Halfeti Leather

**The definition of a true 'oriental leather'.** Where to begin with this one? This is such a wonderful scent in my mind. The definition of a true oriental leather, and a sensual, fun one with a slightly mysterious tone. It's definitely not an overly serious leather, nor an animalic one, but what it lacks there it makes up for in its lusciously opulent, dark gourmand notes. It's boozy, certainly, think rum and Armagnac brandy, but what what no one else seems to mention coming through (both on my skin and on clothing) are the rich chocolate and coffee notes underneath the sumptuous, candied plum. Backed up by the spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamon, ginger) and richer florals (rose, violets) and at the very bottom, the persistent cedar wood, oud, and incense, this is overtly oriental, sensual, and gourmand, yet also masculine and mysterious due to the strong leather (and coffee and boozy notes). It makes me think of a bustling Arab bazaar at night, or an invite to an Sheikh's feast outdoors during the late hours. The man who wears this scent comes across (to me, at least) as a hedonistic traveller, who sleeps by day and indulges in all life has to offer when the sun goes down. Truly one of the great leather scents, and deliciously enticing to the ladies, in a 'come hither' manner. Charming and masculine, tantalising and bounteous, dark and mysterious. 10/10 Oh and, great longevity/sillage guys. 10+ hours on clothes. Lingers in the nose, but in a beautiful way.

This is great. My dad (65) has been looking in vain for something to replace M7, his old signature. We got half way there with Zoologist's Camel, but it's a bit too bright, fruity and hopeful... and sadly, it doesn't last on him or project. I tried Penhaligon's library recently and was very impressed with all of it, buying a 10ml Halfeti for myself. Then I ordered some free samples from their site, including this. This is the darkest, grimmest oud I've been able to find on the market. You only need half a spray. If you're after the most dark, spicy, intense, Arabic scent - then you must try this. (You can grab a free sample off their website. Penhaligon's will send you 4 x 1.5ml samples free and you just need to pay the postage.) I got in the car with dad yesterday when he'd just put a spray on. It was like he'd burned 10 incense sticks with the windows up. This stuff is hardcore. It's expensive, and I'm going to wait and hope a 50ml or even a 30ml comes out and then I'll certainly get some for dad. The sparing amount you need of this, he'd never get through 100ml anyway. I think a lot of Penhaligon's scents are more evocative of different spaces/rooms, than they are people. So this smells to me like a very masculine room (cigar burning, leather everything, shadowy bookcases - like Bluebeard's library). Having said that, why shouldn't a woman want to smell like Bluebeard's library? By that logic, it's gender-neutral.

Halfeti Leather is an intense combination of leather, boozy plum and powdery incense. I really like how one reviewer described it as "rifling through old leather bound spell books in an occult store." That's exactly the vibe I got from it as well. It opens with a burst of boozy cardamom and citrus , then settles into a sweet, powdery plum/jasmine/ patchouli incense that swirls close to the skin. I do not get a lot of cedar scent out of it, to be honest. For a fragrance so intense, it's unbelievably light. I would call the sillage subtle, and if you take it easy on the dose, it will not be overwhelming to you or to others. It's a long lasting fragrance too, and I can always still smell it the next morning. I received a small bottle of Halfeti Leather when I purchased another fragrance from the Penhaligon's website and absolutely fell in love with it. Sadly, on the US site, it is out of stock and so I had to shop other stores to find a bottle. Thankfully, there are some deals to be had around Christmas and so I bought it. It is expensive, but has quickly become one of my top three favourite fragrances from Penhaligon's House. The other two favourites are Luna and Revenge of Lady Blanche.

This is a flanker of Halfeti, so like the other flanker (Halfeti Cedar), I'm reviewing this one based off of my review for the original. Oi! This one took me by storm. I honestly didn't expect the original could be beaten. Over the last few years, I've grown to have a liking for animalic fragrances and while I'm still not a massive leather fan, I had high hopes for this one. I'm glad to say my expectations were blown out of the water! This is bold, perhaps bolder than the original. The smoky, leathery aspects bring out this animalic nature from the original that the rose isn't there to hold back, and I'm there for it. This is Halfeti for the animalic lovers. It's smokier, bolder, more mature and definitely not for young guys. This one seems to comes straight from the vintage years. It has that powerhouse vibe. Longevity and projection are on par with the original (so, beastly and 12+ hours) If you love oud, spices and leather, you have to get your nose on this one. I have a bottle of the original and a decant of Halfeti Cedar but this one made me buy a full bottle straight away. It's that good and I adore it.

