Private Collection Cuir d'Iris

I have grown to really love Cuir d'Iris. I've tried many from Pierre Guillaume, and they are all quite good. This one just really stands out to me. It's a gorgeous, easy leather fragrance to wear. The Mexican chocolate sweetens this fragrance up just perfectly. The iris is subtle in this fragrance, and it adds a nice powderiness that isn't "lipsticky" like other iris fragrances can be. There is incense in this fragrance, however it's not burning yet. This is a lovely fragrance that I would highly recommend for those who are looking to get into more leathery scents. This fragrance works for me year-round, except on maybe the hottest days.

The first minute is rather disappointing: a harsh strong leather smell within a dusty room that lacks fresh air. Suddenly after 10 minutes you get the iris and some conforting incense. The longer you wait the more conforting the smell pulls you to sniff your inner elbow where I get now a warm leather scent with some cacao and an increasing presence of amber. The dark room turns into a cozy room full with sun light. I would use this one for a rainy day in fall or winter. It is definitely a unisex frangance and might even be too sweet for a men, although the sweetness appears only after one hour or so.

If I could chooose a fragrance to scent my skin at all times, this would be IT. Just to be clear, it's not a loud perfume, it stays close to your skin but the sweet-smoky smell is so comforting, so intimate. I got the iris in the very beginning for a very brief period of time but then it settles in and is divine.

it ́s perfect. a direct and hard leather competitor for Tuscan Leather & Knize Ten... really.

This is the most real leather fragrance I have smelled. It has a life of its own.

Not irisey at all, but it`s not a bad perfume. Starts off quite medicinal, the cold balsamic sharpness flowing slowly into warm citrus notes and then warm leather or suede. Very strange notes icons above, there is a good sweet patchouli note in the perfume but it`s not mentioned. The chocolate icon... I mean if you can call warm earthy fermented leather -chocolate? Iris/orris fans, skip this one, it`s a super misleading name. Nice, well-layered not very generic leather scent.

I just wanted to second the reviews that talk about how different this is in warm vs. cold weather. I tried this in winter and fell in love with it. I noted that it was a really dusty, powdery iris and leather scent. I’ve tried it again now in warmer weather and what a difference! I only get a strong Robitussin/cherry odor. If you’re curious about this one, wait until it’s cold where you live.

Test on a hot day in summer: a beautiful wallop of very animalic leather, strong but exceptionally nice (if you like leather); no detectable iris; the leather lasts, getting softer, for an hour or two. Then the iris appears, soft and powdery, and that gradually fades. Not great lasting power, but one of the best leather scents I've yet worn. For leather lovers. :)

Mmmm....it is delicious on my skin. I love it. It is very sensual and warm, cozy to me. There is a muskiness to it that smells good on me. I smell the leather, tons of very cool, powdery iris, the chocolate, and the amber. There is something warm, addictive or intoxicating about this scent. I'm not sure which notes play in to that part of the experience.

This is a very nice leather scent. Like other reviewers, I'm not getting much iris from this, but as a leather fragrance it is lovely, a comparison with new shoes/handbag is definitely appropriate. Easy to wear in any season and neutral in a good way.

It smelled amazing on paper. It started with iris, then quickly became a beautiful leather. I purchased a sample, and on my skin, it smells like unwashed, greasy hair. I swear, that's all it makes me think of. Obviously, this is just a personal interpretation. Unfortunate pass.

