Accords: Leather Across Three Centuries
A Fragrantica article by John Biebel, creator of the fine and puzzling Selperniku, which does not have a leather note.
What are your leather favorites, and why? (I'm almost entirely anosmic to leather in perfume, so you're unlikely to get anything from me.)
Bel Ami Vetiver - Just a nice balsamic leather/vetiver frag. Not too sweet, and it's a different type of sweetness.
Fahrenheit - Masterpiece. That opening is nose-gasm.
Eau d'Hermes - maybe underrated (as in, not talked about that much) but a brilliant and masterful execution. Another masterpiece. Airy leather that people might feel smells more... human. Excellent excellent frag.
CH Men - A wonderful unique type of sweet/leather frag, modern, comforting, and just smells good dammit.
Versace L'Homme - Under. The. Freaking. Radar. Amazing and super inexpensive - but honestly, even if it was multiple times more expensive, I'd still get it. It's so damn good. Old-school masculine, but for whatever reason just hits the spot. No need to track down a vintage really, the modern stuff is amazing.
Colonia Leather - Honorable mention. Not my favorite, it's along the same line as Tuscan Leather and the like ubiquitous nature of this type of leather nowadays - but with a little soapy/citrus twist. It's pleasant on skin, :).
Bel Ami Vetiver
Is this one wearable on a daily basis?
Yes, but it may be somewhat 'rich', so I don't know if you'd want to. Kind of like how you wouldn't wear Dior Homme Parfum everyday. But like, if you're in an office/professional/suit type of job environment, then yeah.
Eau d'Hermes has been on my radar for awhile. Even looked into the best version/which color cap to try and put some eBay offerings on watch. Just haven't yet. I'll also add Versace L'Homme to my to try list of men's frags.
Eau d'Hermes is amazing. If you're a fan of like... Cartier Declaration, you may enjoy the Hermes. It's a kind of balmy aura-like airy type of fragrance. I have a newer black cap version, I think, and it's awesome.
Tuscan Leather, by Tom Ford. Private blend release with gorgeous rasberry note and overall great leather vibe.
Oud Sapphire, by Atelier de Cologne. Although named as an oud, it's primarely a tamed leather with a hint of oud and warm spices.
The only leather perfume I've ever smelled quickly became one of my favorites. Valentino Donna. Sweet yet strong in a non cloying way. Some might say it's basic but I think it's lovely!
Got Spicebomb on today. Bubblegum, raw tobacco, leather.
Oooh leather, be still my beating heart.
Hermes Galop
Parfums d'Empire Equistrius & Cuir Ottoman
Lancome Cuir de Lancome
Bottega Veneta EDP, L'Absolue, and Eau de Velours
Hermes Kelly Caleche in EDT and EDP
Old School:
Gres Cabochard
Estee Lauder Azuree
Molinard Habanita (I prefer the reformulation)
ELdO Tom of Finland - clean suede and rubber accord before I hit the BDSM dungeons
Ex Nihilo Cuir Celeste - vetiver and iris with a touch of slight hint of leather for the office
Bottega Veneta Pour Homme EDT - best of the PH line because of the fresh pine opening though I’m nose blind to this leather (parfum and extreme are cardamom heavy / too sticky / resinous)
Knize Ten (batch 9000s) - makes me feel dirty with the motor oil and tar sillage
La Yuqawam - I like raspberries with leather and want to please the general masses
MAC Ruby Woo - I like cherries with leather and I’m in a submissive mood
Dior Leather Oud - leather, wood, and frankincense but boring
Still smelling around for niche leathers....
What are your leather favorites
"Dior Leather Oud ... boring"
??? wat.
ps - Leather Oud is amazing.
For a Dior Prive I had high expectations for it. I tried it at the boutique after it was hyped around on YouTube. I remember layering a smoky Cremo fragrance from Target with a fruity leather sample I had on and it had more dimension than the Leather Oud for a fraction of the price. Different strokes I guess.
Also, I prefer my frankincense churchy, foresty, or gourmand. I’m sampling through Comme Des Garçons Avignon and want to compare it to Piguet’s Casbah. I already like it more than Givenchy’s Encens Divin and Armani’s Bois d’Encens.
MAC Ruby Woo sounds scrumptious!
It’s not a bad cheapie to replace Tuscan Leather. During the dry down the cherry doesn’t become a cloying maraschino. It’s unisex on my skin. Best of all, you can find it at MAC regular and luxury department store counters. I think the negative reviews come from MAC makeup customers who are not interested in unique fragrances, rather the typical sweet florals.
Ruth Mastenbroek Firedance is a nice, tarry leather with a wet, lemony rose on top. Histoires Des Parfums 1740 is so much that I rarely wear it, but I enjoy it when I do. It's like having your smell-receptors flogged with a leather strap.
OP, can you smell actual leather? Like, if you stick your nose in a new leather handbag and have a good sniff, what do you get?
Yes, I can smell actual leather, at least last time I checked awhile back.
I have, but it wasn’t to my liking from what I remember. I know it has its following.
