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3archangel3 – :
I owned quite a few drugstore classics in my youth but somehow I missed this one. I’m glad to finally have a bottle and am really enjoying it! This is an aldehydic, aromatic, green chypre. I think I detect anise in the opening but it’s not listed as a note. There is lots of oakmoss and very intense hyacinth. The hyacinth stays strong for quite some time but the sandalwood and other base notes mellow it out a bit. Very happy to have another 70’s chypre in my collection!
naigre85 – :
The first time I met my future wife, she was 16, and she was wearing Charlie. Every day. That scent pervades my memories of those years. I was in love.
I was lucky to locate a large old bottle on eBay, dating from back then, the 70s or 80s. It arrived today. Still smells exactly like I remember it.
The current Charlie Blue, however, smells nothing at all like it, in my opinion, and I find it quite repulsive. The flankers (gold, white, silver, red) are pretty good, but again nothing similar to the old Charlie.
chatvvile – :
I loved Charlie in the 70s and 80s where it was a fresh green floral, this has nothing to do with the original Charlie, at least on my skin.Awful !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Xeroxmjrdz – :
Along with Charlie Blue, this is one of those classic perfumes that hasn’t aged well at all in my book (to me, it brings to mind the worst parts of the 70s and 80s). However, it definitely had its place in a certain time period, so buy it for the nostalgia if you must.
juniorgnp – :
My mom used to wear this. I remember it smelling very strongly of hyacinth on her along with a light musk. I think that is why I like when i smell hyacinth in a garden because it makes me think of her perfume. She was a tiny woman (5’2″) but she exuded strength and this scent on her was perfect. Not overpowering or cloying but just enough to say “I am here and I will endure”.
Dolcecabban – :
This is my beloved Mama, who left this earth too early. We were living in Colorado in 1973 and I remember when it debuted. She loved Charlie (and other aldehydes, which is why I LOVE them so much). I think I’ll get a bottle for memories.
alekseyka – :
My first of the Revlon Charlie collection when I was a teenager. Not the best scent due to its heavy musky notes but it is iconic.
Den 777 – :
Eu sempre amei este perfume, assim como amo os demais Charlies, porém uma pessoa detestável veio trabalhar comigo e usa este blue diariamente,usa poucas gotas, é discreta mas…associei este cheiro à pessoa e agora, para grande pena da minha história com perfumes, eu passei a odiá-lo. Os demais funcionários também sentem aversão a essa pessoa, portanto não é culpa minha.
Uma lástima!
nediko – :
Burnt hairspray. Sorry but revlon obviously like the smell of hairspray. I had to learn to do sets for mature women when I did hairdressing course and they insisted on me spraying half a can of hair spray around their hair. They would walk out with a cloud of hairspray around them. If you were to get your hair set then spray chanel 19 on this would be close to the smell i get from charlie blue. It has very good staying power and I do like the very plain bottle it is iconic you know immediately it is charlie. It smells like ralph lauren safari gone wrong.
docp – :
This was one of the first perfumes that I got when I started perfume collecting in 2014. It holds special memories for me. I usually prefer sweet fragrances like Juicy Couture Gold but somehow Charlie made it’s way into my heart.
STCrow – :
Of corse I had Charlie when I was a young girl!!! Now I’m 56, and Charlie brings back good memories, all my hopes and expectations for my “bright” future to come..
Well, I have two beautiful sons, and are dreaming new dreams – and a new bottle of Charlie is very welcome to me =))
isoclaisp – :
I never understood the hype about this in the the 70s. I remember a blast of nose scorching aldehydes that didnt dry down into anything more pleasant.
Over95 – :
Aldehydes, hyacinth, spicy carnation and lilly with a strong oakmoss presence make up modern Charlie.
