fulfilling prophecy and turn people away from what has every chance of being a perfectly decent piece of work.
So I’m sorry if this post’s title brought you here on false pretences, but this is one blog where you won’t find impulsive speculation masquerading as reasoned opinion. On the basis that you can’t please everyone, we can safely presume that some people won’t be impressed with Bleu, but can’t we just wait until the juice is actually on the shelves before we get our daggers out?
Persolaise.
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I agree with you wholeheartedly in general. I think we can all be a little too judgmental. I think I did read one blog though (Octavian at 1000 fragrances) who dissed the fragrance but seemed to have actually obtained a sample on pre-release, but I'm not a 100% certain.
Regards
Michael
Hi Michael,
Yes, I read that review too, and as you say, it wasn't complimentary, but then that's fair enough, if the person who wrote it actually sampled the scent!
At least we haven't got that long to go before we can try it for ourselves.
Very true. I for one never read those type of things and just wait until something comes out. Notes are so many times very misleading so no sense in contemplating what they might turn into until I actually am smelling them. 🙂
I agree Ines. And there's also the whole issue of published notes sometimes being slightly misleading. For instance, so many modern fragrances claim to contain an 'oud note' even though they've never been near any oud.
I can vouch for Octavian actually having smelled it. I didn't, and I tend to agree with you that speculating on something just based on a list of notes can be extremely misleading.
First because, as you say, what's on a press release is not necessarily accurate. Second, because the way notes work together can yield entirely different results. In fact, the more knowledgeable S.A.s I speak to tend to avoid giving out notes initially when presenting a scent, because saying "patchouli", or "rose", or "grapefruit" could put off someone who's had a bad experience with one of those notes in a certain setting…
I haven't been impressed by Chanel's two latest offerings, but… wait and sniff, right?
Hi Carmencanada. I was sure that Octavian based his views on a bona fide sample of the juice, but I suspect that's more than can be said for a lot of the people passing judgement on the scent.
My local department store confirmed at the weekend that they'll have Bleu on the 16th. I'll be away then, but I guess it'll be at airport shops.
By the way, thanks very much for stopping by and leaving a comment 🙂