To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Terkho – :
This is for the vintage EDT:
I get the sense of being in an old, wooden-floored library with the afternoon sun spilling in, catching dust particles in its rays. It opens with a peppery, spicy woodsiness before developing into a dry, earthy, slightly chalky and powdery white floral.
It is the equal opposite of the deep, dark, smoky scents. If Habanita were night, this would be its day.
ahuni – :
@highmaintenance – Thank you for the distinction between the two. I am excited for my vintage to arrive and to try it out!
Zelugsblals – :
This is the current 2018 EDP review vs vintage EDT from 90s.
To make a long story short, original vintage EDT was all civet, incense and dirty musks in the drydown which was an interesting counterpoint to the aldehydes and white florals on top.
2018 EDP starts quite nice with sparking aldehydes and an interesting carnation note paired with creamy tuberose, at this point it’s all Champagne, whip cream and white roses and I really enjoy it for an hour but after that it all goes downhill for me. As soon as the vanilla peeks trough the composition it’s game over! Don’t even try to look for dirty notes in the base, there’s none of that here. On the skin N°22 EDP dries down as a cheap sweet white floral that is not worth $350 plus tax!
In this case they stripped of animalic notes in the base replaced with generic vanilla. The vanilla ruins it for me.
I do agree with reviewers below, if you are serious about N°22 go for the vintage EDT or parfum which were truly sophisticated, don’t bother with new EDP that I consider nothing but a travesty!
Quel dommage!
rudik123 – :
It took me years to finally warm to no5. This seems the natural progression. It’s an aldehyde party. It gets you straight between the eyes. You then become aware of the iris and ylang. Further down the timeline and you get the jasmine and neroli. The iris and ylang ease off the peddle a bit. There is a lot going on and it is very well blended so picking out notes ain’t easy. I’m glad I enjoy it all along its timeline. It doesn’t evolve that much on me.
This is the scent to wear when you want to be seen as very lady like and pristine. Not a hair out of place. This is one to wear when meeting your significant other halves family. It is quite soapy but I don’t mind it. It is very conservative. Its the perfect scent for when I want to be taken seriously but also to underline that I am a woman who means business. I can easily imagine first ladies of the past wearing this to various functions.
I get moderate sillage and longevity in 27 degrees.
199009911 – :
Overemphasized aldehydes combined with mainly white flowers generate sort of a white haze, which is later joined by a raspy effect when vanilla meets incense in the drydown. These structural features are entirely different from No 5 which appears crystal clear in comparison. I love 22 for this unique raspy-haziness, it comforts like a space of purest luxury. This is for the Exclusifs discontinued EDT version.
Mexsr532InsuffBooni – :
I never had the pleasure of getting this when still in production, when I could afford a bottle I always got the No 5. I do own this from the Exclusifs line, and I adore it. I’ve tried several, and bought them full price from the website, and passed them on, I was bored with several, Jersey I liked, but not enough to reach for it often enough. Also had Rue 31 Cambon, nice yet not me. But this one I love! Wore it everyday to hospital while my dh was going through some surgery. Although, I’ve heard not to wear something you love with such stressful times, it will leave a bad memory, he made it through that well, and thankfully I still have a half a bottle left, just wore it yesterday. Not sure how I landed on this page reading about it discontinued and thought, oh no, I have one, I see it’s just a newer reform I suppose. But whatever it is, when a Chanel works on me, IT WORKS ITS MAGIC WELL. Worth a try.
ryasko – :
I never had the pleasure of getting this when still in production, when I could afford a bottle I always got the No 5. I do own this from the Exclusifs line, and I adore it. I’ve tried several, and bought them full price from the website, and passed them on, I was bored with several, Jersey I liked, but not enough to reach for it often enough. Also had Rue 31 Cambon, nice yet not me. But this one I love! Wore it everyday to hospital while my dh was going through some surgery. Although, I’ve heard not to wear something you love with such stressful times, it will leave a bad memory, he made it through that well, and thankfully I still have a half a bottle left, just wore it yesterday. Not sure how I landed on this page reading about it discontinued and thought, oh no, I have one, I see it’s just a newer reform I suppose. But whatever it is, when a Chanel works on me, IT WORKS ITS MAGIC WELL. Worth a try.