In the 70s there was a more white floral presence to give lift to this heavy Icon. Without it it lags — a heavy time capsule in a bottle of yesteryear. If you like vintage chypres and classic florals this will work or layer underneath modern fragrances to fill them back in. A great selection for 70s womens lib in a bottle
roman66696 – :
This would for sure induce a headache after prolonged exposure. My God it smells cheap and stinky. Kudos for it for sure leaving a scent trail and lasting longer than your average drugstore frag, though. It’s something I’d appreciate in better smelling cheap perfumes. I’m literally feeling nauseous as it’s reeking on the poor patch of skin I applied this on, I’m gonna wash this off before I die or something
Саня 007 – :
Charlie by Revlon is a nice scent. Strong, so I do not use a lot. The lasting power is very long.
I noticed this scent getting harder to find and pricey.
So, if you like this and find it for a good price.
Stock up. I have a fragrance collection and a store
on E-bay. So, I have a lot of different scents.
I grew up in the 80’s. But, I like this scent as well.
Apparently a 70’s icon.
InitGruph – :
I have to agree with Floating Ophelia, I never got it either. When we were growing up in the ’70’s and ’80s, there were the girls who wore the old fashioned classics, and the girls who wore Charlie, even though it did seem the Charlie girls had so much more fun!
Wargas – :
I don’t get the appeal, never got it when I was a young teen, don’t like it now. Is too dry, earthy ( in a bad way like dirt) and somehow synthetic and chemical. I get mostly synthetic oakmoss and…hairspray? Not my taste at all. Of course there are people who may make it work. Someone loves everyone’s most hated fragrance and vice versa. I need some floral or sweetness in my perfumes so I just must avoid anything so earthy and dry.
igorek5335 – :
“Santa” put a bottle of this in my stocking for Christmas one year when I was in elementary school. It was my first perfume. I can only imagine that my mom chose it because it was so popular when she was young and it was a nostalgic choice for her. I kept the bottle because it made me feel glamorous to own a bottle of grown-up perfume, but the scent of it horrified me. It still horrifies me. What an aldehyde bomb!
Overall, not a scent for a ten year old, but upon revisiting I found it’s not a scent for an adult either. Probably best poured down the drain.
Vel-alecsey – :
Charlie has the strangest turn-around I’ve ever experienced in a fragrance.
Initial spray is an aldehydic mess on an oakmoss bed. It is cheap hairspray. It is bug repellant. It is dandruff shampoo. It is pure stank. Wait it out. What slowly blooms is a wonderful, sweet, intriguing hyacinth. A little sandalwood warms up. There are some powdery violets there. The drydown is a spicy, somewhat soapy carnation. Kind of lemony too, come to think of it.
Overall, I am glad I finally decided to try it out. I wore it to bed last night and am wearing it tonight, and the fragrance lingering in my bedroom is comforting and familiar despite my having only just met the original! Red was one of my first “grown up” fragrances and I love the rich, syrupy Gold, but this one is growing on me FAST.
hjhj – :
bright deep strong woody fragrance with supporting florals/hyacinth; intense, in the family of Enjoli but stronger; I have the Charlie’s Bright Idea light bulb version; in the base there is some oakmoss but not overpowering and some musk
Ejunya1988 – :
I wish I could smell this again but when i was very young and sprayed the tester on myself at K-mart, I got a huge headache. I loved Heaven’s Scent though.
syorik – :
Extremely era specific, to A. Rose123 and eliza.gelman who posted below, you nailed it with your descriptions, thank you!
I remember loving the way I smelled wearing a quick squirt of this on my wrists with either Lemon Up or Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific in my hair.
The original formula of this is long gone, just like the 70’s.
Undoubtedly the reason I graduated to bigger, badder aldehydes & chypres like Chanel Cristalle, #19 and #22.
nikris – :
I remember wearing this to a concert way back in the 80’s. This guy behind me kept saying he smelled oranges. He was smelling this STINKY perfume lingering in the air. It is awful. Way too strong.
