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Charogne Etat Libre d'Orange 2007

7.0 / 10 108 Ratings

A perfume by Etat Libre d'Orange for women and men, released in 2007. The scent is sweet-floral. The production was apparently discontinued.
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Main accords

Sweet

Floral

Animal

Spicy

Leathery

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Bergamot

Cardamom

Ginger

Heart Notes

Jasmine

Ylang-ylang

Lily of the valley

Base Notes

Ambrette seed absolute Leather

Leather

Pink pepper

Perfumer

Shyamala Maisondieu

Ratings

Scent

7.0108 Ratings

Longevity

7.982 Ratings

Sillage

6.879 Ratings

Bottle

6.580 Ratings

Value for money

7.311 Ratings

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 08/12/2024.

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Reviews

12 in-depth fragrance descriptions

03/04/2020

Amnakant93
1 Review

Amnakant93

1

A rotting lily soaked in warm vanilla

So I tried this Charogne, attracted by some other reviews that I found in certain websites.
With a lily resembling that one from the good old Lily & Spice, as they stated, why not to give it a try?
The result here is quite different, though. The opening has a strong vanilla (or what is seems to be a vanilla key accord-like scent), that leaves almost immediatelly, or better: it dissolves but stays there, like a humid and warm steam, embracing the next, pungent and gentle at the same time hyraceum (this is what I can detect and recognize most, or at least is seems to be so to my nose); the whole fragrance stays this way for a long time on my skin, static but pulsating and fragrant; hence a "charogne", right?
The pleasant vanillic smell returns and dominates the formula, this time with a less sickening nuance: it becomes pretty pleasant, as if that vanilla was a gourmand wannabe (yeah, that's weird), if you imagine it;
it touches the gourmand boundary without thinking of going beyond that, like a cloud of dusty dark sugar.
The name itself shouldn't be alarming on its own, but I can see where the brand wanted to go with this.

7.5/10

02/14/2015

7Scent 7.5Longevity 7.5Sillage

loewenherz
917 Reviews

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loewenherz

Top Review 19

Les fleurs du mal

or in German: 'Die Blumen des Bösen' is a collection of poems by Charles Baudelaire and probably his most famous work. It deals - not only, but very much - with the increasingly alienated person in relation to his environment, his moral uprooting, and his 'Ennui', the boredom. The poet consciously succumbs to the fascination of the ugly, the repulsive - or indeed the evil. And one poem, in the collection 'Spleen et idéal', is titled 'Charogne', carrion.

Etat libre d'Orange's Charogne refers to this poem by Baudelaire. It is not a scent of overt rot or even decay, but a captivating, very sweet floral fragrance. The lily, the eternally intoxicating flower of transience, is at the center, yet Ylang Ylang and Jasmine - also not olfactory lightweight - almost equally push forward. Despite this weight of white flowers, the fragrance retains something lightly playful, almost fleeting, and thus reveals - sometimes only briefly, and never for very long - its animalistic, very beautiful heart. This is a delightful scent of white flowers that tells of transience, of 'Vanitas', the empty, beautiful shell, and behind the perhaps off-putting first impression of its name, it playfully connects to Baudelaire's epochal poetry.

In conclusion, in the immortal words of probably the greatest anti-war song of our time and from its (pre-)last stanza:
'Tell me, where are the graves, where have they gone?
Tell me, where are the graves, what has happened?
Tell me, where are the graves - flowers bloom in the summer wind -
when will we ever understand, when will we ever understand?'

09/27/2010

Skyliner
9 Reviews

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Skyliner

Top Review 19

The Carrion

Etat Libre d‘Orange clearly takes great pleasure in choosing rough, audacious names for the baptism of its perfumes to first shock the inclined clientele. But with "Charogne," the house has once again outdone itself in this regard. What sounds so melodious in French comes across as anything but delicate when translated into German, and rightly so, it is repulsive. Charogne means nothing other than carrion!

Yet the tried and true principle still applies: No soup is ever eaten as hot as it is cooked. And indeed, with this fragrance, Etat Libre d‘Orange had nothing in mind other than a confident woman at the peak of her femininity, like a ripe, seductive fruit just waiting to be picked at the right moment. So one can breathe a sigh of relief, as it is about the art of seduction.

A provocation, an affront? No, not really. "Charogne" meticulously attempts to explore the boundaries between decay on one hand and full ripeness on the other. How far can one go before a fragrance drifts into the unbearable? That was the initial question and at the same time the challenge. In doing so, "Charogne" employs exquisite flowers, white and enchanting. In this case, it is the chemical scent compound Indole, a component of the natural fragrance oil of jasmine, which, when properly dosed, gives the perfume a very characteristic, animalistic note.

The whole thing could quickly become quite unappetizing, but with "Charogne," the balance between too much and too little seems to be quite well struck. The animalistic scent note is indeed present and dominant, yet still very pleasant, so that one could ultimately simply speak of a floral vanilla fragrance. Could! But "Charogne" takes a remarkably further step...

