Charogne by Etat Libre d`Orange

Mellyhelly

I'm not impressed by Charogne and Etat Libre in general, but it's not bad anyway. On my skin it smells mostly of vanilla with a hint of dirtyness and something else I can't really detect. It's an interesting fragrance. It's not so powerful, only a bold vanilla with no frilly edge, still very feminine and not unisex IMO.
It's nice to have it on, but once again not worthy a bottle.

gwennan

This is one of my favorite perfumes. You may name it love at first scent.

I was trying to find smth new and get acquainted with Etat Libre d`Orange colognes. So I've tested all of their perfumes and left home without buying anything, but I was holding a paper stripe with the smell of Charogne. The farther I was from the perfume shop, the more I was in love with the perfume.

Finally after two days of depression I bought it. :)

It can hardly be described but it is the smell of the sexiest beast. Strong, intensive and enveloping scent. Vicious and creamy. Quite a seducing beast. ;)

The interesting thing is that Charogne somehow smells like a slate pencil. :)

I usually wear this perfume when the summer is gone and the weather is already chilly, so Charogne makes me feel cosy and relieved, as it lastes from the beginning of my day till it's already time to sleep.

mariotgomez

What else could I say that SedNonSatiata has not already said, beautifuly that is.

I enjoy the creamy floral opening of this scent. The jasmine notes continuously introduce has you wear this scent. As it warms down the vanilla, leather and animalist notes develop in to a balanced symphony of fragrance notes which could be worn by all.

SedNonSatiata

It is difficult to cut to the chase, because each Etat Libre d'Orange fragrance comprises a name, a concept, a drawing, a narrative, a scent, and a cultural reference. If the word "Charogne" [carrion] does not inspire trepidation, then the association with Baudelaire's poem "Une Charogne" will give most scent samplers pause. In Baudelaire's 12-stanza memento mori, the poet recalls a warm summer day when he and his lover came upon a creature rotting in the afternoon sun. The poet points out that one day his lover will be just like that carcass, devoured and decomposed by the kisses of vermin; yet her divine essence will live on in the poet's immortal compositions.

The sample package of "Charogne" features a rose sketched in black and white with a drop of red blood at the center: perhaps a nod to Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil, or to the theme of death, beauty and the printed page.

But on to the fragrance.

Does ELO's "Charogne" smell like the putrid carcass described in the poem? Not at all. It is, like Baudelaire's verse, oddly seductive. Bergamot and ylang ylang provide an almost too sweet initial impression, soon tamed by the softest leather. Vanilla and incense emerge over ambrette and undefined "animalc notes". These are not the heavy doses civet or castoreum I would have expected. There is an undeniable warmth to the base, but it has the strange yet familiar indolic freshness of jasmine. The overall effect is that of layered fragility and earth. Like all of the ELO fragrances I've sampled, Charogne lasts a long time, without loud sillage.

I leave it to you to enjoy the little narrative in the sample package and on the web site. To me it reads as a metaphor of the scent's development over time on the wearer. I am nearly convinced by the last line: "How could one do without it?" But the scent in itself, without all of the words and images it evokes, would be pretty. Not striking. That's right, the "divine essence" that makes this fragrance transcendent depends upon the art of language.

Despite the beauty of the scent, I shudder when I think of the name, and in this way , too, "Charogne" echos "Une Charogne."

For a truly delicious and decadent experience, read the poem as you inhale the scent from your skin, or from the skin of another. You will be transported.

[I promise I will never write such a long review again! This one was dear to my heart.]