ира54 – :
A little of this goes a long way. I have a vintage bottle, so I am unsure if it’s been reformulated yet. Charlie is not a perfume I reach for often, but I appreciate it’s classic (and a little dated) scent. I don’t wear it outside of my house because it’s not elevator or car friendly. I’d have to stick my head out of the window or open all the windows in order to drive. lol This stuff surrounds you like a cloud. I get mostly oakmoss and aldehydes.
marianacatalina – :
Oof. I’ve never smelled the original FiFi award winner from 1974, but I did get a two pack of this for my best friend a couple Christmases ago, kept one for myself, and man -it’s just not for me. To me this is the quintessential cheap perfume. It smells cheap – TO ME. Bear in mind I proudly wear cheap perfume, including another iconic Revlon – Fire & Ice, and am by no means a snob, but when people talk about perfume giving them a headache, this is what they mean. This is an example of aldehydes gone wild – or is that the galbanum? My nose is not refined enough to be able to tell – and it’s just not my cup of tea. I don’t think this smells as green and woody as Fragrantica classifies it – this is not a safe chypre blind buy. That being said, it’s only like five bucks so go for it if you must. It’s very sharp, very 70s feathered hair, Farrah Fawcett, vasline-on-the-camera lens. Not my bag, but if it’s yours, you’re in luck, because it’s everywhere online and dirt cheap!
kyx800speagoessenda – :
Iconic? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a bug spray-smelling mess. The original formulation was undoubtedly better, but the current, literally, smelled just like a slightly more floral take on Off! Deep Woods at first spritz. It got a bit better as it sat, but nowhere near enough better to make me want to wear it. Also, all of the Charlies I’ve tried have something in them, some “Charlie-ade” DNA that does NOT work on me.
Side by side with Charlie Blue, they are indistinguishable from one another.
Voigo – :
I just love how era specific this scent is and yes, it absolutely does smell like the time it was released in because the 70’s smelled the way they did BECAUSE of “Charlie”. It’s utterly iconic, reaching that rare status of “the scent of an era”. There were many others but even though this was before my time, I imagine everything else in the 70’s smelled a little like “Charlie” because of “Charlie”, even if it was just a mainstream accessible scent that paid homage to velvety, avocado-tinted chypres (even chypre-fougere) of the past.
“Charlie” is a big, virtually olive colored green chypre with flicks of golden wheat throughout. It opens on dry kick of aldehydes, like starched cotton, immediately followed by an oily, waxy, creamy hyacinth.
The hyacinth is utterly crunchy and full of the kind of powerful and distinctive indolic freshness often found in loud, bright, Spring flowers. The mix between the two gives the feeling of green tweed, a sort of fibery dryness combined with a fabric softener coating. This is the combo that many will read as “old lady” because it smells like a time of powder, starch and hairspray. It’s a sort of highly primped imitation of nature, like an animal print blouse and neatly appointed sitting room. Yes, from a time when people kept a formal sitting room with a couch set rarely sat on, except when teachers came to discuss report cards or priests came over for tea.
After this primped, starchy opening, a sort of murky reediness emerges, all woods and grasses with a damp feeling. I adore this stage because it’s so evocative; it really feels like walking through some streamlined, pond side garden with mostly open lawns, willow trees and geraniums: the pond is reedy and full of cattails but the surrounding space is simple, neat and clean in a distinctively mid 20th century American way.
“Charlie” carries both those personalities in it, the Sunday afternoon cook-out in a a shady park or a deeply green and pine needles strewn, walk in the woods. “Charlie” is a dichotomy of being both well kept and wild in the way public parks are. It’s a green wash of chypre elegance but over-apply it and you’re in cat spray territory. It’s a musk, woods and aldehydes combo that can smell perilously close to a hyper-dose of civet if too heavily applied.
If you have a problem with distinctive, murky chypres that are richly green, full of grassy, velvety fougere herbal notes, something soapy and ashy enough to smell like it could hide cigarette smoke, “Charlie” is not for you. I find it clean but clean in a natural, human musk way. It smells slightly like wet, clean hair and soap residue on skin warming in the sun.
I can’t quite put my finger on what makes it feel like everything about the natural toned, yet often artificial 70’s but it does. However, that’s why I love it and to render it down to the most simple description, it’s a green chypre-fougere with a smooth, woody base and a slightly soapy edge. It’s one of a kind.
mo7in – :
CHARLIE
REVLON
YEAR
1974
Charlie!
