Cuir Garamante

What is happening here? Why have I not reviewed this? Did my review get voted out of existance? How could I let such an oversight go unchecked? For a while at least it was my favourite MDCI but revisiting the samples from this house again this week I've realised that Claude Marchal's vision for this brand is one I admire, and everything is good. I don't feel I had the level of maturity to appreciate the full body of work the first time around. At that point I had rejected the nicely, nicely, French perfumery approach and was seeking the visceral, wacky thrills of niche and Indy perfumers. Having got that out of my system I still arrive back at Cuir Garamante and I'm stunned by just what a great perfume it is. The opening is leathery, indulgent and does smack of lots of things I was into at the time of first trying and probably why I didn't pursue CG more intently. So... from memory then, I got an incense sandalwood and vanilla vibe accented with resins and it kinda is that still. However, upon todays trial I get much more of an unusual and enticing quality of rose wrapped in a hyper creamy accord comprised of sandalwood materials, not nutty or cedarish, pencil shaving but not a million miles from palo santo actually. Now that stuff is an almost unusable material for numerous reasons but mainly the off putting creepy rubber and mint facets, and it's ipecac, sickliness to boot. However some strange nicer quality of Mysore sandalwood is captured in this fragrance and with the rose it can evoke one classic perfume. Chanel Egoiste. The selfish man's choice for smelling great, however this is even more rich and densely layered with that labdanum/resins effect and a sort of gourmand, shortbread accent. There's top notes too, it's not all bases and mids and that is what makes it shine through and ultimately the leather quality of the name too. It's more magic from MDCI and it's not even my second or third favourite now but I still love this thing!

I’m not even going to bother updating my old review of this one, it’s so good I’m going to slap a new one on it. What a wonderful balance this perfume achieves, simple but the individual elements in and of themselves are complex. Really it’s the classic three (possibly four or five? Haha) elements providing the vibe. Labdanum and sandalwood begin with and rose later moreso but in the beginning having that sort of creamy, rosewood rose of a Egoiste or something classy as hell. The main thing bringing the Cuir to the table is the labdanum (and perhaps from the notes here saffron and Cypriol) and it’s a glorious labdanum, sharp, sweet, heady and being so heavy effectively as a top note but permeating the entire fragrance with some support in the sharp/sweet dept from pink pepper. Blending this creamy sandalwood rose and overt resinous accord makes for a unique but understated perfume. I remember thinking when this first came out...this is everything I love about fragrance, like fundamentally, the core of what this is, smells like the core of a good perfume whatever direction it might go. I still think that. One minor gripe is that it’s almost too much for me, overloads my emotions or something? I love it in the opening but then after a while it becomes weirdly cloying until it settles back down again and dries down super quiet. Cuir Garamante is superb.

در حال حاضر دو کار این برند را در کالکشنم دارم. این کار و اینویژن باربر. بینهایت دوستشان دارم .هر دو به غایت شیک ُ خوش بو و رسمی و با کامپلیمنت بالا و فراوان. .شاید بهترین واژه ای که بشود در یک کلام هر دو را توصیف کردواژه لوکس باشد. برای ما ایرانی ها که از کودکی با رایحه هایی مثل زعفران گل رز و گلاب و دارچین بزرگ شده ایم و اصلا بر خلاف ارورپایی هیچ چیز خاصی برامون نیستند قضاوت در رابطه با عطرهایی که این موارد رو داخلشون دارند باید بسیار با احتیاط باشه .منظورم اینه که شاید برای یک فرانسوی زعفران و دارچین و رز هر چه بیشتر باشه بیشتر لذت ببرند اما حداقل برای من که کاملا خلاف این صادق است.مثلا تامفورد ایتالین سایپرس مورد علاقه من نیست چون غلظت دارچین ان برای من غیر قابل تحمل است و ممکن است اطرافیان تصور کننددارچین استفاده کردم و یا کویر ساکری از دس اورس را به خاطر عفران غلیظ و بالایش سالها قبل حتی با قیمت مناسب و تقریبا در مقایسه الان رایگان تهیه نکردم. اما وقتی همین زعفران و یا رز با غلظت کاملا مناسب و بهینه توسط یک عطار چیره دست در عطر به کار گرفته می شوند که نه کمند و نه زیاد انوقت معجزه ایجاد می شود .نظیر همین گارامانته که غلظت زعفران و رز و ترکیبیشون با چرم رایحه ای بسیار دلپسند و لطیف ایجاد می کند که برای اطرافیان دهها بار خوش بوتر از ان چیزی است که شما احساس می کنید. کاری فوق العاده لوکس و کاملا فرمال که صد البته هم باید با لباس فرمال و شیک ست شود.

