Leather Rosa

I am smelling Leather Rosa on my wrist right now and it's not entirely what you would expect from the notes above. The first impression I got was of oudh and leather. The rose hangs back. After about an hour or so, it softened and it seems to have settled down to a gentle leather with a subtle hint of rose. I didn't get the fruit at any point. I imagine the raspberries and apricot function to stop the initial impression from being too challenging as, at first spray, I would describe this as a this is a truly dirty leather. It reminds me of Estee Lauder's Azuree. Tania Sanchez describes it in 'Perfumes The A-Z Guide' as "a soft, dusty, almost grimy leather-chypre heart as comfortable as an old work glove". So I'm not saying Leather Rosa is a dupe of Azuree - for one thing, it's not a chypre - but in spite of the composition, what the brand says about it and its name, I'd never describe this as a floral. It's all about leather. Another comparison would be 4160 Tuesdays Take Me To The River, which also contains leather and rose, but dirty leather and subtle rose. The thing that all three have in common is that the leather is animalistic and sultry, 1,000 miles away from the refinement of, for example, Chanel's Cuir de Russie. So to sum up, Leather Rosa is not the queen of flowers, but a wild child going out to a bar in a battered old leather jacket who turns out to be more of a lady than you expect.