Cuir Cuba Intense

Having started reviewing fragrance about three years ago, I am at a point where many offerings start smelling the same, not 100% the same, but similar enough to feel redundant. Today I came across a small store selling the full line of Nicolai fragrances. I had sampled some of the Eau Fraiche line in the past had enjoyed them enough to buy a 30ml, but also kind of dismissed them as innocent freshies. But wow, the intense line is probably the most amazing set of offerings I have come across in a while, honestly they feel otherworldly, a level of respect for olfactory art that transcends public opinion. I started with New York, a harmonious Creed-esque citrus oakmoss, then went over to the mysterious peppery patchouli, then came this beast. I remember reading somewhere years ago that the inspiration of this fragrance was the famous Hemingway absinthe-based cocktail, Death in the Afternoon, mixed with the signature smell of green tobacco leaves of Cuba... and it is spot on in this case. It is an ingenious combination of a potently fresh overtone of anise and licorice, somewhere between ouzo and absinthe, with a herbal incense base, resembling an airy almost green tobacco accord somewhere between the fresh hay of Chergui and the herbal dry humidor of Lorenzo Villoresi Atman Xaman. There is just the right amount of creamy sweetness and just the right amount of freshness in the base where it just comes to a perfect harmony. Unlike so many other absinthe or anise theme fragrances this one actually maintains that distinct spiciness for hours (needless to say stay away if you don't enjoy anise or licorice). I particularly love the dry down, woody but sweet, fresh and soft spicy but not as edgy as the opening and with a bit of a fougere-like musky touch, but nothing too vintage smelling. It is one of the few scents I bought after a single whiff, probably one of the most stunning creations I have ever come across, something I must own at all times, and secondly one of my favorite interpretations of tobacco out there. I think it may come from my upbringing in the Mediterranean, where anise incense and the occasional narguile are key parts of the olfactory palate.

I was apprehensive walking into the Nicolaï boutique. All I had smelled from the brand thus far was New York Intense which smells like something even my grandfather would have found old school. So, in an attempt to guide the salesperson towards changing my perception, I asked them for something a bit odd, a bit non-traditional. She ended up having me try about a dozen fragrances, but she was very right to reach for that one first. From the first sniff, I got a whiff of something I hadn't even thought of in about 10 years, but that had defined my childhood. An absolute madeleine moment - a blast from the past by my favorite childhood snack. And if you're thinking it's some anise candy, then you're close (but no Cuban cigar). See, my mother kind of limited the amount of sweets in the house. It's a little odd, but instead she often had me snack on... Freshly cut fennel!! That's what I had unfolding on my skin along with blonde tobacco and subtle animalics! I was transported back to happily chomping my way through a bulb and still am every time I wear this. Does that resonate with the name Cuir Cuba? Maybe not, but I honestly could not care less. This won't be for everyone, but for me it was an instant masterpiece. Could very well be a new signature scent: it's fresh but has substance. It's surprising and unusual but is still very classy and unabrasive - unless you're an anise/fennel hater in which case I'm sorry for you in more ways than one. Quality is supreme, performance is there and the price is right. This is modernized classic perfumery at its best in my opinion. Got me a 30ml for now as I literally haven't finished a bottle in almost 10 years, but I have a feeling this might be one of the rare bottles I'll actually need a bigger size of in time.

PPHHHWWOOOOAR! What a scent! RAWHEAD has a good description here. To me though - despite the notes - this smells like slightly damp tobacco with caramel fudge and salt! On the dry down after a few minutes the bright citrus disappears. A cursory sniff to me smelled more like caramel fudge and tobacco but its your nose playing tricks. I can smell the great projection being the same with mint and anise registering but closer nose to skin I can start smelling the note table though to me mostly mint and very much liquorice with cigarette tobacco rather than pipe as well as hay and lavender. After a while darker earthy notes like the patchouli and civet come forward. Amazing scent - if you like tobacco you will want this... haven't got anything like this except Atelier Cologne Tobacco Nuit which is simpler. This is more complicated with many changes and layers. Tope shelf next to PDM Herod, TF TV, Miller Harris Feuilles De Tabac, Comptor Sud Pacifique Rhum et Tabac, Atelier Tabacco Nuit, Xerjoff Naxos, Slumberhouse Baque, Ex Idolo Ryder and Farmacia SS Annunzia Tobacco D'AUtore - all give remarkably different takes on a tobacco scent (except TV and Herod). Wish I had a bigger bottle ;)