Wow, wow and wow! I love this stuff. Finally a leather fragrance that doesn't smell skanky or like a leather wallet. It's creamy smoothe affect is mind blowing! It's unisex but starts to lean a little femme but i don't care about that stuff, if it smells good I wear it and this is one of the best smelling scents I have ever worn. The leather and suede is there, is more in the background though. I think this is one of the best offerings from the house, invasion barbare is ok, but there are other frags in the same nature for less. This is wonderful guys and you really got to try it out! 9.5/10 overall I really can't get over how good this smells guys, I want the world to know how good it smells, but at the same time I want nobody to know about it...I've never smelled anything so captivating that was able to get leather and rose just the way I like and bond them together in such a perfect balance with supporting high quality notes. This is niche. This is why I only collect niche now. This is art. This is perfection.

Cuir Garamante is disturbing my sleeping nights... I have myself a sample and every single night I crave to put my hands on this wonderful and gorgeous juice whenever I take a sniff on! I'm on a frantic quest for a bottle without the resin bust cause I'm more interested in the juice itself, but if I could I would definitely go for the whole package. Since I'm not rich, I'll be pretty satisfied with the simple bottle. Now about the juice: Cuir Garamante is an aphrodisiac one, that gives me goosebumps. It opens balsamic and spicy, maybe for the subtle nutmeg in concoction to saffron and a tad spices touch. Half an hour later it comes to the heart with an amazing and noticeable rose along with the leather (more suede tipe of leather). The incense and sandalwood comes to party in order to develop the fragrance to a beautiful woody/smoky voluptuous background and for me it's when the magic happens!!! Cuir Garamante is a MASTERPIECE, with capital letters!

Parfums MDCI Cuir Garamante is a sophisticated, sweet, woody fragrance involving leather but not dominated by it. I don't get many of the top notes (pink pepper, saffron, nutmeg) at all, really, as this starts out a pretty sweet leather for me for me with vanilla and rose in the mix. I cannot liken it to a leather/vanilla/rose intersection I've encountered elsewhere except perhaps in Dua Fragrances Hypnotic Santalum, which has amber in place of the vanilla that's in Cuir Garamonte. Performance is decent, but definitely not as strong as Invasion Barbare, which provided a bit of a tease for the brand as Ambre Topkapi was so-so. As with other Parfums MDCI offerings, the price is a bit difficult to swallow, at $250 for 75ml for juice alone and $375 when including the resin bust top that is so iconic for the brand. I give this high marks for the scent but not for performance or price. 8 out of 10

Take Montale Aoud Musk, add a good soft rose note, and make it less nuclear/more wearable = Cuir Garamante. Not a very challenging scent for those looking for something dark and different but very happy to have it in my collection. Bought a full bottle. Don't get me wrong, some of my favorite scents are the more challenging ones. However, at times, I prefer a nice smooth comforting scent. Originally I thought longevity was poor but after a few wearings (some on clothing), the scent does linger and has above average longevity. Along with Chypre Palatin and my favorite Invasion Barbare, MDCI makes some great well blended scents.

To my nose this one starts a little boozy mixed with roses. After some time the smoke starts to appear with hints of a really smooth leather. Cuir Garamante seems to last quite a lot and the projection is just perfect for me, not that invasive but noticeable. Such a delight of a fragrance and my favourite of the ones I've tried from MDCI with Chypre Palatin. I'll for sure be purchasing a bottle soon enough. Love it!

This starts out smoky. Not in the harsh burnt way but rounded and full with a touch of minerality like a struck match. It comes together beautifully as a leather. Not the leather of a black leather jacket but more a luscious suede glove. It’s unctuous and opulent in a way that reminds me of Chypre Palatin, not in its profile but in its fullness. If this were a wine you’d say it has great mouthfeel. Very well done.

