I didn’t have “become a jasmine harvester for Chanel” on my 2025 bingo card, yet there I was in Grasse, France, this fall, knee-deep in blooms, trying to play it cool. Me…in a field…picking the very flowers that give Chanel N°5 its unmistakable magic. The iconic scent that’s 104 years old and still one of the best-selling perfumes on the planet. The one Marilyn Monroe claimed to wear to bed. The one that has graced vanities from generation to generation and is basically woven into pop culture’s DNA.
And once I was there, it hit me just how sacred this place truly is. These 74 acres aren’t just Chanel’s fields—they’re ancestral farmland. The Mul family has been cultivating perfume plants here for five generations. In 1921, when Ernest Beaux (the perfumer who created Chanel N°5) selected jasmine from Grasse as the heart of what would become the legendary scent, it was this very land he was drawing from. And by 1987, Chanel officially partnered with the Mul family to secure and preserve the quality of these precious blooms for centuries to come. Everything here follows a “from the flower to the bottle” philosophy, right down to Chanel’s extraction factory that sits at the foot of the fields so each blossom can be processed at lightning speed.
It helped that Olivier Polge—Chanel’s master perfumer—was there with us, quietly explaining how each element of Chanel N°5 is balanced to keep the fragrance timeless. Watching him speak about this scent with both reverence and curiosity made it clear: he’s not just preserving a classic, he’s shepherding it into the future.
Jasmine picking is a vibe, but it’s also a workout in disguise. The bushes bloom every single morning (wild, right?), which means five days a week, the pickers are out here harvesting with dedication and precision. I joined in—bending, reaching, plucking, sweating—and quickly realized this is a full-body workout and romantic fragrance experience at the same time.
And just when I started questioning my life choices and casually considering moving my family to France, I paused. I stopped to deeply smell the jasmine I’d been picking. It was giving soft girl energy, but with plenty of power. And that’s when it started to sink in: this tiny flower is only the beginning. Chanel N°5 was never designed to smell like one bloom. Chanel Beauty blended jasmine, May rose, sandalwood, and more, not to capture a single note, but to capture a full-fledged woman—complex, unexpected, and of course, unforgettable.
In that moment, the whole experience snapped into focus. The fields, the legacy, the fragrance itself—it all made sense. N°5 isn’t just a perfume…it’s a true flex.
And once I understood the vibe, the facts behind it hit even harder. Here are some of the fun facts I learned:
- The jasmine harvest only lasts from the end of August to mid-October. So, there are only 8 weeks to get all the precious jasmine needed for the whole year.
- A 30 ml bottle of Chanel N°5 Extrait packs in 1,000 jasmine flowers. One. Thousand. In a bottle that fits in the palm of your hand.
- 560,000 jasmine flowers equals 100 grams of jasmine absolute. My knees buckled when I heard this.
- Jasmine is harvested five days a week —both flowers and humans rest on Sunday.
- The fields cultivate five perfume plants: jasmine, May rose, rosa geranium, tuberose, and iris pallida.
- 400 kilograms (or about 882 pounds) of roses produce just 1 kilogram (or 2 pounds) of rose concrete. I will never look at a rose the same way.
- Chanel N°5 was radical not just because of the abstract blend and minimalistic bottle, but because Coco Chanel was the first major fashion designer bold enough to name a fragrance after herself.
By the time I packed my bags and was headed back to NYC, I knew exactly what my holiday gifting strategy would be: Chanel N°5 for all!
After witnessing the craftsmanship, the heritage, the literal hundreds of thousands of flowers required to make a few grams of perfume concentrate, how could I not share it? Giving someone Chanel N°5 isn’t just gifting a fragrance--it’s gifting a story, a field of jasmine at sunrise, a century of artistry, and a little bit of the woman who insisted that perfume could be as multidimensional and dope as we are.
So, if you unwrap Chanel N°5 this year, just know you’re getting more than a fragrance. You’re getting a piece of Grasse—a little sunshine, a whole lot of jasmine, and a century of beauty magic bottled up just for you. That’s a gift that lingers long after the holidays.
Julee Wilson is Beauty Editor at Large at Cosmopolitan. Previously, Julee was Beauty Director at Cosmo and Global Beauty Director at Essence and has held various editorial positions at Huffington Post and Real Simple. She counts herself lucky AF that she gets to play with beauty products for a living and tell dope stories. And if you’re as obsessed with beauty as she is, make sure to follow her on Instagram for plenty of product recs, natural hair inspo, skincare testing, and Black girl magic shenanigans.
