N°5 exists across multiple concentrations, each one presenting a different facet of the same olfactory structure. The Parfum — the most concentrated, the most bodily, the closest to Beaux's original — is the most intimate. The Eau de Parfum is the version most widely worn, most recognizable, most documented in photographs. The Eau de Toilette, relaunched in a new bottle inspired by the 1924 minimalist design, is described as "more luminous" — the aldehyde structure opening brighter, the floral heart more airy. N°5 L'Eau, introduced in 2016, is the most transparent expression: a light, fresh interpretation for a generation that wears fragrance as a second skin rather than a declaration. Each concentration is the same perfume, experienced from a different distance.

Coco Mademoiselle — created by Jacques Polge in 2001 — is the house's other permanent pillar: a fresh oriental structured around a bright citrus opening, a heart of rose and jasmine, and a base of patchouli, vetiver, and white musk that gives the fragrance its particular quality of warmth without heaviness. It was conceived as a portrait of a younger Gabrielle Chanel — independent, clear-eyed, uncompromising — and it has been the house's most consistently commercially successful fragrance for two decades. In early 2024, Canadian actress Whitney Peak was announced as the new face of Coco Mademoiselle — described by Chanel as "marking a new dawn for the fragrance." The structure has not changed. The woman it portrays is being reinterpreted for each generation that encounters her.

Chance was created by Jacques Polge in 2002 as a departure from the biographical perfumery that defined the house's earlier launches — a fragrance not about Gabrielle Chanel but about an abstract quality, the sensation of a lucky encounter, a moment of unexpected possibility. The original Chance — fresh, floral, with a white musk depth — has produced several significant flankers: Chance Eau Tendre, Chance Eau Vive, and in 2024, Chance Eau Splendide, which Chanel described as the first entirely new fragrance from the house in eight years. Olivier Polge conceived Eau Splendide around a rare and distinctive material — a fragrance of particular luminosity and optimism, positioned as an olfactory statement about beauty as something found rather than imposed. The house does not launch frequently. When it does, the decision is final.

Les Exclusifs de Chanel is the house's most private vocabulary — nineteen fragrances available exclusively in Chanel boutiques, each one a chapter from Gabrielle Chanel's personal biography or olfactory obsessions. Sycomore — a dry, smoky vetiver inspired by the woods of her Aubazine childhood. Coromandel — the dark lacquer of the Coromandel screens she collected obsessively. Bois des Îles — the sandalwood and iris that evoke the scented breezes of her imagination. Boy de Chanel — named for Boy Capel, her first love. 1957 — the year she received the Neiman Marcus Award in Dallas, her American rehabilitation. And Comète — launched on May 3, 2024 — the nineteenth fragrance in the collection, named for the 1932 necklace from Bijoux de Diamants, its formula evoking the sensation of stardust on skin. Olivier Polge noted with pleasure that Comète is the nineteenth Exclusif, and Gabrielle Chanel was born on the nineteenth of August. "I believe in magical things," he said.

Bleu de Chanel — created by Jacques Polge in 2010 — is the house's dominant masculine fragrance: a woody aromatic built around cedarwood, sandalwood, and a citrus-fresh opening that defines the category of clean, sophisticated masculinity it helped establish. In 2025, Olivier Polge launched Bleu de Chanel L'Exclusif — a deeper, denser, more resinous interpretation of the original, built around New Caledonian sandalwood, cistus labdanum, amber, and leather, described by its creator as "a concentrate of exceptional raw materials — the most magnetic facet of Bleu de Chanel." Timothée Chalamet continues as the face of the collection. The L'Exclusif campaign, shot in a new series of short films, reflects the fragrance's more intense, more nocturnal character.

Olivier Polge became Chanel's in-house perfumer in 2015, succeeding his father Jacques — the only father-to-son transmission in the history of the position. He is the fourth person to hold the role in the house's history. His approach differs from his father's in degree rather than direction: where Jacques Polge built the major pillars — N°5 in its current form, Coco Mademoiselle, Allure, Chance — Olivier Polge has been deepening and extending them, while launching entirely new works such as Comète and Chance Eau Splendide. "I believe in magical things," he told Wallpaper* in 2024. The statement is not mystical. It is a description of what perfumery requires: the ability to find, in the relationship between rare materials, something that had not existed before, and to recognize it when it arrives.