Le Lion de Chanel
Chanel (2020)

Le Lion is a beautiful perfume that captures the essence of Chanel’s refined elegance. However, it bears a striking resemblance to classic creation by Guerlain - Shalimar.
Tis a masterful blend, marrying vintage Guerlain charm with Chanel’s signature sophistication.
If you can, seek out vintage bottle of Shalimar—it is the original, after all. But if that proves elusive, Chanel’s offering is a worthy alternatives. Just remember: Guerlain was here first, blazing trails a century before Chanel.

Typical Chanel: immaculately constructed, objectively beautiful, but ultimately too aloof and stuffy to command my affection.

Le Lion is a labdanum-dominant, dense, powdery classically French perfume, not worlds removed from Chanel's own Coromandel (though I find Coromandel more captivating and lush).

There are rare fragrances that i instantly decide to buy after a 2ml sample. This is one of those. Chanel seriously doesn't play around when it comes to perfumery. They make classics, that's what they are known for. Look at their catalogue, and you will find yourself in a journey of beautiful scent, and some history with it. Le Lion is something perfect for me, a scent that has some bite to it, while still maintaining the beauty of a Coromandel. Beautiful citruses on top, later comes amber and labdanum that should boost your confidence just by how assertive it smells. Also quite dusty/sandy towards the end, a nice unique twist that i definitely appreciate. To me it leans masculine, just because of a little rougher aesthetic than the previous Chanel offerings from the Les Exclusifs line.

Is it worth paying the Chanel prices? well...when i spray this, i get pure enjoyment for 8+ hours, non-stop. Quality is probably the best i've ever smelt in any fragrance ever. I will enjoy 1 bottle for years to come, and will smell unlike anyone around me. So that should be the answer to that question

Le Lion is a nice amber-incense scent, however it only lasts 2 hours for me. I feel a sense of familiarity about it, that I have smelled this somewhere before. Nice enough scent-wise, but not my style.

Starting with a disclaimer: My “review” can’t really be a review because it’s too subjective. Le Lion intersects with too many personal experiences for me to stand back and analyze it objectively.

I love Le Lion. It has so many past associations and favourite notes all wrapped up in one perfume, like, as a youngster, having art lessons in a studio in a wooded area in the mountains, sniffing my Aunt’s Shalimar, wearing Shalimar on and off over the years, sparkling citrus, delicious patchouli, a tobacco note that supposedly isn’t there but evokes drying tobacco leaves that were mysteriously hanging in the tool shed of the house my grandparents bought and remained there untouched to be smelled at will, and a vanilla that floats serenely under the other notes creating buoyancy and a protective aura around the wearer.

I’m kind of surprised Chanel produced Le Lion as it seems quite a departure from their trademark smooth elegance. To my nose it smells kind of rough—as a lion should. It also evokes for me warmth, like that of an animal’s fur. All of this is why it works for me. I guess a perfume either speaks to you or it doesn’t and to me Le Lion speaks volumes.

I have smelled it before but only tried it on my skin recently - and it's different on my skin than on the blotter. It's more patchouli forward on paper, but my skin pulls more smoke & incense, and that's a good thing for me. It's very strong, dense, deep and dark. I thought it'll be a dupe of Guerlain's Shalimar according to the published notes when this was announced, but it truly isn't - it is its own thing and it does that its own thing well.