Chanel Les Exclusifs: Bois de Iles, Sycomore, Coromandel

Have sampled all three and some thoughts:

Bois de Iles is too feminine and old lady. Even tho it dries down to something similar to Egoiste, the road there is feminine, flowery. Not a fan but only wore it once so far.

Sycomore: I could see how people would love this. It is a nice smoky vetiver. BUT....it to me isn't wearable in many occasions. I see others review this and say it's a formal black tie scent. I say no way. Too earthy for that. Had my SWMBO try it -- she still prefers Red Vetyver by Montale over this. A bit too smoky for me.

Coromandel: LOVE this. It's Serge Lutens takes over the Chanel lab -- with Sheldrake and Polge combining their strengths. To some it may be a bit sweet (it is technically geared as a women's scent as are the two above), but I find it unisex. It is complex, elegant, and easily wearable. I think it's amazing. On paper it did not smell good to me but when I put it on my skin it was fantastic. I'm not good at notes but I recommend this one if you like Chanel, Lutens, and are ok with a sweet scent. Come comparisons have been made to Borneo 1834 and even the sweetness of Musc Ravageur, but I find this one very wearable especially in cold weather.

I love green fragrances, so Sycomore is one that I've had my eye on for a while. I need to track down a sample of it sometime.

Sycomore is easily my favorite from the list and one of my favorite vetiver based scents. I'm surprised you like any of these Schad to be honest, but that just goes to show you never can tell. Everything is worth sampling.

Dennard - Sycomore is good, but I don't really consider it to be "green". Not in the way that Guerlain Vetiver or Malle's VE is green. It's a darker, smokey scent closer to Encre Noire IMO.

Coromandel is ok, but not bottle worthy for me and Bois des Iles is... well, you staid it pretty well. Just not for me either.

I have a 2ml sample of Sycomore that I used every day during my Thanksgiving vacation in Utah. It felt perfectly appropriate lounging around the house, shopping and out for dinner and drinks. I love Encre Noire as well and Sycomore actually felt a little less formal to me.

I find Sycomore more versatile than EN as well, and the creamy sandalwood note in it really does great things as the day wears on. More complexity and development than I get with EN. I do see the similarities, but when I owned both and wore them on alternating days for a while, I came to regard them as very, very different frags.

Both great, though.

Yes Sycomore is not green to me. It's smoky woods. Very earthy. Good projection. Man's scent- cant see how this is marketed as women's. A lot of people seem to like this one. I would not wear it at the office though because of the smokiness and strength. Agree with wearing it around house, shopping, drinks, lounging around.

Coromandel is so elegant and silky smooth. Love the combination of smells. I find many of the Lutens scents unwearable for most occasions. Coromandel is a Lutens that has been modified for regular wear and with the Chanel elegance added to it. Could wear this regularly.

Separately, a local shop here has the Royall Lime of Bermuda line of frags. Did not try any of them. My sense is these are old style frags with poor longevity and are more along the lines of aftershaves. Anyone a fan of these? They had all of them including a couple new ones (Vetiver and another one I can't remember).

I think your sense of the Royall frags is on target, although most of them are longer lasting than most aftershaves, and are better fragrance quality than just about any aftershave that I can think of. And for the price, they are a very good bargain. The Vetiver is dark and smoky, and fairly long lasting. The Spyce has lots of clove as well as nutmeg in it, and the clove lasts a long time. It's similar and I like it better than their Bay Rum.

I am not good at describing scents, but Coromandel has that "smells like a cologne" thing to me. Elegant, french. I dont know what it is about it. I get the same from Jubilation XXV. A little bit from the topnotes of L'Instant Pour Homme too. Elegant "that's what a cologne smells like it" scent. Any others like that I should go after?