This is such a gorgeous spicy, vibrant, yet dark, fragrance. Very similar to halfeti of course but I think this takes it up a notch and is even better. I’ve been wanting to add a penhaligons fragrance to my arsenal for quite a while now and I started off with this one. I love their whole style - super elegant and also playful. Very friendly and appealing to the modern masses - I don’t think they make a single fragrance that’s polarizing or obtrusive. I’m a huge fan of the blazing mr sam and original halfeti and would easily have bought either of the two if I didn’t already have Nishane Papilefiko which has the same vibe as mr sam and also with the original halfeti although slightly different. So buying Mr Sam or original halfeti would have felt redundant. Halfeti leather has that added leather note with a touch more spice and some other notes that I love about it. It’s warm, smooth juicy while remaining bold and dark. It checks all of the boxes I love in a fragrance. I can’t express how much I love this one. An easy 10/10 for me

Was influenced to buy this last winter after watching the new Nosferatu as I wanted to smell like a vampire's bedsheets, and Halfeti Leather certainly does the job. This smells like sharing a cigarette in the smoking area of a red-light lit bar with the hottest, most intimidating girl you know but at the same time it definitely leans masculine. I find myself reaching for it less than other scents, and not at all in warmer months, as this truly floods a room with it's fragrance. I don't even spray this directly on skin, just in the air before I walk through it and that is enough for whatever jacket I'm wearing to smell like HL for weeks. Love getting whiffs of this from my hair as I walk. I save this almost exclusively for date nights in the winter as it really is incredibly dark and spicy, I can see this being very offensive to some as it is sooo powerful. This smells like Black Orchid's richer, eviler cousin to me. As other comments mentioned, a leatherbound occult book in a dusty castle. My witch's brew in a bottle!

Compliment magnet. It's very heavy and rough yet I get lots of compliments. This combination for a fragrance is very rare, this is a secret treasure. Not well known either, smells unique. As usual with Penhaligon's the notes are pretty spot on. While it's mainly leather, I also notice an oud note and a realistic tobacco note. It's dusted with cinnamon and submerged in what I can best describe as a "blackcurrant rum" note. The original Halfeti DNA is detectable in the background. These notes are very evocative, and unlike some other leathers you can pull this in any connotation (medieval, pirate, West Asian, cowboy). Despite these intense notes that are usually an acquired taste, Mr. Provenzano somehow managed to make it as rough and intense as possible while keeping it from smelling dirty. Sorcery. Lasts and projects perfectly, will attract compliments from people (if they're so inclined) throughout the day, the next morning it's still detectable. Won't choke anyone too. Masterpiece.

I find the name to be a bit misleading, there's definitely hints of soft leather in this but I would not go in with the expectation that this fragrance is extremely leather heavy. Plum is one of my favourite notes in fragrance and the opening is just perfect for this, sweet plum, rose, spice and woodsy notes make this a very comfortable and luxurious scent. As the scent develops the woods and spice settle nicely leaving a very pleasant scent trail with the soft notes of leather also noticeable. Longevity is good and I can still notice it on myself by the end of the working day, projection starts strong and then does lessen throughout the day but is still enough to be noticed by others who are walking past. Price is obviously on the more expensive side but in my opinion you get what you pay for with this one, I've had quite a few compliments from colleagues and friends when wearing this. Think I will always have a bottle of this stuff in some form or another, top stuff!

A beautiful spicy opening, but settles down within an hour to a woody fragrance; there is a hint of leather in there, but it’s gone by the dry down. Moderately priced for a high quality niche (and very London as a brand, which I find cool as I live in London). The spicy opening is a little Middle Eastern, but it’s similar to the spicy opening of say Boss Bottled Absolu (though Halfeti Leather is much sharper; but in a nice way). It’s a little more masculine than the regular Halfetti (which is truly beautiful) with the slight leather in the regular Halfetti more prominent, but its still a very soft/mild note (the leather in say Azzaro Forever Wanted Elixir is much more prominent). It’s lovely to wear as its more noticeable than most designer fragrance which can be bland (however Boss Bottled Absolu and Azzaro Forever Wanted Elixir are exceptions to this, and definitely not bland).

A woman walks in the establishment where I work and I was partly blown away by her extreme confidence and high fashion, but I had sworn that Halfeti Leather was just her pheromones. God, even her pheromones are cool, I thought. Until she told me what perfume she was wearing. This scent dries down to this impeccable raw, and powerful sweet wooded spice. There’s nothing I could quite compare it to, besides an extremely confident and beautiful woman wearing red bottoms, who wanted to assure me, that she was self-made. This is an enormous scent that commands the attention of everyone in a room. Although I should mention that the opening is not very favorable to me and you have to let it settle down in your clothes, skin, and hair, to really understand its depth.

Truly one of my favourite fragrances I've ever smelt, and the best flanker of the original Halfeti. To me the smell is dark and spicy, but not so dark that it's offensive, retaining an opening with smoothness that's instead inviting and comfortable. If Halfeti is the explorer on Penhaligon's traderoutes who's fresh, spicy, and classy smelling, Halfeti Leather is the smell he comes home to, in his dark wood-cladded study, sitting back with a smoking jacket and relaxing. The only thing that could be improved more to me is the projection and longevity, as I feel it does become a skin scent after 6 hours. However I feel if it were any louder, people would complain of it smelling like an old man, and instead to me at this mix it retains its ultra classy smell.

