Cuir de Russie

I should really post these notes right after I've written them. I've had this written down for three weeks now. Why do I wait..? Upon first testing of Cuir De Russie I found in its profile the Francesca Bianchi Sticky Fingers patchouli but Cuir De Russie is more tasteful, less thick and edgy. Godet’s Cuir De Russie is dainty and polite showing complexity in minimalism where the details of the other ingredients are able to breath throughout the composition’s life and hold the wearers interest. The ingredients are not thickly blended, toppling each other like dominoes with a clear and linear top, middle and dry-down that are all completely different from the beginning as how I feel happens in Sticky Fingers. No, Cuir De Russie stays as one rather complex and engaging scent all the way through keeping remnants of its top notes and never collapses on itself. A finely tuned blend, soft in profile that is properly and subtly activated by your body heat and can easily fill your personal space with only one spray. It travels in the air as a very luring and flirtatious profile as a fine leather should smell. The leather I get from Godet’s Cuir De Russie is also highly reminiscent of the leather nuance in Les Indemodables Vanille Havane that is produced through its high-quality and rustic tobacco absolute that is earthy and smokey, a testament indeed to how well-blended this is. This leather is joined with a very rich smelling benzoin that is reminiscent of Roja’s Enigma Pour Homme but unfortunately to me Enigma becomes a boring and sweet woody amber. To me Cuir De Russie manages to hold control of the cool spicy cloves and cumin to give depth and intrigue a slightly rough gaminess to its profile. After testing it some more I find it resembling a richer rendition of Lubin's Idole and by association Bentley for Men Intense made with really high quality ingredients. It possesses a similar boozy, resin-y, spiciness that has an exotic leathery undercurrent. The spices are quite tastefully balanced and add a mellowed but spicy whisper to the composition, also having a Middle East meets French aesthetic that is omnipresent in the profile, a fragrance style that is very typical of Russian tastes. A blend of an equal balance of east to west reflects the cultural influence by Russia’s geography exhibited by its general tastes in Guerlain and Chanel fragrances that fuse the heritages of Eastern and Western perfumery. Very, very smooth and as it developed on my skin it became more and more reminiscent of leather as if the fragrance had developed as a package of individual ingredients that with time locked together into a completed picture. Godet will be a house I would absolutely have to dive deeper into I can tell there is real heritage, a focus on artful intention and sincere quality with these perfumes. I would agree that Godet’s offering does not seek to be a rough leather in the camps of Chanel’s Cuir De Russie, Knize Ten, Fendi Uomo, Gucci Guilty Absolute or Bottega Venetta Pour Homme so if you’re looking for rough and tumble ruggedness I would suggest looking elsewhere. This is fragile, voluptuous, fancy with sharp spicy edges like Art Deco while still being round and showing risk and mystery. Godet’s Cuir De Russie reduces leather’s natural fatty, dried-bloody ruggedness and succeeds in being an artistic take on leather so it goes straight down the middle unisex territory but a successfully comfortable unisex. The smoothness of Cuir De Russie’s profile provides an idealized representation of leather’s facets building the material artistically through alluring boozy spiciness, starchy ambery resins, and a slightly gamey woodiness that grants it an understated poise and maturity. The last time I wore this there seems to have been a very real oud presence I was experiencing off my skin. Very, very interesting I really like it and I want it. 9.5/10

Anything and all things “cuir de russie” win my full attention, anytime! As Chanel’s take on this fragrance is my one-favorite fragrance – if ever I would have to go for one alone – this revisited Godet was an excitement to find, and a blessing. Chanel still takes the cake. God blesses. Godet’s cuir I have learnt isn’t the reedition of their 20’s fragrance with same name but an entirely new construction from 2017. Still, it has a touch of another-time which in my book is all-good, all-correct and all-deepening. The patchouli and cumin notes are very distinguishing from the much more floral Chanel’s cuir; they are very dominant in the opening and make this cuir spicier, earthy and soapy-clean. At the same time (and I know this will sound crazy!!??), I don’t get leather here as a note, I rather get-TO leather as an arquitectural construction of the overall fragrance. In Chanel’s cuir leather is like a raw material which is physically present, omnipresent and assertive; here leather is a smoked-up drawing that is suggested. It has its beauty. Very curious about other Godet fragrances... will explore!

Soft leather whisper. Stunning creation that is well balanced and everything-appropriate. Well maybe not something I'd like to wear it to the gym but for the rest very much versatile. I was visiting the Old Library in Hague wearing this and it was so appropriate. I was blending into that wood-leather-polished floors environment like a chameleon. It's a rich and may I say sexy scent that is not provocative but is seductive AF.

hey!.. sweetie!... Here I get beautiful sweet, warm, tousled skin with an addictive opening of cumin and sweaty cloves, tons of patchouli, warm benzoin, the meltiness of sandalwood, and cypriol in large doses. Cuir curcuma, patchouli by Micallef, and cypriol oudy by Bois d'ebene came to mind. If you love these three you will love this one. It is decidedly sweet but softer, harmonious and comfortable. Very suitable for winter evenings. In the wake I get a more floral leather which with vetiver and cloves gives an ancient, elegant and sober flavor. Always composed with care (like the whole collection!) it remains pleasant to wear and a safe choice for lovers of leather, sweetness and Patchouli! The highlight and well ridden of this house. Bon!

velvet leather Cumin, patchouli, oud, touch of vetiver, & sandalwood. The cumin is bursting in here for to form that velvet leather. This presents a dark brown kind of velvet leather with that aristocratic richness. Very impressive kind of leather. I do sense "Francesca Bianchi's" stamp in here with this type of cumin note. Beautiful indeed.