Chloe by Lagerfeld (1975)

Chloe is one of the most beautiful florals I've come across in a while, and I don't even particularly like this category.

It's as much a chypre as it is a straight up floral, as Haarmann & Reimer categorize it, with its bergamot/green/fruit opening, its gorgeous jasmine-tuberose heart,  and its mossy, woody, musky dry down.

If Chloe is a floral, it's worldly, tough, and unconventional, like brunette beauty Gia Carangi...

It starts off fruity green, with a rich coconut note reminiscent of Ysatis that offsets the sharpness of bergamot and green notes and envelops the peach note in a gourmand, milky nuttiness that is soooo sexy. (Ysatis pays homage to Chloe, no doubt.)

Its floral heart comes forth like the scent of flowers on a summer night, intoxicating, intense, and erotic, the jasmine blooming just enough to keep you interested without scaring you off. Speaking of hearts, how beautiful is that bottle, shaped like an anatomical — rather than a cartoon — heart?

There's a softness and youthfulness to Chloe that belies its intensely sensual base. (With musk, sandalwood, amber, and benzoin, accompanied by moss and cedar in the base, it's hard to say Chloe is simply a floral.) 

Top notes: Green notes, coconut, bergamot, aldehydes, peach

Heart notes: Tuberose, jasmine, ylang-ylang, hyacinth, orris

Base notes: Musk, sandalwood, moss, amber, cedar, benzoin

As Chloe dries down, the sandalwood-moss-musk combo are quite prominent, but thanks to the brightness and sharpness of Chloe's florals (ylang-ylang, tuberose, jasmine and hyacinth) its happy floral character shines throughout, never allowing anything to weigh Chloe down.

I am not a florals girl, but I would wear this sexy thing in a heartbeat. I can't stop huffing my wrists! Fruity-green chypre with moss/woods/musk and a jasmine heart accented by coconut?

"Yes I said yes I will Yes."

Comments

[mals86]

I wore Chloe for most of a decade - from the time I was 12 or so, all the way through high school and into the first years of college. (One bottle - ONE! A one-ounce dabber bottle of EdT, too. I've always been a light applier, even through the in-your-face 80s.)

Smelled it last year when I was digging into tuberose-centric fragrances, and although it carries too much baggage for me to wear now, it still smells wonderful: rich and deep and with enough mossy-woody stuff to keep it from bogging down in the sweet florals. I do see the relationship between Ysatis and Chloe, but Ysatis seems a bit sharper to me, perhaps a little less rounded.

Nice to see a complimentary review of the Old Girl - thanks!

[Perfumaniac]

Hi Mals86. The Chloe I reviewed was an Eau de Toilette concentration, too, which really surprised me because it had EdP-level longevity and depth. It's rich and floral without being cloyingly sweet, and the moss and woods give it an edge. I love it! It's got a little more gravitas than Ysatis, which is its flirtier, party-going younger sister.

It's a shame Chloe carries too much baggage now for you to wear, but I know exactly what you mean. At least you can revisit it from time to time.

Have you tried Calvin Klein's first scent? Man, I LOVED that. I was a kid when it came out, so I didn't wear it, but I would visit it at the mall. Chic and beautiful like Chloe...

[rednails]

Happily, I didn't wear Chloe back in the day, because I have a bottle of vintage EDT I keep on rotation. It's nice in the late winter/early spring -- sort of a bridge between the heavy spices/chypres of winter and the transparent florals/woods/greens of spring proper.

[Perfumaniac]

Rednails: I love hearing that people wear vintage perfume sometimes! Chloe's beautiful, and that's a great way of looking at it, as a perfume bridge between seasons...

[Dana]

I loved it back in the 80's. Is today's version that you see on the shelves in Marshall's at a good price worth buying? Is it anything like the old stuff or another sad reminder? If anybody knows, thanks ahead of time.

[Perfumaniac]

Dana, I doubt today's version is worth buying. That's generally the rule. There's probably no oakmoss, sandalwood or any of the ingredients that make this such a special floral.  I would search out vintage minis on eBay. Vintage is the way to go, and Chloe's relatively easy to find and inexpensive...

[Lindaloo]

A close friend of mine wore this frequently in the 80's. I liked it on her, but I was more fond of greener scents and found Chloe a little overwhelming on me. However I did like the Chloe bath salts (partly because of the pretty jar with its little scoop)and would use them about once a week for a long luxurious bath.
Just before Christmas I came across a half-full 40 ml bottle of Chloe eau de parfum spray with its box at a thrift shop. At $5.00 it was impossible to resist even though I thought I might not ever wear it. However I've tried it a number of times since and am enjoying it very much.
I agree with Rednails about its suitability for this time of year.

