Sortilège Le Galion 1936 Extrait

Sortilège was one of my first fragrance experiences as a teenager, but at that time I simply didn't have the money to buy the scent. Back then, in the 80s, according to my research on the internet, the company Le Galion was already lost, and only Sortilège and Megara were still being distributed by the company Biodroga. I knew nothing about Le Galion at that time and, of course, I had no knowledge of fragrances. My previous purchases had been limited to teenage, Avon, and drugstore scents.
Sortilège opened up a completely new, different, and enchanting world for me: I smelled a fragrance for the first time that had character! From then on, nothing was the same. My axis had shifted, I was flashed, hooked, trapped, addicted. (My Melody? Pah!!! Dishwater!)
At Kaufhof, I regularly sneaked up to the tester to inhale my dose of magic, well aware that the scent was a bit too mature for me, but unable to let go, wanting more.
Sortilège was created in 1937, when every perfumer worth their salt was lavishly using aldehydes. Le Galion wanted a powdery scent, in the class of Arpége, Chanel No.5, Liu, and they got it.
Even though Habanita comes to mind, Sortilège has little in common with the gypsy woman aside from my affection and roughly the same era.
Oh yes, both can work magic! Although I immediately wonder which one is the wicked witch - and which one is the white witch, because Sortilège also possesses a lot of dark magic, especially in the base...
The top note is classically aldehydic, slightly soapy, but already velvety-powdery. The heart note develops an incredible powderiness, a floral, spicy warmth, rose-heavy, jasmine-like, which I have hardly smelled anywhere else in such beauty and intensity since then.
Sortilège is at least in this phase a masterpiece in the league of old Guerlain classics.
The base does the rest: A hymn to oak moss, heavy and erotic, a bit resinous, velvety and dark.
In the era of Sortilège, oud was not common, but as one can see from the scent, it is possible to create a fragrance that turns heads without it. Other Le Galion scents have similar quality, but unfortunately are even harder to find.