English Leather

The way this early postwar villain left me after first encountering it sometime around the mid 80's, could be summarised in just one (mostly british) word. Flabbergasted! It was a Christmas gift for my father, by someone who kept ignoring that the only scent my father ever used was a lavender-lemon dirt cheap cologne that was sold not only in pharmacies but even in grocery stores. My father, being the exact opposite of my mother who was a zealot of the perfume cults, passed it to me, without bothering to give it a second sniff. If he had done so, maybe he would have realised that it was not exactly the kind of fragrance a teenager could handle. But apparently, being used to smell archetypical powerhouses like Macassar and Yatagan all around him, he probably didn't think this one could do any harm. He was wrong. For what it should be actually called was English Lewdness. Before slapping it on my face for the first time, it raised its leatherclad hand and crowned me majestically. As if challenging me in a duel which proved nearly impossible to win. Not at least before I managed to wear the sucker instead of him wearing me. And that really took some time. The commander of Her Majesty's shock troops came in a wooden box with a wooden stopper, bearing a wonderful embossed label in crimson and gold on its thick glass bottle. I guess it was some kind of a special edition which, as is the case with so many natural things nowadays, is nowhere to be found anymore. Being the first time I saw a fragrance not being in a carton box, I immediately jumped to the conclusion that this one had to be something extraordinary. And it was... All the more that I love wood more than any other natural material, with the possible exception of emeralds. In hindsight, I believe that even if someone failed to read the name on the doric bottle, this amount of wood was definitely not a harbinger of vanilla or cotton candy. Until then it was hands down the dirtiest star ever to shine in my olfactory universe, and it still remains amongst the most prominent paragons of salaciousness. For some reason it turned otherwise cheerful and soothing notes like citruses, lavender and honey into guilty pleasures of which the world should never be aware of. It was as these notes had a dark and secret side that would take an arcane perfumer to expose. Unfortunately it seems that we'll never know who the conjurer behind its creation was, since even Dana doesn't bother to mention anything about him(?). It seemed like it was enhanced with some shady age-boosting ingredient, for I felt like my years had doubled long before its top notes subsided. First poured on one of my 16th year afternoons, evening found me flirting with 30 year olds, in places I was not supposed to enter. You know, just because of being 16. And I swear that I got some really funny looks overnight. And they were not of the miffed kind. It was like these ladies were weighing up the odds of making out with a splashy barefaced teen and get away with it. And not because of me being a male jailbait, since the claptrap called politically correctness was still a hazy dream in the minds of some self-righteous, self-appointed, self-centred pricks. You know, like the ones who would banish scents like English Leather if they had the power to do it. No, the ladies' only concern seemed to be how they would succeed in cornering me and being spared the excruciating details and the envious glances to an by their friends. God, how I miss those years!... After blaring my silly cockiness for what I thought was enough, I went to sleep smiling with what I thought was a huge victory in the battle of sexes. And I dreamt of the leather chesterfield sofas in the House of Lords, where a slightly drunk young crossbencher had accidentally spilled a dram of rare Ardbeg, before escaping the boring meeting and driving with the sun on his back in his Triumph TR3, hastening to meet his concubine in Mayfair. In the morning I pledged to myself that I was going to be this man one day. I never became a crossbencher or any kind of representative and I never came even close to having such a curvesome beaut (the wheels, not the girl). The successful part of fulfilling my dream was just tasting rare Ardbegs many times and spending some time in London. But I still remain a barefaced teen (although a little less splashy now) even though some 30 years have passed since that night. Especially when English Leather of yore joins me for a ride. Perhaps not in a TR3 but in an equally fascinating vehicle. The time machine that I have built in my mind, permanently programmed to the days of my youth.

