December 27, 2010

Chanel exposes me to a new word and new experience - Baudruchage!

When Chanel invited me to an event to experience the art of baudruchage first hand, I must admit that I had to google the word first before I accepted, not having any idea what it meant!  To save you from googling:

Baudruchage is performed by hand and consists of placing a fine membrane (called a baudruche) over the neck and stopper of the bottle.  Then the baudruche is held in place with two strands of pearl-cotton thread.  For each perfume there is a specific colour of thread.  Black for the No 5, No 19, Coco, Allure Sensuelle.  Pearly white for Coco Mademoiselle, Pink for Allure.

This technique makes the bottle perfectly watertight and protects the fragrance from the intrusion of air. A wax seal is then added to guarantee the bottle is tamperproof.  the baudruchage is a symbol of expertise, luxury and refinement.  Chanel has ten people at the workshops in France who are masters of this art.

It was quite something to see, this little French lady did it like it was nothing but I can imagine what a mess I would make of it if I tried!  I'll be thinking of her the next time I open a new bottle of Chanel perfume!

- Lisamarie -

5 comments:

  1. wow..learned a new thing today! interesting.

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  2. Wow seems like such an ancient art to still being going on today! I got Coco for Christmas and love it, but it's in the bottle with the black plastic lid, not a lovely glass one..oh well!
    If you like Urban Decay enter my Book of Shadows 3 giveaway!
    Kat x

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  3. AWESOME. I went to this event too!
    But in a different country. I thought it was pretty fun to try it myself though, the expert was much better at it. I wish I could have kept one of those little bottles. (:
    Was also a good chance to test out my french....

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  4. i loved reading this post! thanks for sharing

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  5. I learned a new word too! What a cool concept. ;-)

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