603 Cuir Sahib

My leather journey started a bit different than others. With tom ford’s ombre leather and tuscan leather. I’ve missed a lot of great hits before my nose joined the fragrant world. With that said. I must avoid comparing all leather parfums to tom ford’s creation. For a moment there i thought my nose was broken... until I have tried the memo paris’ leather line up. Which does not remind me at all of tom ford’s legendary leather duo. Having both Tuscan leather and Pdm’s smoother dupe of it called Godolphin. 603 Cuir Sahib has it’s own leather style. I tend to love smoother blends and dislike sharpness in fragrances because they give me a headache. If i knew about cuir sahib... i would have skipped getting Godolphin. Which to me i got because i wanted something a bit less harsh than tuscan leather. Sahib is smooth, not a dupe (to my knowledge), seductive, classy and easy to wear. Drydown... the story flips on this one as i would prefer both pdm and tuscan leather because of the sharp edge being gone. They are much more masculine than sahib in that regard. Once i empty my pdm i will definitely get sahib next time instead as it does offer something new to my leather collection without being redundant. After recently trying Bacio Immortelle from argos. I can see the resemblance. Its not a 1:1 dupe but comes about 80% close

Sampling Bon Parfumeur – 603 Cuir Sahib, a 2024 release, part of the extrait line, a dry leather that opens with a sharp, green side that fades into a more papery, tobacco-like, smoky suede within minutes of drying down on skin. I smelled this for the first time at Perfumology for the Bon Parfumeur launch event but did not try it out on skin at the time, and unsurprisingly it’s much more interesting on skin than on paper. Sharp violet gives way to an incense, cashmere, and leather blend that’s really classy while still being pretty strong and head-turning. As with the other extraits, this is priced at $220/70 for 100/15ml, very reasonable in the current market, sold in the US via the house website as well as great boutiques like Perfumology, Olfactif, Ministry of Scent, Luckyscent, among others. Its performance is very good, as with most of the fragrances I’ve tried in the extrait line so far. I’m quite impressed with Cuir Sahib as I have been with the others. Overall, it’s a leather that balances out being interesting while not too daunting for the leather-averse. I think everyone should try this out and see what it does for them. 8 out of 10

Truly a new all-time favorite! This one keeps changing and changing again. The opening is cozy and fuzzy, like warm furs and a mug of spiced steaming cocoa. Later, sweet frankincense emerges, and one could imagine entering the Golden Temple that inspired this scent, where centuries of incense clings to hanging tassels and tapestries. In the dry down, soft leather and suede come to the fore. It's telling that this scent is categorized as 'woody', 'amber', and 'vanilla', and yet has none of the notes typically associated with those. It's familiar, yet unique. It's changeable and difficult to pin down.

Soft tonka suede, subtle sweet violet flowers, surprisingly fresh and ozonic with mild spicy nutmeg. I do get hints of all the listed notes excluding frankincense. I did not expect this to be fresh and to smell violet flowers in this blend. Far from a leather scent and fragrantica has this lasted as amber woody vanilla, no woods, no vanilla, light labdanum that becomes more pronounced the more it dries down. I like it, smooth and refreshing, interesting and unexpected blend. Reminds me of the general vibe of CC Rock Rose & YSL Grain de Poudre.

Cuir Sahib is kind of confounding because to my nose at least it was so different and unexpected. The first time I wore it I couldn’t stop smelling myself, trying to figure out what was going on. It was almost addicting and smelled really good. The sage and the violet seemed to put out such an unexpected pop of green freshness next to the leather. So I wore it several other times, and what I started smelling in that freshness- was melon. And then I wondered, “ is there calone” in this? And I don’t know if there is, but that vibe kind of ruined it for me. And I realize my perception is very different from the other people who have smelled and reviewed this. But there you go. So I don’t know how to rate this. It’s pretty unique, definitely interesting, and definitely worth a try. It lasts a really long time on skin, more than 12 hours.