[4] The word is French for "egoist" and "egotistic" (both noun and adjective), which means selfish or self-centered (person).

Based on Bois des Îles, Égoïste is the first male perfume with sandalwood oil as its main note.

The fragrance's name when it was introduced domestically in the 1980s was Bois Noir, French for "Black Wood", a name that was originally used in the working stage.

Prior to its 1990 international launch, the product was rebranded because Chanel's marketing department did not like the Bois Noir name.

[5] The centerpiece of Chanel's advertising campaign to launch Égoïste first in Europe in April 1990 and in the United States one year later was "Le Carlton",[6] a 30-second commercial in French without subtitles, directed by Jean-Paul Goude and costing more than $1 million.

A stucco facade inspired by that of the InterContinental Carlton Cannes Hotel was constructed by 300 workers in less than four weeks.

With "Dance of the Knights" from Sergei Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet as its background music, the film opens in black-and-white with a sequence of women dressed in ball gowns shouting lines adapted from Pierre Corneille's tragicomic play Le Cid:[7] Égoïste.