Description
“Grand beginnings. Green pastures abound. Plans hatched, ideals, maps, goals, rose-tinted hue, utopian dreams…bliss. Tables turned. Untruths awash. Snake oil, Jack’s beans, unattainable mirage. Thread unravelling. Pandora’s box. Melancholic brood. Grey descent. If I can’t have her…then no one will.” – a note from the brand.
Charlatan by Fort & Manle is a Floral Fruity Gourmand fragrance for women and men. This is a new fragrance. Charlatan was launched in 2016. Charlatan was created by Rasei Fort. Top notes are pear and dark chocolate; middle notes are damask rose, moroccan jasmine, vanilla and tuber; base notes are osmanthus, australian sandalwood, amber and madagascar vanilla.
Gortegoz – :
Oh Charlatan, you conniving little beauty.. Al Manlé certainly invented something exceptional here!! Such a bittersweet evocation.. Cementing the onerous and unfortunate truth that in life, when we truly think we know someone, it turns out that we don’t.. The people with whom we share our closest relationships, quite often turn out to be our enemies, encaged within a persuasive facade of faith, trust and loyalty..
lion1976 – :
this starts off with primarily jasmine and pear i think, with something deeper in the background, maybe it’s the tuber, i’m not sure. i also smell a hint of rose and chocolate. so odd, i had sniffed this one at scent bar in LA, and my impression was so different than this. it had seemed more like an intense white floral, but that was probably because of scent overload. i do like this, it’s just not quite what i remember smelling (i am testing the sample they gave me, months later.) i never thought i could wear a pear scent, so that is a (pleasant) surprise. something about this reminds me of laying on a picnic blanket in the grass. it’s not literal grass per se, but it has an airy out-of-doors thing going on…at least that’s my association. i’ve not smelled anything quite like this before. i am intrigued to try more of their perfumes now.
tolian_77 – :
Charlatan is a great release from the house of Fort & Manle. It opens up with loads of jasmine, tuber and some rose (which makes me think of Noir de Noir by Tom Ford). Strangely enough, I get some coconut milk mixed with honey as well, which become way more apparent in the drydown. That reminds me of Rich/Warm/Addictive by Zara mixed with a touch of Elephant by Zoologist (the milky part). The performance is average, about six hours with strong projection for the first hour, then a soft skin scent for another four/five hours. Charlatan leans more feminine to me, just like Noir de Noir. If you like that latter, do check this one out, it is not as dusty, but more sweet.
sveta55513 – :
Medicinal roses.
Sweet yet medicinal roses as i believe the medicinal factor comes from the jasmines X pears mix. Later (5 mins in) the osmanthus water, sandalwood, and amber rise up in shades while there isn’t chocolate but a sweet vanilla amber that gives the impression of a chocolate note.
It’s nice but i think the sweet amber is conflicting with the rancidity of the jasmines in away that makes it medicinal, while the roses here is NEVER the dominant note, it’s jasmines, amber, vanilla, osmanthus, sandalwood, and pears side by side.
I can’t deny that it’s an interesting blend comparing to their other perfumes, it’s just bizarre… in a good way. Nice.
oboleg – :
This is wonderful. I don’t get much chocolate from this, but I do get sweet musky rose, juicy pear, a beautiful sandalwood and an absolutely stunning amber. Longevity is amazing – one spray from my sample bottle this morning, and eight hours later I could still smell it, and it still smelt as great as it did when it first went on. This is a scent you just want to nuzzle into – lovely, cosy, warm and so delicious. I haven’t been able to stop sniffing this all day. A winner for sure.
zamanik – :
dainty pear, strong white floral (jasmine and something else) and something quite neutral in the background. it’s quite feminine for mine, but still quite pleasant. I’m intrigued at how it hits my nose. comes across quite simple, in that it smells quite mainstream and un-niche, but with multiple sniffs and wafts i get something unconventional. i am not concentrating when i get these wafts, but they’re there and they are quite surprisingly pleasant.
obviously not for me, but still quite good…
SSS_SSS – :
MrsPress, you are correct. The nose behind Charlatan is, in fact, Al Manle. The scent recipe for this fragrance was made by Al as an autobiographical remembrance of a lost love.