[rednails]

Perfumaniac, I wear vintage perfume at least once a week -- often more, depending on the time of year. I have bottles of vintage K de Krizia, Occur!, L'Aimant, Cinnabar, Azuree, Arpege, Calandre, Theorema, Intimate, L'Arte, Le Dix and Imprevu and samples of much else that you have entries for here. In an interesting coincidence, I read your post on Cinnabar one morning and then happened to find a half bottle of vintage Cinnabar "fragrance" -- the really dark stuff -- at a thrift store an hour later; I thought it was predestined, somehow.

The thing about deep vintages is that they're so full of real animalics that they're often too sexy and therefore "not safe for work." But I wear them anyway, on the theory that, if you're near enough to smell me, you want to.

[Perfumaniac]

The bath salts sound amazing, Lindaloo. And $5 is cheap by anyone's standards for Chloe!

[Perfumaniac]

"I wear them anyway, on the theory that, if you're near enough to smell me, you want to."

I love it, rednails. Nothing says, "Back up, amateur" like a ripe dose of civet. And that's quite a collection you have there. I've never tried Occur! or any vintage Avon, really. What's it like, and any others you recommend? I really need to go that route. Avon's a gap in my perfume knowledge.

[rednails]

Perfumaniac, Occur! is a dark, civety floral chypre, in the Intimate vein. I'm not an Avon expert by any means, but there's a thread in Fragrantica's vintage section that might get you started. Charisma is worth profiling; it's a bright, bracing aldehydic that may have served as a template for White Linen. It's discontinued but available cheaply.

[Vintage Lady]

Chloe remains one of my favorite perfumes. Even the eau the toilette was strong enough to be there after a time. I loved it. and i have not tried the new chloe versions.

[Perfumaniac]

These sound amazing, rednails. Thanks!

[Perfumaniac]

Vintage Lady, the EDT was what I reviewed, and it had the strength of an EDP. Beautiful...

[breathe31]

Ah, Chloe! Got my first bottle at 16 and it lasted all of four months as I wore it generously and religiously! To me it was both "sparkling" and "warm". Never knew it had coconut in it(one of my favorite "food" scents- no wonder why I loved it so!). My second bottle I received four years later from my on again off again beau as a Christmas present. That gift (perfume from a man is so personal and intimate, don't you think?)told me that in his eyes our relationship was finally solidified. He was the only man I ever met who not only understood my obsession but encouraged it by buying me fragrance any chance he could get (Easter,Valentine's Day, etc.). He would often ask women what they were wearing if he liked it and then purchase it for me! What a guy! (He wore EDT everyday as well!). Chloe, Nikki de Sainte Phalle, Nocturnes de Caron, Calyx, Drakkar Noir and Herrera for men all conjure up memories of him. Alas, we did not remain a couple and my husband has bad allergies so he is not a lover of fragrance... go figure!

[szogat]

This will the present for my wife. :-)

[Perfumaniac]

That's so sweet, szogat! It's a beautiful perfume. You should get the vintage! http://miniatureperfumeshoppe.com/Chloe-P1051349.aspx

[kathy]

I wore Chloe in the early 80's. My bf at the time loved it and would ask me all the time what the fragrance was. Interestingly enough, I also wore Ysatis, Rive Gauche (!), and something from Ralph Lauren called Tuxedo. I think that was for men but no one every told me. It had a real cool package too. However, my favorite to smell, not so much to wear, was Coriandre. I bought it at Marshall's and have since found it at the malls but it is not the same. It had such an unusual smell

[oonagh]

Can anyone help...ive just bought a chloe set on ebay but it smells rather different to my current bottle. I thought maybe it was old and /or gone off but friends say it smells fine just stronger (i have a poor sense of amell). Does anyone know when a box set of 15ml atomiser and 60ml screw top bottle with funnel were produced? It looks dated .

[Perfumaniac]

Hi oonagh, Can you take a photo of it? I might be able to help. Also, when you say your current bottle, is it vintage or is it a reformulation? Maybe take a photo of both bottles.

[B. C. Nelson]

Hi. Re the set with atomizer and little silver funnel, it was around 1979/80. I still have mine and I know that's when I bought them. The atomizer is "silver" oval cylinder with the calla lilies on it, right? That's when I started wearing Chloe…never had so many responses to a perfume before or since. Still my signature fragrance, although I did experiment with their lighter version for summer.

[Perfumaniac]

Chloe is a beautiful scent, BC Nelson. Thanks for the comment!

[Sylvia]

Lovely review! I have the vintage perfume which is stunning!! And the bottle is wonderful, I'm very careful with the fragrance, keeping it dark and so on, but If I ever finish it the bottle will be beautiful to display on my vanity. Looks like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/FLACON-CHLOE-DE-KARL-LAGERFELD-EAU-DE-PARFUM-60-ML-/151307589963?pt=FR_JG_Collections_Parfums&hash=item233aa2994b

[Yaacov Rahamim]

Love the picture.

[Atty Tude]

Another of my "when I was young" scents. Everybody loved this on me. It's a floral, yes. But florals in those days were different. Not the shrilly young florals so prevalent these days.