As an extension of Chanel’s celebration of 100 years of Nº5, the French luxury fashion house is paving the way for green beauty by using recycled glass for its iconic bottle, while preserving its high-end aesthetic features.

Created in partnership with Pochet du Courval, the bottle is said to retain ‘incomparable purity, shine and transparency’, while being better for the environment. Recreating the bottle proved to be a technological challenge, as the crystalline transparency of glass stems from the purity of the raw material used to produce it. Glass used in perfumery is among the most transparent and high-shine, and recycling can alter its quality.

The teams at Chanel and Pochet du Courval combined their expertise to rethink glass production and were able to develop an industrial process in order to guarantee a transparency ‘close to crystal’ while using recycled glass.  

A spokesperson for Chanel said in a statement, “Faithful to the high standard of the House of Chanel, each detail was considered in depth: the colour, the qualities of transparency, purity and shine, as well as the resistance of this glass, were rigorously evaluated.” 

Although this sustainable reinvention is a first for the brand, the reimagined bottle of Chanel N°5 Eau de Parfum is expected to be applied to other Chanel perfumes in 2022. For every one million recycled bottles adopted, more than 25 tonnes of raw material is saved. 

Like many other brands adopting sustainable alternatives to its traditional offerings, such as Gucci’s Plant-Based Sneakers made from demetra or Sprout’s Plantable Eyeliner, the Parisian fashion house is responding to the growing demand for eco-friendly products and practices by consumers in the luxury lifestyle sector.