Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Family of fragrances build on a base consisting of bergamot, oakmoss and labdanum.
  • noun A perfume with such a fragrance.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the name of a perfume created by François Coty in 1917. French Chypre means Cyprus.

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Examples

  • What is to follow in the next seven years is a slowly but steadily growing number of releases that use the word chypre either as their classification or as a note.

    The Dawn of Pink Chypres Ayala Sender 2006

  • What is to follow in the next seven years is a slowly but steadily growing number of releases that use the word chypre either as their classification or as a note.

    Archive 2006-11-01 Ayala Sender 2006

  • The second, a family of both men's and women's fragrances called chypre, stretches from Guerlain's legendary Mitsouko, first released in 1919 and considered by some critics today to be the finest fragrance ever produced, all the way up to Chanel's Cristalle and beyond.

    Wired Top Stories jmckeel 2011

  • I am a known as a chypre junkie and oriental lover, and generally speaking I seek complexity and evolution in my scents, which isn’t often satisfied by florals.

    Archive 2006-05-01 Ayala Sender 2006

  • The chypre undertone in Crabtree and Evelyn's Ultra Moisturizing Body Butter with Revitalizing Lemon and Coriander is an exquisite find in a product with a $32.50 price point.

    Ode to Oakmoss: Crabtree & Evelyn Ultra Moisturizing Body Butter Michelle Krell Kydd 2009

  • Fragrance bloggers and their bretheren are of the opinion that hyper regulation of oakmoss is to has led to the destruction of the chypre category.

    Archive 2009-07-01 Michelle Krell Kydd 2009

  • Patchouli is a key ingredient in chypre, oriental, floral and gourmand fragrance categories.

    Patchouli: From Haute to Not and Back Again Michelle Krell Kydd 2009

  • Oakmoss is an ingredient in fine fragrance that defines the chypre category of fine fragrance.

    Archive 2009-07-01 Michelle Krell Kydd 2009

  • Fragrance bloggers and their bretheren are of the opinion that hyper regulation of oakmoss is to has led to the destruction of the chypre category.

    Olfactive Oakmoss Exhibition at Cabinet in Brooklyn Michelle Krell Kydd 2009

  • Patchouli is a key ingredient in chypre, oriental, floral and gourmand fragrance categories.

    Archive 2009-02-01 Michelle Krell Kydd 2009

Comments

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  • Chypre is a name used to describe a family of perfumes, usually based on a top note of citrus and woody base notes, usually from oak moss.

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    I believe it's pronounced "sheep-reh" (never learned French but that's how I've heard/read it).

    July 13, 2007

  • "Often those shoppers collect, amassing as many as 200 bottles and vials in their homes. And many have learned to distinguish among olfactory families like fougère (fern) and gourmand (edible smells), and even to pronounce chypre (SHEE-pr, roughly), a classification based on citrus and woody notes."

    The New York Times, Everyone's a critic, by Ruth La Ferla, April 17, 2008

    April 17, 2008

  • JM likes his resins straight – none of this chypre stuff!

    June 22, 2009