duf075Unlogrere – :
Vintage extrait is the true #22. Don’t waste your money on other strengths. Lovely…almost bridal.
gintarux – :
Interesting scent! At a first impression this seems like Chanel No 5 meets Guerlain L’Heure Bleue
enathnobe – :
No.22 just doesn’t evolve for me. All I get are strong, soapy aldehydes that dry down into quieter soapy aldehydes. I wish I could experience it like most of the reviewers have described. I’ll stick with my Coco and Coco Noir.
genek1991 – :
This is soapy, heavy on the aldehydes, so if you don’t like that you won’t like this. I do enjoy this charming soapy floral. You can tell that it’s a sister to No 5, but without the bad girl streak of civet. The dirtiest No 22 gets is an undercurrent of honey. She’s an ingenue, sweet and happy.
RornAbnob – :
I finally get a bottle of this Chanel for a good price. I was looking for a vintage bottle for many years because Chanel no 22 is one of my first perfume souvenir. When I smell it I am transported to my 20’s. A time when I was spending so much time in deparment store (Eaton) only to smell perfume. I was fascinated by all the huge factice bottles and of course my the magic of perfume. I not sure I will wear in ”public” Chanel no 22 because my taste really change over the years but I am happy keep it like an old photo.
alexmacter4 – :
This smells very much like Lauder’s White Linen with the longevity being better than WL. There are enough common notes to recognize that #22 is a relative of #5, but they are definitely different scents. This is a beautiful floral perfect for spring and summer. Next to Coromandel, my favorite of this line.
ccciiijjjqqq – :
No 22 Vintage Bottle (EDT)
I have an older bottle from the 1980s that looks exactly like the Eau de Toilette bottle of Chanel No 5. That one was in black and No 22 was in white. You might still find these rectangular bottles on eBay. Mine is a dated fragrance but it’s still pretty good and has held up well all these years. No 5 was and always will be an evening floral musk, a sexy civet and the naughty aristocratic lady. No. 22, however, is as pure as the driven snow, a virgin, a debutante who is all of sixteen and has on a pretty white dress, kid gloves, and a pearl necklace. Her hair is made up in an up do like a French twist or standing up well through hairspray (Aqua Net) in a pompadour like the kind that were popular in the early 60’s (Jackie Kennedy). In fact I would not be surprised if Jackie wore No. 22 though it has been reported she wore No. 5. A woman can just as easily wear both of those perfumes. No. 22 is an elegantly beautiful classic aldehyde floral, based upon white flowers and powdery iris, and one which has stood the test of time.
Opens with aldehydes, frothy aldehydes, soapy sudsy aldehydes. I want this in my bath water. It starts to smell exactly like neroli and orange blossom, not so much straight up citruses like lemon or bergamot orange. I detect delicious orange blossom. This is a white floral scent with citrusy flavors similar to jasmine and it’s no surprise that there is jasmine flower in the formula. It’s as much as jasmine as it is an orange blossom. The white floral bouquet also features gardenia (not listed) and tuberose, or rather both flowers in the same body. Gardenia is very difficult to recreate so most noses who formulate white floral scents with gardenia use tuberose. This is a tuberose and it’s subdued and not as green-floral or voluminous as Fracas. This is a very sweet and soft powdery white floral toilet water. In the end it turns into a iris flower or orris powdery but not like talc powder as No. 5. It’s more like soap, either hand soap or body soap.
Besides the aforementioned white flowers of jasmine and orange blossom/gardenia/tuberose, I also pick up on the white rose scent. These flowers are fresh like they are still in water and those fuzzy aldehydes keep them in that fresh terrain. It’s also similar to hair gel or a nice shampoo for both men and women. I don’t know how often it’s already been said but I do believe this fragrance is unisex by 2017 standards. It’s hard to believe that frags that were marketed to women in the 1920s 30s 40s could be worn by men today but it’s true. This reminds me of my brother who put a lot of hair mousse and gel on his hair that smelled like this. Maybe it’s the alcohol/aldehyde top notes. This is clean, very clean, like a perfectly carved white bar of ivory soap. White dove soap. Today it has no gender labels and if you’re male or female and want to smell clean and good without any real strong aromas this is for you.
