SOTE: Cuir de Lancome SOTD: Chanel Cuir de Russie parfum

I'm on a leather kick lately. And a boot kick. Wore my gorgeous new rubber boots and Cuir de Lancome last night to get out for a drink with a girlfriend. We had such a blast, and it was so lovely to get her out of the house and get her laughing. She's a new mom, and the sleep deprivation and anxiety has really been getting to her.

The minute I woke up this morning, I knew the scent of the day had to be Cuir de Russie. So I have that luxurious thing on, and my leather wedge boots that lace up in the back. I feel much better than yesterday. Every time I wear Cuir de Russie, I think all I ever want to wear is leather scents, and I go on a rampage looking for yet more. But it really is so rare to find good birch-tar-based leather scents. My other favorites are the saffron-infused suede of Cuir de Lancome, the extra-tarred, extra-cloved vintage Lanvin Scandal parfum, the endearingly furry leather of L'Artisan Dzing!, and the heavenly burnt rubber of Bvlgari Black. I would love to get some of Heeley's Cuir Pleine Fleur, but am worried that when I want the luxury leather thing, I'll inevitably go to my Cuir de Russie.

I'm probably weird, but my nose doesn't really read the isobutyl quinoline-based scents as leather. They are more like ashtray. Not that I dislike ashtray -- vintage Cabochard parfum is my favorite ashtray scent, and the recent Diorling reformulation is a close second. But I just can't do Bandit. Well, maybe I will someday when a bottle of the vintage parfum falls out of the sky and into my lap.

But until that day, what should be my next leather, do you think? What's your next leather scent going to be? Knize Ten? Etro Gomma? Serge Lutens Cuir Mauresque? Maybe I should wait for Traversée du Bosphore?

In which our heroine takes drastic measures...

for a bottle of Scandal.

So this is my report from the Round Top Antiques Show. After a hard day's scrounging and slogging through booth after booth, I brought home my treasure: a few cool old prints (two Buffon natural history prints and a book illustration of a ship on a stormy sea) and the precious: a full 1 oz of Lanvin's Scandal. But here's the rub: those old Lanvin bottles with the ground glass stoppers are notorious for the stoppers breaking off in the bottle. Yep, there was just a black stub wedged inextricably in the bottle.

But did that stop me, for a 6$ bottle of Scandal? Hells no. I found myself spending an hour sitting on the floor in my living room drilling a hole through the stopper with a special glass and tile bit on my trusty DeWalt drill. Basically acting like a maniac and practically demolishing the bottle. But success! I've safely decanted the precious into another bottle. I can sit back in satisfaction, knowing two things: I've really gone 'round the bend, and being crazy smells awesome.

Some fall favorites

Leathers...

Chanel Cuir de Russie
A loving embrace and a glimpse of the privileged life. Notes: iris, Birkin bag, expensive lipstick, trust funds.

Lanvin Scandal
A surprising rush of endorphins, hitting like the snap of a whip, brought on by a kiss from a great-smelling, cashmere-sweatered stranger. Notes: floral bouquet, leather whip.

Luscious iris...

Chanel No. 19
Too perfect to be loveable, too haughty to be anything but invincible. Notes: galbanum, iris, vetiver, leather.

Serge Lutens Iris Silver Mist
Magical thinking will get you here. Carrots and beanstalks pulled out of the ground turn into fantasy delicacies. Notes: carroty iris, icy iris, bready iris.

Rich green florals...

Malle Editions Une Fleur de Cassie
Lazing in a string hammock smelling the mud, the sea, and the acacia during a monsoon. Notes: acacia, mimosa, jasmine, sandalwood.

Ormonde Jayne Woman
Like handling malachite worry beads: almost too smooth to get a grasp on, but comforting. Or, a cool, spiced, dark green, shadowed forest. Notes: cardamom, coriander, black hemlock, jasmine, woods.

Pure creature comforts...

Guerlain L'Heure Bleue
All the colors of dusk, from dark violet to peacock to midnight blue. Notes: anise, bergamot, Guerlain's magic ochres and Prussian blues.

Jean Deprez Bal à Versailles
Necco candies and sex. Notes: Rose, jasmine, civet, musk.

Shiseido Féminité du Bois
Pulling full-test pure cedarbark pancake syrup in Hansel and Gretel's violet-strewn forest. Notes: cedarwood, violets, undergrowth.

Fendi Theorema
The most delicious mandarin sandalwood cream liqueur in the entire world. Notes: mandarin orange, osmanthus, wood.

Cuir (new) : Lancome : Calice Becker and Pauline Zanoni

Refreshingly, for once I am not talking about how much better a vintage formulation is, and for a very simple reason: I've never smelled the original Révolte (later renamed Cuir) created in 1936.

The top and heart notes of the new Cuir de Lancome have an odd, sharp, medicinal saffron and mandarine, which combined together strike me as almost camphorous--or is that the patchouli, perhaps? However, just underneath, and more apparent as my nose gets acclimated to the odd top notes, is a creamy ylang and hawthorne combination. The fragrance is well-balanced between those two poles.