I have nothing but love for Charlie. From it’s masculine name – which might lead one to think is this a guy’s cologne or a woman’s perfume for the woman who enjoys unisex “tomboy” scents like me? What’s up with the name Charlie? Is it referring to Charles Revson the founder of the Revlon company or Charlie’s Angel’s Charlie? This perfume was released right smack in the middle of the energy crisis oil crisis in America in the 1970’s and during the success of the TV series Charlie’s Angels. Charlie is also coming out of a time when Greenpeace activism was at it’s strongest. I was among them, but I never tied myself up to a tree to prevent it from being cut down to make room for a shopping center. Instead I fought the unfair deforestation & greenery killing murderers by taking up law & defending the rights of the activist themselves to protest.
Whenever I smell perfumes like Charlie (or Ciara, Tea Rose, Aliage) it always transports me back to the 70’s, an era I grew up in. And you grew up fast back then. Charlie brings a memory of a well known 1970’s TV ad “The Crying Indian” who looks at the city filled with litter, garbage and junk and smog from cars and sheds a tear for the death of the natural earth. I also think of my high school years. I wore this perfume all through high school. It was cheap but I was making a statement. I loved this scent as a comforting soothing aroma therapy to get me through high school. I related to Janis Ian’s song “I Learned The Truth At Seventeen”. I knew the “pain of Valentines that never came and whose name was never called when choosing sides for basketball”. It was long ago & far away, and dreams were all they gave away for free for ugly duckling girls like me.I was a short red haired ugly duckling Jewish girl in a school filled with pretty taller-than-me Aryan blondes or more elegant brunettes. I was often the butt of jokes & did not attract friends, despite my friendly & approachable demeanor. I now believe I was the target of anti-Semitism or perhaps because I was always a bit of a “lawyer” girl I could argue or talk back when I had to, which repelled some kids. For whatever reason I was quite a loner in school and I wore this perfume to keep me in positive moods. I was in the debate team & teachers were my friends. This perfume takes me back to when I was seventeen.
Charlie is a green floral with an opening of galbanum. I think of this note, the green note of galbanum, and the oak moss & vetiver as being the dominant notes. This is a very green colored fragrance, no different from the chypres of lasting fame such as Chanel’s No. 19 & Aliage by Estee Lauder. Yes Charlie is floral but she is a unique kind of floral scent. She is not preoccupied with smelling too pretty or powdery. She is plain and simple, unassuming and rather natural when you think about it. Let’s say Charlie is the name of the girl that is represented in this fragrance. Charlie would not wear make up at all, ever; not one bit of rouge, lipstick, eye make-up or powder. She is a fresh and natural face, even if it is a “Sarah Plain & Tall” type of face. She does not dress up to impress and is always in hand-me-downs and casual shirts & jeans. So yes she is a bit of a tomboy & although not masculine she doesn’t bother to make herself look more attractive to the opposite sex. In this sense, Charlie suited me in my personality in the 70’s.
Floral notes consist of soapy white flowers. I smelled jasmine, gardenia, lily of the valley. Jasmine & lily are repeating themselves as there are two notes of these white floral scents in the top and middle notes. This is not a very sweet or creamy white floral fragrance and she is instead a toned down and modest gardenia & jasmine, closer to the smell of a floral soap. It’s like Charlie does not want to wear any amazing & glamorous perfume but instead only scents herself in the shower with her soap. Other than the white floral notes I did detect and always have detected a violet. So this is floral but the green notes & the galbanum notes are forever keeping this thing in the green or green-house herbal botanical garden type of floral aroma. It also reminds me of room sprays that were of green floral notes popular in the 70’s. She was a cheap drugstore fragrance then and is now, but she can be beautiful if you give her a chance to reveal herself to you.
When dry, Charlie is redolent with sandalwood, oak moss & vetiver. As the florals fade, the moss emerges and it continues with it’s green theme. The oak moss is to die for! Absolute class in a chypre scent and like a more approachable less “cold” Chanel No. 19. Though I love this scent and find her unique and a girl of her own independent spirit, she might have more in common with the “casual green chypres” like Aliage by Estee Lauder. If you wear that, and still have not worn Charlie, you should. There is very little difference and you get the same soothing green herbal aroma therapy out of it. Finally the whole thing is warm with a final note of musk.