I was rather late to the Chanel party. My mother wore Chanel on special occasions namely No 5. I had to wait until I was much older to get into the Chanel fragrances because I’d always associated them with older women, divorced women on alimony, and or society matrons who hosted luncheons and charity fundraising events, politician wives, high society ladies. This has the same dependent old money aroma as No 5. But it can be worn by anyone today young or old. It’s clean and fresh, soapy, floral oh and dries down into a soft powdery vanilla. The vanilla is really well done, like vanilla lace, actual edible lace vanilla frosting. Something gourmand about it with that note of almond and nutmeg, nutmeg for sure. Sweet. Sweet and subtle.
This is not an overpowering fragrance but then again I never doused myself in it. It’s a tenuous cloud of white mist with white flowers and vanilla. Not a bad perfume to add to your collection especially a vintage orignal No. 22. This has great longevity and staying power. I would peg it as a day time perfume to wear in spring and summer but can be worn throughout the year including fall and winter.
Formal and classy. It’s also suited to a bride on her wedding day to wear with her wedding dress. Everything you’ve heard about this fragrance is true. It’s such a beautiful beautiful scent. Available from the Chanel online store and any Chanel perfume store, as well as eBay. This is selling on the Chanel Les Exclusif line as a reformulation by Jacques Polge which I also wear and love. I recommend this perfume to any fan of the Chanel line.
excimer.09 – :
I’m reviewing the vintage extrait. Oh. My. God. This perfume is EVERYTHING. It’s almost a paradox, it’s magical. No. 22 is incredibly elegant and classy, almost incomprehensibly so, yet it’s completely unpretentious at the same time. Ultra rich yet somehow low-key. It’s chic, refined, proper, and somehow sexy/sexual at the same time. It’s equally soapy/sparkling clean and sultry, indolic, and even a bit. It is equally appropriate with a business suit, an elegant cocktail gown, and scandalous lingerie (i.e. Agent Provocatuer black silk and lace crotchless thongs paired with nothing more than pasties). It is the epitome of the roaring 20’s, right there with Caron Nuit de Noel, but NdN is not the jack-of-all-trades chameleon that No. 22 is. No. 22 doesn’t take itself as seriously, even though she is a hell of a serious piece of art. How Chanel? How can you make me feel so elegant, sophisticated, refined, womanly, and at the same time, sexual, playful, and easygoing? No. 22 actually kind of blows my mind.
The EDT lacks the depth and nuances of the vintage extrait, but manages to retain the character. I have yet to try the EDP and the new extrait but they look extremely promising too. No. 22 has serious potential to become my signature scent.
illipseJilk – :
L’élégance qui se dégage du n°22 est inégalable à mon sens. Il émane de lui une telle distinction qu’il sublime la femme qui le porte. Il égale en cela le regretté Parure de Guerlain.
stas.fiher – :
I can’t believe I had been missing this one for all these years~!! Was able, by the grace of God, to come to own a brand new bottle of voile, body mist. Waiting for it to arrive was like waiting for a lover…and the smell? It was an amazing experience. I felt weak in the knees, actually. Magnificent! Chanel’s Mona Lisa – the BEST Chanel, in my opinion.
Вован1971 – :
This is for a vintage (80-90s) bottle of parfum. No. 5 is my “signature”, but it would be this No. 22 if I could find it. I’m hoarding my last 3ml. Quite frankly, I’m not sure I would enjoy the new formulations of this.. In the version I have it is a powerhouse bouquet of glorious sparkling white flowers, but the incense base underneath is my favorite part.
olkas – :
Love this fragrance!
My all time favorite Chanel after Egoiste.
The background of this fragrance is clouded in some obscurity due to lack of information from the period when it was released in 1922. Coco Chanel was designing a White Line of white dresses, possibly white wedding gowns and or white spring summer fashions, and asked her nose Ernest Beaux, the genius behind No. 5, to formulate a fitting fragrance for her new white themed fashions. The aldehyde was an innovation in perfumery and was still in an experimental phase. For the first time in the 20th century, fragrances were formulated in a lab and made with aldehyde chemical content that gave it that freshness and power that oilier, natural fragrances lacked. For me this is a vintage classic that deserves more credit and praises. It has usually lost to the more overrated No. 5. In this sense, it’s similar to Chanel Gardenia, another divine but underrated scent.