Meyan ve anasonun baskın bir açılış yaptığı ilginç bir parfüm. Adına bakarak tütün baskın bir parfüm beklemeyin. Meyan ilk başta biraz acı bir hava ile var. Hemen yanında anason. Ancak yarın saat sonunda tütün "bende buradayım" diyebiliyor. Zaten tütün kendini göstermeye başladığı andan itibaren parfüm kendini gösteriyor. Ilk yarim saati unutun. Ardından gelen ise karakter sahibi oldukça erkeksi bir parfüm. Lavanta sahnede değil ama parfume kalite hissi verecek şekilde arkalarda geziyor. Animalic nota kendisini hissettirmiyor ki bu çok iyi. Ama parfüm biraz da kendini hissettirmeyen bu iyi harman sayesinde farklı bir noktaya gidiyor. Bağıran bir parfüm degil ama kendini hissettiriyor. Kalıcılık makul. 30-4₺ yaş be üstü için uygun. Gençlerin bir parfumden beklentileri ile ortüşmeyebilir. Bu markanın birçok parfümünde genel eğilimin dışında harika tasarımlarla karşılaştım. Cuba da onlardan birisi. Kalite ve karakter.

One of my best Nicolaï, an amazing, unique, sophisticated, nostalgic perfume. It reminds me of taking a little siesta on a hot, summer afternoon in my grandma's old house. The soft spicy minty top note makes a kind of cacao/coffee feeling and it's exquisite. I suppose the tobacco note already emerges a little at the beginning, mixed with anise and licorice. This beautiful top note last pretty long time then gradually hay and tobacco become stronger. I can detect cumin and lavender well. Not much of geranium, ylang-ylang nor magnolia. There is no oud for sure, but the bottom note is a very stable woody mixed with patchouli. I love using this perfume in hot humid summer day like today, feeling the scent vaporizing from my skin and playing around, then slowly gone.

I get more licorice and anise than mint. The lemon stays for longer than I was expecting and magnolia is the most prominent floral note at first. There is something "stanky" in here; the cumin comes first with the slight BO quality it has, and the civet waits around in the background until later and is light when it does show up. The tobacco is on the milder side but is still definitely there. Sweet, spicy, a bit floral, a bit funky, and completely intoxicating! This fragrance wowed me. I couldn't help but smell my wrists over and over again when I wore it. There's nothing else like it, and it changes so much over time. I need a full bottle. I will say, I would not call this a safe blind buy. I adore it but, I could understand someone else not loving it as much.

to me, it ́s easily become a NO.1 fragrance of my entire collection. It used to be Bel Ami Vetiver but this is more refined, more formal, more professional, hi quality ingredients here ! Classy, refined, sophisticated, above all the boring trends, completely on different path than the rest of repeating perfume smells .... unique, timeless masterpiece. Nicolai easily and quickly became my most unique perfume company of all time .... better than some Les Exclusifs or Guerlain L ́Art et Materials or even some Malle ... hands down, creativy, uniqueness, proffesional blend of hi quality notes. .... youtube review about Nicolai Cuir Cuba, Ambre Cashmere and Caravanserail on Miles scents channel - overall impression

Perfect woody spicy scent with high doses of licorice and tobacco. A great combination that hides the fougere quality that exists underneath it. The lavender ia there but the tobacco plays high on the compositon. It's more of a pipe tobacco with it's sweet tendencies, helped by the licorice. A gorgeous sweet sillage that screams high quality materials in a classic, but yet, modern way. My favorite from the house. Good longevity and projection, super underrated, and such a classy scent that plays a different tone. It could had been the L'Homme Ideal from Guerlain, if Nicolaï was the perfumer. The leather doesn't existe but the Cuba part is well perceived and applied. Recommended! 4.5/5

Heady, rich, darkly fabulous stuff! Opens with a pungent, lavender-studded anise and licorice with a chilled shot of lemon and a twist of mint. But what dominates is a heady, earthy tobacco leaf which reminds me of that fragrance found in empty cigarette packets. The leaf is darkly mysterious and adds enormous character to the almost syrupy anise. Underlying all of that is the scent of a sun-warmed, harvested meadow and an uncharacteristically shy cumin and coriander seed. I love this. It's fabulously hedonistic, suggesting sensual luxuries and drowsy pleasures enjoyed without urgency. Distillation: hedonistic scent dark and fragrant tobacco lit up by anise

