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Whiffed

Posted by Robin on 16 February 2011 15 Comments

The fragrance Chanel No. 5 recreates a scent that perfumer Ernest Beaux whiffed while traveling where?

— That was the (badly worded) $500,000 question yesterday on the TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. Answer below the jump.

Answer: inside the Arctic Circle.

Read more at Yale Prof Makes Do with Quarter Million at the Hartford Courant.

Filed Under: perfume in the news
Tagged With: ernest beaux

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15 Comments

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  1. Dilana says:
    16 February 2011 at 10:38 am

    That must be one of the more ridiculous claims in the long history of perfume advertising.

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    • annemarie says:
      16 February 2011 at 5:12 pm

      But he did get the idea of an icy clean smell from having served during the First World War in some part of northen Russia? Forgotten the detail, but there some truth to the story I thought …

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      • Robin says:
        16 February 2011 at 5:14 pm

        You have a better memory than I do…if I had heard this story, I’d forgotten it. Wonder if it was in the recent Chanel No. 5 book.

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        • annemarie says:
          17 February 2011 at 2:04 am

          I think it is. But I’m too tired after a long day at work to even reach it down from the shelf!

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          • Robin says:
            17 February 2011 at 8:12 am

            Hope you got a good night’s sleep!

    • Robin says:
      16 February 2011 at 5:14 pm

      Yeah? It didn’t strike me as an “ad copy” sort of thing at all.

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  2. ceelouise says:
    16 February 2011 at 12:56 pm

    Whiffed while traveling where…whew!

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    • Robin says:
      16 February 2011 at 5:14 pm

      Exactly.

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  3. platinum14 says:
    16 February 2011 at 1:11 pm

    Beaux probably “whiffed” all the fresh flower fields and aldehyde farms of the Arctic circle?

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    • Robin says:
      16 February 2011 at 5:14 pm

      :-)

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  4. ScentScelf says:
    16 February 2011 at 1:46 pm

    Hmmph. That phrasing makes it “whiffed” as in when Casey was at bat.

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  5. olenska says:
    16 February 2011 at 5:56 pm

    I know that the recent Chanel No. 5 book points out that Arctic ice has been analyzed & shown to contain aldehydes. But I honestly don’t remember an Ernest Beaux trip to the North Pole….

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  6. Celestia says:
    16 February 2011 at 6:54 pm

    Wasn’t there a story that No. 5 was created to smell like snow?

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  7. VintageLady says:
    17 February 2011 at 7:45 am

    Really? I had NO IDEA about this.

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  8. Gblue says:
    18 February 2011 at 9:29 am

    It is in the book. I remember, because I’m still trying to read it. Author’s style is awful.

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