From Grasse roots to stardust—Chanel’s new fragrance pays homage to its past

Before joining Chanel in 2013, Olivier Polge honed his skills at other fragrance houses. At Chanel, Polge has created new fragrances and reinterpreted classics. Since becoming the head perfumer in 2015, he has balanced his creative vision with the utmost respect for Chanel’s heritage, ensuring the brand’s fragrances remain timeless. This time, it’s no different.

In 1932, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, a believer in celestial signs, launched her groundbreaking Bijoux de Diamants high jewellery collection, with the Comète necklace as its centrepiece. This theme is continued with the launch of a new perfume, Comète, that draws from Polge’s Grasse roots. Polge tells Bazaar India all about how the scent of the season came to be.

Harper’s Bazaar: What was the starting point for creating the fragrance?

Olivier Polge: For the most part, people seem to imagine that a perfumer comes across a raw material with an exceptional scent inspiring them to build a fragrance based on it, or recreate it. At Chanel, our style is expressed through a creative aesthetic. It is a unique creative process, as Gabrielle Chanel was, above all, a couturier. She wanted to convey elements of her style and personality through fragrance. For that reason, all Chanel fragrances begin with an idea, a state of mind, or an emotion.

Creating this fragrance for the Les Exclusifs de Chanel collection began with a name. What did this name evoke? Could it be expressed through a scent? The goal was to find a link between this new idea, the sensual impression it made, and what could be created from an olfactory point of view. When we chose the name Comète, I was immediately struck by an impression of diaphanous and delicate shimmering stardust. I aspired to give material form to this image, which was almost a magical sensation, through an exquisite and unusual powdery composition.

HB: What makes Comète stand out?

OP: Comète is a skin fragrance that creates a unique and almost intimate sensation when it is worn. Over time, the skin brings the perfume to life, for a fragrance trail that changes depending on who is wearing it. With this creation, I wanted to explore a new olfactory identity and imagine something enveloping and luminous. Comète is not constructed with obvious powdery notes such as vanilla or tonka bean. The heliotrope accord, in combination with iris, explores unusual olfactory facets with more almond-like and slightly fruity nuances. There is a richness and complexity to it that envelops the skin and reacts very differently on each person.

HB: What were your primary sources of inspiration?

OP: Everything around me is a source of inspiration and creativity, from the most material item to the most abstract notion. Travel, meeting people, dreams, and words—all generate olfactory ideas and impressions. Emotions, above all, are creative catalysts in the realm of perfumery. I also try to convey an emotion with the composition of a fragrance. It is inseparable from a certain amount of curiosity. You need to be curious to look for new smells every day, and to find them. Comète is both a dream, an almost celestial vision drawn from my imagination, and also a very powerful symbol for Chanel. The comet motif is embodied by a diamond necklace, in particular, and in the very definite taste that Gabrielle Chanel had for astrology, constellations and numerology. That opened the way for numerous inspirational narrative realms.

HB: What was the development process like?

OP: Once I had found the idea, I had to shape and develop it from the laboratory to the bottle. I wanted to give material form to this mysterious and enveloping impression of a trail of stardust. When I create a fragrance, intuition plays a large part. I even wear the scents I create for a few days, to see how they evolve and behave on the skin, or what I need to improve. I give free rein to my instinct and visualise the notes that speak the most to me.

HB: Why did you choose iris as the leading ingredient?

OP: I really love iris and I consider this ingredient as my lucky star. It is a complex olfactory note that creates extraordinary effects. Blended in a composition, it reveals floral, powdery, and woody facets. At Chanel, we cultivate our own Iris pallida in Grasse, and that is the one we used in the structure of Comète. It is an ingredient that creates depth in this powdery-fruity heliotrope accord. Thanks to iris, the entire Comète accord gains in softness and grows richer.

HB: Who is Comète for?

OP: Gender is not specified for the Les Exclusifs de Chanel fragrance collection. Each fragrance, including Comète, enables the wearer, whether male or female, to cultivate a form of rarity and express their own unique character. There are no rules in perfumery. Fragrance enables us to express a facet of our character that we want to reveal to the rest of the world. Each of us decides what fragrance represents for us, personally. And then we are one with the perfume that we wear. I love the idea of this magical encounter between a fragrance and a person: it is a sensual relationship, something you wear for yourself.

HB: If you had to describe Comète in three words…

OP: Exquisite, magical, and luminous.

This article originally appeared in Harper's Bazaar India, June-July 2024 print issue.

Image credit: Chanel and Getty Images 

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