Kölnisch Juchten

From the obscure and mysterious Parfums Regence, the long-folded house that brought the massive Oakmoss, comes Kölnisch Juchten, the Einstürzende Neubauten of scents. Holy smokes, it is a powdery, dry orange crusted over tarry, birch tar-creosote leather, anchored with a sebaceous costus and musky base. It starts off incredibly oily, acrid and BUTCH. “Juchten” is an archaic German term for Russian Leather, and yes, the birch tar does evoke that, but this is far more smoggy, even savory, than say, the polished sophistication of Chanel Cuir de Russie. For all its initial pungency and bombast, this does hasten to a more subdued costus musk with woody and tobacco facets. I am amused by the fact that some time ago this was only available in one shop in the US, the now defunct Jacqueline Perfumery in San Francisco, which apparently had a curmudgeonly shop keeper (I am familiar with that type!), named André—the old Yelp reviews are hoot. Now THAT is how obscure this one is.

Gorgeous unknown fragrance. Mellow orange note and Birch Tar (?) Smells like a mixture of muted oranges and musk. The smell of the flavour of Orange water . Hint of Leather. 100ml Rectangular Black Bottle. Glass curves inwards at centre. Got it in San Francisco, on Geary, from Andre who has been there for ever at Jacqueline Parfumery. Ignore that he is grumpy. Just go with the flow and he is AOK. He has a good knowledge of perfumes. Addictive. Totally Unisex. Would buy again

Prepare for a lot to say or scroll if you don't like it: Scored this piece of history for real cheap on eBay, it's taken a minute but it has been pretty enjoyable on a deep level for me. It is said to be the revival of Johann Maria Farina's "Kolnisch Juchten" formula. The scent had gone through a few iterations over the multiple 20th century revivals of it, seemingly including this going by the age of the Parfums Regence brand itself. For people who enjoy historical perfume as I do, it doesn't get much more exciting. Johann CREATED THE Eau de Cologne, and would sell them outside the cathedral (of Cologne) during his life in the 1700s. After Johann's death, his estate had to sue Wilhelm Müelhens, of 4711 fame, to get him to stop using the "Farina" name on the product for legitimacy (reminds of Creed to an extent, at least in regards to fake heritage), which was a decades-long legal battle between the two. In 1832, Wilhelm lost in court over wrongful use of Johann Maria Farina's surname, voiding an alleged 1808 contract between the two, to which Wilhelm responded NOT (yet) by renaming the scent and brand, but by partnering with an unrelated man who also went by the last name Farina. It took until 1881 as far as I can tell, for the real Farina's estate to successfully get Wilhelm to stop riding his coattails, eventually prompting him in a pinch to rename the company and the scent after his company address number, as we know it today, "4711". Müelhens himself didn't even make 4711, he claimed to have "received the recipe from a Carthusian Monk as a wedding gift". I'm not so sure if I believe that anymore. Seeing as he was willing to steal the name of the man who had created the Eau de Cologne to market one himself, I can't imagine he would have scruples about stealing recipes, too. To make matters worse, my speculative claim may even be entirely founded in reality, as 14 years after the initial release of 4711, Johann created the formula for "Extra Vielle", today made by/sold to Roger & Gallet and it's overwhelmingly compared to 4711. The legend and the treachery that seems to be steeped into all of this history is so fascinating. It almost makes it seem as though relatively speaking, Pierre Bourdon didn't have it that bad, at least he got some (hopefully well-tailored) suits in exchange for the priceless formulas he gave up to Creed. All Johann got was a legal headache. Only God and perhaps Johann truly know how many times his name and his product has been revived and or bastardized over the years. There are at least 3 variants from the 20th century and this one seemed to bleed over into this current 21st. I do not expect that all the same ingredients can even be acquired today, let alone that those available are all legal to use today, an awful lot has changed in 300 years, but I can only wonder what kind of effect time had on this. If anyone has older Juchten bottles like the red cap one that they want gone, do let me know. Beyond the history followed by my own speculations about it, and onto the fragrance itself; this one definitely took a day and a night for my nose to adjust to it. Waking up to it on me this morning helped me start to pick up what it's putting down without a wince. It's not so much the potency as the profile itself. This smells BLACK. Not dark, not like Drakkar Noir, not even like any of the majorly smoky scents I much enjoy, from Bois d'Ascese to Terroni to A City on Fire. This one is PITCH-black. The leather is not even light as the darkest of browns in this, and this bottle style here most fits the scent IF this version truly smells like it always has. Big "if" but regardless this bottle is quite nice. The costus thing had me concerned for a moment, many people, even some I respect, said it has this distinctive and divisive odor that somewhat approximates wet-dog, which I hate despite loving dogs. But either I don't know how to comprehend the actual note or it's negligible in it's presence here. The frankincense in here has that sort of balsamic texture that people tend not to like if they're more accustomed to the Hojari Green kind of profile, I'm ambivalent to that kind of nuance personally, I just like ambers generally. I can't say this quite smells 300 years old, I don't know if anything really does at the end of the day. But it certainly has this old aire of achronistic feelings and things it reminds me of, that all come to me at once and also aren't fragrances: Sitting in an ebony Eames lounger. The Ford Family's estate in Dearborn. New Hampshire's State Library. Something that most closely reaches the smell, going to Travel Town with my father when I was a young boy. It's a steam locomotive museum in Los Angeles which has always had this distinctive gas/oily, rusty, ozone sort of smell that I can't say I'll never forget, but so long as I have this fragrance around I'm sure I won't forget again. I am brought back to sitting on Dad's shoulders there in our matching hats with this metal whistle that I annoyed Mom to hell and back with on the car ride home. I think it got thrown out the window somewhere on the 134. Good times. Great scent too, make no mistake from my sidebar about a train museum, and the tricks it plays on the nose can barely be called that. There's no sleight of hand going on here, it's very open and in your face about what it's doing, even if you (or I, in this case) lack the sense to pick it apart to completion. This fragrance actually makes the most sense of any I've seen for it to have no listed and distinctive top-mid-base note breakdown, as it fades away from your skin smelling exactly how it did when it went on you. I wouldn't even describe it as linear, seeing as that word implies that it travels on some kind of line. This just sits still until it eventually withers away, again like the trains I mentioned earlier. There might be some mosses buried in here, I get that inky quality here. But it seems like the gist of this scent really just came down to (not exactly in this order) the incense, the musk, and the leather which as dark as it is, isn't all too birchy in the aromatic facets of the birch note that come to mind. Either that or I'm losing touch with my ability to identify said note in spite of how prevalent it is in my collection. This smells pretty smoky beyond the point of me really picking up any aromatic facets of birch or it's resultant tar, it's more leathery than birchy in that sense to me honestly. It comes off more like the heaviest of labdanum raw materials. But all in all, I can clearly smell the tracks that this laid for the many leather fragrances to come in it's wake, even while all of them are clearly departed from this scent yet so distant from even approaching a formula like this today.

Yes, we'll all just go with the flow and pop on a plane to buy cheap cologne from grumpy Andre! Seriously, Fragrantica is obviously just a website known for its very small, local reach, with most members just down the freeway from Jacqueline Parfumery. I had no idea! Good job no passport required for "local people" as statistically, a high number don't own them!!

I just recovered a bottle of this odd smelling fragrance in a shoe box in my closet,long forgotten about how nice this scent years ago a soft and powdery citrus and leather based cologne with minimal sillage and moderate longevity.

i cannot find it anywhere , if anyone knows where to get Kolnisch Juchten Regence,please let me know .Ever since Jacqueline's has closed i have been desperate !