Would You Like Something To Drink With Your Patchouli?
July 3rd, 2007
By Tove Solander
This smell-alikes post is a little different since I don’t own one of the fragrances and hence can’t do a side by side skin test as usual. Thanks to Chayaruchama, I have a decant of Chanel Coromandel, and upon trying it I was surprised to find the top notes smell just like a soft drink in the vein of Sprite or 7-Up! I hadn’t expected something sweet and sparkling and charmingly childish like that from an exclusive oriental. The rest of the scent is all dry patchouli and, yeah, it works. I get what people are saying about Chanel: they manage to make even a patchouli scent sheer and never heavy like most orientals. Even the sweet top note has the watery and transparent quality of a soft drink and is not rich and syrupy at all. In the drydown, another kind of sweetness appears, a more traditional ambery/vanillic sweetness, and on the whole the scent is a bit on the sweet side for me. I do however love the dry, earthy, evocatively musty patchouli note.
A while after I first tried Coromandel, I finally found a working tester of Prada. All I can say is it’s a perfectly decent replacement. And released before Coromandel, too, which doesn’t reflect too well upon Chanel. Prada has the same combination of dry patchouli and Sprite-like top notes. Perhaps the soft drink in Prada has lost more of its bubbles – it’s more like the soft, synthetic sweetness of apple and pear flavouring that made me not like D’Orsay Le Dandy. Here the fruitiness is more subdued and balanced by the patchouli, however, while in the pale Le Dandy there were nothing there to balance it. I’m amazed something so patchouli-heavy and dry can survive among the fruity-florals, and that alone makes Prada a greater achievement than Coromandel. Sure, Prada might not smell quite as expensive. The patchouli is not as exquisite, and I get more vaguely fruity sweetness than I’d like, especially in the almost gourmandy drydown. But I still think Prada is a better value if patchouli with soft drinks is what you’re going for.
Image source: thestar.com.my, nordstrom.com
Entry Filed under: Guest Blogger, Perfume Reviews, Smell-alikes
13 Comments Add your own
1. faizanjax | July 3rd, 2007 at 10:04 am
Truely innovate and unique fragrances are extremely rare. I am not surprised that Coromandel smells like a refined Prada..many fragrances use an already successful design template and either refine it or build on it. Some houses and perfumers even indulge in blatant self plagiarism (for ex: New Haarlem and Rochas Man). Even some of the past greats are “guilty” of that.
The Coromandel-Prada link might annoy some Chanel fan girls, but others will be happy to find a cheaper “almost as good” substitute
2. Leopoldo | July 3rd, 2007 at 12:23 pm
*whispers* I prefer the Prada too.
3. Marina | July 3rd, 2007 at 3:11 pm
I have a tumultuous, love-hate relationship with Coromandel
On a good day it smells like Black Orchid on me. On a bad day- identical to Obsession *shudder* It is most definitely not sheer on me at all. I wish it was!
4. chayaruchama | July 4th, 2007 at 5:59 am
Daughter mine, my latest patch-love is the more-affordable, gourmand-sans-cloy YR Neonatura Cocoon, with which I’ve been drenching myself joyfully in the summer swellter.
Other positives : no reprecussions from cranky naysayers , who would normally eschew my patch devotion [ i.e., DH, Ichiban Son-the-Critic, et al.].
Negatives?
None.
5. chayaruchama | July 4th, 2007 at 6:00 am
Ohhh…
Typing ?
Horrendous !
Please forgive.
6. Judith | July 4th, 2007 at 7:08 am
I completely agree. I have always thought Coromandel smelled like Prada, although I couldn’t compare them b/c I swapped my Prada away. No. 31 for me!
PS I have a little vintage Dandy, and I don’t remember what you described. I wonder if
–I am misremembering
–the scent is different on me
or
–it was reformultated.. . .
7. Solander | July 4th, 2007 at 8:17 am
faizanjax - Lack of originality is no crime, and I would easily forgive Chanel if my love for Coromandel was greater
Lee - *whispers back* Strictly speaking, I think I prefer the Chanel, only I don’t find it fantabulous enough, or Prada inferior enough, to recommend it.
Marina - I’m not familiar with any of those scents, but I recall Obsession man as rather horrible…
Chayaruchama - Sounds interesting. My little decant of Coromandel will satisfy my gourmandy patchouli-cravings for a long time though! I wear a different scent every day and I guess most of you would consider me an underapplicator… (A tiny vial usually lasts me a dozen times)
Judith - I bet it was reformulated. The sample I got didn’t smell dandy at all, it smelled like a teenage girl dressed up in vaguely “dandy” clothes in a fashion ad… There seems to be a consensus on Basenotes the scent IS fruity though, although most seem to find it a more boozy/decadent/rich type of fruity.
8. Amy | July 4th, 2007 at 11:12 am
I was terribly disappointed with how sweetsweetsweet the Coromandel went on me, but then I thought about the money saved & got over it. Prada is one of those fragrances I’ve smelled on lots of women and really liked it, but I’ve never gotten it for myself because, well, I’ve smelled it on lots of women. Plus, for me, Ciel! Mon Jardin does what Prada seems to be doing but better, so I’m more than happy with that floral-patch marvel. If you’re a Prada fan, I rec giving it a sniff.
9. Solander | July 4th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Ciel mon jardin!? Really? I have a sample but I never noticed the patchouli in it. I do like it though, but for me it’s predominantly rhubarb and for rhubarb I prefer CdG Sherbet Rhubarb.
10. Ina | July 4th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Tove, as soon as I sniffed Coromandel for the first time, that was my thought, “A better version of Prada!” I also do like Prada. Both are noteworthy modern day perfumery achievements.
11. Solander | July 4th, 2007 at 11:55 am
Ina - It was a commenter on my blog who first pointed out the similarity to me, so I guess there are plenty of us.
12. Amy | July 4th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Solander — give yourself a god spritz of the Ciel! & wait for the drydown, which gets wonderfully warm & woody & patchy. Mmmmmmmm…
13. Solander | July 4th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Amy - Funny, I think of the drydown as merely gourmandy - caramel/vanilla, less good than the rhubarb topnote. But it might be the “good spritz” that’s lacking - I only have a sample vial with applicator wand…
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