Vanille Havane Cuir des Abysses

2025 has been a strange year, and I know I am far from alone in thinking so. Amongst a myriad of reasons is this one: it’s probably the first time - ever - that two of the perfume releases I have anxiously awaited the most are vanillas, Madagascar Le Baume Vanille by Parfum d’Empire, and this one, Vanille Havane Cuir des Abysses by Les Indemodables. I’m quite picky and touchy when it comes to vanilla. It is one of the most criminally mishandled perfume accords of this century, with most vanilla-forward perfumes seeming to compete for how much time they can make me spend dry-heaving. In Marc-Antoine Corticchiato, Remi and Valerie Pulverail, and Antoine Lie, I trust. I love Vanille Havane but I have yet had the chance to smell Vanille Havane Coeur de Oud, and so without a frame of reference to the latter and how Les Indemodables handle these special edition “flankers” I simply thought and expected that Cuir des Abysses was going to be Vanille Havane with a leather note added, albeit a leather note from a very special and unique material. Perhaps, subconsciously, I was trying to keep my expectations from getting unreasonably high. I was wrong. Very wrong... mostly. The opening of Cuir is achingly familiar. The same bracing and heavily spiced rum and fruit duo that we got in the original Vanille is present and accounted for, announcing itself with intention. However, you can immediately pick-up on a difference: this isn’t a perfect facsimile of the beautiful dark beige Caribbean spiced rum of the original Vanille - an excellent choice for sipping or for a finely crafted cocktail, instead the rum in Cuir is so dark brown it is bordering on being black. We have some characters living in the heart and the base of the perfume that are not waiting their turn for a dry down, and are reaching up into these top notes with muscular determination and purpose. Now, here it comes. Be ready. Vanille Havane is the launch pad for the leather, and launch it does. The purpose of Cuir is to use Vanille Havane to adorn the Russian leather accord with exquisite gifts - not for leather to adorn Vanille, which is a very important distinction. In one minute I detect a beautiful, cured pipe tobacco redolent of dark chocolate, vanilla, and hay like florals. Obviously the vanilla is the vanilla from the original Vanille Havane, earthy and parched, the natural sugars dehydrated and condensed to sticky black molasses, although it is noticeably less oily and less sweet than the original Vanille. In the next minute I detect the superb leather. This leather accord is incredible. At one angle it is chemically and animalic, presenting itself as very gamey and with a sheen of fresh “hot” black leather polish. At another angle, you can make out efforts to bolster it with a healthy dose of smokey birch. The styrax and birch keep backstage, working hard, never stepping forward in order to purposely make sure you are never relieved of any illusion of a real and superb Russian leather. Cuir undulates back and forth between these groups depending upon movement - particularly with distance and air. At more of a distance the leather, vanilla, and tobacco are holding hands and singing in harmony; at very short distances, nose nearly up to skin, the leather dominates. It isn’t until you reach the skin scent that some of the woodiness of the birch becomes better detectable, but still staying very cohesive with the vanilla to create what is, in essence, a classic, leathery, woody, tobacco, vanillic amber base. In the final moments the tobacco and vanillic amber have more stage presence. I can’t shake an image out of my mind’s eye that is forcing me into a perception that this is an odd perfume - but I mean odd in the best way. Half of its DNA is Vanille Havane, or Havana Vanilla (i.e. Cuban Vanilla), and the other half is Cuir des Abysses, or Abyssal Leather, the material extracted from leather made by an artisanal tannery after they were able to recreate the long-lost Russian leather creation process after having studied leather found in a shipwreck. Cuban vanilla and tobacco, and Russian leather...? Anyone else getting the image of a Russian oligarch or diplomat, his leather reeking in the tropical Cuban heat and humidity, smoking a Cuban cigar, while he talks to the Castro regime about the merits of Communism and how Cuba can be their partner in “sticking it” to the U.S. and the capitalist West? Olfactorily it’s a beautiful pairing; thematically kind of touchy, and kind of funny and ironic in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way, since we know how that relationship panned out. Fortunately, Cuir de Abysses doesn't fall apart the same way. Anyway.... Circling back to where I started, I made the mistake of assuming a Vanille Havane flanker with no intention of being reductive towards Cuir des Abysses. It’s not a flanker. It’s its own animal. Vanille Havane could be dropped from the name and, yes, you’d pull some very familiar/exact notes to Vanille Havane, but Cuir des Abysses could and would easily be its own perfume. In the crowded room of leather and vanilla ambers, Cuir des Abysses stands separate and very tall. It’s a stunning piece of work.

