Gentry Jockey Club

Gentry Jockey Club Oriza L. Legrand (USD 75 for 90ml., 2nd hands) Review on April 2, 2025 I think this is one of the best scent from Oriza L. Legrand. A precision placement of Geranium Note (Green / Red / Metallic) on Green Woody IBQ Woody from (Cedar, Vetiver, IBQ, Tobacco, Halbanum). The placement is so precise you get an image of Birch Tar as a backdrop. Also a pissy tone of Blackcurrant Bud. It really can imitate the vintage leather scent. It kind of Gentlemen on weekend. As a name suggests. Gentry Jockey Club. Same ballpark to Rose & Cuir / L'ombre dans L'eau. At 9 hours mark scent still going strong, firmly emit from the skin. 1st Hour -> Strongest Quality of Tar and Leather, eventually soften 2nd Hour -> Starts noticing Geranium Note 3rd Hour -> Getting more Woody tone, blackcurrant tone. 5th Hour -> Eventing soften into smooth leather, starts to claim down. 9th Hour -> Soft Smoky Cedar and Veitver, Soft tone from left and rose. I think this leans modern than all of Oriza's offering. Gorgeous! ====== First Impression. A Classic Green Leather scent, the one that everyone fear. the one that slightly green / gasoline. strong Birch Tar quality. Cedar, Vetiver, IBQ, Soft Amber, Galbanum, Patcholi, Tobacco. Holy Green. This is Green and Dark. I am not really ready for this today. I find this kind of close to JOVOY - L'Art de la Guerre. The Green Leather genre. This one have stronger and stable characteristic. This smoky note is so stong.

Gentry Jockey Club starts off with a mix of leather, rose and tobacco. Right from the beginning, it carries very present sour undertones (which I suspect come from the rose) that contribute to the light, airy impression the product radiates. 1h30 min in, the fragrance starts to bloom. Now, it feels gradually warmer and the sour notes start to disappear. I guess this might be the ambergris coming through. On my skin, from here it is pretty much a warm, rather soft rosy leather for the next few hours. Around 4 hours in, Gentry Jockey Club has completely dried down to a soft, ambered vanilla- ((?) I realise that this is not in the notes, but somehow my nose just gives me this impression) and-sandalwood with some of the leather remaining till the end. This is also the stage where the fragrance becomes more of a skin-scent. Gentry Jockey Club leans masculine - someone close to me who usually has an open mind about fragrances even called it an "old men scent" - but in my opinion it could be worn by any gender, given the wearer feels comortable with a fresh and light leather-and-tobacco perfume. I might add that the rose in here feels very green and the patchouli was not present at all on my skin, so people who dislike these notes but are otherwise interested should feel free to try this out. Age-wise, the categorisation is difficult. While I cannot entirely shake-off the "old men" impression that a certain somebody left me with, I imagine this could smell wonderful on a sporty-yet-elegant outdoorsy lady in her twenties. But of course this fragrance definitely WOULD smell terrific on a gent that is 60+ as well. Despite Gentry Jockey Club not being my favourite release by Oriza L. Legrand (this house just has to offer so many great compositions...), I would still recommend it. TL;DR: light leather, tobacco and green rose, sporty & elegant

First wearing: Very strong, sharp beginning, must be the vetiver and what I've encountered in vintage perfume as a leather accord. liked it. After an afternoon nap, it changed completely, first a strong tobacco/rose and now it's rose and sandalwood. It's like a completely different perfume! Will have to try again!

While I do think that Gentry Jockey Club is pleasant and characteristic of the quality that comes from Oriza L. Legrand, I must say that I was somewhat disappointed by it. Being aware of the Jockey Club bases as they appear in Poucher's literature and in David G. Williams' Perfumes of Yesterday, I expected the florals, spice, and musk to be more forward in the composition, as demonstrated in the formularies. On the contrary, there is a verticality to GJC that rides on the rail of quinolines, and while that in and of itself poses no issue to me, I just feel like they came as quite a surprise as they don't appear in the aforementioned formulations, and that they dominate the composition in a way that doesn't feel cohesive. While it is a nice enough wear, it's a bit unfocused and isn't consistent with Legrand's output.

Oriza’s lengthy maturation strikes again. I get absolutely no rose in the opening, but instead a rather astringent green tobacco and soap smell. I found it to be off-putting at the open, but over time it settles to a more wood-forward leathery experience that mellows considerably. Unfortunately even after some serious dry down time I have a tough time digesting the vétiver and musk as anything but a somewhat industrial soap smell.

Well, Oriza L Legrand's perfumes are all about past times, and this one makes me travel in time for sure. First, there's a layer of rose. Underneath comes the scent of saddle soap and those two together gives me the feeling of being 10 year old again. It's Saturday afternoon, I'm at the riding school and I am cleaning the bridle and saddle belonging to my favourite, the Connemara pony Napoleon, after a full day of riding lessons. This scent really makes my mind wonder to that place and I just wish I could stay there. Sadly, the drydown goes to a more straight leather scent that isn't flattering on my skin. Sadly, because the first hour of the perfume captures my joys of childhood so perfectly that there's no need to transform *that* scent at all.

At first Gentry Jockey Club (from 1937) starts out with a sweet touch of saffron, bergamot, ...and cola. But then, ...to misquote a song from The Wizard of OZ Leather, vetiver, and patchouli! ...Oh my! Whoever inhales this is not watching from the stands, ...he is in the race! More brute than Brut, this most rough n' tumble brew is indeed suggestive of horses rode hard. Edit: There is a long-term, full-throttle, vetiver drydown here. Be prepared. Certainly worth sampling, if only to better understand animal nature, and the harder side of perfumery. ...but to each alone must fall the decision on when, or if, to fully mount such a beast.

You wear it, and suddenly you feel like sitting in the stands of a racetrack, admiring the elegant stature of thoroughbred horses. Very dandy, it has that waxed and smoky leather effect—green, aromatic: in short, nothing but qualities. The vetiver is especially beautiful in this fragrance; it doesn’t overpower anything—on the contrary, it’s a key pillar. For a fleeting moment, I thought I smelled a hint of violet at the top, which disappeared almost immediately. A scent for the privileged 🤭 but oh, what class!

I haven't smelt the rose at the opening but rather the violet, isn't that odd? Or maybe it's just a special kind of rose I don't know. I think after that opening the fragrance is a little sharp with what I find is even acrid tobacco and strong ambergris, and that lasts too long for me. The drydown is much better but it comes too late for me to wear it regularly. Sillage is pretty strong and the fragrance lasts forever on my skin, with high-quality ingredients, apparently.