Clean Suede

Strange. The way this perfume opens I could've sworn it was with an orange liquor and new leather accord. I could've sworn it was! But no, apparently, according to ELDO it's lemon and aldehydes at the top; pine, pepper, birch leaf, saffron, cypress, and galbanum at the heart; suede, vanilla, ambergris, tonka bean, and iris at the base. Well, ok. The opening smelled quite hot, alcohol-like, with a new leather smell (like the birch) that together sort of gives you the impression of leather you bought cheap off of Amazon that isn't really leather and the manufacturer tried to infuse a chemical into it that smells of leather. Not exactly a welcoming opening; weird and intriguing, but a bit off-putting. Fortunately this dries down very quickly to reveal the heart and base notes that are very... very... I don't know! It's definitely a leather scent but it's just so unique that I don't know where to begin to describe it, but suffice to say I'm really liking it. It's so dry and "hot" - like a dry heavily-spiced dish - but the leather pulls it all together, equally dry and hot, well worn but still new. This somehow manages to be dirty and animalic but without the wet skankiness that comes from dirty and animalic leathers; it manages to be spicy, but a dry and hot spicy, not a steamed spicy; it manages to be fun and cheerful, but not slapstick, and a bit raunchy. Clean suede? Hardly. There's a reason this fragrance used to be named Tom of Finland. If you aren't familiar with the cartoon author look it up, just don't do it at work. Perhaps this is ELDO's signature cheeky wit coming into play again; not clean, not suede, but hot, raunchy, leather in a somehow tasteful way. It's fantastic.

I got this as part of a discovery set and at first I did not like it at all. It was very faint and smelled like wet paper / cork to me. I forgot about it and then a few months later I wore it again. The smell appeared to be completely different, almost intoxicating, I kept reaching for my wrist to smell it again and decided to buy a full bottle. To me it opens very pine and citrus forward (sort of like the lemon fresh and pine cleaning products if they smelled good), clean and sweet, and then in the drydown I get mostly vanilla and tonka bean. Sometimes I get a whiff of leather but it is not as present as the name would suggest. I can't seem to get the earthy notes other reviews are alluding to, and I would not characterize the perfume as "dry" in the slightest. I think people who describe this scent as dirty, murky, animalic and "the scent of poppers" may be getting carried away by the (previous) marketing as Tom of Finland, because I'm not getting any of that. People around me have compared it to the aroma of lemon pies, a coworker thought it was Acqua di Gio (yes, I sometimes wear it to work because, as I said, it is a very safe fragrance, it is not musky, rubbery or unpleasant in the slightest). Overall I think it is a nice pleasant scent in the clean musk family. Nothing too crazy out there.

On the opening this fragrance smells almost entirely different from the listed notes on Fragrantica. The leather note is pleasantly mild with a combination of clean notes of lemon (not citrus), wood, and pine. As it dries down there is a creamy note that starts to make its presence known. All of these notes combine into a clean, almost out of the shower, smell with a pleasent leather note mixed into the background. The performance here was so so. It lasted about 4 hours on my skin and under 3 on my clothes. It was entirely gone by the end of hour 5 on my skin even if I pressed my nose to my skin. 4/10 for longevity. The projection was surprisingly good, it radiated within my arms length for 4 hours in a very pleasant manner. 7/10 for projection. Overall this is a very pleasant and unique fragrance, it has a clean out of the shower scent with some unstandered notes mixed into it. I greatly enjoyed wearing it today and I can see it being an easy enjoyable reach for spring and fall. 8/10 overall even with the mid longevity due to my enjoyment and the uniqueness of it. An after note: the atomizer on this sample spray from Etat Libre d’Orange was one of the best I’ve ever gotten on an official sample.

Although I really like ELDO’s originality, I couldn’t find any of their fragrances that wouldn't smell synthetic. This is one gorgeous exception though! Clean Suede is a beautiful realistic sweet pine-suede fragrance. Suede is here, from the start. Immediately followed by light and airy sourness becoming fresh, nearly green. That green side takes up space, I'm suddenly transported in a pine forest. But it's not wood pine I'm smelling, it's pine needles. Realistic green pine needles in the middle of the forest. And then, it's fading away. The pine sweetens. A sweet suede wakes me up. Suede again, but this time perfectly balanced with pine, slightly woody and sweetened by the vanilla. The name Clean Suede perfectly fit this perfume. A gentle, soft, lightly woody, realistic sweet suede that has now become my signature scent.

"CLEAN SUEDE is a fragrance that is clear in its intentions, a sweet and aldehydic leather, bold and honest, narrating a playful man, carefree, with all the freedom money can buy. A masculine scent, yet not devoid of a sweet and sensual feminine aspect (I would even say sexy), unsuitable for those burdened by fragile masculinity or unable to keep up with its charisma. An excellent signature fragrance for everyday wear, distinctive and refined without losing its modernity and youthful charm. P.S.: If I had this fragrance, I would spray it inside every bag I own. It's exactly the lush scent I would want to experience in a leather accessory."