Solid as a battleship and fascinating as a Rubik's cube, Cuir Cuba opens with minty lavender, noticeable licorice and layer upon layer of various spices. Quite aromatic in its richness but not fully; it’s comfortable and controversial with patchouli and animals to prove what I say is true. The ingredients are mega ripe and rich, emphasizing the lemon from the citrus and geranium, the soft peel of ylang ylang and a tobacco note that's ongoing. Yet at the same time, this is an ethereal scent, the epitome of contrariant elegance and a real fragrant mullet; business in the front and party in the back.

Cuir Cuba Intense is a truly unique and one-of-a-kind fragrance with a well-blended scent profile. The standout notes are tobacco, licorice, and star anise, creating a deep, aromatic experience. Woody patchouli and various spices play supporting roles, adding complexity and depth. There’s also an animalic undertone that might be polarizing for some. Personally, I appreciate fragrances that break the mold, and Cuir Cuba Intense certainly delivers on that front. It’s distinctive, bold, and intriguing—definitely one for those who enjoy something out of the ordinary. Rating: 4/5

I really can't understand the negative votes about this fragrance. So many dislikes? Really?!! Something is going wrong here. IMHO, Cuir Cuba Intense is extremely refined and elegant fragrance. It is very well blended with high-quality materials. The opening is nice, actually during this stage it reminds me of a smoother (much more unisex and slightly floral) version of Creed Tabarome. A few minutes later it changes a lot and from that point, Cuir Cuba is a totally different story than Tabarome. It has very sexy and seductive base part, I like it a lot. Thumbs up!

Cuir Cuba is mind blowingly good! I am crazy about this perfume. For some reason, I find it powdery, and it has a bit of sweetness to it. I don’t smell tobacco, instead, I think I can detect anise and powder, almost like makeup powder. I’m a vanilla girl, I love gourmand scents like Fire at Will, Sugar Kisses, and many others, and although this one allegedly has no gourmand notes, for some reason I can still smell them. I recently bought a 30 ml bottle, and now I need to buy the 100 ml ASAP. I totally recommend it. Also, I think this is a feminine perfume.

I tried it for the first time yesterday and absolutely loved it. really interesting celery, cut grass and hay in the opening and I felt it dried rather sweetly on my skin with the ylang ylang and coriander really coming through. It feels like walking through a field with tall grasses when it hasn't rained in a while, fresh, grassy and dry. I believe it would work spring-autumn but maybe a bit too fresh for winter wear. Androgynous, savory, and complex.

The reviews on this are so immature, I hate when people say a fragrance is awful or terrible. Most of the time it’s purely subjective. Perhaps nobody else is a fan of licorice, as that is the dominant scent in the opening. To me, this fragrance smells masculine in a more nuanced way. I visited a family owned leather shop in Florence last year and this fragrance makes me think of one of the owners enjoying a Negroni on the patio after closing shop.

Cuir Cuba Intense is exquisite to say the least. The magnolia note with the tobacco and licorice make this fragrance very interesting. I applied it in the morning and I could still smell it in the evening. After it dries down I could smell some civet with leather but not in a strong way. It was sweet as a matter of fact. I think it can be worn both day or night. Another great fragrance from the house of Nicolai Parfumeur.

An excellent Leather perfume, not at all sweet imo (and that's a plus for me), very potent and original. In theory it is unisex, but finally it will take a side - a masculine one, but not macho. Leather, dry tobacco, licorice and some spices - for a wonderful all day & all night concoction, made to be appreciated by all in the neighbourhood! For the better of the humankind, no more than three sprays! A deserved 9+/10.

I haven’t been this genuinely 'WOWed' by a fragrance in a long time. It has an incredible level of masculinity and versatility. After wearing it several times, I’ve noticed an aromatic quality coming from the Anise. I don't usually enjoy tobacco-based fragrances, but this one has genuinely made me happy, even though it’s not exactly 'WOW' in terms of longevity and sillage. My rating for this fragrance is 9 out of 10.

As all Nicolai perfumes this blend is GORGEOUS! The only problem with this one is it does not last longer than 3 hours. I have to bury my nose into it to get a wiff. I really expect more for the money in terms of performance. I have to admit that the 3 hours that it did last it just kept evolving and evolving! Stunningly masterful.