This perfume came with an annoying TV ad and the fragrance appeared to be suggestive of an adventurous and modern woman who has no time for perfume, a working class lady’s perfume. I can also see how it can feel like that but to me it will always be the simple and no nonsense high school fragrance of my youth. I do believe that you can wear this today because it is as floral as some of today’s scents, with the exception of the less frequently used galbanum note. Please noses of the world bring back galbanum! This perfume affects me deeply. It is my beloved 1970’s green peace perfume. She is a reminder of who I was and where I came from. She is an old friend in a fragrance form who never looks down on me and who embraced me for who I am.
I love you Charlie.
nadia73 – :
Just recieved a true vintage of Charlie and to the haters out there, I’m guessing most reviews are based on the modern formulation. The original is so much brighter and I can smell the better quality ingredients (especially the real deal oak moss). It’s so much better that it even reminds me a bit of Norell, hardly a cheapie. Oh why, oh why, can’t we have these quality ingredients anymore? I could almost cry when I smell these true classics and compare them to today’s perfumes (all of them). Word to the wise: if there’s a perfume you love, buy extras- it will either be discontinued or reformulated at some point.
Alexkivi – :
Fragrance Review For Charlie
By Revlon
Top Notes
Hyacinth Jasmine Gardenia Galbanum Aldehydes
Middle Notes
Lily of the Valley Jasmine Lily Geranium Violet Coriander
Base Notes
Sandalwood Musk Vanilla Oak Moss Vetiver
“There’s a fragrance that’s here today and they call it Charlie. A different fragrance that thinks your way and they call it Charlie. Kind of young kind of now Charlie kind of free kind of wow Charlie kind of fragrance that’s gonna stay and it’s here now Charlie. Charlie by Revlon A Most Original Fragrance”
– 1973 TV AD
Yeah I have the commercial jingle memorized LOL I was not a fan of Charlie because I first experienced it as a secondhand fragrance. My mother wore it a lot and when I first became old enough to start wearing perfume and did not make money of my own to buy perfumes for myself I had to inevitably wear her perfume. Charlie takes me back to when I was a teenager. The first spritz was ghastly. It was straight out cat pee. I swore to myself I’d never ever wear this even if I lived to be 60. I came across this fragrance once again in my journeys through perfume. I love it and wear it now because I’m a big girl now.
Charlie was targeting a demographic of young women of the 70’s. For the longest time I associated this fragrance with CHARLIE’S ANGELS the TV series with the 3 young beautiful ladies Farrah Fawcett Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson. It is no surprise that Kate Jackson was replaced by Shelley Hack in later episodes and Miss Hack was the face of this perfume and she appeared in the TV ad so the Charlie connection is always going to be there. To me this is a feminine perfume which the kick ass Charlie Angels girls wore. It is straight out of the 70’s with it’s emphasis on aldehydes and florals. But it also smells very classic as if made before the 70’s. It would be considered “mature” “old lady” perfume today but this came at a time when even 20 year olds took themselves seriously and wore perfume when it was real perfume.
The opening is flowery like a flower bomb detonating so it’s important to apply with a light touch but hey if you adore flowers spray liberally! There’s a ton of white flowers of which jasmine is most prominent. There are 2 notes of jasmine and they’re rather noticeable. There’s gardenia and lilies. These white floral scents are fresh and sparkling with aldehydes. This is very much an aldehydic scent similar to white floral plus aldehyde scents in the same league as Arpege by Lanvin or Chanel No. 22, without it smelling like either of them. There’s a gorgeous green herbal nocturnal galbanum that really sends me. The galbanum gives this scent a botanical touch. There’s violet and geranium. It’s all about the floral top and heart. So you have to be into floral scents and if so this is a treat. But you have to get passed the aldehydes when it softens into sweet flowers.
At the base we have a touch of musk, some vetiver, vanilla bean and sandalwood. The sandalwood is very pronounced and it smells resinous, woodsy and the vetiver is also coming forth. But it’s all about the oak moss. It smells like burnt oak moss. I love the scent of moss. For me this is all about the galbanum and the oak moss. It gives this scent the aspect of a chypre. It’s still more of an aldehyde floral than a chypre but there’s enough wood/moss to be appreciated as a youthful chypre. This is absolutely gorgeous.
