Posted by Kevin
on
14 December 2011
Maître Parfumeur et Gantier Cuir Fétiche, a new women’s perfume, just launched. According to house perfumer Jean-Paul Millet Lage, he was inspired to create Cuir Fétiche on a scouting trip to southern France where he was looking at (and apparently sniffing) leathers for a new line of Maître Parfumeur et Gantier gloves. (As Robin said last week; I’m pretty tired of “creation stories.”)
Cuir Fétiche tries to be “racy;” it’s advertised using a woman wearing nothing but leather gloves (that make her hands look a tad masculine!), and the Cuir Fétiche bottle comes wrapped in a red corset.* Though Cuir Fétiche’s ads may be “suggestive” for Maître Parfumeur et Gantier, the perfume is far from “sexy;” it’s “bound” by convention, not leather handcuffs. Cuir Fétiche is a classic leather fragrance: elegant, calm, well-dressed (not, well, “un-dressed” for sure).
Cuir Fétiche contains fragrance notes of red mandarin, lemon, bergamot, geranium, leather, ylang ylang, jasmine, rose, iris, vanilla, musk, ambergris, patchouli, cedar and sandalwood. Cuir Fétiche goes on bright with glints of citrus and aldehydes…
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Posted by Angela
on
14 March 2011
One of the hazards of a bulging perfume cabinet is how hard it can be to justify buying another bottle, especially when you know you already have a few bottles from the same fragrance family. That’s my dilemma with Serge Lutens Cuir Mauresque. Since Cuir Mauresque became available in the United States last year, my fingers have wavered over the “add to shopping cart” button many a time. I tell myself Cuir Mauresque is special — warm and cozy, intimate and spicy, different from my other leathers. Meanwhile, Caron Tabac Blond, Lancôme Cuir de Lancôme, Bvlgari Black, Robert Piguet Bandit, Christian Dior Diorling, and probably some others I’m forgetting languish as they wait their turn in the fragrance rotation. What’s a girl to do?
Serge Lutens launched Cuir Mauresque in 1996 as one of its non-export, bell jar “exclusives” (as opposed to the export line in the rectangular bottle). In 2010, Cuir Mauresque (“moorish leather”) joined the export line for a limited edition run. Perfumer Christopher Sheldrake developed Cuir Mauresque, and its notes include mandarin peel, orange blossom, burnt styrax, incense, cinnamon, nutmeg, amber, myrrh, cumin, musk, cedar, and civet.
Like many of the Serge Lutens fragrances, Cuir Mauresque kicks off with a surprising note that offers a freaky insight into the rest of the fragrance…
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Posted by Robin
on
15 April 2010
Daim Blond, by Serge Lutens, launched in 2004. That was the same year as Chêne, Vetiver Oriental and Fleurs de Citronnier — a good year over at Serge Lutens, no? Chêne especially stole my heart (I’m wearing it now for the first time in months, and I’m falling in love all over again). Daim Blond — French for white pale suede — was nice, but it was Chêne and Fleurs de Citronnier that went on my buy list…
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Posted by Angela
on
9 November 2009
In Perfume: Joy, Obsession, Scandal, Sin, Richard Stamelman quotes from a 1936 Chanel publicity text about Chanel Cuir de Russie:
…I easily imagine this perfume floating in the wake of a tall, slender brunette, whose moves are confident, who voice is accustomed to giving orders, and who fingers are slightly darkened by tobacco. She is one of those women who always wears a suit, even at midnight at the Savoy; one of those women captivating to watch at the casino in Monaco, who after having lost a sum of money, takes bills and a money order from a love letter hidden in her fine leather handbag, where they have taken on a pungent, slightly wild odor, and with great calm throws them on the green baize of the gaming table.1
Wowee! Who could resist a fragrance like that? (Let’s hope the copy writer went on to a career as a novelist.) But by dint of perspective or reformulation, today’s Cuir de Russie is still beautiful, but not the butch aristocrat of yesteryear. Instead, it’s as if the Cuir de Russie of 70 years ago earned an advanced degree and spent time on the therapist’s couch. She’s still elegant and self-possessed, but she’s not getting written up in the gossip columns…
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Posted by Robin
on
9 September 2008
I said yesterday that the gods are not pleased with me this year, but they must not be entirely angry — Fleur de Liane is not my only chance for joy from perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour at L'Artisan this year. Next month also sees the launch of L'Artisan's new signature fragrance for the West Village perfume boutique Aedes de Venustas*, and this one is right up my alley.
Kevin reviewed the L'Artisan Aedes de Venustas Parfum d'Ambiance room spray back in 2006, and noted that he used the spray on his skin as much as in the air. Not being a big fan of room sprays, I used it only as a personal fragrance, and despite the fact that like most room sprays, it doesn't really “bloom” on skin, it quickly became a fall/winter favorite…
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