English Leather doesn't get much love and part of me understands why, but that's not my personal opinion. English Leather is THE first "real" or "grown up" fragrance I ever owned; it's where my trip down the rabbit-hole of frag-headery started. The first time I tried it was with a tester at Sears about 20 years ago, yes Sears still had English Leather testers back then, fell in love with it almost instantly, and forked over the $20 for the big ol' 8 oz bottle, which was a lot of money for me back then. It smelled NOTHING like what was popular back then, and even now, and that was the biggest thing that drew me to it. I came out of the womb 20-30 years behind my time as far as "fashion" goes I guess. To go back to my original point English Leather may seem dated to some, a victim of the kind of reformulation that is bottom-line-centric and says "to hell with what it 'used to smell like'" (which I think it has come back from in the latest formulation); my opinion, along with several others, is that English Leather is a timeless classic. English Leather, as I remember it and as it currently smells, is a rather linear concoction. It starts out with a blast of fresh citrus with a hint (and I mean a HINT) of lavender. There is some LIGHT floral and musk that takes a clean soapy form, and never smells like an old woman's powder, cedar that smells like pencil shavings, and leather that smells like sticking your head in a bin of freshly tanned (not oil tanned) leather which carries you through its 6-10 hour life. It's a surprisingly fresh fragrance, especially considering its age; almost like a warmer (non-aquatic) 1949 version of another timeless classic, Davidoff's Cool Water. The early-mid-2000's to about 2014 reform had a definite heavier musk and floral fixative that resulted in a more mature, crossing over into nursing home old lady stink. The current formulation has remedied that, but it is something to be aware of if you're buying from somebody that has old stock, which many retailers do because, let's face it, this isn't exactly flying off of the shelves. If you can get your hands on a current paper label bottle it's definitely worth a blind-buy. For the amount it's going for it's a steal. Switch it up and wear a classic. *UPDATE* I recently purchased a non-current (mid-2000's-2014) formulation for the hell of it; an 8 oz cologne for next to nothing, which is more than what it's worth. Although it's the "cologne" strength, it doesn't project any longer than the current (paper label/non-saddle) formula aftershave; it doesn't even project as long as the current formula deodorant! Also, it smells COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! This formulation, which pales in comparison to the formula that preceded, and succeded it, has two notes: it pours out onto your skin with a funky old leather note that remains linear as it dries down and develops a hint of cedar as the leather becomes a bit powdery. In the three or four times I've worn it I've used up around 2 oz of the 8 I originally had. It still lasts the same amount of time (as the "good" formulations) as a skin scent, which is 8-12 hours, but you have to bury your nose into your skin to smell it. There's no citrusy lavender manly floral freshness, no soapy musk or light earthy woody sweetness; it's just leather funk and one or two dried up cedar shavings. If English Leather's pre-'05 and current formula is a masterpiece of macho woody, manly-floral, soapy musk set atop a heavy base of new baseball glove/leather jacket this formula (again, the '05-'14 formula) is the leather jacket your grandpa wore for 40 years and left in a musty mildewy basement for 20 years near a not-so-fragrant cedar chest. I can see why this carnation has a bad reputation...

English Leather has been one of my favorites since I was a kid. My grandfather had a bottle along with Old Spice, Tabac, and random Bayrums in his cabinent. I was too young to wear it back then but always appreciated the scent. Now that I'm older I finally remembered to give it a go when I came across it at Walmart for cheap as can be. Lovely citrus saddle soap with some sweet green and wood that fades to a soapy powdered light leather. Think suede or work glove leather, rough and rugged, not fancy Italian supercar interior or fine leather boots. I may be lucky but on me the aftershave splash lasts all day and keeps it's profile the same. No morphing into anything rancid or petroluem like as people have claimed before. For under $10 at your local stores it's worth trying for every guy out there young or old. A good alternative is Stirling Soap Company's British Leather, it's more dry leather dominant and has less of the citrus.

English Leather... ...for a cologne that was introduced in the 40s it smells timeless. The opening reminded me of Brylcreem hair cream which is very pleasant and not surprisingly was also introduced in the 40s. The scent transforms into a warm, soft and slightly powdery leather. Not a heavy boot or saddle leather but rather a soft suede. It is very nice and well blended. For a cologne it lasts reasonably long but if you splash it in your hands and rub them together and glide through your hair you can boost the longevity by a mile. I know we all have very different noses but i can't understand for smells sake how people compare this fragrance to Knize10, Tabac, Lagerfeld Classic or even Grey Flannel. I do have 236ml Aftershave and 236ml Cologne. Both in a solid square and heavy glass bottle with a real wooden cap. They look nice together in the bathroom.

"Saddlesoap and flowers," as I sometimes think of it. I think the barbershop that my mom always took me to as a small child smelled like this, and I only recently realized it. I guess it's mostly old-fashioned flowery soap with a little bit of something incensey? I struggled with whether it's so flowery as to be effeminate, but I think that this question is ultimately moot with English Leather. It's more of a clean-man than a manly-man scent, and I'm sure that's how it was intended: for fine, upstanding, well-groomed, clean-shaven gentlemen in their offices, hard at work during a time of post-war prosperity. Naturally it's not as strong as all the later EdTs, but since I'm sure this was meant more as an splash-on augmentation to one's aftershave than as a statement on its own, I won't criticize it for weakness. A fairly good cheapy.