Cuir Venenum 03

There is only few fragrances I will never forget and Cuir venenum belongs to this family. It is really very special perfume, completely different than everything I know and also the perfume changing my private point of view to masculine and leather based fragrances. I have to say this was the second niche perfume in my collection and the first one I bought for myself during the very beginning of my discovery of this amazing fragrance world. First of all the CV according to my taste is the richest perfume ever created. It is not sharp but is like a viscous perfume oil, I would say like a glue in its richness that when settles on your skin you feel as something penetrating your skin very deeply. At the beginning you smell extremely rich sweetness of orange flower nectar, yellow and orange as the honey taken directly from the beehive. It completely cover leather note that is present all the time but as the second player. CV didn't loose its power with time but it evolves and change the spectrum - still strong orange flower but now they cower the leather with something that I know from chemistry lab when people work with sulfur. It is not terrible smell of sulfide as in rotten eggs it is dry an a little scrubbing, chemical or mineral smell creating amazing aura that is sexy and very sensual. For sure in the CV is much more going on because fragrance changing its face being more sweet and incense containing or more dry from time to time probably because of animal musk. Summarizing it is very unusual creation done with unbelievable passion and perfection. My all time favorite.

This fragrance immediately reminded me of an extremely specific time and place. The scenario was...Drinking wine at my firends house. When I asked my partner to try this perfume and then I described what I thought, and she said..."Yeah it's totally that....It's incense and cheap candles." The bitchy comment about these particular friends aside, she's kinda right. The opening is a syrupy resin and orange blossom a sweet, messy construction but with a hippy joss stick backbone I'm assuming from myrrh. It's quite linear and not really what I would describe as leathery in the dry down but I recognise this 'leather' accord from other fragrances so I know it's considered acceptable to describe it in those terms. The wine element is interesting, not that it smells of wine but evoked memories of drinking the stuff, thought provoking I guess. I don't like this and I don't want to smell of it, although the drydown is a little bit nicer. I'd give it a miss. Update: It's funny what 12 months and a revisit can yield, I actually really like this fragrance now. The opening is a transparent floral musk, with some sweet element, progressing into a leathery drydown which is absolutely fantastic. It's not a full on leather accord, just a gently leathery spine with some fresher resin notes and a tiny hint of smoke. The floral/leathery nature and hint of honied sweetness reminds me somewhat of immortelle but it's clearly not immortelle if that makes even the tiniest bit of sense? I'm really enjoying this today.

I was eager to try this perfume from the very first moment I heard its name. Cuir Venenum, Cuir Venenum - it sounds like kind of a magic spell or mantra. And so I got to test it at last By the way, it was one of my first niche scent tested. So, it impressed me a lot. There was this kind of leather that I have never smelled before - sweet leather! Freshly processed leather immersed into thick grape juice, very intensive and syrupy - a real sugar poison. There are no major deviations from the main scent line in time of development. Sometimes leather is stronger, sometimes weaker. Sweet notes are very vivid all the time. I understand people who find this perfume weird. I sometimes feel this too, but that means this one is really not an ordinary frag. It stirs you, it balances at the border of one's comfort zone. For now, my relationship with this perfume is somewhere between "love" and "like". I wouldn't mind getting it as a gift, but this definitely wouldn't be my everyday scent. This one stayed for 6 hours on my skin and for much much longer on my clothes. Do not overdose! :)

So when I sprayed this on today, I immediately concluded this had to be the sweetest leather I had come across. Didn't like it or care for it whatsoever. It wasn't all bad and had some nice nuances, for instance a nice smoky side, cigarette-like, but it is doused in thick, honeyed orange blossom and it is kinda seductive that way. However, the first two hours I felt like this was too much of a sugary femme fatale - or a wannabe version of that. Later on, the syrup vibe wore off and it started to warm up a bit, catching my interest. I was surprised to enter that stage. I wouldn't have expected that at all. Now, this is not very special, but it does go against 'niche rules', challenging the wearer with its sticky syrupness and rewarding him or her for their patience once that tones down a little, combining buttery coconut with leather & myrrh. Still on the fence whether I like this, or maybe could love this. Let's see what happens. In any way, the sweetness in this juice is almost provocative and definetely NSFW. Hot date or lover's night material only - in a confident mood.