Sweet licorice tobacco. Beautiful frag, opening is unique and interesting and potentially challenging but goes away quickly and leaves a passive, polite Amber. Doesn’t last too long nor is it too dynamic and a bit of a let down after the opening which is intriguing but it is a very nice scent. 8/10

I’m sure I’ve already written a review but as this is one of my faves today I wore it again and I felt inspired to write again with a simple nod - Anise, Caramel and blonde cigarette tobacco is what it reminds me of in the simplest of terms... sublime and what a performer too!

I cant distinguish a single note here, but this is my new signature, and i THINK its due to the cumin. Love it so much. Fresh and spicy, and a tiny bit floral. It really hit me as a unique, ineffable fragrance.

This is amazing, the best tobacco type fragrance i ever tried. It is very different from the others and screams class. An absolute masterpiece and unique perfume

Outstanding airy & soft spicy sensation. It's like sprinkling some ground up licorice in the air or something

A fresh and minty tobacco. Performs well in warm weather too! Beautiful♥️♥️♥️

Holiday in Spain, smells like fun summernights and booze.

I am working my way through my Nicolaï discovery set, and find their scents to be consistently excellent. However, Cuir Cuba Intense is more challenging than the others I've tried. Given the name, I expected a straightforward leather scent. Instead, CCI is an unusual aromatic fougère, consisting of a blend of herbs and spices with a dense, earthy base. It is not instantly or universally appealing, but it is certainly intriguing, and is of a high quality, as is typical for this house. The opening of CCI is dominated by its liquorice-anise accord, its distinctive, polarising sweet/spicy quality complemented nicely by the tart lemon, adding freshness up top. The herbal mint note follows closely, its radiant freshness permeating the opening. A mint-anise accord is something I never would have thought would work, yet here we are. The cumin follows closely, its savoury spice quite strong here, a progression of the spicy accord that persists throughout this scent. It is soon joined by coriander, making for a contrast to the relatively sweet opening. The aromatic lavender note appears early on, really bringing the fougère accord to life. As it develops further, the floral heart comes to the fore, with smooth, creamy ylang ylang most evident to my nose. Geranium adds a green undertone, adding to the aromatic herbal accord, as does the cloud of patchouli that follows, paving the way to the hay accord of the drydown. The tobacco is plant-like with just a touch of smoke, melding seamlessly with the hay note. The peppery spices linger throughout, keeping things aromatic. It becomes musky as it fades, the smoky hay-like quality remaining until final fade. Sillage is moderate and longevity is long-lasting. It is masculine-leaning to my nose, and is a transeasonal scent, autumnal in particular. While I appreciate the creativity here, CCI is certainly not a crowdpleaser. However, it is well-composed and made with high-quality materials as is typical for Nicolaï. An interesting, unusual scent with a misleading name, CCI is certainly decent, but I wouldn't choose this personally. 3.5/5.

Very interesting fougere, kinda on the darker side but not the sweet, annoying, tobacco cliche the name might suggest and of course it wasn't going to be from Nicolai. It's got lavender in it, and a kind of chunky, licorice smell, with a tobacco character and heaviness no doubt but a definite cleaner, Barbershop, urinal cake sort of vibe. I sort of like it, but I'm kinda passing on it. Unless wearing this perfume properly (instead of on my wrist a couple of times) yields any different results I will be sure to update this review below, but I can see my mind changing from ....meh...next! Update: 01/12/23 Undoubtedly there's stuff I like about this fragrance, the 'soft spicy' being the top of the accords on this fragrantica page being one element of that, and it's clearly continuing Patricia's traditional yet also unique approach to fragrance, I get an impression of way more complexity to her formulas than the end result conveys on first sniff. The bit I can't get away from with this fragrance is the smell of baby wipe factory. Yes, specific I know, but also not because I work in this area and the wipes and various surfactants, detergents, compounds and fragrances used in these places are pretty varied but when amassed they have this ubiquitous hyper soapy smell, which at first not unpleasant, starts to knock you sick shy of the hour mark, then you become somewhat accustomed to after a few hours (if you can stand it) That's the bad bit though, close to the skin you do get this less diffuse, blonde, TABAC smell, I like it, it sort of flips for me and that be kinda intresting but also a bit demanding of the wearer and I find some Nicolai's to be hard work and I don't always want that.

