Annick Goutal - Eau de Charlotte

When I tell people about my perfume interest they often wonder if I don´t get tired of it. And if I really need that many perfumes? Of course I don´t NEED that many perfumes, but that I would get tired of my perfume interest is as likely that I would get tired of reading or listening to music.


I am and have always been (since I´ve learn to read anyway) a bookworm. In our family´s bookshelfs you can find anything between Swedish female mystery writers as well as classic masterpieces of Russian, Greek and English writers. Modern litterature, poetry, non-fiction about art, animals, history and sience. Fantasy, sci-fi, love stories and adventures. Well, not only me but my husband as well has a hunger for all kinds of books.


I´ve got plenty of time to wondering about a lot of things. I do think a lot about perfumes, but as often I think about books that I´ve read. So one day I start thinking about if perfumes/perfume houses where books, what kind of books would they be?


Of course Serge Lutens perfumes would be rich stories filled with life, fortune and adventourus scenes. Serge Lutens scents are as memorable and packed as Gabriel Garcia Marques novel One hundred years of solitude.


Frederic Malle´s scents are a little more intellectual and European, not as straight forward. Maybe a little like Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir rather than too cherful and noisy.


L'Artisan often manages to capture scents from all over the world, colourful, beautful and also modern. Crossover. Maybe our Swedish novelist Jonas Hassein Khemiri would suit the, he is good in mixing different cultures.


With Annick Goutal´s scents it´s that way that I was prepared to meet a novel filled with adventure and didn´t realised that it was a delicate love poem or a sparse japanese haiku. For some reason this is a very attractive thought for me. That I imagine that Annick Goutal scents rather being short, well expressed poems than several hundred pages of reading. This is a parable that works well for me, even though others might find it strange.


On me, there is only a few Annick Goutal scents that last for a long time or make a bold impression, actually Songes is the only this far. Eau de Charlotte is as all the others, ethereal, light, soft and transparent. Still, I really love it during that short moment when it smells the most and the goodest on me. This moment is about 1-1½ hour on me, but with Eau de Charlotte it´s a really nice hour.


The opening is shy and quite, warm berries together with something powdery that remind me of lipstick, even though lipstick in a really sheer and discrete color, which makes your lip looks nude. There is also some weak green notes, but hidden under the others and I can´t really tell what it is.


In the heart of the scent I can find powdery flowers, smelling mostly like lilies. And there is also a soft note of cacao, that together with vanilla makes a nice gourmand base. The berry notes are returning once in a while and I discover something that smells like biscuits or even, milk in Eau de Charlotte. Whatever it is, I love the smell. Not long time after tha, Eau de Charlotte starts to become so sheer and discrete that I almost forgot about it, and the next time I try to locate it on my wrist, it´s gone.


Yes, it´s sad that many of Annick Goutal´s scents has so short lasting power on me, but still Eau de Charlotte (and others) smells really, really good while they last. The short, but impressive moment while Annick goutal scents last are more memorable than many much more long lasting scents manage to receive.


Are you more lucka than me with the lasting power of Annick Goutal scents? My middle daughter loves almost anything from Annick Goutal, but then they also last as least twice as long on her...




Pic: levasomkarin