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I've done all these reviews in the wrong order now! I managed to write a really in depth one for Cuir de Russie and the proceeded to delete it never to be seen again. That was my first and very positive experience of Chanel Les Exclusifs, I don't know why but I was dreading trying this. I think I thought it may smell like Serge Lutens Cedre for some bizzare reason...kinda pissy after all it turns out to be a sheldrake creation. Thank heavens it wasn't the opening is very clean and sappy green aldehydes but with an instant spice to it. I'd say juniper and cypress in terms of notes listed here and you could be fooled by thinking this was a very lightweight fresh woody scent. Then the next few minutes of development, and a very focused smokey vetiver emerges. This dries everything out and combined with the gorgeous spicy edge of sandalwood makes for an extremely refined vetiver and up there with the best I've smelled. The comparisons with Encre Noire are obvious as a benchmark of ethereal, earthy quality. I think the main difference is that Sycomore doesn't reveal it's hand as quickly as EN and as such develops slightly differently. This is a good fragrance.
Not sure if I've already reviewed this one but in any case I've revisited Sycomore EDT in the last week or so, as I feel it's one of the more popular Les Exclusifs but one of the ones I'm least familiar with. It's a vetiver! That won't be a big shock to those of you reading a review on Chanel Sycomore and I hate to pick on the previous reviewer (below) coz it's a bit of dick move but I am a dick so it's fine and perfectly in character, So I would say that to compare this to Encre Noir is bizarre to put it lightly. This juniper fresh interpretation of vetiver is a million miles from the gloomy, melancholy... no, abject misery of the Lalique, that to say they are different 'vibes' is an understatement. Encre is brilliant for what it is, about the most dreary day imaginable, I'm talking like Manchester dank! But it's construction is so rudimental, so Iso E and vetiveryl acetate and not a lot else, and while Sycomore EDT is seemingly simple too, it's key difference is that it feels alive, it feels rounded like a good Chanel should, and even though this is one of the least quintessentially 'Chanel' Chanel's I could reference, and it's not even bringing anything new to the table in terms of vetiver composition ideas, nor do I really even particularly like this style of fragrance from a personal point of view, I have to say that it is a supremely well made and satisfying perfume.
Sycomore is a fragrant chorus of cool autumn foliage, rich, mossy soil; soft smoke, and damp greenery. All the best smells of a forest ramble in late October with the promise of winter heard in the whispering flutter of a straggling sparrow migration. But! The hiker on this path is garbed in expensive elegance, a leather Prada bag, a silk Hermès scarf, that iconic Burberry checked coat. This is the scent of a woodland elf turned posh socialite; Galadriel who quit the forest, and is now living in a penthouse on the Upper East Side