On first application I get a soft haze of a aromatic smell of licorice and lemon with slight hints of mint. After a short while the tobacco can be smelled mixed in with other notes. The opening does not last long and the Magnolia soon takes over and it dominates the composition from here on out. As you smell the Magnolia there are a lot of other notes that are dancing and interweaving through this main accord. We have a light smell of tobacco on top of the magnolia almost like it has been sprinkled on top. There are hints of Ylang Ylang and other notes but the fragrance is so complex I just cannot pick them out to Id them. Underneath the magnolia I can smell a warm emerging leather note and sometimes a hint of civet. This is what I believe is given the scent it's warmth under the magnolia accord. As we move into the basenotes when the Magnolia has faded you are left with leather, hay and a hint of civet on your skin. Though the scent has pretty much lost it's power at this stage and is pretty muted on the skin. I have to say the quality and complexity is top notch and very impressive. The scent is definitely unisex as the contrast of the floral and warm tobacco and other notes make it ideal for men or women. The only thing that I'm not totally taken with and it's just a taste thing is the dominance of the Magnolia note. It's nice but a bit too much, I think I would rather the tobacco to be dominant. What I'm liking is the complexity and how the other notes interplay with the floral note, I like how the leathery warmth seems to be at the base of the Magnolia note. All in all a very good complex fragrance that is very well crafted, I'm impressed!

Smells like anise and hay. Dry. Not the easiest wear. Has a fuzzy feel. Cuir is a misnomer here. No leather for me. I get mostly the very light base notes and the top herbal / licorice notes spiked by some citrus in the open. I think the fuzziness (or part of it comes from the lavender). Love the perfumer. Not my favorite from the brand. Definitely interesting. (Disclaimer. I don’t often enjoy anise or licorice in perfume. It’s very much here but as present as it is ...I can say it’s softly portrayed). This is definitely a special scent for someone..just not me. (Pretty unisex...but imo a tad more masculine). +*ETA: wearing it in the heat in the summer it’s GORGEOUS! Slightly sweet hay with the soft anise. The mint brings a wonderful coolness (she does mint soooo well ala L’eau Chic). Ugh it’s so weird and wonderful how scents can change up on us. And it’s so balanced. This house is truly special and always such artistry shown throughout her collection. I personally dislike mint, geranium and anise and am addicted to this currently!) I ACTUALLY AM OBSESSED WITH THE HAY+MINT+ANISE combo. And that is something I NEVER thought I would say!!)

Cuir Cuba Intense aims to celebrate the complex nuances of dry tobacco leaf, connoting the image of a box of Cuban cigars. For a fragrance with ‘Cuir’ (Leather) in the name, I was surprised to see no leather in the note breakdown. The tobacco is front and centre in this scent which is great - it’s incredibly thick, dry and leafy with a masculine warming aroma. The comforting warmth is furthered by the sweetly spicy notes of liquorice and star anise, alongside subtle hints of harsher spices like cumin which give it some edge. There’s a definite minty touch alongside a heart of florals, whilst hay very clearly pushes the tobacco further into that dry, earthy territory. Overall this is a very well done tobacco scent. Definitely unique, and almost unforgettable once you’ve smelled it. The quality is brilliant and it’s really well made, it’s not really my style of scent but part of me enjoys it and I can appreciate what a great creation it is.

The opening starts with a loud, invigorating and fresh liquorice/anice/mint blend. In the background a light powderyness of the florals can be sensed. Later on the fragrance begins to become less loud and closer to the skin, and at this moment the spiciness increases and the overall smell starts to resemble the smell of a shisha-pipe, but quite fresh at the same time. I immediately mentally got transferred back to my university exchange program times in Saint Petersburg, Russia, where I used to smoke Ice Shisha in one of the local shisha bars. Good old days... Anyway, in this phase also the tobacco smell comes out into the forefront. It's more of a cigar leaves (or cigars in humidor) smell, than of actual tobacco. In the dry-down the scent gets slightly animalic and then slowly fades out. Concluding, it was quite a journey, this is one of my least mainstream smelling fragrances in my collection. It's a very unusual but beautiful scent.

