Cuir de Russie Attar II, 2.5 grams

This will be short and sweet, since the owner has already explained in detail in this website what this is about.

This attar is excellent and more elegant that you may think.

The stars of the show are a vintage castoreum tincture, warm, sweet, leathery and animalic (not in excess), and a vintage cedarwood oil that the author already exploits with expertise in other works (see Mahjar). Everything else works here to exploit these ingredients and give some counterpoints, with a heart of animalic leathery warmth and cleaner, well rounded woods.

At the beginning, lacking aldehides and other synthetics seen in different interpretations of russian leather, we get a citrusy floral top note from orange blossom and incense, giving the composition light and a clean smoky facet, different from the usual birch tar/cade oil that are often used for that.

There is a spicy, fresh facet that appears after the initial impression, generated by cardamom and, after a bit, a resinous feel rounds the composition and may give grounds to think of this attar as a bridge between the usual Russian leather (but with a cleaner smoke and natural top notes) and Spanish leather (with the subtle citrus, spices and resins toned down and without relying on civet or musks for warmth).

The overall feeling is of a complex, multifaceted and elegant attar that calls for a dress up and will probably be better for events and people with a character strong enough to carry it. It is more potent than I expected but, in a bit of time, it loses strength and becomes more compact, suiting the whole identity of the composition. Great longevity and an excellent addition to this author's lineup.

I hope to see more leather-focused works from him.