Charlie is a perfume for a girl in the 70’s who was just turning 18 or 21 and went out to her job smelling like flowers but would not mind smelling this way at a dinner date. At one time men were turned on by the flower scent on women. Today it’s a different story. But let’s travel back in time and wear flowers once in a while. I do. Charlie reminds me of freedom and care-free youth, having nothing to worry about and it’s a comforting relaxing scent. I wear it now mostly to get to sleep. I wear this out from time to time. I love Charlie Gold as well.
This is a must have in any true serious perfumista wardrobe. I bet all the girls who wore this at the gas station putting gas on their car during the oil crisis must have smelled so good and you won’t mind waiting for them to be done gasing up their car just to stand there and bask in the aroma.
exinyncextext – :
Loved it as a child and get compliments on it every time. Gave it away after reading one review stating “This smells like one of those ladies that hangs out in the casinos, smoking cigarettes.” Blech. That was enough to ruin it for me.
zagarinoff – :
The Charlie commercials have got me rolling and laughing.
Does that really happen to you?
Even more, does one really need two large, long, wide spritzes of this classic?? Methinks not from what I can remember of this powerhouse.
I use to be a caretaker, eons back, and the person I took care of wore this fragrance constantly. I remember it being screechy then it would mellow and become nice and musky. And just when it got bearable ~spritz-spritz~ we started the whole process over again …like every two hours.
It’s one of those frags you can instantly identify. There is no mystery to it. It’s Charlie.
It is that distinctive, like Windsong or Chanel No 5.
It’s not a bad scent. I don’t dislike it, but I sure don’t love it.
I had tried it on myself a long time ago….
Great giant sillage
Lasts a long time.
geoarkh – :
So much love for this perfume! It was my 1st as a teen… Say no more!!!
bzy109elipseskism – :
Had my hopes up due to 70s cool factor and low price tag, sprayed it on a tester and immediately felt No! Maybe it’s a beginner’s mistake, but when the opening is repulsive, even after settling down a minute, I’m turned off and move on. Is that foolish?
Someone here mentioned that Charlie resembles Clinique’s Aromatics Elixir, which is weird, because my first impression of that scent was Yes! Go figure.
Edit: Took another sniff today, and what the hey, I liked her this time! Spicy, sour, seventies… a scent I’d like to get to know better. So I took her home with me.
Thanks to reading a review below, I realized I had the Charlie Apple (silver pendant necklace) when I was little! Probably a thrift store find, and maybe empty, but this means the scent isn’t new to me. I’m a little afraid it’s too strong! It’s definitely the most potent scent I have. Sprayed once on skin and once on t-shirt, and it might have been one/two sprays too many! Charlie is LOUD!
MPdeeli – :
I’m wearing a vintage bottle of Charlie, and sniffing it trying to figure what it reminds me of, and while I reading the reviews down here, I found a reviewer telling that it reminded them of Clinique’s Aromatics Elixir ! And yes yes yes, it is a definitely its copy-cat, as we all know that Charles Revson was mimicking all the great hits of his time, so I can say it’s a replica that showed its originality through staying beautiful and fresh in its bottle all those 40 ++years that my bottle hase aged!! I have a Cologne version and a Parfam version, can you imagine how a Parfam version of Charlie will smell? The answer is Clinique’s Aromatics Elixir, that has been said, I will be wearing it for long period.
I can say it is best worn for night, if I will wear it through day and sunny hours, I will make sure it will not be that hot.
Love love love Charlie the vintage version, but I know nothing about the new one at all, so I can’t compare now, maybe later.
Olexiu – :
I sampled this today and was surprised to find similarities with Arpege on me for the first hour followed by a unique and pleasant development over the next 4 hours giving this fragrance it’s own sweet signature! The differences between the two are that Arpege has Patchouli,Vetiver and a few extra notes in it such as Violet.