So many images come to mind when I inhale the aroma:
Bubbly aldehydes, like effervescent champagne or white soap suds in a bubble bath, white flowers in elaborate floral arrangements and bouquets in a garden or lawn wedding ceremony, white wedding gown, white tuxedo, white piano, white silk, white satin, sensuous skin, gossamer, diaphanous veils and milk. It’s also an angelic snow white lily white heavenly aroma. If God and the archangels had a signature fragrance it would be this.
No. 22 is a fragrance of cleanliness close to godliness. A simple even linear scent but with a pristine and aristocratic polished elegance. I would like to add that despite it’s powder notes, and it’s white florals, typically associated with feminine fragrances, is unisex. This is for the gents too because it really does smell like some white bar of soap that you use in the shower or bath and when you want to smell not only clean but really good in the day or night. Dress: Formal.
The opening consists of top notes of aldehydes, fresh, invigorating and potent, with a dash of orange citrus and ylang ylang (a bit of a banana flavor ylang) orange blossom thrown into it, but above all, aromatic neroli. This scent is also giving away too much too soon. Within a few minutes after application, I can detect the vetiver, the vanilla, amber and the nutmeg. There is just a small touch of incense, but it’s most likely benzoin and or powder as it progresses into a powder note. The original No. 22 which is now long lost, had an incense note which held everything together as a smokier or spicier scent.
The heart is floral with all the white flowers that were available to perfumers of the Roaring 20’s in France: white roses, Grasse jasmine, lily of the valley, cream covered tuberoses, vanilla flowers, lily and to add that powdery floral air an iris. Soapy florals. Clean florals. While it is floral, and white floral at that, it is not coming off as an old lady perfume or old fashioned Church lady cologne. Quite the opposite, No. 22 is a clean scent that can pass for a fresh unisex scent in our market today. It’s such a great smell why would you limit the market to just women or just men when both can benefit from it’s beauty? No. 22 is that kind of fragrance you want to put on after you feel good in your own skin after a good shower or bath and you want to head out or stay home smelling great. The scent usually works with most people’s chemistry and it becomes that kind of vanilla based white floral and aldehyde scent that settles into a skin scent, or smells like your own skin but magnified in it’s aroma.
A fragrance that has continued to sell for years and though reformulated by Jacques Polge, can still be appreciated and enjoyed by Chanel fans and white floral fans all around the world. For me there are only a few superior Chanel scents. I can’t stop raving about Egoiste, nor Pour Monsieur and I feel that No. 22 is in their same ranks. A sophisticated, mature but also youthful soapy clean scent of divine white powder, mana from Heaven. Indescribably beautiful. A scent for all.
Soundtrack
Harp & Orchestra Concerto in B Flat Major
By Georg F. Handel
LUK – :
This was my mother’s favorite Chanel fragrance. I wore it, too, but it was always a perfume I associated with her. The fragrance has a wedding vibe to it as others have noted but I never found it long lasting enough as a wedding perfume. It’s a perfume of white florals and a vanilla, with a soft soapy sweetness and a creamy vanilla. It has been reformulated and I can attest that the original was better with an incense and a chypre style quality, and with even more flowers.
The opening is like putting your nose to ivory soap. It’s a white soap to put on in the shower or after your bath. The nutmeg is also very pronounced and smells a bit spicy. There’s a white floral bouquet of white roses, white lilies, jasmine and tuberose. The tuberose is not the dominant note however as I felt this was more of a big white rose. The iris is also pretty strong. A vanilla dry down keeps it powdery and sweet.
A fragrance that is clean, soapy, and white in color. I can wear this to work and it has an innocent and baby soft powder quality that will not offend anyone’s noses. It sits on the skin like a soft little cloud and it’s barely detectable to others unless they’re right next to you at arm’s length. I love this perfume.
I still have 5 bottles and have always enjoyed this scent.
