Best dark-gotic etat libre.

[lovetribe]

i'm getting closer to this brand as i think i may like Archives 69 Etat Libre d'Orange which of all do you think is very dark, dark, gothic? I already have Rien Intense Incense Etat Libre d'Orange.

also I'm going to give myself ... t-rex and vi et armis having already ... rake and ruin and fathom v is there any etat libre that can stand up to the aforementioned monsters? and what do you think of cadavre exquisis?

[cacio]

I like the brand a lot too. I'd say Rien incense intense (or the regular Rien) are the darkest. Among the others, I'd say Attaquer le soleil, which has incense and cistus (a dark amber)-perhaps not as dark as the name would imply, but still it has that vibe. And Tom of Finland. Tom of Finland is a dark leather, but overlaid with saffron and suede. Not as dark as Rien, but still somewhat dark.

cacio

[Kaern]

I wouldn't look to ELdO for darkness

Apart from the nihilistic Rien duo, I suppose Charogne would be closest -- in a sort of decomposing halitosis way -- like a death rattle

[cheapimitation]

My first thought was Eau de Protection, what's more gothic than bloody rose? haha

I would also add Experimentum Crucis, which to me was a very baroque/gothic rose patchouli in the vein of Portrait of a Lady (but not a clone by any means).

[lovetribe]

Archives 69?

[teardrop]

Rien & Tom of Finland. l didn't find Archives 69 dark or gothic in the slightest.

[hednic]

Rien and Sex Pistols

[blackaroma]

Aside Rien ELdO isn't a house of dark perfumes, they're crazy and fun ina colorful way. 69, de Sade, ToF, all have smoky or dark notes, yes, but are far from dark as a whole perfume.

[cacio]

I like Archives 69 a lot. It has a very interesting rotten fruit note, almost unpleasant but very interesting. In that sense, I don't find it dark either, but it's certainly challenging and unconventional.

[Cook.bot]

I like Archives 69 a lot. It has a very interesting rotten fruit note, almost unpleasant but very interesting. In that sense, I don't find it dark either, but it's certainly challenging and unconventional.

That note in 69 that smells like rotten fruit to Cacio smells to me like a freshly opened jar of cured olives. And I like it!

I have to agree that ELDO is the wrong house to be searching for gothic scents.

[Mar Azul]

Vierges et Toreros: castoreum, leather and tuberose. While Rien might be the first obvious choice, it lacks the decadent flower part.
Tom of Finland I find too modern, too urban and too shiny (aldehydes).

[Ashleyland]

I own and love Archives 69. I wouldn't say that it is dark or gothic per se. It's more of a feminine fragrance with a bad girl edge. It smells like what I'd imagine Rizzo from Grease to smell like in her 30's with a job and a secret tattoo under her pencil skirt with silk stockings, smoking a cigarette and enjoying a glass of brandy. It has a weirdly nostalgic vibe to it that for some reasons, whenever I smell it, reminds me of Christmas. I'm not sure why. But when I smell it I just think, ahhh this is what a woman's boudoir from the 60's-70's would smell like at Christmas time, with a fire going in the next room. I guess they did a really good job at selling the '69 thing for me (as far as time stamping goes, not the intended innuendo), considering I was born in the 90's and would have no way of knowing what anything from that time smelled like.

For me, the most gothic scent I've smelled from this house to date (there haven't been many) was probably Jasmin et Cigarette. That one smelled straight up like skanky jasmine (not the cleaned up commercial kind) with a healthy dash of smoke, but it was well done in a way that didn't smell offensive or bad. I've always imagined that fragrance could smell quite lovely on a man, but I wouldn't be afraid to wear it myself.

The one that is also referenced here, Rien, is probably in line with what you're looking for as well, but please sample first. Something about that fragrance went horribly wrong on my skin, it smelled like rotting flesh and burning tires, morbidly like a terrible car accident now that I think about it. I try not to think about it though, to this day that was one of the worst fragrances I've ever smelled. But it seems to be loved by a lot of people, so I'm gonna guess that it was probably just a matter of personal chemistry problems.