I agree with Angela's review on Now Smell This in that Cuir is not at all as rough as Knize Ten, and has more in common with Cuir Ottoman or Daim Blond. However, Cuir is different in its subtlety and in the balance of bitter and floral. The medicinal quality cuts the gooeyness that I dislike in both Cuir Ottoman and Daim Blond. The drydown is sweeter as the saffron fades and the patchouli and a warm (but still comparatively dry) balsamic quality advance in its place. In the far drydown I can detect a tinge of my beloved iris if I spray it at least three times and snorfle (the technical term) my nose right up to my wrist.

I'm trying to place the type of leather this is. It's not the inside of an expensive bag, and it's not a saddle, that's for sure. It's not glove-leather or a suede car coat. Before I can place it, the bottom kinda drops out of the thing, so hm. But although it's a bit ephemeral, and even though it has nothing in common with Chanel's Cuir de Russie or Lanvin's vintage Scandal, my two favorite leathers, I think this will grow on me as a more wearable daytime leather.

Notes: bergamot, mandarin, saffron, jasmine, ylang-ylang, hawthorn, patchouli, orris, birch, and styrax.

Rumeur, Scandal, Arpège : Lanvin : André Fraysse

I'm continuing my foray into Lanvin's discontinued greats with this set of vintage Rumeur (1934), Scandal (1933), and Arpège (1927) parfums, my latest fleabay find. I'm stunned with the beauty of these three. I've come to adore My Sin, so I was very eager to get my hands on more Lanvin perfumes. I have no idea how old this little set of .5 oz. bottles is, but I felt as if I'd discovered long-buried treasure when I opened up the package to discover three perfect, still-sealed bottles.

Let me start with what I consider the strangest and most challenging of the three, surprisingly: Rumeur. I've yet to find a list of notes for this perfume, and I've heard it described sometimes as a floral leather. I'm not sure if my nose is out of whack, but I could swear there is an intensely camphorous, medicinal opening here. Could that be, or has this seemingly perfectly preserved bottle gone off? Bless my bloomers if this isn't a carnation and clove scent! A bit of a winey rose and leather accord could be in there as well, and it is certainly bone dry. What a shock, compared to the recent sweet little frooty-floral reformulated version. I say it's challenging, but only because it is very assertively clove-like, which is not a favorite note of mine. It does dry down to a lovely leathery, if still medicinal, spice-and-moss concoction. If you have experience of this in its original state, I would greatly appreciate any details/notes/memories you can provide!

Scandal is the most mouth-wateringly gorgeous leather I've ever smelled since Chanel's Cuir de Russie. Before giving my impressions, though, let me admit to some strong opinions on leather scents, so that you'll know where I stand. I'm often somewhat frustrated with reviews when I have no idea of that person's preferences and/or prejudices, so if you feel the same frustration, bear with me and maybe you'll find this sorta helpful, if pedantic. I am one of those who cannot stand anything remotely syrupy in a leather perfume. Nope, can't do Lutens' Daim Blond, or even (gasp!) Caron's Tabac Blond parfum (recent formulation). The Parfumerie Generale leathers have a synthetic, thick, gooey quality that turns me off entirely. There are also some leathers, such as Knize Ten, that are a bit too tough and arid for me. Bandit (recent edp) and Jolie Madame are both close to the experience of licking a wet ashtray--not bearable, in other words. Other leather references? I do like the new Diorling edt quite a lot, but it is more jasmine and tobacco than leather, it seems to me. I like Dzing, and absolutely adore vintage Miss Dior and Chanel no. 19.

Whew, okay, if you're still with me, the point is: above all of the others, Chanel's Cuir de Russie has always been my floral-leather touchstone, and with Scandal I've now twice the joy. In a side-by-side test of the two (both in parfum), my recently bought CdR is immediately all luscious, aldehydic iris laced with mellow spices, with a tasteful leather handbag in the background. In Scandal, the opening leathery snap is sharper, but when the florals arrive, the result is an uncannily similar iris-leather. Both are elegantly dry, without a smidge of syrup. The leather in Scandal just lasts and lasts and lasts, compared to the new CdR parfum. If you hear a "squee!!" and a thump, that would be me, falling over in ecstasy. "Wow," is all I can say.

Finally, does anything more even need to be said about the plush, velvet-sandalwood and rose that is the original Arpège? On my previous sniffs--perhaps of the new formulation, in my defense--how could I have thought the rose and sandalwood combination sour and matronly? I'm not a rose lover, but in the vintage parfum, at least, the rose is so well blended that it adds only a translucent blush to a fragrance that could have otherwise been slightly opaque. Arpège is like a woman with such effortless grace and elegance you'd almost like to hate her, but can't, or--how about a less catty description?--a captivating gesture made by a sultry, brainy woman in passionate conversation.

If you'd like to learn more about the Lanvin classics, I highly recommend reading reviews of Scandal by NowSmellThis and the original Arpège by BoisdeJasmin.

Kindly tune in again as this blogger continues with reviews of some favorites you don't necessarily have to hunt down on fleabay: Je Reviens Couture, Magie Noire, Bal a Versailles, and perhaps new treasures yet-to-be-discovered on an upcoming trip to New York!