Now Smell This

a blog about perfume

Menu ▼
Browsing by tag: leather

Hiram Green Hyde ~ fragrance review

Posted by on 11 Comments

Looking at the string of words “Hiram Green Hyde” — green hide stood out. (Hyde is a unisex leather perfume described as “challenging” by Hiram Green.) Certainly, any perfume with green hide as an inspiration would be a challenge to wear; green hide is the skin right off a newly killed animal, with flesh, blood, hair and fat still clinging to it. I’ve read about green hides while studying indigenous art and leather-tanning techniques of American Indians. I’m happy to say there’s no smell of green hide in Hyde, but it does bring to mind (and nose) scents of Mexico, and another indigenous group: the Aztecs.

Hyde’s short-lived opening isn’t citrus-y, but reminds me of BAND-AID® bandages…

Read the rest of this article »

Ormonde Jayne Cuir Imperial ~ fragrance review

Posted by on 19 Comments

How many leather fragrances do I own? Three. Chanel Cuir de Russie, Robert Piguet Bandit and Frédéric Malle Monsieur. Stand-out leathers are hard to find; many leather fragrances smell so similar.

Cuir de Russie is a perfume version of a sleek, quirky, man-made bibelot (my house is full of these, too; see my current lemming — the eyeball paperweight from L’Objet —below). Bandit is more of a stand-out ‘natural’ object that’s showy and hard to miss: a glossy chunk of red coral, say…or a hot-pink seashell the size of your head, a Haida basket full of aromatic betel nuts from India. Monsieur’s raunch and libertine paunch prompts a “leather” virtual reality experience…

Read the rest of this article »

Le Jardin Retrouve Cuir de Russie ~ fragrance review

Posted by on 12 Comments

Le Jardin Retrouvé Cuir de Russie, brand image

Last week I was reading an article about the definition of “niche” in the ever-changing fragrance market, and I started thinking back to some of the first “niche” perfumes lines I ever encountered — L’Artisan Parfumeur and Annick Goutal, in particular. There were others I never had the chance to try, and some of them are now discontinued (Gobin Daudé!), but once in a while an early niche line makes a re-appearance. Le Jardin Retrouvé, for example, describes itself as “the first ever niche Maison de Parfum, created in 1975 by the renowned perfumer Yuri Gutsatz.” In 2016, Gutsatz’s son and daughter-and-law re-launched the brand with reformulations of seven of its original fragrances.

I’ve had a small stack of Le Jardin Retrouvé’s boxed sample vials on my desk for the past few weeks, and I’ve been shuffling them around like a deck of cards…

Read the rest of this article »

Mona di Orio Suede de Suede and Dojima ~ fragrance review

Posted by on 25 Comments

Mona di Orio Dõjima and Suède de Suède

In my mind, Mona di Orio has always been associated with quirky — and sometimes outright challenging — fragrances. Mona di Orio Nuit Noire is as dark and animalic a fragrance as I’ve ever smelled. Even the perfume house’s single note fragrances such as Vanille and Cuir focus on those materials’ less obvious aspects.

With Dõjima and Suède de Suède, the house made a conscious decision to satisfy “the demand for more accessible fragrances for those who recently discovered niche” by developing “more accessible fragrances to build a bridge to the more complex creations in our collection.” Lucky for us, both fragrances are still likely to be plenty interesting to experienced perfume lovers…

Read the rest of this article »

Vilhelm Parfumerie Harlem Bloom ~ fragrance review

Posted by on 8 Comments

Vilhelm Parfumerie Harlem Bloom

I’ve tried a few fragrances from niche house Vilhelm Parfumerie, and although I often enjoy their names and descriptions, the scents themselves have never quite hit the emotional sweet spot that makes me want to own them. However, Kevin and Robin have both praised recent releases from Vilhelm, so I’m back to try Harlem Bloom.

This fragrance is inspired by Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood and “depicts blossoms in an urban jungle, intertwined among the brownstone buildings that line upper New York City.” (Um, or upper Manhattan, at least.) It includes notes of saffron, angelica leaf, violet, damask rose, ebony and “wild leather.” I haven’t been able to find out which perfumer developed it for Vilhelm, but I’m guessing it may have Jérôme Epinette…

Read the rest of this article »

Back to Top

Home
About Now Smell This :: Privacy Policy

Shop for Perfume Online
Perfume Shopping in New York
Perfume Shopping in London
Perfume Reviews
New Perfumes
General Perfume Articles
The Monday Mail

Glossary of Perfume Terms
Perfume FAQ
Perfume Links
Perfume Books
Fragrance Awards

Noses ~ Perfumers A-E :: F-K :: L-S :: T-Z

Perfume Houses A-B :: C :: D-E :: F-G
H-J :: K-L :: M :: N-O :: P :: Q-R :: S
T :: U-Z