Sophisticated and elegant. Slightly masculine leaning and creates a nice scent bubble. To me this is sweet rose + powdery sandalwood + incense on a base of smoky leather. The leather is really at the very back and never comes to the front. One my bucket this as rose+sandalwood fragrance. Quite pleasing overall and very smoothly blended. Shukran Habibi!

Cuir Garamante features a beautiful soft spoken rose layered with spices and subtle leather notes. This is one of my go to perfumes to wear for myself, but I get a surprising amount of compliments when I wear this, so it must have quite a bit of sillage, even if it absolutely not a scent that screams for attention. Wearable art!

I loved it. It's a very beautiful leathery and masculine scent with rose notes. Surprisingly, I feel mostly the saffron. The saffron adds a bit of spiciness to it and a bit of uniqueness. I agree that it's slightly tangy sweet and unusual. The flowers open up beautifully in it. It's rich, long lasting, beautifully projects.

On me it seems to only show vanilla, rose and nutmeg, so it comes off feminine and musky. A very similar even more feminine version is Tango by Masque, and if you want it cleaned up go for Opus IV by Amouage. Go in the other direction, full on leather and musk - Deer by Zoologist

Powdery, oud-y rose. An impression of suede, rather than an actual leather note. Delicate, lightly sweet. Weird opening that last 5-10 min, then flows into a long main phase that stays linear. An understated beauty. 100% unisex.

My favorite men's perfume, the scent of leather and pink pepper, subtle notes of vanilla, perfume lasts about 7 hours, just like for a day, but I use for special occasions

A smoky and multi-layered oud interpretation. May be deepest scent ever. it is hard to find limited bottle. Must be added to the collection.

This scent takes me to Morocco - the markets, the hidden verandas, the food. OMG, It is absolutely divine. Spicy yet soft. Love it.

Good stuff! Creamy, dirty and extremely pleasant. Scent: 10/10 Longevity: 10/10 Projection: 10/10

Cuir Garamante is a rich, long-lasting leather-rose scent with a lovely oud note. Unisex despite its marketing, it is reminiscent of Frédéric Malle Rose & Cuir, or Amouage Epic Woman. Spicy in parts with a lovely impression of suede-like leather, it is smooth and luxurious throughout. CG opens with a soft saffron note, spicy and labdanum-like. The pink pepper is a lovely addition - enhancing the spice and paving the way to the rose note at the heart. The leather accord develops from the beginning, beginning with the saffron note. As it develops, a dark, rich, powdery rose note blooms on my skin. Enhanced by the spices, and developing alongside the leather, it is utterly beautiful. The leather is smooth and slightly animalic; I get soft, nuanced oud here. I don't like really pungent oud, but this is beautiful. Labdanum rounds it out with its slightly sweet, animalic, amber-esque quality. It remains nicely spicy throughout. It becomes smoky and woody as it begins to dry down, which simply serves to enhance the rose-leather accord that forms the crux of this scent. Vanilla adds some smooth sweetness, combining with the ambery notes to form a sweet amber accord. The suede-like oud remains, drying down to a smoky, dry oud skin scent with remnants of spice remaining. Sillage is moderate and longevity is day-long. An utterly beautiful unisex leather-rose scent, this pays homage to rose-oud perfumes in Middle Eastern tradition. Best worn in autumn/winter. Good stuff. 4/5.

Lovely, but misleading; I was hoping for a next-level luxury leather with LOADS of spice, but on me this only delivers an exceptionally classy rose-oud with extra suede. Interesting tangs of nutmeg and vanilla at first led me to think this would be unusually aromatic and intriguing - as anything should be for MDCI's scary prices - but it turned out far more conventional than that. By about 90mins in, on my skin, it's wearing like Santal Royal's much more discreet older sister. That's not a bad character to have, but at this price point (3 euros/close to £2.50 per ml) it needs to be spectacular, or truly individual, in my view - and it just isn't. It's delicious and lovely and if I hadn't smelled Santal Royal first I'd be hugely impressed. But as things are: this would be a gorgeous thing to receive, but not one that I'm going to hunt out and sacrifice my own earnings just to have. Simply too conventional to win true admiration, though undoubtedly lovely to wear. Reasonably long-lasting on me - up to 5h at a metre away, but to 8 if sniffing the skin - but both life and projection are biggest for the rose notes, which are the least interesting to me. True unisex though.

