Spirit of Autumn: 7 fragrances with a leather note
Text: Ksenia Golovanova, author of the Telegram channel Nose Republic
In the autumn perfume palette often want to add bright warming scents, and the best choice can be leather, an ingredient with a long history in which it appeared in dozens of different combinations and roles. Perfume critic Ksenia Golovanova showed us seven different "skins": representative, and animal, and floral.
Alessandro Gualtieri, also known as Signor Nasomatto, removed one of the best fragrances of the brand, Hindu Grass herbaceous patchouli, from production, and quickly put us in exchange for excellent skin - the new Nudiflorum. Botanists, do not rush to jump up from places - to jasminum nudiflorum, or jasmina holo-flowered, the fragrance has nothing to do. But there is definitely a “naked” and “flower” in it: greenish is responsible for the first, like a depraved sword belt in the neon light of the club, the skin, for the second - irises and violets erased into fine powder together with some white petals. Good, modern sounding replacement for the classic Bandit, Robert Piguet.
Perfume critic Luca Turin compares Alaïa with cool air in an airplane - so accurately that I want to quote. The implication is, of course, not a dense stench, hanging on the fortieth row closer to the last hour of the China Eastern transcontinental flight, but carefully filtered, almost mineral, like a cooled chablis, atmospheric front that meets at the entrance to a new Boeing. Add to this the delicate spirit of leather armchairs and the invisible perfume flowers, icy and abstract - such always bloom around strict senior flight attendants - and get Alaïa.
Bottega Veneta would not be "Bottega", do not have it expensive perfume line. This (good) is - called Parco Palladiano, and it was in its design that the brand used its own intricate pattern. A cheaper and mass Cuir Velours chic bottle did not get, but in terms of content it was he who, in the language of marketing, perfectly matches the brand's DNA. Formally, this is a leather chypre, but under the chyprom here, of course, means the modern variety with patchouli instead of moss. In fact, “Velvet Water” is a aroma in deep wine tones of the Archimbold “Spring”, dark pepper roses and plum branches intercepted by a leather cord, gloomy air in the crowns of a century-old Italian magnolia. Very thoroughbred.
Stéphane Humbert Lucas, or, as it is often called for simplicity, "Three Sevens", is one of the most interesting brands of modern perfumery. The Frenchman Stephen Luke, who has long and happily fallen in love with the Arab East, is engaged in it; all the moves and schemes of Arabic perfumery, all this complex theater of shadows - layer behind the fragrant layer, smear after the fragrant stroke - is in place here. As well as oriental resistance: "Sevens" stick into your skin like falcon claws into a trap glove. Soleil de Jeddah is a nervous and agile bird, spinning on the arm of its mistress-sheikhs in all directions, observing from the odorous leather inside of an SUV various nuances of the surrounding landscape: the salty edge of the Persian Gulf, amber sands of the Rub-al-Khali desert, lemon oysters, gilded the arabian sun.
Dreams of Grasse, long ceased to be the perfume capital of the world, do not give rest to modern romantics. Paul Emilien is one of them: his Cuir Rustique is a dedication to an era when perfumery was gradually chosen for fresh air from leather workshops in the south of France, where they processed skins brought from Italy, Spain and Levant. Tannins smelled badly, and so the skin was soaked in fragrant extracts to drown the stench, but Cuir Rustique is silent about this. The conversation here is in a completely different, high register: this skin has already acquired a characteristic softness and gloss, soaked with the aromas of iris and saffron and got to the end customer - to some viscount de Sausson.
The fragrances of the Canadian brand Zoologist are inspired by a variety of animals, so the skin motif is one of the most popular in the line: it works as an anchor or is just well felt in the scents Bat ("Bat"), Beaver ("Beaver"), Civet ("Civet"), Rhinoceros ("Rhino") and the new Tyrannosaurus Rex. And yet the most distinctly the skin sounds in Hyrax, released six months ago. Translated from English, hyrax means “daman”, or “zhiryak” - this is the name of an animal that looks like a marmot and a guinea pig at the same time, but by the will of fate placed in a much more exotic landscape: most damans live just south of the Sahara. Hiraceum petrified fatty litter, also African stone, is used in perfumery as a fragrant substance that has an earthy smell with animal and honey tones. Together with a tarry leather chord, elemi and hay absolute, he turns the Hyrax into a slow-motion shot of the African savannah: fragrant dust curls under the hooves of antelopes, dried grass freaking out in the wind, and a milk elephant stepping on his own overcooked breakfast.
Cuir, like other smoked skins in the spirit of Patchouli 24, Le Labo, or Lonestar Memories, Tauer Perfumes, is considered to be a skin for confident users. Probably due to the fact that it does not fall into any of the leather profiles that are familiar to the perfume suite - this is not a Bottega Veneta suede glove, not the inside bag of an expensive bag that Hermès and Tom Ford taught us, and not a flower skin like the popular French Leather, Memo Paris. Cuir - "Brokeback Mountain": tobacco smoke, the smell of a fire, sweaty blankets, dusty boots and men's kisses in a tent. In short, the plot is about the same, only made with a much greater taste than the original melodrama.
Photo: Nasomatto, Alaia, Bottega Veneta, Salon Parfumer, Paul Emilien, Zoologist Hyrax, Mona Di Orio