CUIR D’IRIS AND A PLEA TO PERFUME PRODIUCERS Perfume evokes. It doesn’t recreate nature and it doesn’t tell stories. Successful perfumery creates richness and a complexity that allows for many possibilities, for varied experiences among wearers. At the center of Parfumerie Generale’s Cuir d’Iris is an active imbalance, a contest. From start to finish there’s never a blend or compromise. The oil and the water never quite mix. I’m not speaking about the notes, iris and leather, but the forces that motivate this perfume. Together the potent tannic quality of the leather and the forceful, make-up feel of the iris give the scent a playful cruelty that simultaneously draws me in and keeps me at arms-length. Cuir d’Iris implies the savage civility of a kempt, bourgeoise western woman of the 1950s. Hair, make-up, perfume, attire and fur. Maintenance of appearance is just the stage dressing, a simple part of the toolkit of social ambition. For the woman that Cuir d’Iris pushes into my imagination, the fur is pivotal. It doesn’t suggest the necessities of a cold climate. It connotes a symbolic viciousness, the conquering vulgarity of wearing a prize. It’s the draping of status on the body. It’s a warning. But forget my insipid fantasy. What does a well made perfume do for you? I tend to love the bolder leathers that others might call harsh. And perpetually forgetting the logic of Knize Ten, one of my favorite fragrances, I imagine the ‘floral leathers’ won’t appeal to me, since the flower will diminish the boldness. Cuir d’Iris is another reminder of this blind spot. I don’t have a specific test to judge a perfume’s success. I’m willing to be convinced. If I had to find the common thread among the successful perfumes, though, it’s that they remain interesting and appealing over hours and years. Each wearing is an interesting experience from start to finish and the perfume keeps me coming back over the years. I might have a story in my head, as the above fantasy/image. I could be relishing a mood. I might simply be enjoying the pleasures of a well-crafted object. The perfume doesn’t supply a narrative, it’s simply rich and well constructed. It’s loaded. Connotation is the key, not story-telling. Cuir d’Iris has a complexity of construction and a range of dynamic qualities that suggests symbolic violence to me---the threat of a slap to the face. It’s enticing. It’s the lure of dangerous pleasure---that something beautiful that just might come back to bite you. And so, my plea to the perfume producers. Give us perfumes with a richness of ideas. We’ll take care of the rest. I’m far more likely to respond to (note: and buy) a perfume that springs from artistic creativity. I want to get taken for a ride by the perfumer, not the test-marketing group. There is a place for formula and strategy, but they should be tools and not goals. Forget briefs that boil down to: ‘find the balancing point that offends the fewest and that a majority will tolerate.’ Give me the arresting, give me the subtle, but give me a perfume that instigates and inspires. I want a perfume that says more than, “Hey.” I want legibility and nuance. Maybe the preliminary threshold in producing a perfume should be a riff on Tania Sanchez’s rationale for wearing perfume: that it be significantly better than nothing at all. My plea is for better perfume, not more elaborate marketing. I love Cuir d’Iris though I’ve never seen any advertizing for it. I’m very impressed with Calvin Klein’s CK One Shock for Men despite its perfunctory, factory-formula promotion strategy. Niche perfumery doesn’t solve the marketing dilemma of the mass markets. I see no distinction between the marketing of Beyoncé Pulse Summer Edition (“Life is a flirt. Love is a game.” ) and Penhaligon’s Sartorial, with notes that, “create the perfect illusion of a tailor’s workroom. ” In both cases: words and perfume, no intrinsic association. I recognize that there are market considerations and that on one level, Parfumerie Generale likely wanted a floral leather in their line. Iris aromachemicals were readily available and iris perfumes were in demand. But Cuir d’Iris works not because it filled the right slot. It works because perfumer Pierre Guillaume was in the position to make a perfume composed of precision-made parts and dripping with ideas. Cuir d’Iris is a gorgeous perfume that embodies both the steely and the extravagant. It lunges at you at the outset and although it cozies up to your skin quickly, it growls at you when you don’t expect it. To summarize, thank you Mr. Guillaume. As I hope you can tell, I’m having a blast with Cuir d’Iris. It captures exactly what I love about perfume.

