Your All-Time Favourite Floral Scent Has Been Reimagined

“The original Chloé Eau de Parfum was such a simple, short formula, made with very few ingredients,” says perfumer Romain Almairac of the classic scent that his father, Michel, helped develop. “Nobody was expecting it to be such a success.”

Following the perfume’s 2008 launch, its pale-blush bottle (and its soft fragrance, with notes of lychee, rose and amber) became instantly recognizable and cemented the scent as one of the greats. So, what better time to do something totally new and exciting? Meet the recently launched Chloé L’Eau de Parfum Intense — a reimagined, amped-up version of the original.

Created by the father-son perfumer duo, this latest iteration features bright raspberry top notes and woody amber base notes. But the heart of the fragrance — just like its predecessor’s — is rose.

“A rose is a kaleidoscope,” says Romain as he dips scent strips in rose essential oils in a gorgeous home on Paris’s Left Bank. (The neighbourhood was where Chloé’s founder, Gaby Aghion, landed upon moving to Paris from her hometown of Alexandria, Egypt, and also where she held the very first Chloé fashion show, in 1956.) “When you walk through a garden in the morning and smell a rose, you get an aquatic effect because of the dew on the flowers. In the afternoon, a rose’s scent becomes more intense. And in the evening, after a sunny day, roses have some honey notes to them. They’re a multi-faceted flower. We wanted to enhance these different elements.”

Romain explains that when he was working on L’Eau de Parfum Intense, the aim was to retain the original DNA while simultaneously creating something more addictive and intense. “We pushed it to its maximum,” he says. “The challenge was to give it more power and intensity without changing the atmosphere of the original eau de parfum. We wanted someone to smell L’Eau de Parfum Intense and still be able to say ‘This is a Chloé perfume.’ We were very focused on the original idea of the brand, and we knew we had to create something elegant and sophisticated and not overly sweet and fruity.”

Romain says that drawing in new consumers was only one part of the end goal. “First and foremost, I hope Chloé aficionados are pleased with this new version,” he says. “It’s fresh and joyful — just like the original — but the new Chloé woman is even more confident, and she’s not afraid to be seductive.”

This article first appeared in FASHION’s November 2024 issue. Find out more here.