05/18/2015
jtd
484 Reviews
jtd
Helpful Review
4
Reve en Cuir
Some notes are easier than others. Not to create, but to accept at face value. Vanilla is one. People recognize 'vanilla', whether it's a vanilla bean or ethyl vanillin. Synthetic vanilla aromachemicals are used because they smell ‘like’ vanilla.
Leather requires a little more imagination. There are more links in the chain of associations that lead to the scent of leather. It’s not even strictly leather that we smell, it’s the combination of the hides and the chemicals of the tanning process. The scent of leather is not one particular thing, but a range of tones in the spectrum of leather.
However a material is derived, if it smells ‘like’ vanilla, it can be considered vanilla. Perfume composition relies on an olfactory algebra: let x = vanilla. Leather presents a more interesting premise to the perfumer. After a connection from A through Z is made, our neurology doesn’t perceive the steps in a chain of associations, just the connection of A and Z. Whether we see the links or not, they are there for the perfumer to play with, making leather a playground of abstraction. Witness the birch tar leathers from early in the early 20th century, the inky synthetic leathers that followed and the range of floral and plastic leathers that came along as compositional rules loosened.
The goal of creating a leather perfume isn’t emulation of leather, though perfume marketing has historically spun piles of bullshit about leather opera gloves, black leather corsets and the innards of Birkin bags. Leather is the inspiration, not the goal. There are as many strategies to composing a leather perfume as there are sub-genres. See: Vierges et Toreros’s lucite leather. S-Ex’s subliminal musky leather. Azurée’s sizzling citrus leather. Bel Ami’s gasoline leather. Cuir de Russie’s iris leather. Cuir d’Ange’s herbal-soapy leather.
Reve en Cuir’s approach isn’t novel but it is effective. It creates a hissy topnote similar to the violet-leaf gasoline of Dior Fahrenheit and its predecessor, Bel Ami. The topnotes sharpen, coalescing into a cool, sweet, clove-like heart. Reve en Cuir’s richness comes from intricacy and what it lacks in projection it makes up for in evolution and duration. It balances richness with precision editing and, though it smells like no particular leather object, it is perfectly coherent. Exemplary of Kurkdjian’s best work, it isn’t radical but it is inventive and intelligible.
from scenthurdle.com
Leather requires a little more imagination. There are more links in the chain of associations that lead to the scent of leather. It’s not even strictly leather that we smell, it’s the combination of the hides and the chemicals of the tanning process. The scent of leather is not one particular thing, but a range of tones in the spectrum of leather.
However a material is derived, if it smells ‘like’ vanilla, it can be considered vanilla. Perfume composition relies on an olfactory algebra: let x = vanilla. Leather presents a more interesting premise to the perfumer. After a connection from A through Z is made, our neurology doesn’t perceive the steps in a chain of associations, just the connection of A and Z. Whether we see the links or not, they are there for the perfumer to play with, making leather a playground of abstraction. Witness the birch tar leathers from early in the early 20th century, the inky synthetic leathers that followed and the range of floral and plastic leathers that came along as compositional rules loosened.
The goal of creating a leather perfume isn’t emulation of leather, though perfume marketing has historically spun piles of bullshit about leather opera gloves, black leather corsets and the innards of Birkin bags. Leather is the inspiration, not the goal. There are as many strategies to composing a leather perfume as there are sub-genres. See: Vierges et Toreros’s lucite leather. S-Ex’s subliminal musky leather. Azurée’s sizzling citrus leather. Bel Ami’s gasoline leather. Cuir de Russie’s iris leather. Cuir d’Ange’s herbal-soapy leather.
Reve en Cuir’s approach isn’t novel but it is effective. It creates a hissy topnote similar to the violet-leaf gasoline of Dior Fahrenheit and its predecessor, Bel Ami. The topnotes sharpen, coalescing into a cool, sweet, clove-like heart. Reve en Cuir’s richness comes from intricacy and what it lacks in projection it makes up for in evolution and duration. It balances richness with precision editing and, though it smells like no particular leather object, it is perfectly coherent. Exemplary of Kurkdjian’s best work, it isn’t radical but it is inventive and intelligible.
from scenthurdle.com
