Tom of Finland

I'm finally getting around to my long-lost review of Tom of Finland, mostly because I wanted to give myself more time with its reworked version, Clean Suede. Tom of Finland opens with aldehydes and lemon with plenty of woody, peppery, and saffron notes just like Clean Suede. However, in TF it is tamer, softer, and seeming to emphasize more wood and saffron than the harsher opening of CS. The more apparent heart notes peaking up into the top of TF made me think of a smooth yet bitter and strident wormwood that's been softened by the sweet citrus and aldehydes, versus the spicier and hot tanning chemicals of CS. The same difference continues into the heart, where the leather of TF is softer, kinder, more sensual, the animalics have been dialed back and the powdery orris dialed up, in comparison to CS. And again, in the final dry down the theme continues with the leather and orris falling away imperceptibly to a suede accord, salty musks, a bit of woody vetiver, and a touch of gentle and elegant vanilla. Tom of Finland is a gorgeous leather perfume. It perfectly balances calming and pushy though leaning towards the former, it is sensual, snuggly, and the perfect blend of masculine and feminine. It keeps to the brand's brief very well, even though I've never quite understood ELdO's interpretation of the cartoon; I've always interpreted the cartoon as a lot raunchier and challenging than TF ever comes across while I wear it. This leaves me with a couple conclusions. One, Tom of Finland and Clean Suede have noticeable differences: the original is smoother and softer, but just enough spicy and animalic to get the point across - sexuality without a gender attached; Clean Suede is noticeably hotter, animalic, spicier, and raunchier. Both are great, it just depends on your taste. Second is that Clean Suede is more to the Tom of Finland cartoon, by my interpretation, than the Tom of Finland perfume is to the cartoon. But that's art, isn't it? To read it correctly means that we will all get something a bit different out of it. Of the two, Tom of Finland is my favorite and one of the best leather perfumes of this century.

09/10/23 15:47: I was expecting this to be a daring ELDO scent that would evoke a butch man who reeks of sweat, leather, and sex. In reality it is unisex and leaning slightly feminine. It is a sweet, powdery leather and lime. Virginal, innocent, clean, and safe. There is nothing challenging about this fragrance aside from the brief rubber note in the beginning. This is a young Tom of Finland being driven to school by his mother, smelling the makeup case he found in her purse as he riffled through it in search of lunch money, while holding a pencil eraser in his hand. I'm not disappointed I own this, but I've been terribly misled. 10/26/24 12:17: I revisited ToF one year later making it my scent of the day. It was kept in its box in a drawer, unused for a year. I was struck by how the color of the juice changed from what I remember to be a clear pale yellow to a now bright orange. Yesterday was a cool and sunny autumn day. The unpleasant rubber note in the beginning and the lime are no longer detectable to my nose. The fragrance is still powdery and the suede is still present. Somehow, a year later, the fragrance has attained a rich quality to it making it feel warm and well-blended. It is still unisex but I would say it now leans more masculine. It has aged beautifully while still having no relation to the Tom of Finland character. If the rebranded bottles (Clean Suede) contain this same formula then I highly recommend this perfume - just know you might need to let it age a bit.

i think that, in many ways, my interpretation of fragrances comes down not only to the smell itself, but to the image painted around it, by name, by description, by packaging. this is probably normal - after all, if those things didn't matter, every scent might only have a number, and come in a plain, unadorned gray bottle. tom of finland is one of my favorite smells, and one that immediately draws to mind a few images: i am sitting in a bathhouse or a sauna, and water with eucalyptus and pine oils has been poured over the steaming hot stones, almost transfixing me with the redolence and thickness of the smell. to the left of me, an older man has his arm slung over my shoulder, cajoling and camaraderie, a winking smile in the corner of his mouth, and i can smell his sweat as an undercurrent, beneath the steam. me and a lover lay on a blanket in a meadow, the smell of conifers all around us, an old wicker picnic basket laying open. on the blanket lies a plate of meats, cheeses, and fruits. i wrap a piece of prosciutto around a juicy chunk of melon, and with my fingers feed it to my lover. it was a long hike to get to our spot, and so the sweat has dried to our skin, and now the dust of dead bark and mosses cling to us. all this said, i appreciate the subtle fruitiness beneath the pine scents. i tend towards liking these ambery, resinous perfumes, so this definitely hits all the right buttons. one of my favorites, and i would highly recommend this to others.

At the tender age of eighteen I moved to London and took my first job as a cloakroom girl at the infamous underground fetish club. Unkissed, let alone anything more, I found myself face-to-face with the original sin, not as a participant, but as a silent, stunned observer. Some of the things I saw simply lie beyond written words: images that are indescribable, unforgettable, and especially searing when you’re young and wide open. Tom of Finland smells exactly like that place at the start of the night, before the real action begins: people drifting in, slipping into latex with generous handfuls of Johnson’s baby talc to make it slide, women layering their own perfume on top of the sweet powder, touching up makeup, the last nervous small talk while everyone is still half-dressed and pretending composure, right before the sweating starts. I kept it a secret known only to me. My landlady never wondered why the cash I handed her each week was soft and wrinkled. Friends at university just decided I was weird and antisocial for vanishing every weekend. Mum was told I worked “in a bar.” Tom of Finland is that same kind of secret: something only you fully understand where it comes from, what it means, yours alone until the moment you lock eyes with someone else who knows, and the air between you tilts. Every day, the future looks a little bit darker. But the past... even the grimy parts of it... keep on getting brighter.

This is the ELDO I'm most tempted to actually buy in full-size - I've not yet tried any other scents by them that both smell pleasant enough for regular wear and have real staying power. I love the contrast between the sharp, clean conifers and aldehydes with the animalic base, and the sweet, tempering effect of the vanilla and tonka. It wholly embodies what it's supposed to be, rugged, outdoorsy and masculine but with something a little "queer" in multiple senses of the word to it. It's definitely a very masculine scent but I really enjoy wearing it as a woman, it gives a sense of androgynous glam rather than just smelling like I've borrowed a man's scent. Although I first got a sample in the winter and the notes read to me like "cold-weather", I've found it wears really well on stagnant, overwhelmingly hot summer days in the city, like a breath of fresh air. It may just be the distinct "leather and condoms" accord but I feel like this is a spiritual cousin (or maybe a long-lost lover) of Tom Ford's Tuscan Leather - Tom of Finland is a man of the woods, naturally strong from working outdoors, dressed in flannel and drinking whisky neat, whereas Ombre Leather is a suited city-boy with memberships at a boutique gym and a private member's club, but they've certainly crossed paths in the past and think of one another now and then.