2
A Model Average Perfume...
Liqueur Charnelle opens with a soft pink pepper and honeyed lemon resinous elemi before gradually transitioning to its heart. As the composition enters its early heart the honeyed lemon elemi is still detectable, as a vague, moderately sweet red fruit laced boozy accord joins it in support of soft powdered blonde tobacco and vague synthetic woods that take the fore. During the late dry-down the perfume turns more dry and less sweet, as the boozy aspect vacates, leaving remnants of the now less synthetic smelling vague woods to meld with unveiled supporting black pepper and slightly creamy, tobacco and vanilla-like tonka bean in the base through the finish. Projection is below average and longevity excellent at over 12 hours on skin.
Liqueur Charnelle is just about the perfect model of what an "average" level of success smells like in a perfume. It has all the attributes of a winner, but the whole in this case is far less appealing than the individual parts. Supposedly the perfume is trying to emulate the general smell and appeal of Cognac liqueur (I guess with the drinker smoking a pipe), but while the perfume smells boozy and certainly the tobacco is there, it never really quite captures the spirit of the liqueur, or the tobacco for that matter. The primary spoiler is one that plagues so many other efforts... vague synthetic woods, in this case derived from norlimbanol. When done right, the stuff can be used to great effect, but alas here it is too strong, and gets in the way of the tobacco and the booze, ruining the illusion for the wearer and making them instead wonder why they wasted their money. The bottom line is the approximately $180 per 100ml bottle Liqueur Charnelle has some appealing notes in its published list, but the whole is much less than the sum of its parts in this "average" 2.5 stars out of 5 rated shoulder shrug, earning a disinterested avoid recommendation to all.
Liqueur Charnelle is just about the perfect model of what an "average" level of success smells like in a perfume. It has all the attributes of a winner, but the whole in this case is far less appealing than the individual parts. Supposedly the perfume is trying to emulate the general smell and appeal of Cognac liqueur (I guess with the drinker smoking a pipe), but while the perfume smells boozy and certainly the tobacco is there, it never really quite captures the spirit of the liqueur, or the tobacco for that matter. The primary spoiler is one that plagues so many other efforts... vague synthetic woods, in this case derived from norlimbanol. When done right, the stuff can be used to great effect, but alas here it is too strong, and gets in the way of the tobacco and the booze, ruining the illusion for the wearer and making them instead wonder why they wasted their money. The bottom line is the approximately $180 per 100ml bottle Liqueur Charnelle has some appealing notes in its published list, but the whole is much less than the sum of its parts in this "average" 2.5 stars out of 5 rated shoulder shrug, earning a disinterested avoid recommendation to all.