I found myself with a bottle of this not because it's beautiful, but because I became obsessed with it. Some things are so outrageously and unapologetically whatever they are that they are fascinating. Cuir Venenum is one of those things. It's highly intriguing, almost too sweet and too dirty. Addictive and almost too much, at the limit of outright repulsive and sickening, daring. White flowers have this narcotic funky facet that has been pushed in orange blossom with honey and lemon to the limit of decency to meet that sweaty leather....yes, it's bad. Someone once told me that it smells like a biker beer burp, the other talked about Middle Eastern pastries fermenting and they are not wrong. Cuir Venenum is disturbing, but harmonious. I'm honestly surprised that I was never forced to wash it of.

Ha ha! Genius. On first spray I thought yikes, I smell like a man. Then I wondered - why? Is it sweat? Then I realised - it's malt. Like some kind of real ale. So now I smell like leathery, slightly sweaty real ale. This is more male than unisex, but I like it, and I'd definitely like to smell it on a man. Although it doesn't smell like perfume or cologne - it smells like a real ale drinker, maybe after a hard day's work in his leather shop. Get your check shirt on guys, a splash of this on your beard and you're away :) Update: did I mention the smoke? Yes, in amongst the leather and beer is smokiness. My chap used to smell like this when he came home from the pub!...

Great but unusual leather. Gifted as a sample with a PG purchase. Whilst the leather is there and a main component I find (unlike the note vote for myrhh) the main note to be of white floral, super sweetened by honey (not overly strong as a honey note per se) and brightened by a sweetened citrus. As such I find this more so a female scent and in fact less so a leather scent. Still gorgeous... above average in strength too compared to most PG scents... I concur with mnitabach below in that it has a grape bubble gum feel though it is more complicated than this...

What a beauty! It is such a treasure to wear in warmer weather and I can not even describe how exqusitely it opens up on warm summer skin. That is the secret, to not hide it until colder months and wear it in summer to get the feeling of your skin, but better, more luxurious, slightly sweet and so captivating that I can not get enough. Soft and deep, mysterious but not dirty, there are really no other perfume that I can compare this composition to, it is unik and rightfully earns its place on the shelf.

To me, this is leather, honey, and orange blossom in equal measures, and they work together perfectly. The leather is full-bodied but very smooth and worn-in, there’s no fresh from the tannery feel here at all. The honey, possibly aided by myrrh, drenches the perfume in sweetness, but the overall effect is never cloying. Orange blossom adds a nice floral touch that makes me reach for this in the spring time as well as the winter. One of my sexiest perfumes.

It's quite unlike any other fragrance. From the name, I expected dark cuir, but I got a pleasant, super luxurious soap scent. If 8* hotels existed, they would use this type of soap. I test fragrances before examining the pyramid to get a fair opinion. Usually, I'm not too fond of Fleur d'Orange, but this is the first one that has made me drunk. And yes, it is a vigorous grape note, as indicated below. For me, it is a full bottle's worth.

This is leather! But in very special way, as everything by PG, how he succeed to be so unique in the endless ocean of fragrances! The leather is feminine, very floral and strongly reminds me on the smell of wine. ;o) That harmony of floral notes, leather and coconut give that impression. Very interesting, fatale... ;o)

great scent, you have the description above, good sillage/duration, made for men actually!

