She's A Lady: Chanel No. 22

Current Fragrance: Chanel No. 22
Currently Listening: Corcovado by Astrud Gilberto

 

Since I recently turned 30 for the fifth and final time, I decided it was time to buck up and become a real lady. To me, the definition of becoming a real lady was one word: CHANEL! OK, I get it...I'm shallow...whatever. I write a perfume blog. I'm pretty damned self indulgent...whatever. Wait, that wasn't very ladylike.. Oops.

No. 22 was my first Chanel ANYTHING other than two bottles of nail polish that I have been gifted over the past five years. No a whole lot in the world honestly scares me anymore. Well, being smited from the beyond by my Granny shure does. Curious for the story, you'll find it here: Click Me! Click Me!!!

So Kathleen, how did you get around this? Well readers, it's simple: I made an assumption. I decided to assume that my Granny meant Chanel No. 5;I couldn't have THAT until I was 50. While my Mom was still in town post-surgery we went to the Chanel Boutique to find me my Chanel. It was going to be her birthday gift to me. I was VERY excited!

I decided to do something I rarely do. I didn't read all of the descriptions of all the fragrances over and over online, nor did I go in with an agenda of what "type" of fragrance I wanted to walk out with. The SA asked me what I was in the mood for: Aldehydes, not a BIG white floral, ladylike, was my response. I ended up with No. 22 and I'm VERY pleased. It's not like anything else in my collection and that is EXACTLY what I wanted.

I'm not going to go on and on about exactly how it smells like. Chanel perfume was mythic to me growing up, and I'm going to allow my Lady to continue to be mythic by not dissecting it to bits.

Most of my "ladylike" perfumes have a bit of a dash of trollop to them... (You are what your spritz?) Take my dear Une Rose Vermeille, for example. It's winking and smiling and shaking he hips in spades. There none of this in No. 22, but it's not a "great beauty" - no flowing blonde locks say of Fracas. No. 22 is a brunette or very dark red head, with her hair up in a chignon. It's ladylike in her utter sophistication

To me having this Chanel and the lady like poise to carry it off actually means something to me. More than something, it really means A LOT!! It took me to the age of 34 to really feel like a woman, a REAL women. Confident, caring, relaxed, poised for whatever life hands her next, living life on her own terms, and finally realizing that the best parts of life aren't in WHAT you do and WHO are you, it's WHAT type of soul your are and HOW you handle your walk through this world. To me that's what a true lady is and what No. 22 reminds me I have attained a bit of a true grasp on.

*Currently Listening: Papa Loves Mambo by Perry Como
**Photo Credits: My own