Leather

I wasn't aware of perfumes with a leather note until recently. Yes, I lived under a rock for years! I'm sure I've probably encountered men's commercial fragrances with leather, but never paid much attention to them, mainly because the scent of leather doesn't necessarily turn me on. My childhood was filled with the plastic scent of pleather, and the association with the real thing wasn't always a positive one.

But as we mature, we're open to new things, at least I am, so I've given a couple of leather-based fragrances a try. It's still hit or miss.

Serge Lutens
Daim Blond
Notes: hawthorn, cardamom, iris, apricot stone, pallida, musk, heliotrope, leather

Daim Blond opened with a blast of gorgeous buttery supple leather, like that of an expensive handbag. After some minutes, the apricot started to peek out from behind the leather, but just slightly. The drydown is a long time in coming - several hours after applying it, the apricot burst forth in a sweet and almost vanilla-y cloud, pushing the leather to the background where it settled in nicely with the musk.

I think the leather was a bit overpowering for me, and my husband didn't like it at all. He said it was too vinyl/rubber-y for him. But the drydown was close to magnificent! Even the next day, I could smell it on the sleeve of the wool sweater I had worn the night before, and it was highly fragrant, reminding me of a sophisticated older woman out for a night on the town. If Daim Blonde always smelled like the drydown, I think I might have to invest in it.

L.T. Piver
Cuir de Russie
Notes: leather, mandarin, bergamot, woods, spices, honey

The most "perfume-y" of the three, Piver's leather scent starts out with a leather/citrus combination, fresh as an Eau de Cologne. The leather in this scent is far more subtle than that of the other two fragrances reviewed here and it morphs gently into a honeyed incense or tobacco. On my husband, it took on a vanilla quality, and the drydown was not unlike his usual poison, Obsession. Very, very nice, and completely unisex.

Chanel
Cuir de Russie
Notes: mandarin, bergamot, balsams, spice bush, incense, cade wood, rose, jasmine, ylang-ylang

I hear this has been a popular scent over the years, and for the life of me, I can't understand why. Of course, nobody else has my particular body chemistry, and that's a good thing for Chanel. Cuir de Russie, or Russian Leather, has a strong animalic leather smell, so animalic, it's as if the cow was still somehow attached to the hide. At least on my skin. In fact, I found it so hideous the first time I tried it, for this review, I am giving you the lowdown off a piece of cardstock, rather than my skin so I don't have to smell it every time I move my arm.

On paper, it's not as bad. It kinda smells like a leather handbag that someone spilled perfume on - a little floral, a little powdery, a little leather. And it has that Chanel signature quality to it, something floral that I just can't put my finger on, like the way Chanel lipstick smells (Why oh why do companies perfume lipstick with rose and other floral scents? Yuck!), or cheap cold cream, and No. 5 has that same quality. But even on paper, it's a scent of a different era and not something I could find myself wearing today. (Nor would want to smell it on anyone else, necessarily.)

tags: reviews