To start this is not one of my likable fragrance that I am going to brag out, in fact this fragrance to my nose can be plain disgusting but in a beautiful way, sweeter and powdery way while making a trip to the stable or the barnyard but not staying there a lot,here is my conviction.... This is considered an “Iris Scent” hence the name and it specifically translates in English to “Leather Iris” as I dabbed it on my skin it starts as a spicy,animalic and floral leather (A beautiful Iris presence, but you can also detect the crazy smokey, personal and in a way animalic leather note that can take the fragrance to a whole new level that screams beauty and mystery but with a beastly projection and smell. As It dries down the smell in a way get more syrupy, floral and powdery ( I would like to give credit to Perfumerie Generale for adding such high quality Iris that I never smelled before, this is what we call ladies and gentlemen a FULL BLOWN IRIS) but you still got that beastly presence, you still get that smokey leather that makes you feel that you are in a tannery while maintaining a slight personal body odora greasy smell that in the hair that has been unwashed for day. Again this is not disgusting that can make your eyeballs water or that can make people run away screaming for their lives, the personal note I just mentioned is very subtle and add more depth to the mystique of the Iris and the concoction overall. As the hours pass by, a hint of personal dark musk (maybe a little patchouli) start to peep in the composition but stays subtle and close the skin, while making the other notes scream at the top of the roof. Sweet.leathery,floral,leathery and some is the perfect summary for this scent. Bravo! It may be a scent I would like but not EVERYDAY, definitely not. More review at facebook "The Perfume's Apothecary"

PG is swiftly becoming to SL what Mancera is to Montale, house. Forgive me if I've happened to be a slowpoke doozy in picking this up very late but it's a disappointment I'd rather not have discovered. Pungent, harsh rubberized, leather for sure but including the treating process - belies the tempting graphics on the note list yet again. Even this time, the drydown with PG's take even longer than Serge's and there's no comforting honeyed-sweetness/orientals to find at all in his openings. Brash, raw and unforgiving, what's the point in standing by this horror show further? For me PG, along with Lutens, Amouage, Profumum and some other less known houses represent among the worst examples of any house in the industry, let alone Niches. Terrible. It's testimony to house like Smell Bent that I rate items like their Hungry hippies scent over every single Amouage scent (maybe with exception of Jubilation only on a few autumn days) The good news is that there *are far better alternative (though for me, few and far between). Heck, even Bond No9 manages to do a chocolate based scent better!! More proof with this awful example here that you should never blind buy the scent even based off a full list of reviews and notes! My rating: 2/10.

smells exactly like the "goat milk" erasers of my childhood starts with a strong hit of plastic leather, a real pleather cloud, there is some fragrant iris powder, a hint of cocoa, some amber. i tried this a few months ago (november) not sure why in winter and with a few changes perhaps to my chemistry (coffee so skin acidity) it should make such a staggering difference. in november the scent was iris, a hint of leather, a strong waft of vetiver and incense. now it is pure goat milk, bitter with too much powder of a sour variety. what a difference!

So nice to find a perfume (and an excellent one at that) that does what it says on the label! This really is leather and iris (according to official website black iris-although I don't know how big the olfactory differences might be). The blending is superb and the overall effect is elegant and seductive. Mid point onwards I get ambrette (could this be the amber note or the combo of amber and chocolate?). This aspect hints towards Dior Homme EDP, but Cuir d'Iris is much better.

This has a bucketload of iris on drydown and stays that way on me for at least 2 hours. Only then does the leathery smell come through. After about 4 hours the the iris comes back, slowly, but the leather remains. Difficult to detect anything but those 2 notes, on me, at least. Medium sillage and longevity.

Very animalic leather opening. Reminds me of the animalic leather in Cuir Pleine Fleur. This one stays this way for a long time then very late in the drydown the leather is joined by a very soft, powdery iris. I like it but the whole thing is very quiet on my skin. Not much sillage coming off this one.

Creamy tanned suede. I get no iris notes at all, but if you want to smell a true suede leather scent, this is your baby.

This fragrance doesn't agree with my chemistry at all. All I can smell is very(!) dusty and "plasticy" iris. Too bad!

Disappointing. No iris, and not very much leather. Cuir d'Iris mostly just smells like bandaids in a bonfire.

This is an excellent leathery edgy spicy scent. It smells almost dusty in a way...but that gives it an edge.

Smells like Leather mixed with wet Cardboard... Not for me...