This one.. amazing! Immediately from the opening you can smell its characteristic touches and similarity to the original. A strong elegant leather with a dark note pops out very strong, it projects loud for the first hour like this, the more hours pass the more the leather transforms to a very soft suede kind a thing. The original halfeti smell is there still in the background with some spicey touches, where with the original it’s more floral touches imo. Amazing scent and again good quality from penhaligons. Performance is very good, smells dark, mysterious and classy. Totally Unisex and ladies.. don’t be afraid of leather I think it’s pretty elegant on you. 9/10 for me.. it’s just that I’m soo in love with the opening.. wish it could exist longer.

Wow wow wow...why is this not being talked about?? I stumbled upon this and the notes looked good. I am not disappointed. Plum is sexy the leather and woods are just so well blended. Everyone I had test it at first spray didn’t like it out of the bottle not sure why maybe because it’s a bit strong...but once it hit skin they turned a completely different tune. This is dark, sweet, elegant, looks like something you’d wear Burgundy with or a dark turtle neck for a night out. You have to get your nose on this one! It’s like a trap that lures you in and then once you’re there you’re stuck in it’s warm embrace. Also the dry down by the next day gave me whiffs of a high quality le male le parfum...just wow.

I truly do think this is a top 3 fragrance from the house of Penhaligons. It’s unique, due to that plum note. The intense oud and leather makes this such a likable fragrance to use. It’s perfect for formal occasions and work environments. Great fragrance to wear during the winter times. It has a strong projection and it lasts for about 13-15 hours. I love the scent and almost everything about the fragrance. However, it does come at a high price point and there are other fragrances which may do its job better. I do think it’s a good fragrance to own, it’s old fashioned yet does its job. Scent: 10 Projection: 9 Longevity: 10 Value: 7 Overall: 9

Got a sample and really enjoy it... this scent takes quite the evolution that I didnt anticipate. It opens very similar to PDM Nisean and through the mid takes a journey reminiscent of Tom Ford Ebene Fume... it eventually settles into a nice dry, spicy, woody somewhat smoky pipe tobacco type leather. I stepped outside and the cold air really seemed to activate it. It took such a vibrant turn. Really enjoy it overall. This is a strong performer, ideal for cold weather. More mature, but not old smelling. Steep retail, but if you enjoy those notes with a nice evolution, this is for you. Will add this once I can catch somewhat of a deal.

Love this one. I have loved the original Halfeti for several years now. An other love I have, is of the note: Leather. So when a leather boosted version of Halfeti was released, it was like Christmas for me. I love the oriental spice blend in the original Halfeti. And the addition of a more prominent leather note, only makes it even better. Much have been said about the added not of Plum. Both good and bad. For me it's not that noticeable. Even so, there is an added sweetness to the whole concoction compared to the original, which I guess come from the Plum. If you like it "dark red" and oriental, you can't go wrong with this one.

In my opinion, his is the best of the Halfeti releases, leathery, woody, spicy and sweet. It opens a bit fresh then the spices kick in and he leather and woods starts to seep in along with that Amber sweetness. I keeps transforming so ha tat the dry down woods re more pronounced butt still backed by Amber and spice. It is sophisticated classy perfume that is best dressed up in sui and tie, but can also be worn less formally. I tried it in the summer where the ambient temp was 42C with high humidity and it still excelled. I do believe that i will do even better in cold weather.

This is great. I received a 1.5mls from Penhaligon’s and I immediately sprayed it on myself. Yes, it has Halfeti’s original DNA but with added leather giving it a richer, creamier and smokier vibe. The original Halfeti, I would say is more suited for a daytime perfume but this one is more of a night time wear and would suit more during the colder months. The longevity and sillage is outstanding considering I only sprayed 1.5mls. I wouldn’t go crazy buying one though. I’d still choose the original Halfeti over this, solely because I work mainly days. My overall rating: 8.5/10

I was able to purchase at a discount. Had my eye on this one for a while and sampled before buying. On my skin, the initial notes are like halfeti but with the spice amped up and the addition of a leather note (or maybe halfeti has that and this one is just amped up). After the dry down, it is a spice explosion particularly cinnamon. It’s a pleasant surprise because I’ve been looking for a “real” cinnamon note and I finally found it. This will definitely be a winter fragrance for me. Smells like the holidays in the very best way!

If I want to tell my reaction about this perfume, in the top note, it evokes a citrus atmosphere for me, and in the middle note, the combination of nutmeg and cinnamon together with jasmine creates a special charm that is completely clear for professional perfumers of this scent. And in the base note, I got more oud and smoky aromas, of course leather, the leather is very delicately worked in this perfume. Overall, it is a classy perfume and has an acceptable durability. 10/8