Charogne

I adore Casablanca lilies, with their mesmerizing scent that can make your head spin and give you vivid dreams. And this perfume is an ode to them. Why in the world would they call it Charogne? Apparently it means "rotting carcass" in French. This is equally disturbing as it is repulsive. Despite this, yes the scent it unique, opulent and beautiful. ELDO is knows for wacky names and sometimes wacky scents. but I found this lacking any "bon gout" or good taste and I think they pushed it too far here. Surely most people don't understand French and they won't google a name . Still back to the scent. It beautiful and long lasting. Obvious quality and no, I am not a big fan of ELDO , but this us really good. It's starts with a bizzare Chypre- vintage allure, which quickly gives way to the white lillies, soft and narcotic, creamy and opulent in the same time. A certain waxy feeling, almost honeyed comes along. The leather is super soft, like a fine glove. There are some spices but very subdued. The middle part contains a strange creature, something animalic, woody, bizzare but attractive. Finally the drydown brings vanilla in the base, sweet and pure but not gourmand. The perfume reminds me of the long time defunct Lily And Spice from Penthaligon, which I also adored and was discontinued. It is less spicy than that but equally beautiful. Absolutely bottle worthy in my opinion , if you enjoy Lillies . I sampled from a miniature and I already got a large bottle. It is not a crowd pleaser but I don't care. Weird as it is it makes me think of the world in Avatar. PS> For comparison I do own a few other ELDO... Complicity is an interesting adelhic leathery scent, Tidla Like this is an immortelle but my skin doesn't like immortelle in general, Bijou Romantique is a gorgeous spicy and original vanilla.

Luca Turin may dismiss it, but I love it and would consider it one of THE best of the entire ELdO range. A very unusual and completely new vanilla/ tobacco/ floral. Super sophisticated, charming, glowing-warmth, radiant spicy shine and totally addictive. Normally I dislike lilies in a room for the scent tends to choke my throat, but here it is a beautiful opening sensation (I wish the floral sunburst would last a little longer. It's like a shooting star, that short but so very very bright). 2 years ago I bought KIEHL's "Ugandan Vanilla & Cedarwood" and this one has a similar pharmaceutical dryness about the vanilla note that makes it more intriguing and less sweet. My mother took me to "Reformhaus" when I was a child; a German pharmacy that would sell stuff you can now buy at Holland & Barret and other independent health stores. These places would smell exactly like this: sweet, aromatic and slightly but pleasantly pharmaceutical. So extremely well blended that after the initial lily burst, the remaining ingredients seem to blend into something that is so hard to describe as you can no longer make out the individual ingredients but the choir of their notes altogether create something so compellingly and aromatically new and unusual. 9/10. Great creation, superbly blended. Almost masterpiece. If only that floral lilly burst in the beginning lasted a little longer.

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.

The marketing on this stuff is just stupid. Folks have made fair points on that. Let's just agree to agree and I for one will simply ignore that bull$h1t. That aside... I stumbled across this stuff in a shop in Dublin this weekend and was blown away. I _love_ lily. Until now I've never found a lily-centric scent that worked for me. They're either too timid about it or they're grossly overpowering (like real lilies tend to be, IME). I've got samples of a ton of ELd'O scents and none of them have compelled me to purchase. But this stuff is so filthy, dirty, rough PLUS lily I really was bowled over. Can't really comment on sillage yet, but longevity is tremendous. 10 hours since I put it on this morning I can still smell the drydown on my wrists. Net-net, don't judge this stuff by some marketer's idiotic copy, give it a good sniff.

Charogne is a lily bomb. Dewy, slightly powdery, very fresh and unapologetically white-floral. I also smell a lot of resinous incense, veering towards amber, but with a distinctly smokey edge. Strangely, there is also a distinct marshmallow-i-ness, though sometimes the combination of vanilla and ambrette can read that way to me. The ylang in here is pretending to be banana. A weird pairing for the lily-incense, but I like it! There is a soft, skin-musk in there too. Charogne ends up super creamy and even a bit edible, with none of the usual starched elegance of lily, but instead a unique playful edge. Very plush and pleasant, but also a bit muddled. Of course, ELDO likes it's weirdness, though this does not smell like carrion, as named. No rot, no dirt. I do appreciate the scent by itself, though!