Cuir Zerzura

Blast of rich gorgeous warm powdery Iris + chocolatey suede Leather + synthetic citrus Raspberry + Mandarin Orange oil + a touch of beautiful modern Rose + dark Musk + peppery Cedarwood oil + a small touch of Vanilla Wow! Is this ever different from the others in the line, and phenomenal quality! This is Armani's answer to cloning & 1-uping TF Tuscan Leather! A blast of new car leather (actually more realistic than TF Tuscan Leather!), mixed with a nice dose of warm powdery Iris (and the most incredible real sexy quality of iris I've ever smelt in my entire life!), and a yummy gourmand citrus to brighten up the rich notes of leather and iris, the pyramid is saying it's orange, but tbh im getting more raspberry, almost like car air freshener raspberry that's also found in TF Tuscan Leather. Im not getting really any Violet or Elemi on the opening, if there is some in there it's really faint to my nose, more of a dash of it to mix into the dna to give it it's unique scent. This is actually more smoother blended than Tuscan Leather too! Extremely masculine, dark, yet beautiful because of that shot of gorgeous rich Iris, making it smell expensive & addicting!! There is also a faint floral note of Rose blended with the raspberry and it's so nice! From my exp. woman don't love Tuscan Leather because it is too industrial leather-like strong, over smelling it's harshness becomes nauseating to them. But because this is blended with a few more ingredients and smoother blending, i have to say this dethrones Tuscan Leather now. In the mid, the Iris blends into the leather, and i hardly smell it now, my nose picks up on the powder of the Iris, but the leather over-powers smelling the actual note of iris. Seems like during the mid all the notes tone down and blend into one another. The raspberry jammy-rose note really balances the dark smoky car leather. Surprisingly 3 hours later the end dryoff i was waving my hands and i started to get a bouquet of fragrance of musky floral that was so gorgeous, and unexpecting pushed it slightly more into the direction of a hint of creaminess-floral leather. Hmmm! The magic in this frag is the is the opening & end-dryoff, it's addicting! Then, there is a delicious chocolatey-leather note and it's sooo good mixed with the bouquet of notes! There is also a spicy black pepper note from the Cedarwood oil that hits the nose in the end dryoff. My 1st complaint about this fragrance is the ripoff price $340 CND with tax... My 2nd complaint is that it just sticks to you, hardly any projection for a fragrance, doesn't radiate at all, got to nose-dive to catch a whiff. And that's really odd since the scent itself smells strong when you do go in to smell it. They needed to do something in the lab to push out the scent before finally releasing it. Again, it doesn't project, and you'd have to over-spray like crazy for someone to pick up a scent trail, and who would use that much juice at this insane price? Your bottle would be empty in no time. :/ Warmer days allows this fragrance to breathe & blossom into a beautiful bouquet. Personally i think they were close to making a true masterpiece. If i was the perfumer, i would tone down the leather strength to not over-power this legendary warm iris, and do something to it that projects & radiates it more, then it would be a true masterpiece frag and a huge seller. Im absolutely addicted to smelling the Iris in this fragrance and have to smell the atomizer daily! 4/5 Woofs!

I bought this at a private duty free store in Qatar, and I haven't regretted it at all. I live for the sweet iris note mingling with the leather. The iris mellows out the leather, and manages to make the overall accord somewhat warm and comforting. There's a slight woodiness in the drydown, but iris and leather continue to take center stage. It's not as much of an obvious leather scent as, perhaps, Tom Ford's leather-centric fragrances, but Cuir Zerzura is quite the masterpiece in its own right. Longevity is about 8 hours, which is decent for me. You'll have to reapply occasionally if you'd like the fragrance to continue projecting throughout the course of the day, which can be an issue for some, but I somehow enjoy its subtlety. As for application, I'd say 5-6 sprays works wonders for you. The overall scent profile is unisex, leaning somewhat feminine, but I'm a guy and I wear this with complete confidence, so to me men can easily pull this off as well, as long as they're actually in touch with their masculinity and don't have a fragile ego. I can see seemingly cold businesspeople with soft hearts wearing this fragrance. I find myself wearing this on softer and more lighthearted winter days. In my opinion, if you like Baccarat Rouge 540, you'll also appreciate Cuir Zerzura. I see some very mild similarities to Kalan by Parfums de Marly, but I find Cuir Zerzura much more wearable. This, as well as Vetiver d'Hiver, might be my favorite from the Armani Prive collection.

