Basenote Bitch
Charlie by Revlon

Charlie by Revlon

The QUEEN of all soapy green floral chypres if there ever was one is Charlie by Revlon. It was and still is (although who knows what this smells like at the drugstore today) affordable enough to douse yourself until you hear that iconic jingle by Bobby Short. Do yourself a favor and go to youtube to pretend you’re Shelly Hack waltzing from her Rolls Royce to dinner in the original commercials. The iconic Naomi Sims appeared in many of Charlie’s print advertisements with the same effortless confidence.

This perfume was marketed at the peak of the Women’s Liberation Movement in the United States—so you already know one of the key adjectives for the campaign was “modern.” I’m getting very second wave feminist reading Ms. Magazine and hoping the Equal Rights Amendment will pass, but also maybe getting a date too. She’s strong, confident, and wearing her Bare Trap platform clogs to the rally with a spritz of this truly nostril-singing fragrance.

Notes include aldehydes, lemon blossom, hyacinth and peach, orrisroot, lily-of-the-valley, cyclamen and carnation, vanilla, sandalwood, oakmoss, musk and cedar. In real life you will smell like the inside of Gloria Steinem’s turtleneck.