François Charles
Rancé 1795 (2007)

Originally created for Napoleon's only son, it's ironic and fitting that Francois Charles (both the person and the fragrance) turned out to be rather unexceptional.

I will say that I actually enjoy this scent. The house describes the fragrance as a walk through a forest full of florals, herbs, citruses and fruits, and I get that. It's a bit of a shape-shifter as it develops on the skin - leans more green to me than floral - slightly more chipre than fougere - but it is complex and nicely mixed and balanced, and overall pleasant. I just don't think it's exceptional or particularly nuanced. Others have done a fine job here pointing out the notes - nothing really stands out for me as the star of the show - it's just a nice blend of flowers, citrus and herbs with a dash of spice, leans masculine. Certainly not a bad scent. Just not a wow scent.

About the only real good thing about this fragrance is a really nice lemon i get in the opening...this could have been a half way decent fragrance if an effort would have been made to use some better quality of ingredients...i have to agree with everyone else that this smells of a mix of todays standart , somewhat generic compounds...its kind of murky and watery...theres some flowers, spices and an overall muskiness...maybe a faint touch of lavender...about as safe as you can get...

The Rance Francois Charles's aromatic-greenish-musky-"splashing" opening is full of "olfactory conjurations" under my nose since this concoction (wittingly or un wittingly for its performer, I don't know) rides for sure several solid commercial olfactory "sexy" stereotypes of the "renowned market" (jumping from Gaultier Le Male to YSL Body Kouros and Cuba Paris Cuba Gold, passing across Acqua di Biella Ca' Luna and several Ted Lapidus, Lolita Lempika, Borsalino- Panama jumps on mind- or Escada, overall with "a tad" of the classic Romeo Gigli by Romeo Gigli). There is a freshly herbal, liquid-spicy and talky muskiness throughout and all around and this feel would be probably appealing for the contemporary young urban "balmy-attracted" crowds, I guess. The accord is a synthetic (and by now classic) combination of musk (galaxolide), a fleeting lavender/basil/aromatic herbs "cooperation", talky amber, aquatic molecules, balmy notes, ginger/cardamom and floral notes (vegetal geranium first of all). I don't detect effectively a classic twist of synthetic iris powder but more generally a dusty talkiness really dry and clean. The dry down becomes more and more restrained, talky, piquant and virile (reducing the soapiness) and this phase is the most satisfactory in accordance with my taste. I detect in this stage a really pleasant tonka/tobacco powdery accord not so distant from the ones we have previously enjoyed in Versace The Dreamer or Remy Latour Cigar or (to a certain extent) Farmacia SS Annunziata Talc Gourmand. A well made scent for the lovers of this synthetic powdery sensual genre.

François Charles by Rancé (don't get fooled by all these French names, they're based in the South-West suburbs of Milan) opens with a fairly cloying accord of musky-woody notes, mostly comprising a bold dose of cardamom and tonka, slight balmy notes (pine?), dark and dry flowers (carnation), a rooty-buttery carrot-like note, a light menthol note provided – I guess – by geranium and basil. Not stinky, even with some nice nuances and quite a rich texture for this type of scent (by type I mean class of quality): the accord of iris is basically non-existent, it's rather a earthy-rooty accord of cardamom, tonka, carrot and violet aromachemicals which basically "create" a sort of orris presence. Mossy-green hints all around. A general, invisible vibe of cheapness, but that's my impression. Basically a barely decent and fairly pretentious plain scent which may work for a dinner among not-that-trained noses.

5/10

Disappointed. The product hype suggested a "walk in the forest" and the notes show herbs and woods. But this turns out to be a "fresh" - spice - musk sort of scent.
The herbal notes are much too brief to count for anything. The spices are done in a sweet style and are prominent. The scent has a synthetic tang.

This is basically an expensive niche version of Le Male. I lost my sample of this one, and only sprayed it once or twice several years ago. I can't give a full fledged review, but I can say it smelled like a more refined Le Male.. one of the better copies though. Though don't expect anything too natural, the notes still smelled quite synthetic.