I tried this blind expecting leather of course. What I got was a massive bomb of beautiful iris. Once you move on from the iris stage it sweetens us and finally reveals a soft leather along with woods. I've tried probably at 20 or more of these Armani Prive scents, and the majority of them are very good. However some have performance problems and this is one of those. I sold Cuir Noir even though I thought the smell was stunning, I could not handle the non existent sillage and projection. I'm not a performance freak and I can deal with poor longevity, but if projection is so low that neither me nor the people around me can smell it, then what's the point of wearing it? Very soft projection on this but longevity was probably 9 hours on skin for Cuir Zerzura. This is only my first impression wearing, so I'll continue to test. No denying this fragrance is beautiful if you like iris. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scent 8/10 Performance 6/10

im surprised that this one smells so refined and subtle. Not overly done and not too shy. Im sure the ingredients are of high quality. The leather is blended well with some floral touch, and some powdery character. I guess that is iris. I like this very much. But for the price, there are many other perfumes that are more engaging and remarkable. Memo Paris has many leather concoction smells you can choose from. This to me smells like Bond No9 NY Oud but milder version. Probably not the best sillage but very wearable anyday anytime. Soothing!

One of those it-smells-perfect-to-me kind of fragrance. Refined, sleek an iris that is neither cold or warm. It is so well done, I wear it alone or I layer it with other weaker iris scents. It's also one of the best iris/leather scent to me, because of how smooth and well blend Cuir zerzura is. I think it could be a good fragrance for people who are not really into iris because it's not as earthy or powdery, and it's long lasting. To me it's a go to when I don't have any specific scent in mind but want to smell good.

A great opening and a soft dry-down. Unfortunately poor sillage for such a nice blend of notes creating an excellent powdery iris-leather scent. Despite the poor performance, I had to take it home with me. It is wearable preferably during the day at all seasons. For a night event, I would not wear it. The female version of Dior Homme Intense. The brand name lifts it to the price level which I find unfair for the shown performance.

The most beautiful Iris scent I've ever smelt, a smooth unbelievable blend which takes the top spot for me... however, terrible performance which doesn't justify the spend. Lasts max 4 hours on the skin as a skin scent with no projection. Extremely disappointing performance for a fragrance that smells this good.

I really love this fragrance. It's truly excellent. Not a vastly complex fragrance but a very nice leather accord in here, one with really smells like leather. Leather 'accuracy' or realism is not something I'm hang up on, like many accords an effects in perfumery it can be a broad church as can leather itself depended on type, where it's sourced, how it's treated/tanned etc...and I allow for a degree of creative license in achieving 'leather' in perfumery terms. This has the deep, buttery, unsweetened effect you get from creating it using orris/iris type materials but this is less cosmetic than a Dior Homme for instance. I didn't really get a lot from the top notes other than a very delicate nuance, transitioning base & mid hum, that this the general tonality of this perfume. I can't wait to try it again actually, it's not a hugely creative take, it's not particularly screaming innovation, it's a very good perfume, executed incredibly well and as much as I think the Armani prive line has always been good, I wasn't really expecting tto be so charmed by this.

#1309 in my "Tour de Fragrance" The Armani Prive series is impressive, but not $300+ impressive. Every one of the dozen or so "Shalimar" scents by Guerlain have this same basic DNA: Rose-Iris-Leather-Cedar-Vanilla accompanied with a citrus and floral. They're feminine, and so is this, though it's unisex enough for a man to wear. It's a nice quality scent with acceptable longevity and projection, versatile for any use in any setting. Kinda bath powdery, like Dior "Homme Intense", Herrera "Iris Empire", V Canto "Malatesta." But it's a scent I'd give to a girlfriend. I think Guerlain's "Shalimar" scents are better for a woman, and you can find most of them for half the price of this Armani if you look around online.

The pyramid looks enticing and I would have loved fresh mandarin and violet leaves on a warm leather base, that would be perfection. Unfortunately, iris played a trick and my bottle arrived full of cooked carrots and carrot seeds in a leather sak. Nice and unusual enough, but not as unticipated. Tested in colder weather on a so called "cold skin",- that did not help the base to come through properly, but I did expect the top notes to be more pronouced than they are. I'll wait and see if it will get better in summer heat, until then there are some luxury carrots sitting on the shelf. The bottle is very elegant.

Another winner from the Armani prive line. The opening is fantastic. I get iris combined with lots of Elemi resin. This then dries down to a lovely vanillic powdery and leathery scent, without ever getting too sweet. My only criticism is that the performance is average at best. Either way, I’ll look into picking up a full bottle at some point.

I have just tried this, and it is strikingly similar to the Cuir by YSL recently discontinued. It is rather enjoyable, powdery and spicy, but in a very mild manner, so it is definitely not going to attract any attraction, not unless you splash a lot. And even then, I would very much doubt it.

This is a great Iris leather combo. The dry leather and iris bring this “new” smell. The blend is incredible and smooth with earthy touches. It dries to a soft ozonic like vanilla leather. This was my realization Iris is my favourite floral. This kind of fragrance calms me.