Mmmmm, now this is lovely. Light, manageable floral-suede, with the the blooms and citrus giving it a great powdery-fresh feel. More of a sweet than a leathery treatment of the suede, while the myrrh and honey are kept under control - not even a hint of wee from either of them. Wearable and unisex, with reasonable longevity for a PG (6-7h on me) though projection dies back fast after the delicious first burst of orange blossom. Didn't get any coconut even after I learned it was meant to be in there, so don't be frightened away by the mention of it - if it's doing anything it's just making the middle even milder and more milky-soft. Didn't bowl me over completely, but my taste in leather is for darker spicier sorts; but I'd very happily wear this any time. Its overall effect makes me think of it more as a spring-summer leather though. Conciliatory, gentle (in a good way) and classy stuff.

Cuir Venenum... WHOA! This is a leather like no other. Yes, there's orange blossom here. But you know how some scents focused on orange blossom can verge into grape territory? Well, this is that kind of orange blossom, in concentrated, overdosed form. It's no longer detected as orange blossom, but as the deepest of purples. Grape juice, or to drift to memories from my childhood, communion wine! Under that, the "leather," if you want to call it that. There's a yeastiness to it, with smoke and ashes, like someone has tapped their lit cigarette into the mouth of an empty beer bottle. So, to me, Cuir Venenum feels like a mixture of the sacred and profane. An all-night bender, drunk on communion wine, your hair and clothing saturated with cigarette smoke, the urge to do it all again, and, maybe, just maybe, a few regrets. (And yes, this is a positive review! I'm springing for a full bottle.)

A very beautiful and delicate scent that is somewhat reminiscent of Amouage Overture. The combination of sweetness, freshness and eroticism of oriental notes creates intrigue, captivates and enchants. You want to inhale this sensual aroma again and again. In my case, having Overture, I will refrain from purchasing. I can add that the late development of the fragrance, although pleasant enough, is somewhat monotonous and predictable, and did not make me want to buy a whole bottle. I wish this scent had less sweetness and more leather notes, more character. Although I would gladly buy Cuir Venenum as a gift, it is truly original, especially in its initial development.

An original interpretation of leather. Cuir Venenum opens with a bizarre accord of leather and something else I can't exactly detect for an overall effect that brings to my mind of unripe Concord Grape. Bitter, somehow sour and aromatic. The leather note is emphasized in its acidic aspect and it is laid on a consistent myrrh base. I also get a slight dusty vibe throughout (as often in Guillame's creations). Despite they don't share many similiariteis Cuir Venenum often brings to my mind of another great scent of the same family: Helmut Lang Cuiron. They move in the same direction, where leather is clean, treated and brand new. Recommended. Rating: 7.5/10

"Cuir Venenum" opens with a sticky embrace of sweet, honeyed orange blossom, warm citrus and cedar, with a faint leather providing a cosy, intimate sensuality. That said, I wouldn't call this a 'leather' fragrance at all, so the 'Cuir' in the name is a bit misleading. It reminds me slightly of "Al Kaht" by Xerjoff, if you took out the dirty barnyard oud note and just left the sweet florals and sticky vanilla. As with most PG scents it's quite linear and has moderate lasting power, but you could do much worse. It's a pleasant sweetness, not cloying or immature, and definitely more feminine leaning to my nose.

This is really strange. On first spritz I thought it was an instant love, but the more I wore it the more I started to hate it. Something makes it so difficult and uncomfortable to wear which I guess is the very sweet, almost sugary, orange blossom. My liking rejects such sweet neroli scents. I get hardly any leather. Highly recommended for sweet orange blossom fans though. If you like Mademoiselle Piguet you will probably love this one as well.

I got a sample of this today and it’s pretty different than I expected. I think I kind of ignored how high “sweet” is listed on the pyramid and imagined what I wanted. I don’t really get that much leather. I get a quite sweet coconut lemon combo, then the orange blossom behind them. Leather is fairly subtle to me. I do like it a lot but was hoping for the orange blossom and leather to be more dominant.

Why so many dislikes for this? It's a fairly accessible scent. I don't love it and wouldn't buy a full bottle, but I don't dislike it either. It's a very interesting take on leather.