In this first collaboration with Etat Libre d‘Orange, Shyamala Maisondieu, the nose behind the scent, celebrates a rather astonishing feat and remains absolutely true to the distinctive, consciously synthetic style of the house, while adding its own portrait of a fully bloomed jasmine that is just beginning to wilt.

The first impression left by the fragrance reminds one of pink bubblegum, of a necklace made of strung candies. Alongside this, due to the concentration of jasmine, a creeping dark shadow emerges, which one might find disturbing. This impression is further intensified by the deep sweetness of a lily and ylang-ylang, this breathtakingly fragrant exotic flower. All of this merges with the candies into a unity. The effect is familiar, intimate, yet very strange. For good reason! Additional balsamic notes like vanilla paint the picture of an abstract flower at the moment it exhales its last scent, simultaneously exhaling its life: the excessive sweetness, the opulent final flourish gives the fragrance a very special ethereal note. The truly intoxicating vapors faintly resemble gasoline. "Charogne" is sweet like overripe fruits.

But one should not be deceived: This whole play with the various facets is, in reality, a very subtle balancing act. A little wink from the perfumer that allows the perfume lover to recognize the masterful handling of the ingredients.
Epilogue:

What a tremendous difference to the staged "Aqua di gioia," which comes across as so scrawny and flat-chested and, after a very short time, even before the flower dares to bloom, passes away with a final cough, suffering from consumption. May it rest in peace!

09/02/2018

7Scent 7Longevity 4Sillage

Stanze
105 Reviews

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Stanze

Top Review 15

Bohemian Blouses

Loewenherz kindly informed us that "Charogne" is inspired by the famous poetry collection "Les Fleurs du Mal." I read that a long time ago, back when I was in my existentialist phase. But even back then, I read the counterpoint to it, "The Blouses of Bohemia" by Robert Gernhardt. And "Charogne" can't be taken seriously. Or can it? EldO are simply awful. Unfortunately, this time there's no sound file on the website, just a very ambiguous text. From which I gather, based on my life so far, that it is the scent of a not-so-young woman who enjoys seduction. So more of the experienced vixen and not the dead mouse our cat left under the bed as a gift last week (no, not a current event).

"Charogne" starts with lilies and jasmine. Very strong and sweet but not too sweet. Nothing to do with decay. One might think of cemetery flowers because of the Fleurs du Mal and carrion, but it doesn't smell stuffy. Unfortunately, this wonderful top note is short-lived, and then the apothecary arrives with a thick old leather bag. It would have really pushed me to the brink of washing it off if the projection weren't so subterranean that no one would smell it unless they squished their nose at the spot where the perfume was applied. This falls under exciting and amusing experiences with strange scents. Especially since I complained and told Tester M that it now smelled "silly like leather and pharmacy." To which he squished his nose against my arm and said: "Why? It smells great like rice cakes." Puff rice wafers or Asian rice crackers? When I then squished my nose against it again, it smelled pleasantly vanillic. And this pleasantly vanillic scent has been maintained by the perfume so far; it will probably stay that way until the end.

Then I might as well buy a gourmand perfume; I don't need to go through the quirky transformation. Besides, the projection is too low for me. Longevity is okay.

You can wear this anytime you want, except for sports. Women can probably wear it, and men might enjoy it even more. Tester M wanted to test it himself, which is quite rare.

11/07/2012

6Scent 10Longevity 5Sillage

ParfumAholic
257 Reviews

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ParfumAholic

Top Review 12

...a lot of light at the end of a very dark tunnel

Sometimes it's good that there are scents whose names cannot be immediately translated meaningfully due to the language. I did take French as an advanced course, but the term "Charogne" has, to my knowledge, never come across my path (and I have a good memory for languages).

At least I would have found it quite difficult to spray something that bears the "sounding" name "Carrion." But without this burdensome knowledge, I approached it fresh and unbiased.

And to get straight to the point: This scent confuses me to the max! The top note is somehow medicinally fresh, followed by an overwhelming amount of lily. I love lilies because they seem so noble and sublime. However, I struggle a bit with the scent as it reminds me too much of a cemetery. For that reason, I only have artificial lilies at home. This escalates minute by minute and culminates in an extremely unpleasant fermentation smell that really takes my breath away. I can no longer detect individual scent components because of this. Up to this point, the name of the fragrance fits like the famous fist in the eye.

And now? Should I stop the test here or (once again) endure? I choose the latter and ignore the "fumes" that are rising from my wrist to me.

My patience is rewarded, as suddenly the stench disappears and I am greeted with almost heavenly vanilla scents! Can this be, or am I already hallucinating from the fermentation fumes? No, it really is so. Very intense, almost heavy (dark?) vanilla. Heavy, but not sweet. I am truly delighted and suddenly crave vanilla pudding on the spot ;-)

As the scent is now, it would be worth at least 90% to me, but due to the more than unappetizing prelude, it ultimately only gets 60%. The longevity is enormous, and the vanilla impression is still there after hours. So everything is great in that regard.

Nevertheless, it's not a scent for me, as I absolutely have no desire for such an annoying prelude. But definitely worth a test, as one can experience a very unusual scent journey here.

Equally wearable by women and men in the cooler seasons, who would like to take a ride on the scent rollercoaster.

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