This is a very nice iris/leather. It is a strong like, however I don't like it as much as Dior Homme Parfum which performs better and fulfills the genre for me. I will add that the drydown is beautiful, but very close to the skin. Scent: 3/5 Longevity: 3/5 Sillage: 2/5

Sorry, but to my mind this is one of the "grandma" perfumes. Fades fast and has no sillage either.

Armani Prive #5 – Light Purple Iris in the “Silver Mist” Those experienced with the “Niche Universe” of perfumes might get the title of my review because it downright spells out the name of another legendary fragrance: Iris Silver Mist by Serge Lutens. I found Noir Kogane by Armani Prive to be a great substitute to the hard to find Amouage Myths Man and once again Armani Prive comes to the rescue of those seeking a particular style of perfumery. Cuir Zerzura in a similar fashion is a good alternative to Iris Silver Mist, another expensive and hard to get fragrance. Both perfumes are what i would call Ghost Irises. Translucent, delicate, near weightless in nature yet paradoxically dense and enveloping enough to hypnotise the senses. If Iris Silver Mist took the narative and imagery of a mist literally, Cuir Zerzura done so perhaps by chance or unintentionally. Its an unexpected thing because “Cuir” meaning leather, i obviously expected a strong leather scent but its not the case. There’s only a touch of suede, worlds appart from the proper leather of Noir Kogane. The dominant accord instead is a powdery Iris and i cannot emphasize enough just how gentle it is. Its like a cloud instead of a note. I’ve talked about scent and color associations in the past. Sometimes it happens, often times it doesn’t but everytime it does, i feel compelled to bring it up. I’ve sat down and thought about just how interestingly the brain creates connections based on senses that are vastly different in function and behaviour and the only common point between them is the same brain they provide and gather information for. The thought of putting a color to a scent seems laughable taken on face-value yet its a real thing and its the result of associations we make on a daily bases based on smell and visual image. With Cuir Zerzura, i’ve “smelt” the gentle purple color from the start and altho Iris wasn’t my first guess, i thought of violet and sure enough its there. I pick up on some sweetness aswell and there is vanilla mentioned in the notes so it makes sense but this scent is very far from what i’d call a vanillic perfume. Instead, the sweetness seems floral in nature. Coming back to Iris Silver Mist by Serge Lutens, it was a perfume for which i’ve set high expectations and created much hype around. In some ways it dissapointed me because altho it evoked the imagery of a “silver mist”, it was a less “spectacular” scent then i somehow imagined. Cuir Zerzura is a better smelling scent then Iris Silver Mist to my nose and thats coming from a Serge Lutens fanboy. Where Iris Silver Mist is a clinical cold white Iris, Cuir Zerzura is a pleasant light purple Iris cloud with suede and a subtle sweetness that makes it more aproachable in my eyes. Once again Armani Prive impressed me and so far there were no misses from this private line.

An explosion of iris that takes its time unfolding. A subtle rose emerges, but iris still holds the leading role. At times it's difficult differentiating iris from leather, but both are detectable and very in synch. Lurking in the background is the woody-peppery note of elemi, but never demands attention. It's difficult pulling cedar out of this, but I imagine it counters the powderiness. I understand the comparisons to both Dior Homme Intense and YSL's La Nuit de L'homme L'intense. Thirty minutes into wear, we're still dealing with a very selfish iris but the other notes have surfaced enough to be noticed. Vanilla makes a very late appearance, but assists with a beautiful dry down. Perfectly gender neutral and for those of you who gravitate to either powdery or iris dominant fragrances.

Cuir Zerzura by Giorgio Armani feels like stepping into a hidden desert oasis at twilight—mysterious, elegant, and intensely refined. It’s a woody-leathery fragrance with a fresh, slightly floral opening that quickly deepens into rich leather and warm vanilla, underscored by noble cedarwood. Longevity is moderate, around 6-7 hours on skin, with a smooth, close sillage that invites intrigue without overwhelming. Ideal for cooler weather and evening wear, it’s perfect for those looking for a sophisticated, quietly luxurious scent that balances freshness and depth with a subtle exotic edge. It has nothing to do with dior homme intense

This is very transportive to me. This is me walking through the men's formal clothing section looking for a new suit and some nice leather dress shoes at Macy's. I also get the smell of a new leather bag or the leather interior in a new car. This fragrance fits someone with an exuberant attitude and has financial wealth. 8/10 and maybe fbw. Edit: The only caveat to this fragrance is it has terrible performance. This being retailed at $300 is ludicrous. I better smell my fragrance for 24 hours + at that price.

Its a great powdery/leather fragrance! If u like dior homme (the original family not the 2020) you will probably find this a love first sniff! Its last quite good and project nice! Has this lipstick/powder smell inside a leather bag! If on a budget DHI is an one way road! If u want to upgrade and add a similar DNA fragrance in your collection its a must have!