The new Coco Mademoiselle Intense debuts

Chanel’s new Coco Mademoiselle Intense is sexy, young and timeless—just what you’d wish from the iconic house.

Kiera Knightley stars again in a new mini film for Chanel Coco Mademoiselle. This time, she’s all morning-after glam and wearing the new Intense version of the Coco Mademoiselle perfume.

It’s that morning-after duality—refinement with a touch of mischief, beauty with a bit of boho—that has made Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle a success since its debut 17 years ago as the charming little sister to No.5.

The original Coco Mademoiselle fragrance, a surprise-hit chypre-floral, features bright citrus alongside warm wood notes. In the new Intense version of the perfume, perfumer Olivier Polge starts there, but turns up the olfactory heat.

Perfumer Olivier Polge stayed true to the original Coco Mademoiselle but amped up the sultry character of the chypre-floral with patchouli in the new Coco spritz.

“I wanted to remain close to the original formula, while giving it a whole new dimension,” says the Chanel Perfumer-Creator. “I wanted to increase the proportions of fractionated patchouli*. Push it to the limit. Unleash its power on the skin without altering the freshness of the top notes.”

For the perfume geeks out there, the brand explains the “fractionated patchouli” reference, thus: “Twenty years ago, Chanel came up with the idea of redistilling patchouli to obtain a fraction that provided new opportunities for use and is now widespread in the perfume industry.”

So with the new Coco Mademoiselle Intense perfume, the patchouli personality is intensified; rich and generous and swirling beneath the scent’s sparkling citrus notes—Sicilian orange and Calabrian bergamot, to be exact. Along with an amber accord of Tonka bean and Madagascar vanilla absolutes, this spritz smells almost good enough to eat.

Kiera Knightley embodies the rebellious beauty that is the muse of Coco Mademoiselle.

That delectable, edible character, is no doubt targeted at the heart of today’s young women who grew up in our modern era of gourmand perfumes.

This Coco Mademoiselle film aims at this young, rebellious beauty, too. Charming and fun, we see Knightley, who’s been the face of the perfume for a decade, walking through an exquisite Parisian loft apartment, which is littered with the debris of last night’s party.

Kiera Knightley, who followed Kate Moss as the face of Coco Mademoiselle, stars in the perfume’s new fragrance film.

The muse finds her Chanel bag under the now-fallen party streamers and balloons. Her discarded black slingbacks also discovered atop a gilded vase. A microphone lays spent on the floor.

We see the flashbacks to Knightly singing in the spotlight amidst the partiers—and a wall graffitied with “COCO FOREVER”. It’s a hashtag-ified nod to the history of the house too, as reportedly, Gabrielle Chanel herself revealed her Coco nickname at a similar, likely-champagne-and-cocktail-fuelled soirée eons ago.

Clearly, Mademoiselle’s fabulously feminist spirit lives on.

Watch the film, directed by Johan Renck and starring Knightley, here.

Chanel Coco Mademoiselle EDP Intense, $129 (50 ml)/$183 (100 ml), www.chanel.com

Chanel launches Coco Mademoiselle Intense, available in stores March 2, 2018.