aleksei.2 – :
Tart pear, dark unsweetened chocolate and a dry rose. This is not a sweet perfume, in spite of the notes. At a distance, this is quite nice, but up close, there’s something bitterly medicinal about this that is slightly off putting yet interesting because I can’t put my finger on what exactly that overtone smells like… Vinegar? Tomatoes? Something acidic and maybe vegetal. Then later it almost drifts in a…I shudder to even say… fecal direction. Mind, this is with my nose to my arm, and luckily about a half hour in it settles down and is fairly addictive at every distance, but that’s a bit of a scary ride to get to the smooth sailing bit. I do not see the comparison with TF Noir de Noir – some notes may be common but they’re not even cousins to my nose. The whole dark aesthetic to this line is very appealing to me, and the decay behind the beauty is what is so intriguing and simultaneously challenging in this perfume. The following day I tried it again, and enjoyed it more. The scent it left on my robe was still present in the morning and was very original and lovely, and certainly quite long lasting. Over the course of the week, I fell in love! You must give it a try in all weather and all moods. I am now loving the rough, earthy sweetness of the dry down and even the tart fruity opening and I have made friends. Very original and clever and like many works of art, full appreciation requires a bit of studying. Charlatan is an interesting but challenging fragrance and for those of you who, like me, enjoy the thrill of a blind buy, this would definitely not be a safe one, so get a sample first to make sure it works with your chemistry.
Bagi – :
I could be wrong, but I think the nose behind this scent is Al Manle. I believe they put the nose/creator of the scent on the bottle…many say R.H. Forte, some Forte & Manle which leads me to believe it was a collaboration…this one however only has Al Manle on the bottle. As for the scent, I get way more jasmine than rose in this fragrance, pear, tuber and a touch of chocolate…but I would in no way consider this a gourmand scent. The osmanthus is there, but kind of comes and goes…sometimes it’s quite dominant, other times I cannot smell it at all. The other notes are only present in the dry down to my nose, on my skin. I really wish this was more rose dominant…I enjoy it as it is, but I much prefer rose over jasmine. This is still a contender for a FB though…It’s gorgeous!
azamat_777 – :
I can best describe Charlatan as velvety material,
The composition unfolds on my skin with a jasmine note that smells as if it was made in heaven, laced with juicy pear enhancing the beauty and fragrant qualities of the scent.
In the heart the innocence of jasmine and pear meets earth, darkness and seduction, a dark chocolate note, accompanied by perigord truffle add extra layer of depth and at that point a flirtatious rose begins to bloom.
This scent picture is framed in the base with shadows of patchouli and noticeable presence of fluffy vanilla.
Instagram: Mrzayas81
MarinoDrag – :
White chocolate, roses and pear.
Truth be told, in the components, it doesn’t say it has white chocolate, but it is the mixture that makes you feel so.
In the beginning it smells too white, white flowers, osmanthus, I smell champaca and it overwhelms you, or at least to me that I am not that into white perfumes.
When I did put it on, I thought, “what a horror” and “it will rot”.
Wrong.
When the vanilla kicks in and the other sweet scents do it too, it becomes a kind of white chocolate, which with the roses in the background and the white flowers that were already there, becomes a fabulous, unisex, rich, attractive, edible and sensual choir.
Sillage of two meters for six hours and then on skin stays to live with you.
I love it and, luckily, I made it mine.
9 out of 10. Would I buy it: Yes
Мариночка. – :
Charlatan is decadent and dark, with gourmand-ish elements over a luscious deep sexy rose and a ton of jasmine. There is an earthy quality in the base, Périgord truffle and indolic jasmine keeps the sweetness in check and adds a very sexy (and slightly dirty) quality to it. Like pure pheromones. So much so it almost made me blush when I initially smelled it.
This was love at first sniff for me. There is an unmistakable dark mood amidst the sweet decadence and sexiness. The notes sound harmless…luscious pear, osmanthus, sweet chocolatey rose, but there is a gothic quality to it, something disturbing in the beauty.
joon80 – :
This is an excellent unisex fragrance. If the price were more reasonable, I would definitely on it. Unfortunately, it is a little high for what it is.
DontTry – :
A bouquet of flowers, left on the floor by a man who had visions of a future with a woman who decided to leave – a tale of a man who came through strong, but not without a single act to remind the woman of how he now feels. He doesn’t feel the feelings he did when he purchased the flowers and the bouquet, now wilted and ripe with the smell of slow decay, is his vengeance, not a plea. ‘Charlatan!’it screams, with not a bit of yearning.
For this reason, and the smell itself, I will constantly think of Black Orchid by Tom Ford. Both present a totally different look into the romantic floral genre, for lack of a better phrase. Fort & Manle have routinely released solid fragrances with stories of lore and history to back them up and this fragrance knocks many of them to the side in its bold and purely emotional assault on what many of us know conceptual perfumery to be. For this reason, it is not a happy fragrance. Nor is it a sad one.
It opens in a very lovely way, reminding one of Mr Bojnakopf’s Purple Hat and moves into a very camphorus territory, as Black Orchids does. Judging from the notes the two share in common, I can only assume that this is the ‘tuber’. Osmanthus, that is also listed, is a note that up until recently I was very unfamiliar with. In Hermes’ Osmanthe Yunnan, it smelt of red jelly beans. In this, and Bojnakopf, it smells very strongly of alcoholic dried fruits. Nothing to be toyed with, very strong. The jasmine and rose pair together with the other notes and create something purely wilted. They aren’t fresh at all, the exact opposite. Beautiful, but dying. Listed dark chocolate I can detect, but wouldn’t have guessed just from smelling it – although there is a distinct bitterness to it. Ironic. The amber, to me, is a very cola like amber and reminds one of the strong, heady amber found in Youth Dew. However, this is much better blended and doesn’t repulse me like the modern Youth Dew does.
