Chunga
Weil

The glorious Chunga (PdT) is sadly a unicorn: long discontinued, highly coveted, often overpriced when it appears for sale, but the vintage collector knows that patience pays off. After three years waiting for a bottle to show up that wouldn't require maxing out a credit card, one appeared for 100 dollars and I just couldn't refuse.

Boy, am I pleased that I did. This is a high water mark of aldehydic florals, opening with a near vertiginous sparkle, with the honey and linden blossom underlined with peach lactones the main focal points for the first hour of this magnificent creation. It is elegant and splendiferous, full of textures: watery, soapy, creamy, bedaubed with spice, deliciously yellow floral. An ylang ylang becomes more evident further into its development, deepening the grooves and leaving the skin begging to be nuzzled. The most palpable element though is a vetiver that carries every element through with a tawny, grassy shade of ambiguity—one of my favorite aspects.

Chunga eventually mutates into a musky amber, full on decadent in its dry down, with lingering clove and the vetiver getting stickier and nuttier: vetiver and musks mingling makes me swoon. Though one might imagine this as more suitable in cooler weather, this blooms in the summer heat, developing a sensuous aura around me.

Floral aldehyde with slight spicy carnation bent.
Quite nice but very weak, instant skin scent.
Edt mini

Some people call Chunga a masculine. Personally I couldn't see that being the case; at least, not in the West.
But - as Serge Lutens says - painting and sculpture isn't made for men or women, why should perfume be any different?
Regardless of gender ascription, this rose-iris bouquet had a natural quality that's rarely seen these days. The drydown is a bit weak though.

A quality Weil from the late 70s, leathery yet aldehydic and floral. Fleeting, alas.

I found this somewhere outside Paris when i was about 14...and have been looking for it sometimes ever since! Reminds me of my other favourite Vu by Ted Lapidus.