10101 – :
I don’t know what the reformulation smells like these days, but I was blessed to come across an unopened bottle of the perfume veil a few years ago and I wanna tell you! This stuff smells a-maz-ing! How beautiful it is! I wear it on the coldest of days, especially when I get dressed up. I can still smell it, although faintly, on my scarves from last year!!! Hmmm, so good. I think to myself when I wear it, “This is how ladies smelled when this beautiful perfume first came out , and how it was really meant to smell.” I LOVE IT!
MOROZikMADI – :
This is more similar to L’heure Bleue by guerlain than chanel no 5. This just doesn’t have that strong violet note and it isn’t as dusty.
защитник – :
FRAGRANCE REVIEW FOR CHANEL NO 22
WHITE WEDDING BY CHANEL
This is my all time favorite Chanel fragrance, well, when I’m not wearing No. 19 that is. Ernest Beaux (1881 to 1961) who brought us Chanel No. 5 in 1921 outdid even himself when he created No. 22 the following year in 1922. What a stroke of pure genius. This is a perfume of incredible heartbreaking beauty. I’m going to break down the notes from the 1922 orignal formula which sadly does not exist anymore because it’s been reformulated by Jacques Polge (from 2007) and now selling as Les Exclusifs De Chanel No. 22, although I’m not complaining or knocking it. The new one is a sweeter softer version that kept the heart of the fragrance at least. I love both versions of the fragrance. No. 22’s original formulaic structure was as follows:
Head Notes: Aldehydes, Orange Blossom, Neroli
Heart Notes: White Jasmine White Rose White Tuberose Lilac
Base Notes: Sandalwood Vetiver Oak Moss Incense
These notes were available as fragrance accords found in Grasse France at the time: jasmine, orange blossom, tuberose, lilac, sandalwood, vetiver and oak moss. The innovative “new” notes that had not been used in fragrances before 1921 were in No. 22 and they were aldehydes and incense. Aldehydes had previously been used for Chanel No. 5. The aldehydic opening in No. 5 and No. 22 are similar, but No. 22 is far more excessive. It’s a sparkling champagne.
And that was the whole idea it starts off like someone pops open a bottle of champagne at a wedding. The white flowers are dominant in the heart of the fragrance: jasmine, tuberose and white roses. It’s a wedding floral bouquet. The original had some green notes as well that blended with the white floral accord and it progressed into the dry down. The sandalwood made it a chypre which was already an established structure in fragrance by 1921. It’s a lovely soft scented sandalwood. The most prominent base note of the old formula blew everyone away and sealed the deal: INCENSE!
This was the perfumed incense at a Catholic Cathedral during a White Wedding. It’s not dark smoke. It’s pure church incense that totally takes you to a church wedding. It must have been so beautiful to smell on an actual bride during the 1920’s. There is no doubt in my mind that this fragrance was especially created for brides to wear with their wedding gown on ther wedding day. Coco Chanel, never the motherly housewife type, didn’t care for floral scents in her perfumes and would never have worn this one. She preferred oaks and woodsy notes and green notes in her chypre perfumes and was into No. 19 towards the end of her life. I have never smelled a more perfect, luxurious fragrance than No. 22 the original thanks to a good friend in France who has a very old worn fragrance like a trophy that adorns her grandmother’s dresser.
REVIEW OF THE NEW FORMULA FOR CHANEL NO 22
Jacques Polge reformulated No. 22 in February 2007 and they are still selling with the Les Exclusifs De Chanel line. This is what you’re getting when you purchase it in the Chanel boutiques:
Head Notes: Aldehydes Neroli Lily Of the Valley
Heart Notes: Jasmine Tuberose Rose YlangYlang
Base Notes: Vetiver Vanilla Amber
Although amber is not listed on Fragrantica’s list of accords, I can totally smell it. It’s clearly there in the dry down and gives it a very clean soapy scent and warmth. It’s also commonly found in most of today’s formulas for fragrances even if they don’t bother to list the note. The new formula retained the original aldehydes as the fragrance starts to wear on your skin.
They kept the white floral fragrances of jasmine, tuberose and rose but added a new flower: ylangylang. And it’s a HUGE ylangylang and clearly the most dominant floral note. They spent a considerable amount messing with the base notes.They dared to take away the incense! And instead of that incredible incense they added what? Vanilla. Oh it’s delicious and sweet and blends well with the amber but it was created merely to soften the fragrance. The vetiver retains the green notes of the original and also makes it somewhat masculine, and this is why men today also wear No. 22. It has a cologne type of smell and can easily come off as a man’s night cologne to wear to formal evening wear events.