More than a hard leather Cuir Garamante is a soft, soothing suede. Stresses the rose note, emphasized by aldehyde notes made more complex by the contribution of spices especially saffron going qualifying the set and balances with all this, slightly creamy vanilla sandalwood incense strengthens the end result. For me, the most interesting is only the opening, since drying is somewhat linear and hardly evolves. The whole is very well balanced, has personality and has great quality. However, it lacks projection, so I see a very good fragrance for daytime use. I see very wearable and a nice unisex. In this house I'm still staying with fougere of Invasion Barbare. Rating: 6

Opens with saffron and nutmeg, pretty strong nutmeg some May dislike but I like the spices. Pepper tickles the nose as well. Transitions quickly into a leather wrapped rose where it sits, beautifully for hours. Far down in the drydown, it transitions once more into what I consider a creamier rose, less leather rose. Probably one of the most wearable roses for men on date nights- spicy, strong, beautiful. It is unisex for sure; but for date nights it has done me well. (37M). Got it from MDCI with a FB Chypre Palatin purchase- can’t recommend highly enough purchasing from Claude and MDCI. Great people.

Very subtle and dark with all the notes listed, which is nice and pleasing but, leans a bit too feminine for my taste because of that rose that is in here. Great for the Fall/Winter time. Worth checking out but a pass for me personally.

شروعی شاهکار از اسموک-چرم-اسپایس و آمبر میانه ای خوب از چرم-رز-آمبر و رگه ای گیاهی-خاکی پایان ناامید کننده آمبری-وانیلی ******************* scent:7.5/10 longevity:8/10 sillage:7/10 purchase value:2.5/10 ********* overall:6.3/10

This is quite an elegant fragrance. It starts strong but swiftly retreats, and is gone in about 3 hours. I would probably buy a bottle if the longevity was better.

Smells expensive and Niche. Rose with incense and dusty animalic leather.

Cuir Garamante MDCI Parfums (Store test, Skonx) I am currently looking for an old (Castoreum & Birch Tar) Leather that twine with Spicy Rose and warp by Incense. I remember last time, when I visit Skonx. this might be only scent that stuck in my memory, in that kind of interpretation. So I retest them again.. Wriedly, when I test it this time. Cuir Garamante feels more like soft Ambery Oud & Rose scent. It is fairy lite and fleeting. It is very amber and Oudy when I do skin test. Rose is there, Leathery vibe is there. But this leather is from Saffron and Amber mix together, softly leathery but in Oudy manner. That kind of classic Oud & Rose scent, Santal Noir / L'Autre Oud / Ombre Nomad. In this, it is less ambery and transit to Leather side of thing around 2 hours post wear. But the leather is not strong enough too.. Where do I like, is how scent warp around you stay true to MDCI manner. Silky transparent & Elegant compare to other Oud and Rose in the market. And when scent dry-down, that soft natural animalic tone to dry for. Compare side to side to Allergoria Forte (which I test in the same time) that one is more stronger than this. I like this when compare to other Oud and Rose scent. But.. uhm, not just old (Castoreum & Birch Tar) Leather that twine with Spicy Rose and warp by Incense. This is refine rose and amber oud scent, with soft leather undertone. Maybe I grow to it. I will keep retest before commit full bottle. But for now, I think I can use Dior Santal Noir it is slightly more abstract but provide similar ambient. Like as scent, OK when compare to price. ===== Update 1 on January 13, 2025 I recently revisit Cuir Garamante as I still on my quest for Rose x Incense on Sandalwood. Yeah.. at this moment. I still think Cuir Garamante is top of the genre. Really inexplicable by the way it captive my sense of enjoyment. Stil easy to distinguish each component, even far dry-down. It really smells like Jammy Rose, Tar Smoke and Incense with mild powdery sandalwood. .... Each component, tile in most harmonize manner possible. Very Perfumery, but like perfumery at its finest. I just realize now that this is the scent I don't think I will wear for repeat message. The message too strong and mysterious. my bygone era of likeness. I think I might not buy anymore. But I will keep you as one of very fine oriental-leathery oud-rose fragrance. I think I will pass this kind of job for geranium-rose fragrance instead. ==== Edit 2 : March 3, 2025 (USD 220) Sorry, I finally pull a trigger on this Cuir Garamante. Boozy Rose-Oud Leathery Sandalwood in French Way. Too good, I gotta own.

