Chanel Magnolia (1929)

This very rare perfume died too young as a delicate flower and many years I had doubts about it. I found references about it in some obscure German trade magazines were it was presented among other recent French launches. Recently I smelled it (in a rather bad health) but I was able to figure out how it was constructed with some trials, some patience and effort. Magnolia is like a hybrid between Gardenia and Bois de Iles, with some interesting notes, popular in those days. It's a quite heavy and opulent perfume. The drydown is a sandalwood-cedar note (exotic wood) and the heart is very rosy (a rose bouquet with nerol) with an orange flower note that turns into a tuberose. Imagine gardenia without the green note but rather very opulent, lactonic note - the tuberose. Magnolia has also a very popular note of champaca, an absolute that seemed to be very used in the 20's-30's.
The classic magnolia (in that era) was based on a ylang-lily of the valley with rosy notes and something very sharp on top (like lemon), a contrast between the warm-heavy base and the very fresh top (or tuberose-orange flower-rose with lemon). The top had also sharp green notes (like in gardenias or hyacinths). Magnolia Chanel is all that, in the heavy tone (almost fruity) plus the woody drydown. If Bois des Iles was the smell of an exotic wood, Magnolia was (I guess) the exotic floral note of that imaginary island (where champaca flowers grew).
Note: Magnolia (*)

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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art