Cuir de Lancôme

Even Cowboys from Texas can wear perfume. And not just any old perfume but one of the most beautiful leather perfumes around, Cuir de Lancôme by Lancôme of Paris. As I and so many others have said. Perfume is without gender and what is good for the gander works just as well on the goose. Cuir de Lancôme is from the La Collection Fragrance line by Lancôme. Their exclusive line created a few years back. Many houses now have special lines like Collection Privée by Dior and Les Exclusifs by Chanel. Lancôme has not been left behind in the dust on that account. This fragrance is most interesting in the fact that it is labeled Cuir (Leather) and yet it has not a single so called leather note in it. Yet its overall effect is that of the most luxurious fine leathers one can wear. It opens with a softly sweet and smooth mandarin orange and a slightly bitter bergamot that is given a tawny elegant smoothness with the addition of saffron. This note is where we get the leather. It is a grounded leather close to the earth and rather sensuous and caressing. This wonderful leather effect is created from a flower. Hawthorne lightly sweetens the mid notes and marries the jasmine and ylang ylang under a canopy of sturdy masculine patchouli. It really shines here. Never too loud like some leather perfumes, rather it is like a Gary Cooper cowboy in full control of any situation yet laid back and languorous with a hint of danger behind it. In the dry down it gets even more masculine with a balsamic styrax, the pure beautiful note of birch. These notes meet up with a austerely cool and gorgeous orris root. Cuir de Lancôme is never more beautiful than in its fading moments. With fall fast approaching I know that this will be in my rotation. It simply and effortlessly projects a quite, masculine elegance that with a flip of the coin is equally perfect on the skin of a woman of substantial glamour and poise. There are two noses behind this fragrance Calice Becker (J’adore and Velvet Orchid for Tom Ford) and Pauline Zanoni. Together they have come up with a really beautiful fragrance that lasts on my skin between 8 and 10 hours. Around the third hour it moves closer to the skin were it remains to invite more intimate exploration. The projection is moderate which I like in a leather fragrance. You don’t want to come in with six guns blazing all the time. Sometimes you can say much more leaning against the bar surveying the room from under a ten gallon hat. FIVE GOLD STARS **** (TO READ ABOUT THE COWBOY BEHIND MY REVIEW CHECK MY BLOG SCENTS MEMORY)

Awesomeness nailed it! A floral leather chypre...I had read much about Lancome's La Collection and have had my eye on Sagamore for quite sometime now. I was fortunate enough to be gifted a vial of this by MsMaryO (Thanks, My dear!!) and am totally in love with it... This is almost like someone took all the notes and shuffled them like cards. Patchouli in the heart-not the base, saffron in the top (not the heart), and no moss and only light florals...but it works! This opens with the leathery note immediately apparent, but also the citruses and the saffron's warm floral spicy/pollen-like scent. The beauty in the heart of hawthorn, jasmine and ylang is just wonderful. Sultry, rich and slightly sweet when combined with the patchouli it has an earthy sexiness. Mmmm! The drydown is where I get the best reaction on my skin: styrax (and its mysterious aged scent), birch tar (smoky leather) and cold iris root makes for a dry very chypre-like finish without moss or too much powderiness. A very elegant scent for a woman; but I wear it myself, due to the stunning drydown rich in orris, styrax and birch tar-three of my favorite basenotes! This has a feel of aged and distressed leather, but is elegant and crisp at the same time. My admiration of Lancome in general has grown greatly. And, if this is how they define leather, I cannot wait to see how they define sycamore!! Sillage: better close, but detectable Longevity: good Overall: 4/5 I am amzed more and more at how many "women's" scents smell better on men, and sometimes vice versa...I find this to be a great scent on my skin, and say damn the classifications! The more I sniff real quality scents, no matter what their "gender". This has a lot of flowers, sure, but is very nice on a man and also (I'd imagine) on a woman. Hey! Why not just let the wearer decide-people are gonna wear what they want anyway...

I have always found Chanel Cuir de Russie too aloof, too standoffish, too posh to comfortably wear it, although I respect and love its quality and execution. Cuir de Lancome is the perfect feminine leather for me. It has all the quality and well built structure of the Chanel, but is way friendlier, easier to wear if you don't have enough Chanel suits in your wardrobe and Maseratis in your garage. I clearly smell both the mandarin and the bergamott in the opening, but the leather (birch tar) makes its appearance right away, too. The citruses, as is their wont, pretty soon say goodbye and offer their places to the beautiful yet quite florals: gentle ylang and jasmine. This perfume is much more about buttery, slightly spicy and balsamic notes (saffron, styrax, vanilla) and leather than about florals, yet they are definitely there and help to soften and warm up the leather even more. The general impression is that of a soft, antique rose coloured suede glove that has captured the memory of very high quality perfumes. CdL is sophisticated, elegant but not strict and austere like Cuir de Russie. It has a vintage feel with a modern twist to it, making it very wearable today. Longevity is outstanding, sillage is moderate, but it would not befit this beauty to fill a room. She is too well-bred for that. :-) Except for the worst heat of the summer, I could wear it all year long. It has got very rare these days, so grab it if it comes your way, you will not regret!

I have been testing wrist to wrist Cuir de Lancome and Chanel Cuir de Russie. This is my impression: the opening of CdL is more subdued, more leathery, sweeter where CdR is sharper. I detect no flowers in any of the two. CdL develops in a subtler way while CdR seems a rollercoaster ride, more exciting, more faceted. CdL is quieter and in the drydown much more feminine than CdR. All through its way I can sense no jasmine, no orris, no rose, no flowers at all in CdR while I can feel a very elegant way through expensive materials and a surely very alluring smell. It stays very close to the skin and when completely melts with you, the scent is one of the Seven Wonders of this world. CdL is much like CdR not in the way the two smells but more in the elegance, the old money feeling they give you when wearing them. Definitely I would tend to be of opinion that were CdL much more expensive (the way CdR is) it would be regarded as its Chanel mate by collectors and opinioners worldwide. Cuir de Russie is a monument in perfumery and very rightly so, but in my very humble opinion I think that Cuir de Lancome should not be disregarded in haste. All the contrary. It would rightly deserve a monument as well. (For a more detailed review of Cuir de Lancome see my other review on this page).

Well, call me a sucker for styrax, saffron and hawthorn, I am totally down with this fragrance. A leather without the creaking, CdL might be those brown buttery soft, knee high boots you bought in Italy and refuse to take off even for sex. Or it may be the fabulous tan you got in Spain when white was your colour and the smell of oranges underpinned everything. It's not about sex though, it's too refined for that, but it is very sensuous owing to patchouli and ylang. CdL's base is delicious after sleep but don't get it any warmer, it's not really suited to hot weather when it can be cloying; Russie's brighter rose & citrus might be a better idea then but I've never tried CdR in summer to be sure. I don't worry much about projection, as long as I can smell my own perfume I don't care if anyone else can and CdL has perfect sillage for me. It has longevity to die for, can wear all day on a few morning spritzes and will still be on your clothes come laundry day. You can wear it almost everywhere with anything, it won't ever let you down. Cuir de Russie is a dry, rigorously polished and uptight leather compared with Lancome's golden take on Cuir. Sometimes Russie is right for the moment but mostly I reach for CdL. I'd hate to ever be without it.