The worst part about this perfume is the fact that only 500 bottles have been made and will be made. Because I'd like to have more than 500 bottles of this it's so amazing Antoine Lie has become my favourite perfumer of all time. From his work with Pure Distance to basically launching Les Indomadebles on the map. Les Indomadebles is incredibly fortunate to have Antoine Lie - his work is so phenomenal that it runs a risk - the risk for Les indomadebles is Antoine Lie is carrying the brand so heavily that unless the brand keeps him long term - I fear Les Indomadebles will begin to wash out without such a provocative and master perfumer like Antoine backing and helping them create their perfumes Onto the perfume itself, I would consider this Antoine Lies magnum opus. It has everything you would expect from Antoine -.and Les Indomadebles is to be commended hugely, because without their founders and business partners, teaming up with Antoine - this Grail perfume wouldn't exist. And yes, I find this perfume so phenomenal I'm quite literally just praising the brand and perfumer rather than speaking about the perfume itself. I'll keep it simple: - boozy - leather - dry bitter vanilla hints - dry fruit hints - intense, provocative, dark, slightly smokey. Sums it up. What's interesting about this iteration of vanille havane is that the vanilla part, has such a backseat that you only get the sweetness of it once it's very much dried down and has been sitting on your skin for an hour Perhaps that's just the leather having a constant pushback of anything sweet. I think of you're a fan of Antoine lie - you are crazy not to own this. If youre a fan of vanille havane, you also need to own this for the simple reasons that this is a step up from vanille havane in a more formal, darker, smokier way. Wear vanille havane when you want to go out to a nice outdoor bar and it's a bit cool Wear vanille havane cuir de abyss when you just want to be polarizing.. stand out, darker, more intense occasions where you're demanding to be noticed. Because you will be. 10/10 scent 10/10 perfumer 10/10 brand.

The scent itself is extremelly well executed. Vanille Havane was a good choice to exalt the russian leather. In fact, here we are within the olfactory family of tobacco-rum-vanilla-smoke-and-leather armchair scents. The vanilla of VH possesses some leathery facets, but overall the sweetness of the dried fruits and that (in minor degree) of the cocoa serve as a nice contrast to the russian leather. At first spray, you get a strong resembance with VH with hints of cocoa and stewed dried fruits; after 5-8 seconds, the leather starts to emerge. And it emerges in all its glory. This is the most interesting part of the perfume; I get a sensation of tannins, of unctuos oils, a slightly hint of animalics, and a certain granulous quality. As long as the leather evaporates, VH becomes more and more recognizable. Apparently, Remì Pulvérail explained that the russian leather extract is very volatile: this is why a quite high concentration was used. Overall the russian leather would evaporate in 10-15 minutes, accordying to me. The leather is then prolonged with a combination of birch and possibly stirax. There is no excessive smokiness here. The scent is perfectly well blended and the leather does not come off animalic, nor dirty nor rough, but it is very elegant. I would venture to say that to me it feels even more elegant than VH. Completely in line with Les Indemodables offerings this is a scent for those who seek elegance and a certain subdued attitude and it won't suit the taste of those who seek a more "aggressive" take on leather. One has also to talk about the price tag; honestly, I would have preferred something started completely from scratch to pay homage to this amazing material: although I really really enjoyed the end-result, I tend to reward originality and also a certain willingness to take risks. Who knows? perhaps in the forthcoming future there will be another scent to glorify this amazing material. (while the raw material is over, I believe the olfactory profile was traced and hence can be reproduced) Consider following me on IG @alexolympai6

addedum after I bought a full bottle Allow me to start with a little contest. There has been some two-fold polemics around this limited release From the one hand, some people got offended because of the homage this scent was doing to Russian Leather; their intent: to ban anything Russian, belligerently ignoring that "Russian Leather" is an historiographical category of the world of perfumery. From the other, some people complained that this is the second flanker of Vanille Havane. While it is sterile to argue about the first issue, I may say something about the second. I am the first that would like to reward an effort to creativity at this price tag, but I have to admit that the structure of Vanille Havane is very apt to exhalt the leather. The vanilla - when is not enriched by insulinic sugary components - naturally presents some leathery facets (Corticchiato showed this with his latest release Madagascar le baume vanille). Here Antoine Lie re-calibrated VH depleting it of its melasses components creating the background on which the leather wafts. A leather that is oily, tarry, and vegetal. As time passes, it becomes slightly sweaty, a hint animalic, but remaining extremely wearable and very very elegant. The drydown is very warm and kind of woody-ambery. The "Havana theme" has been explored many times over: the depiction of a glass of rum, the moke of cigars, and the leather armchair on which I am sitted enjoying the drink and the smoke. Because of the assonance, Havana Vanille, 2009 forL'Artisan made by Duchaufourcame to mind. But Cuir d'Abysses is a beast of its own: with its emphasis on the leather, this scent is perfectly balanced, evocative, and classy. Follow me on IG @alexolympia6

Leather tincture, huh? Appears like Les Indemodables decided to jump the shark for good.

There's a full sealed bottle of this for sale on eBay if anyone is interested, and the price is reasonable considering the rarity. It's $485 but that's not too much more than the regular version at retail.

Best leather scents ever made are Vanille Havane Cuir des Abysses and Cuir de Russie Areej

Please, VH was and is iconic, but we do not need 23 flankers.