Can it be that as with Ciara’s mimicry of Bal a Versailles that with Arpege’s resurgent popularity in the 1970’s marketed with slogans such as ‘Arpege. Very simply the most beautiful gift in the world’ and ‘If she wants the moon, give her Arpege!’ that Revlon sought to do the same with Charlie but with a twist towards ‘the independent Woman’ of the day with ‘Charlie the gorgeous, sexy-young fragrance by Revlon’
This is a fragrance that is now on my shopping list after going on a fragrance shopping binge the last couple of weeks!
vlad-martsa – :
This is another 70’s powerhouse that I needed to take time getting to know. I’m usually a 4 sprays kinda girl with todays modern gourmands. But these older ladies are loud enough to get by with one to 2 max! So with a restrained hand I went for it again, after rescuing it from my give away box. I figured that this one has stood the test of time for a reason and I must give her a fair shake. With a lighter hand you can really begin to appreciate why this one has become a classic. Yes, there is a lot of oak moss going on here, and you better be okay with aldehydes too or this one isn’t for you. But it’s nice in a mysteriously sexy kind of way. And the bonus with wearing the old classics is you won’t be smelling generic. It’s heavy, so I may have made a mistake wearing to work today. It may get moved to my night timely shelf! Give it a shot. For a few bucks it a good learning experience at the very least.
niggatiff – :
I wore Charlie in my early twenties, and liked the smell, though I met myself coming and going at every turn. It seemed like my entire country wore Charlie. Fast forward thirty years and I recently found a bottle at the bottom of my bathroom sink in my country house. Cannot even remember buying it, but there it was; still smells the same. Today we are expecting a blizzard in New York and for some reason I feel like wearing it, so I gave myself four squirts and I am loving the walk (or smell) down memory lane. After all of these years, it still feels good to wear Charlie.
jodiwouk – :
Never smelled this… was before my time. But my mom has had a bottle out for decoration forever. Tried a squirt. Very heavy. I can smell the “I am woman, hear me roar” in it. This is a perfume that a woman put on in the 70’s to prove that she could do anything, or wear anything she wanted to. Is it strong, yes. That’s the way it was supposed to be. Dated but has a beauty about it. Would I wear it now, probably not. But I can only hope that I am the type of woman that would have worn it back in the 70’s. That woman trying to defy societal norms. Ok, so maybe I will try to wear this sometime, just so I can go against the fruity, powdery, dreamy perfume smells of today! (which I love) On second thought, this perfume is still serving the same purpose 40 years later, and you gotta admire that! Happy Smelling!! 🙂
mov561speagoessenda – :
You have no idea how much I wanted to love this. I went to try it on with a head full of the 1970s ads, wanting to be free spirited, fresh, feminist, clean, with a glowing smile. I imagined wearing it like a secret confidence boost. I even wore a jumpsuit. 🙂
No matter how much I sniff my wrist and try to love it, it still smells like the neutral smelling men’s antiperspirant I wear. Not unpleasant, but not something I would ever intentionally smell like, either.
gori496 – :
How could anyone hate Charlie? I absolutely love this fragrance, to me it smells like a softer more floral version of Clinique’s Aromatics Elixir. Charlie opens with aldehydes, and fresh citrus and greens. As charlie dries down she gets more powdery and mossy with a little bit of dirty patchouli in the background. I mostly smell chamomile and jonquil in Charlie which is my favorite part of Aromatics. Aromatics just became too much for me and used to be one of my all time favorite perfumes but lately I smell it on lot’s of women and being around them just gives me a headache. So i’m so happy that I can have the same type of scent in my collection but a more softer, more powdery, and more floral version. I love Charlie so much i’m going to spray some on now lol. I got mine in a two bottle set for 14.99 at cvs Charlie is definitely a steal!
bahmet – :
I can’t believe so many negative reviews for this classic.
Charlie was my grandma’s signature perfume and it only evoques some of my best memories.
When I smell it on someone I can picture her gorgeous reddish hair perfectly styled, her make-up session finished with her Marilyn Monroe’s beauty spot ( granny had it natural not painted ) and Charlie saying -I am ready and wonderful-.
The aroma of flowe