Red Leather

Talk about a crown jewel! This is definitely one of the most interesting leathers I've ever smelt, and I can understand why Kiler considers it his personal favorite work thus far. Immediately upon applying this fragrance, I get the rhubarb: sharp, tart, and strong. It was off-putting for a few seconds, but I think that's because rhubarb isn't used often. This was mixed with a sort of rubber/vinyl note and something animalic, most likely the beaver (castoreum). It's not "dirty" the way some castoreum scents can be, just very earthy and pungent. Suede and pink pepper seem to "underscore" the whole thing, though the pepper fades away quickly. Within thirty minutes, that rubber note has morphed in to an incredibly warm leather. Warm, not hot--there are spices here, but they're not overbearing. By the time you hit the two hour mark, every note is working together to enhance that leather scent. The spices and the powdery suede give this leather a texture so real, you feel like you could reach out and touch it. (I've noticed that another reviewer has mentioned that this wasn't particularly leathery on their skin; clearly, I had the complete opposite experience!) The fragrance softens up a bit and becomes more balsamic after 6-ish hours, with something musky and vaguely powdery smoothing it all over. I think these are the florals coming through, though they're so beautifully blended in to the composition that I can't pink individual notes out. It just smells like a soft cocoon. I do not get any neroli or ylang-ylang, nor do I pick up on a hefty dose of patchouli. I thought I was going crazy, but apparently I'm not the only Fragrantica reviewer who couldn't find these notes in Red Leather. If they're really in there, they're taking a back seat to everything else. In terms of sillage and longevity, Red Leather was another near-beast from the PK line. It lasted for about 7-8 hours on my hand through multiple washings, and for close to 12 hours when I sprayed it in my hair. The sillage is moderate to heavy, depending on how much you apply; I think more than a carefully-placed spritz or two of this fragrance would be overbearing. Besides, it strikes me as something designed to draw people closer...and how better to do that than to give those around you a "glimpse" of your fragrance? I'm hesitant to run out and buy Red Leather because I don't think I'd have too many occasions to wear it. I live a very sedate life, and this fragrance is anything but. But it's absolutely worth testing out. And as far as artistry goes? PK's Red Leather is tough to beat.

Do you know the seven deadly sins? I'm going to introduce you to one of them: Lust, one of the greatest sins, one that can take you to commit others. That’s how I will start to unravel this fragrance that was launched in 2012 and brings the red in the name and on vibration. A fragrance full of desire, exuberance, and voluptuousness. Without a doubt, Red Leather was not made to innocent people, who cherish for soft scents with angelic nuances. Its output notes are Buchu leaves (Agathosma) – which in perfumery provides fruity aroma, similar to blackcurrant –, rhubarb, pink pepper, and pink grapefruit. Its heart notes are pink Carnation, red rose, ylang-ylang, neroli, Davana (with its sweet and fruity nuances), and Dianthine, which has an aromatic aspect of Carnation. Finally, at the base: rum, patchouli, Bay Rum, teak wood, blood cedarwood, amber, musks, suede, Civet, castoreum, and leather. With this amount of animalic notes, you can't think of something other than sexy, right? From its opening, I'd say Red Leather is a fragrance more designed for women. However, when the heart notes begin to emerge, the perfume changes and molds to its wearer. On me, presented green nuances of roots, plus a floral and slightly alcoholic aspect. On another person, I believe it will react differently, just like secret desires that show themselves when and to whom we wish to reveal. Red Leather is not a typical leathery fragrance, which may generate disappointments for those who make blind purchases, waiting for a rich scent of leather. In my understanding, it is an aromatic-leathery scent. I would say that the leather, in this creation, works like an accessory of lust: the whip, the boots, the mask, etc. Red Leather is a sensual scent and needs to be interpreted. And you, have already sinned today?

This fragrance is a standout that captivated me from the moment I opened my PK package. Artemisia (davana) is what I first encountered with this fragrance — I love its powerful, bittersweet attitude. And Red Leather is a carefully tuned fragrance that exploits the cabalistic green edge that this ingredient can give to a perfume. Rhubarb and grapefruit add a multifaceted sparkle to this dark beauty. Tactile suedes, phenolic leathers, aromatic woods, and animalic notes add a raw carnality to Red Leather, something that I craved from my bottle of Aedes de Ventustas, also an avant garde rhubarb perfume. I also recall the top notes of Hermes Un Jardin Sur Le Nil. Yes, I would put Kiler side by side with Duchaufour and Ellena, only for me, this fragrance is so much more satisfying in its base notes and dry down. Those who enjoy Bandit, Ombre Leather, and other fragrances that fall in the realm of a leather chypre will find Red Leather a modern indulgence. The florals in Red Leather are subtle but add a polish that finishes this olfactive abstraction with a hint of unisex class. Suave, dynamic and assertive — I think I just found the perfect fragrance to wear with my red suede knee-high boots.

