CHANEL
LE LION DE CHANEL
2020
PERFUMER
Olivier Polge
Bergamot
Lemon
Labdanum
Amber
Patchouli
vanilla
Sandalwood
Musk
I’ve always liked the Les Exclusifs, but struggled to find one that suited me personally. Before the launch of Le Lion, my favorite was Coromandel, but I didn’t fully love it. The others, I dismissed too easily upon smelling them in-stores only. Le Lion sparked my interest; I went out to sample it in the Chanel boutique and bought it straight away. More importantly, it caused me to give the entire collection another look. As of 2024, 31 Rue Cambon would be my favorite, followed by the Coromandel Parfum/Extrait. Le Lion was a love at first sniff, but I ended up selling it after about 2 years in my collection.
Le Lion is the most amber, sweet and smoky fragrance in the line. It instantly feels like a Chanel in some facets, but at the same time it’s a strong departure from the others in the collection. It has more bite, it’s a bit more agressive and the Chanel DNA comes across more opulent than classy here.
The opening has 3 elements for me: There’s a lot of lemon and bergamot, it’s very powdery and it’s smoky, almost animalic. It’s quite the contrast, but the citrus is dominant for a moment and then fades, which makes for a nice transition. There is a clear connection to Guerlain’s Shalimar DNA with the bergamot and amber combination here, but ultimately Le Lion goes far enough into it’s own direction to stand on it’s own.
After the brighter opening, the resinous amber comes through strong. It’s a benzoin-esque and mostly labdanum bomb with serious projection, that gets progressively more smoky. It feels fiery and it gives me the feeling of dry sawdust with the friction heat still around, but sweeter. In this phase it feels most like a ‘lion’ to me; it’s slightly abrasive, loud, although keeping a touch of the traditional powdery, cosmetics vibe that seems to be the Chanel signature.
As it dries down further, the resins make way for more of a syrupy warm vanilla to my nose. Some wafts almost like a warm dark chocolate sauce (with a berry fruitiness), maybe even a hint of booziness. It loses part of the powdery aspect, but it’s still dry underneath the syrupy sweetness. You can sense the patchouli, which is where the Coromandel comparisons come in, but Le Lion is less tamed, a lot sweeter and in my opinion, more exciting. A lot of reviews mention leather, but I didn’t find that a prominent factor.
Overall, Le Lion blew my expectations out of the water. I’m taken aback by how much I loved it instantly. It was one of the strongest fragrances I’ve ever encountered; to its detriment eventually, as I found it a bit demanding of a wear, which is part of why I ended up selling it.
It misses the refinement of the others in the higher-end Chanel lines and I always felt like Le Lion (perhaps made a bit more mass appealing) could’ve been a great successor to Egoiste for the lower-end men’s line instead of the Les Exclusifs. Still, a great release either way.