The white flowers are the true attraction of this fragrance. I wish however that they hadn’t rid this fragrance of that beautiful incense. The incense was what made No. 22 such a winner. I like vanilla, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just not appropriate to a Chanel fragrance. Even as such, this is a magnificent masterpiece that has stood the test of time as much as No. 5. But for me it’s superior to No 5. It is far more beautiful. If No. 5 is the fragrance a woman wears to bed, No. 22 is the fragrance the same woman wore to her wedding day with her wedding gown. It’s a fragrance that exudes class, sophistication, feminine beauty, and romance.
This is a romantic fragrance for romantic women. I’m single and love to stay single and don’t even dream about a wedding day. I also don’t intend to get married hundreds of times like Elizabeth Taylor or women who marry more than one time LOL. Although this is definitely a wedding gown fragrance, it doesn’t have to be. It’s a night cologne that you wear with formal evening gowns, ball gowns, and expensive couture for dinner parties, galas and the like. It’s also suited to fancy dinners, romantic restaurants, romantic cruises, a honeymoon in Paris, a wedding anniversary, a relationship anniversary. This is also a perfume to wear to the ballet, the theater, the symphony, the opera.
This is as far away from a relaxed casual cocktails-and-lunch or everyday day time fragrance as possible. It’s a fragrance that is so special, so beautiful that it can only be worn very infrequently once in a while, even once a year. I have a large splash bottle and it will be a long time before I finish with it. The fragrance has a lot of strength and lasts for hours. It’s my favorite Chanel fragrance along with No. 19. I love how this smells. Theres nothing remotely like it in the world and I don’t care who wears it whether it’s a bride or my next door neighbor in his pajamas picking up the newspaper.
awamSnape – :
white floral,powdery,deep incense vibe and vanilla. This is beige minus the wicker/hay note and honey with powder and incense added. Very nice!!!
ginvin – :
i try to identify and sense all the notes are listed in this perfume. this perfume is really complex, heavy, rich, extraordinary, bold and exploded like a bomb. two spritz on my hand is enough to exploded my room. top to heart notes are really bold and strong. it’s stay almost four hours on my hands. after four hours then i can smell the dry down notes. really close to N5 EDT, what an amazing sillage and longevity. price tag, sillage and longevity is equally done,
Kalash – :
So delicate. Reminds me of a dream. Or the memory of a dream. It is soft. I feel like this is the scent Alice smelled when she walked through the flower garden in Wonderland. It’s mysterious, yet clean. It is similar to 5 except so so different. Reminds me of flower crowns and mystical flower princesses. If spring was perfume it would be this/ No 19. What a gorgeous delicate scent. Definitely adore…
Дюс – :
A friend let me have a massive bottle No22 for $15—I know, how lucky! I originally wanted it because I am 22 years old. (I know, how lame haha.)
Anyway,I must say that I absolutely love this. I know it was in the running for what became No5, and so has similar notes, but on me they smell totally different. When first sprayed, I get a blast of aldehydes which remind me of popping open a bottle of champagne. After it settles, it’s a powdery floral medley. The Ylang Ylang, Lilac, and Rose are the most prominent flowers on me, but I can also smell that glorious Chanel Jasmine, and of course the aldehydes still although they’re now in the background. All in all, this is a GORGEOUS perfume. I read someone describe this as how an off-duty European model would smell. I agree! It’s classic, feminine (in my opinion), warm, and expensive-smelling (well, it IS expensive!) Tres chic!