All in all, it’s an exceptionally well put together fragrance containing chiefly naturals (to my knowledge) and small amounts of synthetic ingredients as per the brand’s preferences. Not for someone who wants to drag people in, but for someone who wants to be independent and strong.
ZenOxypekeymn – :
My second try from Fort & Manle, Charlatan is aptly described, a mix that comes off as a wee bit earthy despite being sweet, fruity, and floral primarily.
To my nose, it’s mainly a blend of the chocolate and pear on top, with a host of florals in the heart—specifically, tuberose, rose, and osmanthus, an odd blend—and a mix of sandalwood, amber, and vanilla in the dry down, though frankly, the dry down isn’t so sweet as it is floral for me.
For me, it goes from fruity to earthy/fruity, to floral/fruity, to sweet floral. It’s not bad, but certainly unless one is impressed by it, it’s not worth the price tag, the same as most in the line, of 230 AUD, roughly 178 USD.
Performance is decent, roughly average for a fragrance of this price and note composition, though not as robust in terms of either projection or longevity as Amber Absolutely.
A nice entry, and one that gives me continued enthusiasm for the line, but not one I’ll be pursuing further.
7 out of 10
alexei2878225 – :
Charlatan – the best of what this house is currently offering to my nose. Its a complex tale of life, and love, and the ultimate betrayal. There’s a sweet opening of cacao that has a deep warm goodness, like a homely, comforting embrace. A gorgeous sweet pear, golden and translucent, speaks of demure innocence, a beautiful smile and the sweetness of life. But a darkness lurks… A dark earthy truffle offers up a carnal, wanton bestial temptation. It’s deep rich pungence excites the most primordial senses. A spicy rose and sultry jasmine whisper secrets about a loss of innocence and heated desires of the heart. Heavy osmanthus, heady and hypnotic catches you in a breath of lust, the climax and ultimate satisfaction after the most illicit affair… The damage is done, the profligate sins have corrupted the sweet amber and vanilla base, leaving a venal, licentious vanillic accord. Return to innocence is abandoned, leaving only the faintest pure sandalwood trace, a memory of the golden, unsullied days gone by.
An incredibly beautiful piece, and a very worthy purchase.
nilamma – :
Charlatan by Fort & Manlé Parfum is a beautiful, complex scent and before I read the notes list here, my nose detected a very sweet rose, jasmine, leather, perhaps saffron or even civet, something which smelled like green banana skin, something fruity which I couldn’t pin down and in the dry-down, a sweet sandalwood base. I even thought that this fragrance reminded me slightly of Shalimar in its denseness and oriental exoticism.
The image that formed in my head was of elaborate Indian gardens, on the edge of the jungle. Roses bloom, blessed with frequent rains. the rich scent of wild fruits hangs thick in the moist air. A leopard prowls, scouting its prey in the undergrowth and the scent of the ripe damp earth is everywhere. Life abundant.
Now having the benefit of reading the notes pyramid here, I understand that this luscious floral masterpiece has an opulent rose which is front-and-centre in the composition but made sweeter and more dense because of notes of pear and chocolate.
The heart of Charlatan does smell like green bananas. An unripe carbohydrate scent; fresh, green and slightly chalky. When I saw the notes pyramid, I realised that I had been smelling the scent of tuber. Tuber is the note which gives Tom Ford’s Black Orchid its grand and slightly earthy aspect and although it’s not used in the same proportions in Charlatan, it certainly does add grandeur, the same way that oud does.
To my nose, also adding to the depth and fullness of the florals is osmanthus in the base. Osmanthus has a rich, perfumed-orange-crème feeling when it’s diluted, but when you smell the essential oil alone it smells like a floral leather. Here it somehow renders the florals more 3D and sharp and definitely adds a leather aspect to the whole composition.
As the fragrance dries down, it leaves a sweet woody trail of sandalwood, amber and vanilla.
Charlatan is for lovers of dense, oriental florals and will suit rose lovers of either gender. For me, it’s a fantasy scent and immediately conjures up striking images in my mind of the exotic, the grand and the splendid. It is palaces, It is wild animals. It is cicadas chirping at a deafening pitch in the tree canopy and it is romance in a foreign land.
*Disclosure: I have been given samples of this product. As ever, I only write reviews of products which I enjoy and can wholeheartedly recommend.
Amended version of review published at thescentgentblog, May 14, 2017