The sweet tobacco genre is saturated with honey-cherry-tobacco and tobacco-vanilla combinations. This one is different...enter the licorice-caramel-mint-tobacco combination. Smells intoxicating...the tobacco here smells like the smoke from a particular flavour of Cuban cigar. Mix that in with a sweet licorice that thankfully doesn't become your stereotypical star anise smell from old school fougeres...and it doesn't become that because a caramel/mint concoction. On my skin...not much development...seems more linear of a scent...but, like I said, it's intoxicating. This is a night-out scent - can be for formal or informal settings and can be dressed smart or clean casual or formal. Right now, I'm looking for a tobacco-based scent that serves a certain purpose - it's a toss-up between this and Tobacco Rose by Papillon for which one I want a full bottle of. It's possible that Cuir Cuba Intense is a bit too sweet for my liking.

This took me some time to appreciate. Honestly, for the first 30 minutes to hour, it smells like a really cheap, synthetic sweet tobacco cologne. If you're trying to impress anybody, wait an hour after spraying before you go out in public. Not until the late mid and dry down does it smell really good with a smoother tobacco and woody scent profile, but unfortunately, Cuir Cuba Intense acts like an EDT - very strong and best performing in the opening, with a sudden and dramatic dropoff in performance after. At the time of writing this review, I've owned this bottle for four months, so this is probably how it will perform from here on, but I'll continue to test over the coming months to see if there are any improvements.

A different point of view, third or fourth take into my 30ml bottle. Maybe the less immediately likable perfume I own. The attractive salty licorice is what lured me at first, then I got lost in the woods. You start playing with the Rubik cube (very good simile, for sure) because of its fun colors, and then the game gets much more challenging than you expected. You need time and memory to work it out, to disentangle a hint of coriander from the milky magnolia, to catch the lavender whiff underneath the tobacco. Will I ever solve the puzzle? Or see the point of it? The jury is still out - good news is, the juice will - hopefully - wait for me till I reach the desired maturity.

If you are interested in something different this is definitely worth checking out. On the opening, I get fennel more than anise/licorice from this with notes of tobacco and cumin. I don't pick up any floral notes during the first hour of wear but they creep in with the dry down. So, with the fennel and cumin the first hour of wear it is a bit weird and a bit off putting. The drydown is where this fragrance shines as it becomes a slightly soapy/clean warm scent as the base note come forward and mingle with the floral notes. Overall a unique scent. I decided to pick up the 30mL after sampling.

This changes a lot throughout its wear. On me it starts dry then becomes sickeningly sweet after a couple of hours then it becomes less so after several hours. It projects moderately in first 2 hours only then almost skin scent after that. Projection is also soft and I think very feminine. This is a spring/autumn scent and appropriate during the day. I really don't think I'd like to wear this in the summer when it's hot and humid because it becomes very sweet smelling during mid wear. The tobacco note is present and dominating throughout.

This fragrance goes very quickly to the base. Developing starts with spicy hint, which is almost immidiately replaced by flowers: geranium and ylang-ylang in the front. And then, after a minute, patchouli in sweet and dark combination with tobacco and leather. Civetone adds a bit piercing aroma. It is captivating, strong unisex fragrance. I like it very much, acctually. Maybe I was expecting more manifestations of other components, but I love the result. Cuir Cuba is goint to be my Nicolaï favorite.

This is a Great Fragrance, Elegant, Classy, Seductive, Spicy and Soft. When I bought my another perfume, l received a sample of that. It has High Quality Composition and You can't go wrong with Nicolai Collection. It opens up with slightly sweet fresh spicy , floral and spices notes in the background then dry down is semi sweet green, soft spicy, tobacco and woody. This is perfect for the Spring , Fall and Winter. Longevity is good. Thumbs Up. Rating : 8 / 10

An interesting and artistic fragrance of tobacco and star anise with hints of freshness from the citrus. Very high quality and natural, driven by vision and art but...not something I love or crave. I'm definitely enjoying it on my own and glad to have tried it, but not really my style and not sure when I would wear it or crave it. Scent: 7.5 / Sillage: 7 / Longevity: 7

On me, the mint is surprisingly assertive, cutting through absolutely everything. It pierces the heart of this fragrance, which, on my skin, is an intriguing combination of tobacco, cinnamon, and lavender. It's not really my style, leaning a bit masc and verging ever so slightly into an herbal toothpaste zone, but I could imagine finding it sexy on another person.

