Cuir de Russie

I know that for many aficionados, Chanel's Cuir de Russie is the gold standard for the Cuir de Russie leather accord in perfumery. I beg to differ. For me, this is the gold standard. Anna Zworikyna's Cuir de Russie. From Russia with love. Oh, and yes. I owned an 80's flacon of the first, so I have gone the vintage route before making this statement. This version is the Parfum Extrait, which I much prefer over the EDP, as with all of Anna's works. The blending here is of an alchemy level, and the depth, the richness of the composition, are bottomless. All natural ingredients, so the olfactory spectrum just gets stretched beyond what synthetic molecules could possibly offer. The pure parfum reveals the Cuir de Russie accord as soon as you spray it, and it dominates the show, the rest of the elements are just playing their fleeting part in the story. It is so well done, so finely tuned that it makes others look amateurish. The birch wood aroma is warm and slightly sweet, and the smokiness is just perfect, never too powerful, nor too soft. The castoreum usage here is my favorite of any perfume. Sweet, animalic, leathery, oily, and with a perceivable chewiness. These two essential notes for building a Cuir de Russie accord are not just exploited to the maximum, but cleverly embellished with auxiliary notes to create something far beyond a simple leather perfume. There is an aromatic, bracing, and bitter-green opening lifting the composition with the help of absinth and galbanum, maybe artemisia. And from the green aromatic burst, it shifts to delicate floral nuances in the heart, difficult to pinpoint, but easy to appreciate in their sumptuous beauty. And to the base, there is a significant addition of oakmoss, providing a beautiful inky-bitterness and velvety touch. It is a leather perfume of many facets. Aromatic-green, floral, and mossy. It might even be considered a leather-chypre, as the oakmoss is quite prominent. But it is woven so well that one can only taste the various flavors, see the colors, and feel the textures, but never separate them. The blending, quality, and complexity are first-class. As a lover of leather, I have many favorites. And this genre has so many subcategories, as this accord can be exploited in many ways. But as far as the Cuir de Russie leather accord goes, this is the bar for me. IG:@memory.of.scents

Absinth leather This was the first AZ's fragrance I've tried and the one that got me interested in the brand. It was so rich and different that it made my eyes wide open when I smelled the blotter. Wormwood (the plant absinthe is derived from) is Zworykina's forte and here you can smell it in a bit more abstract way; as a part of the absinth accord, rather than as a raw botanical. Cuir de Russie opens with an almost fluorescent green absinth note brightened further by bergamot. Then it slowly gets unapologetically dark; it gets smoky and very dark leathery but it is balanced by a handful of other earthy, woody & spicy making it stay within classic perfumery forms. I should mention here that leather in perfumery is not a natural essential oil that you buy, so she never lists this note and rather tries to recreate it using other, natural means. This means often castoreum (that gives a fragrance rich, boozy-leathery-animalic feel), birch tar, tobacco and others. Here AZ achieves it using castoreum but no need to be afraid - it never gets animalic-stinky.

Very smokey with tar. Very pleasant. Dark and smokey, like it a lot. But there are presently too many other Zworykina's above it on my wish list. And from now on, I will only buy Zworykina, it feels like I finally can be as enthusiastic about perfume as other people are. Edit July 16th, 2016: Got a sample and changed my mind, this one is moving up the wish list to #1 or 2. Edit Sept. 12th, 2016: Have a bottle now, love it! Great on my male partner, too. Edit July 9th, 2017: This is now one of my top fragrances of all time, and the absolute number one on my partner. So amazingly complex and still just pleasant. The wormwood, oakmoss, castoreum (real!), labdanum and then the florals rounding it off. I'm so sorry I can't describe it properly. It is a masterpiece, not to be missed.

Praised by Luca Turin for its uniqueness, this is a green, smokey, floral-woody, leather chypre with so many layers, I feel like I’m in a wild forest, taking in all the moss, tobacco, and flowers. This is what Legolas from Lord of the Rings would wear. Maybe even Aragorn. All natural ingredients. Love it. Cuir de Russie evokes distant memories of adventures taken; there’s history to tell and secrets to impart with each whiff. And a sexy sadness to it.

A Green alcoholic opening Bright boosted by citrus this not sweet in anyway, underneath this you can detect a magnificent leather but it hasn't fully shown it self. The leather Smokey dark warm and radiating it has life and comforts you unlike the leather car seats of ombre leather. florals are present but they serve to boost not overtake, jasmine and rose. Best leather ive smelt so far