Cuir (Leather)

So @Smellz nails the description down to a tee, but to me it smells like new leather, with a clear but not overpowering industrial glue accord. INDUSTRIAL GLUE!!! (sorry, too excited) Arguably, you could say this is a moderately tamed glue, with a faint, smooth minty/mentholic bias. This is the perfect layering frag for frags that lack the 'synthetic', gluey touch (looking at Rich Mess). I've been reaching far and wide for a glue accord--so far this is the most prominent one I've tried, even compared to the now reformulated CdG 2011 by CdG (which is woefully a floral forward frag). Alternatively this smells like a glue-leaning VOC with leather as its other half. As a leatherhead, EXTREMELY addicting is an understatement. This is exactly what I thought Sneakerhead by Xyrena would smell like (admittedly, this is a simple take, but nonetheless what I was expecting for the glue aspect). Though the first productions did smell strongly of glue, it was a bit in some other direction than I personally wanted. There is no dirty bias here, just an in-your-face, new leather smell, though a bit further in the drydown the glue facet becomes slightly smoky. Unsurprisingly, this declares war with my signature frag (Leatherize DSDurga), as I can't really choose one over the other as it's highly dependent on mood. *important note: Fresh batches will not have this quality but more of a cuminy, aromatic, smooth flowery quality, but the association with leather can still be somewhat made, just not in the same way + 1 * Glue -> [50/100] Without a doubt, FBW!

Cuir (Leather) is part of Alkemia's Scented Verses layering note line, which are one-note oils that are developed to be used in conjunction with other scents. (The brand also states that these can be worn as standalone perfumes.) Alkemia's leather scents Highwayman and Hearthstone are both two of my favorites – Hearthstone in particular has a genuinely gold-plated, GOAT-ed place on my shelf -- so I figured I would give this linear leather a go. The brand says that Cuir is "Best for fixing: Perfumes that are too sweet or conventional," so I tried it under some blind-buys that turned out to be mistakes. For SCIENCE! Solo, Cuir is a straightforwardly realistic leather scent. It’s the smell of never-before-used, pristine tack at a saddle shop, with nothing to soften it up. It is burly, singular, and strong, with no mitigating factors. This is not the kind of product that most normal people would want to use as a perfume. Happily, I am a goofball who has been known to dab everything from 12-year scotch to aftershave on my pulse points if the smell catches my fancy, so this would actually work as a one-note fragrance for me, albeit not one that I would reach for too often. Layered under Shanghai Tang Rose Silk EDP: I am eternally on the hunt for a perfect leathery rose. It seems like it must be especially difficult to blend these notes together successfully: even in the hands of skilled perfumers where you can equally detect the rose and the leather, the elements never really seem to merge and become One. I took a disliking to Rose Silk immediately because of its wispy, precious nature. On the advice from Alkemia to use Cuir with perfumes that are too “conventional,” I was hoping that Cuir would bring Rose Silk out of its shell. Oddly, rather than beefing up the rose, or even dominating it, Rose Shanghai's wispiness seems to infect Cuir and soften it down significantly. I’m not sure if the Scented Verses layering notes are formulated differently from the line’s regular perfumes – maybe following the other scent’s lead is what Cuir is actually designed to do? Or maybe the awesome boring power of Rose Silk’s ladylike blandness really did overcome Cuir’s cowboyishness. In any case, the combo wasn’t a success. Layered under Balenciaga Rumba: I have a love/hate relationship with Rumba. Good Lord, she’s so delightfully brassy, but she’s also cloying to the point of vileness on my skin. Two judicious spitzes hours before I leave the house in the dead of a Minnesota winter still find me apologizing to the cab driver. From one Difficult Woman to another: Rumba, you’re a hard gal to love. I was hoping that Cuir would beef up the leather aspect of Rumba and tone down the honeyed ferocity, ultimately making the sassy old broad actually wearable while still allowing her gauche charm to shine through. Unfortunately, in this case it does not take two to tango (Rife to Rumba? whatever). The scents do complement each other to a certain extent, and the contrasting honey/fruity and leathery notes never feel as though they are At War. However, these two frags glide along on parallel paths that never really merge – I can detect both, but they never combine. So, although Cuir does beef up the leatheriness of Rumba to a certain extent, it never blends enough to feel like it really "fixes" the fragrance à la the function of a layering note. Layered with Robert Piguet Futur: I love the house of Piguet, and I love green scents, so I am massively disappointed that I just can't wrap my nose around Futur. For me, the green notes vanish and the violet is left holding the dusty bouquet, Miss Havisham-eqsue, in the least charming way possible. Futur makes me picture a threadbare silk flower crushed against a desiccated, anorexic old woman's withered cheek. At the same time, I feel like there is a hidden loveliness to Futur that I could access if I could just figure it out. Is Cuir that Rosetta stone? Layering the two makes me understand (a little, MAYBE) why some people compare Futur to the great love of my life, Bandit. The green aspect of Futur blends with the earthy, masculine nature of Cuir surprisingly well. Not that Cuir magically transmogrifies Futur into Bandit, but as the latter becomes increasingly expensive in the wake of it getting discontinued, this might not be a bad substitute if you're really jonesing. I'm writing this in Minnesota February (ugh), but I'm super eager to try this combo in the summertime, when I'm hoping it will really bloom. In my continuing attempts to make Futur work for me, I've experimented with a couple different layering combinations, and this one is by far and away the most successful. Cuir doesn't make Futur into something I love, but the fact that I'm wearing Futur and not experiencing the frantic urge to scrub it off says a lot. Layering with rose essential oil: Could this be the panacea to my fragrance fantasy of the Platonic ideal of a leathery rose? Could it really be this cheap and simple?? Sadly, no. The rose essential oil stomps the snot out of Cuir, and five minutes into application I'm only getting the former. Granted, I did not dilute with a carrier oil, so the match may not be entirely fair, but this combo does not appear to be a success. Final thoughts: I was pleasantly surprised by its effects on Futur, but ultimately I believe that Cuir works better on its own than as a layering note. It's sturdy and comforting in its linearity – a nice one to wear to bed. (In no way is that a diss, I take my dreams very seriously and often spend more time choosing my nighttime perfume than my daytime one.) Alkemia allows buyers to choose an oil from the "Scented Verses" layering line each time they spend 100+ dollars on an order. I'm a fan of the brand to the point where I imagine I'm putting Sharra's kids through college, so I got this as a gift with my last Alkemia shipment. If you find yourself in the same boat, it's worth a try! (And if you've made it to the end of this review and have a Holy Grail leathery rose, PM me because inquiring minds [noses] want to know lol)