Fifi Chachnil perfume – From Love to Hate to Longing and back again

Fifi Chachnil perfume first came into my life back in October. As I spritzed her out of the little decant I’d bought on The B*y, I was in love. Sweet, but not too sweet — tobacco, amber, coriander, powdered rose, mandarin, lily of the valley — sweet elixir. As I Googled my way to the Fifi Chachnil Cute Underwear Emporium, drilled down to the Fifi Chachnil perfume area, the beautiful notes… ruh-roh, something has gone wrong here. Do I like this still?

Too late. There was that bottle, pink, with that cute little pink atomizer and the crystal stopper. Do I really care about the scent anymore? Furiously putting in my order before I could change my mind, it was done, and I had the e-mail confirmation of my order for 85 mls of something that really was turning on me like a high school drinking buddy. The brakes lights for Fifi Chachnil perfume came on screaming, I dashed off an e-mail to please, please, please cancel this order.

Whew, saved from the charms of a cute little pink spritzer bottle. But it wasn’t over yet. I tried that little decant again and again, trying to make Fifi Chachnil perfume love me, and she would for a while, and then the little vixen would turn into the smell of an ashtray, it seemed like. Repelled and attracted, she kept calling me to try again. Every note of Fifi Chachnil perfume was perfect for me, these are all things I loved, but alas…

she had to be sent away, that was all there was to it, if i was to have any peace at all. So I socked what was left of her into a swap package, closed my eyes and dropped her into the mail. It was over, we were finished.

French_Poodle_1.jpgThen Mrs. L. Monger (Perfume Smellin Things) had to go and write this review.

She was back…
the little tobacco-puffin hussy was haunting me again. Everywhere I turned, MUA, blogs, it was All Fifi All the Time. I went to sleep thinking about Fifi Chachnil perfume, perplexed as to why. She wasn’t right for me, I had sent her away, enough other people loved her, she was a Loose Perfume of the worst kind, the kind that will not leave my head!

Then in the middle of the night one night, I decided the only thing to be done was to buy her. First I found her in parfum on MUA in the swap pages and arranged for her adoption into my home. Then I knew that that little 10 ml of parfum would never be enough, so I sent away to Paris again for the full 85 ml in the pretty pink bottle with the beautiful spritzer and the crystal top.

Menopause is a funny thing. What smells good one day does not the next, and vice versa. Everything is changing daily. I have been spritzing and dabbing Fifi Chachnil perfume with abandon for three days now, and she seems to love me at long last. The ashtray note has been tamped out and she is just a joyous little concoction that has me looking around for Pepe and a beret.

She’s one of a line of perfumes that have gone this route. What ones have been like that for you?

You can get a Fifi Chachnil sample at Surrender to Chance

  • Katie says:

    Lola is by Lola cosmetics… It’s carried through some Sephoras, and its also on their website, which I think is just lolacosmetics.com?

  • Victoria O says:

    Thank you! Now I have decided that this will never work for me.
    I sure have been wondering.

  • Patty says:

    Katie — who makes Lola? That sounds so familiar, I think I need to sniff it.

    March — whole body is breaking down, both nose and skin are fubar. 🙂

    Carolyn — so glad you stopped by! POTL was similar to me. I gave it away, and it kept coming back, and now I find myself thinking about it too. Brazen hussies, they are!

    G — Hey, you must have had high school friends like I did. Criminy, I had more knives in my back for those four years, I looked like a dartboard. :devil:

  • gingele says:

    Fif is one that, theoretically at least (notes, hype, following), should have induced paroxysms of joy in me at the merest dab. Instead, I get “meh” and a shrug. Not bad – but not the magic elixir I had hoped it to be. But that’s not really why I felt compelled to comment. Instead, I just had to tell you how much I loved this line: “…something that really was turning on me like a high school drinking buddy”. :thumbsup: Classic.

  • Carolyn says:

    Hey Patty!

    That’s really funny. I think I like Fifi too, but not enough to purchase it. It smells like a cross between POTL, SuL Cashmere, and Ambra del Nepal to me, and since I have all three of those (or at least, a bit of all three of those), I can’t justify purchasing Fifi. But I still hold onto my little sample vial and ponder it sometimes.

    POTL is the fragrance on me that has been most like your experience with Fifi. The first time I put it on, I got a headache and even felt a bit queasy. I put it away but tried it a couple more times again (the result of so much talk about it on the board), and the same thing happened. I was actually pretty pleased since it’s so expensive. Then, months later, out of absolutely nowhere I began craving it. Like one would crave lemonade on a hot day. I was thinking about and desiring to smell it just as if I were craving a favorite food. So I tried it again, and it was perfect. Now I love it, but it’s not an everyday scent for me. I’m still perplexed by what happened those first times I tried it, and why it’s different now. Part of me wonders if there’s some sort of addictive drug inside the bottle!

  • marchlion says:

    That’s hilarious. BTW I can’t decide if it’s my SKIN changing or my NOSE changing day to day. What do you think?

  • Katie says:

    You crack me up – I always think of Pepe Le Pew when I think of Fifi, too 🙂

    I still haven’t made up my mind about it yet, I will have to test it out a few more times before I can make up my mind already. I can see why folks get up in a twitch about it though – it is a flirty little scent.

    For me a scent like that I can think of off the top of my head is Lola. It was sort of too raw smelling somedays, and then too musky-sweet on others. Now that my bottle has aged a few months, it’s actually mellowed and blended a little better. As a result, I wonder if they don’t release of this oil for sale before the oil is actually ready.