Chunga

The glorious Chunga (PdT) is sadly a unicorn: long discontinued, highly coveted, often overpriced when it appears for sale, but the vintage collector knows that patience pays off. After three years waiting for a bottle to show up that wouldn't require maxing out a credit card, one appeared for 100 dollars and I just couldn't refuse. Boy, am I pleased that I did. This is a high water mark of aldehydic florals, opening with a near vertiginous sparkle, with the honey and linden blossom underlined with peach lactones the main focal points for the first hour of this magnificent creation. It is elegant and splendiferous, full of textures: watery, soapy, creamy, bedaubed with spice, deliciously yellow floral. An ylang ylang becomes more evident further into its development, deepening the grooves and leaving the skin begging to be nuzzled. The most palpable element though is a vetiver that carries every element through with a tawny, grassy shade of ambiguity—one of my favorite aspects. Chunga eventually mutates into a musky amber, full on decadent in its dry down, with lingering clove and the vetiver getting stickier and nuttier: vetiver and musks mingling makes me swoon. Though one might imagine this as more suitable in cooler weather, this blooms in the summer heat, developing a sensuous aura around me.

Chunga was the first "adult" perfume I purchased back in the late 1970's. My parents took me on a trip to Vienna, Austria, and a little side trip to Budapest, Hungary. This was before the Soviet Union collapsed and Hungary gained independence. Budapest was a grey, neglected city then, full of grumpy locals and eager tourists. The hotel we stayed at was quite fancy, far too expensive for locals. The duty free store had a lovely crystal flacon of Chunga for sale, and I had enough money to get it. Much later, back at home I dropped the bottle and broke one of the corners. Quite a bit of perfume was lost before I could stop it. A heartbreaking loss, because I loved Chunga! The scent has been discontinued for years now, only rarely will a bottle show up on Ebay. The fragrance is popular enough that another Ebay customer asked me to resell my hard-won auction only minutes after later. I didn't. To me, Chunga is as lovely as the crystal flacon it comes in. A little spicy, a bit aldehydy, it also has a hint of the animal note many Weil perfumes feature. Chunga was my first perfume love, and although it doesn't last long on me, it will always be in my heart. It's the scent I keep to myself, very little sillage, but that's the way I keep all my loves.

I came across this site by accident and searched for Chunga by Weil without much hope of success. I was begining to wonder if I had just imagined that I had ever had this perfume - which I bought in Saudi Arabia. That was certainly a long time ago and as we returned to the UK in 1984! I had a bottle of Chunga to bring home with me then and every time I wore it people would remark (in a good way!). When it ran out I was unable to find it in the UK. Later on when I had access to the internet and searched again - still no luck. So what a pleasant surprise to come across this site and to see that others, like me, really loved this unusual perfume. I am now going to try some Boudoir by Vivienne Westwood (thanks Sablebombe!)

I absolutely loved this perfume and when I used to wear it Weil, I think, were beginning to cease production of it :( The only places I could buy it were Saudi Arabia (had a friend there who would bring me back the odd bottle) and Nice Airport in France! It was a very strong fragrance and as passionate20 said it has a strong amber note but it isn't at all masculine in my opinion! I've just used Boudoir by Vivienne Westwood and this is much the same scent just a little less of the amber - powerful, long lasting with a strong silage! I'm now wearing this to replace my much lamented Chunga!

A powdery floral masculine aldehyde parfum de toilette according to perfume intelligence. So I am in love with a powdery floral masculine aldehyde parfum de toilette than, who is even 3 years younger than me !!!! The fact that one of the Zappa albums called Chunga puts this fragrance into my good books as well.

This is about vintage Parfum de Toilette: It is definitaly a (vintage) masculine. This means for todays standards, that it works as a feminine as well (think about Knize 10, which strongly smells like vintage Tabac Blond EdT to me or Habit Rouge or Ho Hang). It does explain, why the reviews are mixed: It smells odd, if you expect a contemporary feminine perfume. I agree with Passionata 20: Chunga goes through two stages. Firstly, it's a strong (I don't think "aggressive") bergamot with vetiver and orris. No 4711 citrus, a complete composition from the first sniff on. Than it morphs while losing the bergamot (and the amalfi lemon (?), which I can't detect, but I'm no expert) into more and more powder, it warms with obvious musk, honey and some amber, still some vetiver and orris root and a slight vanilla-tonka note. The drydown is sweet and creamy (not gourmand!). In both stages it is very well blended, in the end there is an "aura" left, which I really would love to smell on a male, in my opinion very very sexy. I've got something very strange going on with Chunga: In the drydown I can not only smell the perfume, but I taste it as well. The smell is not only in my nose, but in my whole mouth and throat and on my tongue. It's an experience to gorge a perfume! I do understand why it is discontinued: There is no market for a perfume like that. Masculine scents are either very aquatic-lavender-citrusy ("fresh") or deep-syrupy-orientals ("sexy"). My huge vintage bottle will get much love in it's new home with me.

This is a very strong and agressive scent that did scared me off in first 10 minutes completly! It is so explosivly spicy in a bad way i even wanted to cry so bad it was. It has very strong amber note in it and too agressive citrus note that just cuts this scent through into halves and is very disturbing. Now after 10-15 minutes it has setteled down and it has completly changed it ́s personality, very powderly scent with still a citrus note but not that agressive anymore in any way. It does reminds me of a good mens cologne and i wouldn ́t mind to smell it on my man, but not on me. Just too agressive for me. And i don not like smell of powder... Please do not remove this comment, since others might find it useful. Not every rewiev should be positive, so people like me wanted to make a blind buy might find it very informative. Thanks.

Wow, the aromas in this one are quite strong. In the first five minutes the spicy scent hits you.

Chunga strikes me as a more "butch-y" (with a "U"!) Antilope. I get Aldehydes, wood, and moss, with a slightly urinous honey note. It is complex and satisfying. This is very hard to find, all I have is a mini. Antilope is more traditionally floral, and more plentiful.