Cuir Garamante comes on with pitch-black, tarry, aggro leather, with a touch of tangy-sweet, burnt-orange labdanum. Masculine for sure. Mostly a very canonical, high quality, dark, smoky leather. Slick and polished, but not as blatantly synthetic as Tuscan Leather. Tbh I’m too much of a girl for this. There’s a big woody amber that screams “I am a MAN, with a PENIS,” and it radiates. if I stick my nose right up against my arm I get genuinely lovely moments all along the spectrum from bright labdanum to smoky leather, but otherwise I’m kind of stuck in a cloud of unwelcome synthetics. Perfume blogger Kafkaesque identifies the culprit as Norlimbanol.

I would say this is pretty intoxicating. And I'm a sucker for oud paired with a saffron note. That said, there's also something a bit too powdery and animalic/milky that turns me off about this. Every time I smell something like this, I'm reminded why I'm so obsessed with Initio's Oud for Greatness. So much more unique to me.

For my taste, this perfume is not even unisex, let alone masculine, it is directly feminine.

One year off of the release of Chypre Palatin, an attempt at reimagining the chypre genre done very elegantly by Bertrand Duchaufour, hopes were high that MDCI would give us an exquisite attempt of a reimagining of the Arabian leather genre with Cuir Garamante. Garamante refers to the ancient North African Berber civilization, which should be enough of an inspirational twist since North African is obviously not the same as Arabian. Unfortunately, the perfume ends up coming across as broad and generalized, and lacking any sort of elegance - or even the desert nomadic yet rough romanticism we sometimes find in the genre - and so crudely synthetic and disparate as to be headache inducing. Rough ground peppercorns, saffron, and nutmeg in the opening are part of a sharp and soupy melange, vaguely calling to mind fenugreek, that pulls an extremely resinous and piquant cypress resin from the heart. A leather note begins to bloom but it is so animalic and chemically that, in conjunction with the spices and resins, I get a very sweaty, pungent, body odor accord of wet cumin. Honestly, it's a bit embarrassing to wear. I smell like I just put-in many sweaty hours in a hot Indian kitchen making curries. Standing very awkwardly off to the side of this miasma is rose that seems to be of the pink centifolia variety - the only pleasant and welcome accord so far in the perfume, or perhaps it just appears welcoming and gentle because of the contrast to sharp, sweaty, spicy, resinous, and leather mire. The softly spoken rose seems to exist quite a distance from skin, presenting the perfume as far more pleasant to those nearby you as opposed to what you, the wearer, find emanating from your skin. The rose is the first to depart, and the mire fortunately dries up and quietens down after about four hours to let woody and sweet labdanum and balsams take over in a rather cynical Arabian cliche. I don't like this perfume, from start to finish. Every part of it, aside from the rose, at every stage of its life is hard to take. Each inhale of it from my skin is like sandpaper making its way up my nose and sinuses, coarse, scratchy, and unpleasant - whilst the perfume cackles at its own derivation and cynicism. Firm pass.

