Cuir de Chine

Seems like Vanille Havane (Vanilla,Coffee,Booze,Cream,Tobacco), Chypre Azural (Orange, Berries), Rose de Jamal (Rose,Mint), Cuir de Chine (Peach,Tea) and Fougère Emeraude (Tuberose, Mimosa) have quickly established themselves as my all-time reference point fragrances for these notes. Les Indémodables have stolen my heart with these five creations. Cuir de Chine is not a leather fragrance to me but the perfect Peach Tea fragrance. Possibly a failure in thematic context but a complete success in execution. However it does have a very Eastern Aura about it as the name suggests a "Chinese" leather - knowing their tastes in fresh fragrances I would believe it would appeal to people from the far Eastern regions of the world even more. On me it is Juicy, fruity, round with a slightly brisk and metallic tea sensation blended harmoniously with a bitter, woody, tobacco and mentholated, candied jasmine. Imagine a jug of freshly brewed peach tea brought outside one dewy, cool summer morning. Black earl grey leaves swimming throughout the volume of the jug like flakes of pulp, a syrupy aroma from the simple syrups, cane sugar and fruit jams emanate from the jug as it precipitates, evaporates in the early sunlight, and the massive slices of saturated candied peaches piled on top of one another at the base of the tea waiting to be fished out. That is this scent personified. All the notes in Cuir de Chine make a beautiful drinkable Néstea or Lipton Peach Iced Tea. The scent is refreshing and evokes the feelings of summer days, the beach, a sunbathed backyard scene with grills going off and people sharing stories over wooden tables and benches. I visualize a light-brown, tan or an ambery yellow-brown when I smell this scent. Although no peach and no tea are listed the Osmanthus is forced into its most luxurious form where these naturally unachievable facets of its character are displayed in a utopian olfactory perspective. No restraint but light, fresh, unique and successfully smooth and beguiling. Refreshing. This is perfectly unisex in feeling with very volatile but intimate inoffensive projection and should be referenced as the most photorealistic Peach Sweet Tea fragrance available. *Who needs Bitter Peach...* 🍑🧊☕️ 10/10

For me, this is the best leather fragrance out there. It is not your standard fragrance in the leather family. This is more like a cousin to the standard leather fragrances. I am not a big fan of the classic suffocating synthetic leathery notes that most commercial perfumers use in there leather based fragrances (tom ford ombré leather for example), this however is nothing like that. The leathery smell in this fragrance comes from the flower osmanthus, which in this fragrance truly is devine in, you can really feel that natural smelling flower, fruity with a touch of leather in it. And it is sooo classy, wearing this I am feeling like a rich man in a suit humid tepid autumn day. This is a soapy fresh/leathery smelling fragrance, very unique. This is a 10/10 for me. I think Les Indemodables is one of the best houses out there, with every fragrance holding up this outstanding quality and in almost every case uniqueness aswell. With their astounding (almost sauna like) DNA that can be found throughout most of their fragrances I dare say that Les Indemodables might be the best and highest quality brand in all Europe.

Reviewing a sample from 2024. Cuir de Chine was launched in 2016. This is a unique interpretation of a leather accord using Osmanthus. Elegant in it's simplicity. Cuir de Chine opens with juicy ripe apricots followed by Egyptian jasmine. The jasmine is not Sambac and so comes across delicate and nuanced. These accords then meld with mild Turkish tobacco, balsamic amber and a musky leathery Chinese Osmanthus resulting in the most unusual leather/suede scent; at times unreal like plastic and at others so soft and pliable you can almost touch it. There are no sharp notes here. Other than the opening it is not particularly fruity or sweet, nor is it smoky. It may not be an instant love but it has the potential to grow on you with it's calm self-possesed velvety touch. Quality- Excellent materials and blending Unisex- leans slightly masculine Performance- excellent Overall, this is a fascinating osmanthus fragrance but I don't see this being mass appealing. As a "soliflore" it will appeal to the purist as well as to those who appreciate the blending used to produce this unusual leather scent. 8.5/10

Interesting, unique, rich, complex. Perhaps the most cerebral of all the releases from Les Indemodables. Near the beginning, it smells 100% of the sticky dried buds of high-grade marijuana. That clary sage FUNK + tangy citrus + apricot fuzziness. I suppose it could also be interpreted as leather at this stage. After a few minutes, it begins to settle into the osmanthus-apricot-fruitiness. I also get a bit of mandarin orange at this stage. (It's clear that there are some accords that run through a LOT of these Les Indemodables: a sweet tangerine/orange, clary sage, ambergris.) Cuir de Chine's heart is very GREEN and very salty. In the heart notes, CdC smells distinctly of OLIVE. The flesh of the fruit and the fruitiness of olive oil... but also the green waxy leaves and grey bark... maybe even some brine. Osmanthus and olives (and jasmine, for that matter) are part of the same botanical family, but maybe this smell association is just my imagination. Lots of tobacco in the base. Beautiful. 4/5

I had no idea what to expect from Cuir de Chine based on the notes alone, but after a few wears I grew to immensely enjoy it, and it’s now at the top of my purchase list. What stands out most is the osmanthus, yet this is far from being an osmanthus-centered perfume. Instead, the note is used masterfully to evoke the scent of fresh leather. It isn’t too sweet or overly peachy; the fruity facet is present, but nuances of tobacco and clary sage smooth it out and keep the sweetness in check. It’s described as a 'fruity leather', which initially made me wary, as fruity notes can sometimes come across as synthetic smelling. Not here. Much like other creations by Les Indémodables, the materials smell exceptional. The fruitiness is restrained, not juicy but rather creamy, and the entire composition feels natural, refined, and beautifully balanced. A fantastic, highly sophisticated creation.