As you prepare to emerge, Annabel Rivkin says don’t sweat it
Small steps. Small pleasures. That’s where we live now. Our sense of self has shrunk after a year of truffling around for minuscule pleasures; tiny doses of thrill that elevate the drudge and sameness to something with just a hint of deliciousness. And so, as we are about to be released, I want to tell you about Chanel No5’s new deodorant.
Now, Chanel No5 has always been, to me, a slightly intimidating prospect. Am I woman enough to carry off the scent of all scents? The fragrance that was commissioned by Coco Chanel to make the wearer ‘smell like a woman, not a rose’? The highly complex blend of jasmine, iris, lily of the valley, rose, ylang ylang layered over sandalwood, vetiver, vanilla, amber and patchouli?
ears ago I decided that the perfume itself makes me feel as though I am trying too hard, but the accompanying bath and body range is a ticket to… micro-joy.
The deodorant can is pleasingly pared-back and elegant, while the scent has been lightly reimagined to be delicate but still entirely present. I get tantalising little whiffs throughout the day and wonder, ‘What is that deliciousness?’ only to realise, ‘I am that deliciousness!’
Now, my beauties — at this time, under this pressure, as we feel the sun on our faces once again — these small, everyday, effortless pleasures are not nothing. Some days, they are everything. Little pathways towards the power of possibility: fuelling our engines to feel brave enough to venture forwards; to rise up once again to meet the world. It’s only a deodorant. But there are moments when it feels like a jet pack.
Chanel No5 The Deodorant, £41