Unexpected combination of licorice spices, aromatic herbs and coffee beans with a bit of dark floral sweetness underneath. To be honest for me it smells like a realistic licorice candy scent mixed with interesting animalic notes. Very unusual! Can’t really detect much tobacco and leather here. Follow me on IG: scent.guide

Tobacco, licorice and anis, more for fall/spring and winter. The name is appropriate, it is a direct travel in Cuba. A cigar in a bottle. Warm, it is very original. Do not blind buy. 7/10

عطر مختلف تماماً عن عطور التوباكو السويتيه المعهوده ربما اقرب وصف لرائحته كما وصفته مصممة العطر هي رائحة علبة السيجار الكوبي ليس للشراء العمياني الثبات و الفوحان متوسط

interesting scent, slightly reminiscent of Aramis Havana, problem is it's a skin scent priced like a perfume!

Fresh sweet herbal licorice/tobacco scent. I was expecting something more interesting. 7/10.

True, this is no leather fragrance nor tobacco. Magnolia is the leading star of this sweet perfume. Magnolia is supported with Ylang-ylang, the sweetness is overbearing. Liquorice and anise are there only at the beginning and left the show after one hour. No civet at the base to my nose. My nostrils are happy as there seems to be very little synthetics if none. Not sure about projection or sillage but longevity is almost 24 hours. Fall/winter. Unisex leaning toward women. Pass! *Edit: We tried on my wife's skin, she loved it. I liked it on her so I pass it to her.

The combination of licorice/star anise and cumin notes (and maybe even tobacco) is imo a risky perfumery kind of thing to do. And even before this first test wear I had my antenna up for what one reviewer below said: "I found these notes to be disharmonious." And so far in the opening I'm struggling, as I suspected I might, to not concur with that review. Its interesting so far, that's for sure.

I knew this one was going to be too masculine on me, but the licorice and mint notes were calling me. Unfortunately I didn't get a whole lot of that, instead I got dark tobacco and a rugged musk, despite not being listed as a note. The civet, perhaps? I found these notes to be disharmonious. Manly, which certainly isn't a fault, but for me the lack of sweetness or spice was pretty disappointing.

Cuir Cuba, or Cuba Leather, intrigued me when I first read the brand's blurb about it. Nicolai has fond memories of smelling her father's cigar humidors as a child, no doubt stocked with Cuban cigars - some of the best in the world, and I know this from experience. The fact that she emphasized leather in the title instead of tobacco was all the more intriguing because Cuban cigars, thanks to Cuban seed and terroir, have a distinct leather aroma to them. This might be a perfume for Cuban cigar connoisseurs like me. I sprayed it, took a big whiff of it, and instantly asked myself "what the hell is this?" I immediately get notes of lemon rind zest and anise. Oily, wet, and dully spicy. These notes have nothing to do with leather or cigars but after a few minutes I finally got it: it was the smell of the humidity of the cigar humidors. Cigar humidors need to be kept at fairly precise temperature and humidity ranges. When done properly, cigars can last years and maybe even decades. When you open a cigar humidor that has been properly cared for, kept at the right levels, and has had beautiful high-quality cigars stored in them, both the smell and the tactile sensation of that first whiff is unlike anything else. The precise temperature and humidity levels, combined with the water and oil in the air of the humidor that comes directly from the cigars as they age, can be felt upon your face and inside your nose. The opening of Cuir Cuba certainly reminds me of that, though olfactorily it smells nothing like any cigar humidor or cigar I've encountered. Odd and intriguing, but dubiously so. I can sum the heart and the base together with a couple of statements. The first being that I do not smell leather anywhere in this perfume. Neither the leather of a Cuban cigar accord, or leather hides. Strike one. The second statement is that I certainly smell tobacco, but I have little idea what kind it is. It is not cured pipe tobacco, it's not cured cigar tobacco, it's not cigarette tobacco, and it's not fresh green tobacco. It lives somewhere between green tobacco and pipe tobacco and flavored tobacco: sweet, a bit of green from geranium, a bit floral and hay like, and a bit fruity. If I had to take a guess, this smells the closest to flavored cheap-crap machine-made cigarillos you get at gas stations (that usually just end up having the tobacco pulled out of them and replaced with... something else). Strike two. Nicolai's style and materials keep the heart and base from shouting at you like those terrible cigarillos do, thankfully, but, just like them, Cuir Cuba doesn't smell good from start to finish. Strike three. Fortunately, it is very rare for Nicolai to strike out. Even the greats have a bad game some seasons.