This is like dried rhubarb, citrus and spice with a bunch of funky suede leather underneath making it even drier, slightly dusty. Not a juicy fruity rhubarb like most you may have tried before, so don't expect that here it's like a dessicated rhubarb as the sharp green sour aspects are there but the fruity sweet aspects are kind of removed from it. Bitter but creamy elements I am guessing is from the Artemesia is here too, but the piercing peppery spices step on that great note. Red Leather is a good name for this and it is was interesting to try but not bottle worthy for me.

Take out all the ingredients for lemon peppered chicken. Throw away the chicken. Take off your leather Doc Martin shoe and prepare according to recipe. Cook until tender. The fragrance that fills your house (assuming you use enough pepper) will be this perfume. Bon Appetite! "Wow! This perfume reminds me of how my mom used to prepare lemon peppered shoe for dinner every Sunday night."

The review by ALAYNA1011 (below) pretty well summed up this unfortunate concoction. I can understand why someone new to fragrances would be revulsed by even the tiniest whiff of this, buuut, my fellow niche-snobs, you seem to have forgotten why we all got into fragrances in the first place, and that was to smell good, smell great, smell awesome, smell fantastic, not like something you just excavated from the frozen Siberian tundra. If you have not had the unfortunate pleasure of getting your nose across this yet and are still hell-bent on purchasing a bottle, I beg of you to get a sample first...please.

Red Leather is deceptive in that it diverges from standard perfume interpretations of the subject, instead offering a hot, animalic, and stimulating ride with a polysemous charge that can be read differently from wearer to wearer. Without hesitation, the scent throws the first punch of sharp rhubarb and pink pepper, creating a visual image not of red, but of hot, vivid pink. While forceful, there's nothing abrasive or jarring about the way this opens, yet it's more than enough to grab and hold your attention throughout the initial stages. But the second you grow accustomed to the unusual pepper/rhubarb pairing, things become complicated as by now animalic notes have stepped in and are mingling with the hot pinks to produce a slight dirty, indolic effect. At this point, the scent begins to vacillate between invigorating and something else entirely. Saffron-type notes begin to appear and the overall coloration shifts from hot pink to a deeper and more seductive red. The rhubarb sharpness is still prominent, but retracts into the mix allowing the pink pepper to join forces with the other spices to reveal a rich, textured carnation base. The note transitions here are particularly clever in that they don't simply compliment one another passively, but actively make use of each another to shift from one phase into the next. And as the scent moves into its final stage, the color shift becomes notably more of a deep red/burgundy which, like Kiler's other fragrances, insinuates a narrative of movement that's represented here as an initial seduction followed by a capture. And this, perhaps is where the leather component might be best indexed. What sets this fragrance apart from other leather scents is that it's just not that leathery. Instead, it creates more of an aura of a person in leather rather than rendering a literal leather effect. The scent's moniker might even be said to produce an effect of longing within the wearer—a desire for leather, or more provocatively (and to trace the implicit narrative), a desire to be seduced and captured. From this perspective, the evanescence of the leather should not be read as a design flaw as the fragrance becomes especially arresting when approached from such a contextual standpoint, but it also raises the question of who might wear something like this and where might they wear it? It's unisex, but unconventionally so, as it would seem plausible that such a scent might work in different ways for different genders or orientations. There's a raunchiness to it that stems from the animalics and the saffron-like spices; yet it can just as easily be read as a fresh, invigorating fragrance—one that could plausibly be worn to a formal environment. And it's here that the name seems somewhat problematic in that "red leather" conjures up very specific images and associations, yet Red Leather itself is far more versatile than the associations it conjures. Furthermore, what leather notes are distinguishable are rendered so subtly and intriguingly, that a person looking for a standard leather fragrance might be disappointed to find that this one is considerably more intricate and interesting than the name would suggest. The leather note is certainly present, but is refracted through the the scent's other components. There's not much that this could be aligned to as the dominant notes that Kiler selected are fairly uncommon in contemporary compositions. Aedes de Venustas EdP has a similar (albeit brief) rhubarb opening, but that scent leans more on tomato leaf to get its effect whereas Red Leather deploys the rhubarb as bait as well as a mode of transition. Ultimately, this is a surprising perfume—one that would lend itself to a slew of scenarios and wearers, yet it's still quite particular in that it won't appeal to everybody. For those who like their freshness with some hot spice, this might be a strong contender. But for those who want a simple text-book leather scent, there are others available that might serve that need better. Red Leather's far more unusual and captivating than a stock leather fragrance, and it has an agenda that's all its own.

Rhubarb... then what comes next I get a burst of rhubarb almost everywhere in this blend, then hints of suede, grapefruit, & rum. It has wood notes as well, & some neroli. This blend is cute, and i have sniffed something like it before. Cute.