Identity Rose & Leather

The reviews are all true! It's like sticking your face in a rosebush! Every time I wear it I think of Morticia "trimming" her roses in the Addams Family. It's a very unique smell and I'm glad to own it

As a long time FM wearer, I was curious about this line. Absolutely love “the moon” so I thought I’d give this a try. Right out of the gate I don’t think it’s terrible. A hit of pepper very quickly to a very fresh rose for me. This did not read synthetic at all smells very natural. I am a grower of roses, so I know of what I speak. Dry down to a geranium with a little rose, does not wear green at all on me. The leather is so subtle that it reminds me of the inside of one of my best leather handbags. Hint, They always smell like fragrance. I got nothing indolic from this. Certainly not BO. Like “the moon”, I find this to be surprisingly well blended. Perhaps mine has been sitting for a while. I can’t wait to see what it’s like now that it’s been opened and started oxidizing. It’s really nice to have a rose that’s not very fruity floral musky. I have plenty of those, and I love them. For me this may be a gateway drug to the real deal. But I’ll be honest it’ll take a lot for me to spend the kind of money on FM anymore. Their fragrance price rise has just been ridiculous. Maybe not a safe blind buy but blind buying anything is risky I think I like this one.

Imagine walking into freshly cut garden of roses. That's how it smells. The rose is pretty much in the background in opening. It opens up with sharp green-grassy note. As it dries down, the rose become more prominent. The leather in here is very subtle. Almost unnoticeable. This is a strong perfume I must say. It stays for entire day on my skin and for 2 days on clothes. Projection and silage are also nuclear.

Stemmy, fetishy, veeeery Morticia Addams - Anjelica Houston version. Quite bitter and leafy, with pronounced leather, geranium and slightly acidic blackcurrant notes, the rose as a flower is more in the background. It isn't very sweet, but definitely very sensual and mature.

In this fragrance is missing the fresh cut rose note like in FM Rose&Cuir.

The rose here is nice, but the leather is a bitter, rancid mess

This is an odd one. I couldn’t help it and ordered this as part of a blind buy haul. The closest thing I can compare it to is Aramis 900, with the bitter aromatic and dusty rose vibes. This, however, is even drier, more astringent, and more bitter. It’s so stemmy it’s sappy and pithy. But it does mix with body chemistry and blend in to make a leathery, bitter and slightly aromatic profile that is more frame than painting. It’s more of a vibe than a scent, so I can see it being used to scent a leather jacket, for example, in such a way that another body scent might still belong as part of the overall groove you’re going for. I’m not sure I would have bought this if I could have smelled it first, and it might not get much rotation, but I do see it having a place. Similar to Ana Abiyad Leather/Irish Leather/Argos Brivido de la Caccia (which are all the same, and I dig). There is a slightly fruity berry like choke cherry or currant that keeps it from coming off like floor wax (which some dusty roses can do). It also shares some of the oddness from Swiss Arabian Nawaf. Recommended for older folks like me that like the astringent aromatics and rose, but not really for anyone else I can think of (but you do you). Makes me think of Clint Eastwood in dusty boots under the parched sun, stepping out from a bath and gun fight upstairs at the saloon hotel. Hit the spittoon and walked away.

If you've ever seen the movie Mommy Dearest, you know that there's a scene where Joan Crawford destroys a rose garden by snipping off all the flowers. This is the olfactory equivalent of that scene, post disaster. There are all of the green, thorny aspects of rose present... The leaves and foliage... But no rose flowers. You can smell a leather reminiscent of shearing gloves, and a bracing metallic smell reminiscent of pruning shears. Citronellol is definitely present here, and might turn off a few noses due to it's mosquito candle associations. I quite like this one. It is cold, shrill and shrieks at times due to it's geranium note, just like Joan Crawford in that scene. Luckily, the base notes of leather and vetiver keep it classy and somewhat grounded. I remember a short interview with Jean Claude Ellena regarding his creation of what this perfume is cloning: Frederick Malle Rose & Cuir. He said that he wanted to create a perfume that is decidedly feminine. I chuckled a bit after hearing that, as there is nothing nurturing, soft or sweet about this: aspects of perfume I consider traditionally "feminine". This is unisex, leaning masculine, to my nose, and the perfume's use of leathery iso-butyl quinoline only increases this masculinity. This reminds me a bit of Bvlgari Kobraa, although they are very different. This geranium hisses and shrieks much louder.

* Hybrid leather/floral fragrance * Strong combination of spicy, floral, leather, woody, and vetiver notes * Strong floral and leather notes take center stage * Unusual and challenging * Great for those who love drier fragrances * Could be very polarizing to some noses * Might lean too masculine for some female users * Not as complex or intriguing as its sibling flankers Oud Crescent and Unique Portrait Emir's Identity Rose & Leather is an aptly named fragrance whose draw is in the name: this is a very strong floral and leather hybrid fragrance with leather and rose being the main players. This is not a sweet rose, but a dry vegetal one. The leather and rose notes are supported by spicy, woody, and vetiver notes. It very much comes across as a freshly cut rose where the floral aroma from the petals mixes with that of the freshly cut stalk. This is really unusual and challenging for a fragrance. It could be very polarizing to some noses, and might lean far too masculine for some female users despite the presence of rose. It's great for those who love a drier fragrance, though, and are tired of the sweet and fresh trend. I'd argue that its sibling flankers Oud Crescent and Unique Portrait are far more complex and intriguing fragrances, but this is still quite intriguing. Recommended.