There is one leather I can smell -- LM Hard Leather. Starts out with sour industrial/factory/shoemaker leather (oud), transitions to sweeter with some light florals in the heart. This review is for the original version, 2014 or 2015. It's been reformulated with a different bottle. Both versions smell alike, but there's a chemical in the new version I can't tolerate.
Gucci Guilty Absolute. It’s my cool weather, going to court frag.
There was a 150ml on eBay for $48 this week. Good seller reviews but I don’t love this one enough to pull the trigger. I’ve hoarded probably 20ml samples total from Sephora though!
Give us a word picture, if you can?
Imagine putting on a pair of rawhide gloves, then starting an old 2-stroke chainsaw and chopping down some cedar trees, then taking off the gloves and smelling your hands. Leather, motor oil, and cedar. Delicious.
Leather is weird but addictive in a way..
Sometimes it smells like gas or petrol
Any fragrances with these types of leather smells come to mind?
Fahrenheit smells like Gas. Yuq/TL smells like petrol sometimes
Leather is usually a rough note for me to deal with. The only way I tolerate it is when its not a dominant note in a fragrance. Or when it is a softer leather like an interpretation of suede (e.g. TF White Suede or Cuir Beluga). Things like Knize 10 and Tuscan Leather are way too harsh and do not smell anything like leather I smell on materials i wear like a leather coat, or a car seat etc. On me Tuscan Leather turns rather ashy and unpleasant after the opening fruity note burns off.
Some leathers like Roja Fetish, Purdistance M are way too spicy for me to enjoy, while others such as Rojas Great Britain and Chanels Cuir De Russie kinda fall in between the two categories above for me, and i can tolerate them in small doses.
My favorite leather by far is Cuir Majeste by Armani. Its a very smooth fragrance where leather takes a slightly background role to dried fruits and incense.
Xerjoff Homme and Puredistance M are two fantastic leather fragrances, but also quite costly at around $600 per 100ml bottle.
Are these Leather Nirvana for you? How do they smell, and how do they differ from each other? Do you wear less expensive leather fragrances that may be good enough.
Both of them definitely lean heavy toward the masculine side of things (I'm a woman, but also wear certain masculine fragrances). Puredistance M is quite rich, a little bit sweet, doesn't have any of that 'burnt bbq' French cuir type leather notes which means nothing scorched or acrid smoke smelling, so that's nice. However, some people complain the opening has cumin. Personally I don't get any cumin in it, but your mileage may vary.
Xerjoff Homme is a bit more classic and traditional, though still a unique take on the genre. I get a decent amount of costus out of it, and you could argue it at least veers into darker more brooding territory. Super masculine and expensive smelling, which isn't too far off from the smell of a fine leather to my nose.
For feminine leaning leathers, I think Daim Blond is a really interesting take on the genre, although the Luten's stewed fruit accord is quite dominant at the start. If you want a toned down version, the original Bottega Veneta is a highly revered alternative. Also in the Lutens family is Boxeuses, a beautiful suede and plum perfume that oozes class. I own all three and wear them a lot, so you can't go wrong with any of them in my opinion!
I have a bottle of Daim Blond and can no longer smell it as suede. I get the apricots, but then it just doesn't coalesce into leather anymore. It used to be a fine soft suede, like one of those fringed Boho jackets.
I've had that happen to me but with other fragrances. I used to always pick up on the tobacco in Back To Black, but now when I wear it it's merely a powdery berry thing, not that that's bad, but it feels like all the darkness left the bottle. I love Daim Blond, but I feel like the suede note in Boxeuses is more prominent. Too bad that one is so pricey, though I think it's worth it.
Tuscan Leather from Tom Ford. It was love from the first sniff. Smells very expensive.
Tuscan Leather used to be my favorite until I smelled Clive Christian C for Men (now discontinued and replaced with "Clive Christian C for Men Woody Leather With Oudh Intense", which is not only a mouthful of a name but an awful name as well).
The original Clive Christian C for Men was created by Geza Schoen and is just a notch up from Tuscan Leather, with a bit more raspberry and overall depth, and in side-by-side comparisons the CC is more complex and not as 'single accord' smelling as Tuscan Leather. That said, the insane price of the CC isn't worth it for most people. Tuscan Leather is still a great fragrance, but if money is no concern definitely go the CC route.
Ahh i forgot about Clive C. IIRC, Geza created X and 1872, and not C. I find that much more refined than Tuscan leather. As for the pricing, its quite easy to find it on discount as much as 50% off and sometimes more.
Also, I just realized I overlooked your comment on the perfumer. Thanks for clarifying!
Yep, 50% is a great deal if you can find it! Just make sure you're getting the original formula and not the reformulated one. The bottles look very similar.
What smells give it that expensive vibe?
Hard to describe. It is just smell success and that you have achieved a lot in your life. Imagine that you woke up in the morning, you wore your Tom Ford suit, put your Omega watch and picked your Porsche Carrera GT keys. Some people say that the opening of Tuscan leather smells like cocaine!
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