I've read the perfumer explanation about this perfume that made me REALLY REALLY wanna have it or even smell it, so i ordered the sample, and the result was..... it's a very very very typical Arabic perfume where i can get it 1/4 the price of this, i barely can smell or even sense the leather in it, all i get was saffron with a hint of nutmeg. sorry but i won't buy this perfume of 75ml for 250$, sorry but i won't pay more than 20$ for this cause i can find it on this scale anywhere here. but still you might be the one who would pay 500$+ for this perfume cause honestly i rarely can find a similar in Europe or the US, but if you love this then pass by the Arabian Peninsula ;) Edit (4th Aug 2015): after having a wide range of essences and exposed to the world's finest inspirations, surprisingly, i found this captivating! i really sense some Arabian essence that made me really quite interested to know more about it, it's again today on my wrest and i am enjoying the fun it brings! it has that sweaty note that makes it kind of and hintly stinky as it drives it's concept to the masculine part. this is by far a masculine erotic essence that triggers sensual instincts! although i still think it's quite expensive somehow but now i realize why :) it's not for everyone definitely. Edit (3rd Oct 2015) It is an adventurous fragrance that resembles Indiana Johns's leather jacket. According to that, i thought it lacked something, most probably the strength as i saw it kind of weak in away that it vanishes within few hours (max 3) and turns into skin close scent. In my opinion, it doesn't require an enormous strength! while an intermediate is quite perfect to be specific as this fragrance stimulates a mysterious action which by itself resembles an imagination of a slight sweat that accompanies any adventure. It remains one of the best fragrances I've ever witnessed by far & deserves every single cent paid for.

This sits somewhere between an aldehydic rose and an eastern-inspired saffron and sandalwood affair. It’s plenty competent, but it’s a road so well travelled that there’s little that can be said about it. The aldehydes are what you’d expect — fizzy, rosy, a little bitter. The saffron is indivisible from the synthy sandalwood; it’s hard to tell where one stops and the other begins. There’s very, very little in the way of leather — so little, in fact, that I google-translated “garamante” to see if it meant “hardly any” or “just kidding.” (It doesn’t; it means “city” or “sacred people.”) I mean, everything is in proportion and it’s perfectly pleasant, but smelling it feels like checking boxes for the genre. Furthermore, it really doesn’t smell that far removed from Arabic cheapies which can be had for around $15. If Cuir Garamante had been released a decade ago, I would have been more forgiving, but for a 2013 release it offers nothing new. A serviceable, but blindingly unoriginal rose/oud/saffron/ebanol cocktail that’s not worth the money when you can get very similar scents for much less.

I am still trying to figure out how people are saying this has no projection or sillage. The scent itself is not loud but, it performs and the sillage is quite good. It's not meant to be Tuscan Leather. Many of the newer Leathers are nt. They have Leather in them but, not all over them. I wore this on one occasion, sent my shirt to the cleaners and I could still smell it on my shirt. As with all things, everything isn't for everybody. This is a 9.5 in my book.

No oud and no suede here, but an almost feminine take on leather - a delicate and kind of subtle, but present and very natural leather, going below a bit flowery tone of saffron and somewhat vinegary-alcoholic rose. The spices are so under control they don't appear as such, but as supporters of the flower tone before described. Very, very aristocratic, refined, gentle - lingering on the edges of today's majority judgment of manhood.

Classy spicy oriental, in true MDCI fashion it is understated in it's projection, so don't expect a bomb here, rather a sophisticated scent that is present but keeps its distance. The rose in here isn't suffocating, and I am on the team that smells more of a soft oud than leather. Nicely blended spices, subtly sweet, and there's definitely a note here that is new to me - a little nutty and animalic maybe - might be the cyperus.

Surprisingly light for a men's leather fragrance, with powdery incense notes and a very discreet leather. I can also smell the rose quite clearly, which I think is quite interesting for a men's scent. After a while it smells like your grandmother's attic, which I say as a person with a deep-seated love of attics and other dessicated places. It's a nice perfume, but it is very short-lived, at least on me, with zero sillage.

This fragrance makes me think of a proffesors sunlit dappled personal library or an Oxford study surrounded by aged rich full grain leather furniture with a vase full of fresh picked roses on a paper cluttered desk. Incense slowly burning in a corner.Sophistication,inviting,intelligent, yet unpretentious. Love it.

Bleh, tried it today both on paper and skin. Don't like it at all! It's closed (as in none-projecting), dark, sour and bitter. Not natural at all. Could something be wrong with the sample I tried? i can't imagine anyone wanting to smell like this. 4/10

رز چرمی و اسموکی شده در یک ترکیب پیچیده و مریض ----------- Scent & Quality: 8/10 Longevity: 9/10 Sillage: 8/10 Creativity & Uniqueness: 7/10 Affordability: 2/10 ----------- Overall: 6.8/10

No projection??? This shit projects and has monster sillage lol think maybe you need to wear it

If anyone is selling this please let me know