axavel – :
NO. 22
CHANEL
GROUP: ALDEHYDIC FLORAL
NOTES: Aldehydes, Orange Blossom, Neroli, Ylang Ylang Jasmine Rose Tuberose Lilac Lily of the Valley Sandalwood Vetiver Oak Moss Incense Amber Vanilla
SILLAGE: SOFT Sits Close To The Skin
LONGEVITY: MODERATE 3 to 6 Hours
REMINDS ME OF: CHANEL NO. 5 L’AIR DU TEMPS NINA RICCI WHITE SHOULDERS EVYAN FIRST VAN CLEEF & ARPELS COTY LADY STETSON JESSICA MCCLINTOCK
In 1922 No. 22 one of the 24 vial samples selected by Coco Chanel herself in the lab of her perfumer Ernest Beaux who had released Chanel No. 5. Like No. 5 this was an early aldehydic perfume. It opens with a beautiful sparkling aldehyde note. The fragrance has a white ivory color and scent. It’s a fragrance of white flowers: jasmines white roses tuberoses and lily of the valley. They rest comfortably on sandalwood and are layered in moss as well as woods and amber. The original had an incense note that has now been replaced by sweet vanilla. It’s a fragrance of comfort, sweetness, elegance, and pure femininity. This really does evoke a white wedding as others have pointed out. I find it both soapy and powdery. It’s a floral of the first class. Beautiful, simple, and not overpowering. On me it sits close to the skin and feels like my own skin, sprinkled with white rose petals. The scent is instantly recognizable and has inspired similar fragrances most notably First Van Cleef and Arpels and Coty’s Lady Stetson. This is really a beautiful perfume and a lot more wearable than No. 5 as some people have a problem with the musk and civet. This has no civet and the dry down is pure woods and vanilla. It’s a floral chypre but because of those intense aldehydes its mostly an aldehyde. Chanel did very well in choosing Beaux as her perfumer. He was the best in the business at the time. If you like No. 5 chances are you’ll like No. 22.
Stevie – :
Happy May Day May 1 Welcome Spring!
Where has this fragrance been all my life? This is a dream. It’s a white floral bouquet of spring flowers of lily of the valley, white lilies, white roses, jasmine, tuberose, ylang-ylang, and orange blossom. Despite the flowers even the heady tuberose, it’s not screaming at you. It’s not a whisper either. It’s just there, with a delicate but detectable fragrance of sheer beauty. The opening is aldehydes that are similar to Chanel No. 5 but actually much softer and more perfumy with a lot of neroli. The white floral heart is to die for. The dry down is vanilla and soft woods, some amber. This is a soapy sweet white floral white wedding type of scent. I had heard of it being similar to No. 5 but I didn’t want another No. 5. It really doesn’t smell anything like No. 5. It’s much better. This is heartbreakingly beautiful. The images that come to mind. I see a a beautiful bride in white who has actual white roses as her bouquet and lily of the valley print on her dress and veil. It’s a long veil too. And there are white lilies white jasmine and white roses everywhere in a garden and gazebo where the ceremony takes place. Over trellis are climbing plants and even more white flowers white roses and lilies. There is nothing but joy and love. This is a beautiful spring floral scent white floral fragrance. If you like perfumes like Diorissimo by Dior and Jessica McClintock you’ll like this. Divinely beautiful.
Boumgoowl – :
Feminine, gentle scent that is delicate, beautiful, smooth, and manages to make insense drydown gentle but interesting. 22 isn’t harsh but distinct. I have the vintage eau de cologne.
The white floral and iris is the top and there isn’t a jagged edge anywhere to be found. I find this much more interesting than 5. Its finesse , lithe and unique
Edit: 1940s extraits dry down is a beautiful iris musky animalic that is damn sexy….
Samojlo_Vladimir – :
This one’s a perfumery masterpiece. Nothing in the world like it. For me, it may be the queen of ALL the aldehydics (perfumes like Chanel No.5, Caline, Liu, L’Interdit, L’Aimant, etc.)
An impossibly tender, wistful, powdered accord of aldehydes, lilac, ylang and neroli descends into a delicate base of iris, incense and sandalwood; ultimately it smells like some costly, translucent, laide-finish Japanese paper which has been delicately scented with Koh. Formal, elegant, sculptural, it hearkens to Art Deco alabaster columns in the moonlight. Or a haunted Victorian wherein an imperious portrait of a deceased beauty hangs. Chilly, majestic, papery, and heartbreakingly tender. A kind of pinnacle of spiritual beauty you didn’t know earth could support.
pinewood – :
Je veux ce parfum parce qu’il est sublime et figure parmi mes plus