Perfume Reviews - The Leather Note Mystery

As I have mentioned before on this blog, I have noticed several times now that leather scents often smell like saffron to me. This post will look into this mystery and compare the leather scents that I have tried so far. Dungeon and The Haunted Mansion are both from my recent Enchanticals haul and they have been very instrumental in making me understand the leather note. Aragon by Darling Clandestine and Canus Lupus Arctos by Salmonberry Origins have both been reviewed before by me (here and here). I will revisit them now that I have a better grasp on leather. Hedonic by Haus of Gloi (in my recent package from Su, the awesome enabler) has been included because it is a saffron scent that ironically enough smells like leather on me. ;)

The one scent that really solved this mystery  for me was Dungeon because that scent is all about the leather. It smells like the real thing but in a way that allows me to sense the different notes that make up the real smell of leather. Sniffing Dungeon and sniffing some real leather made me realize that, as a scent, it is made up of three parts. One part cold and sharp herbal, one part saffron-like sweetness and one part dark animalic.

The Haunted Mansion has the same leather note as Dungeon, but accompanied by chocolate, patchouli and sweet tobacco among others. So the sweetness is amplified here and the saffrony note is more apparent. But this one is still definitely a leather scent, unlike the following perfumes in this post.

Now that I have smelled Dungeon, Aragon makes a lot more sense to me. Aragon is the one out of all these five that smells most of saffron to me, even though there is not saffron but leather in the description. Still, there is a trace of that sharp herbal whip but Aragon is missing that animalic note that would make it be percieved as leather by my nose.

Canus Lupus Arctos is also missing that dark animalic note. The herbal note here is more ozonic and the saffron sweetness is subtle. So my nose percieves a bit of saffron, some ozone, but not a leather note.

Hedonic is an interesting one. Description says that this should be black fig, saffron, honey, oud and musk, but I smell only a leathery saffron. I guess the musk acts as the animalic note, the oud might act as the herbal and both of these together with the saffron makes my nose think that this is leather.

So, there is my solution to the saffron-leather mystery! Do you agree or am I, or my nose, just crazy? Do you enjoy leather scents? Any favorites? Or how about saffron scents and favorites?

(Btw... I have a new laptop and you all can´t understand how strange and revolutionary this is! I have never before in my life owned a new computer. The only computer I have owned was the laptop I have had these past few months that was one my little brother bought cheap and second hand in 2008... It was really worn and finally gave up last Thursday... But now I have a new one, and it is fabulous!! All the things I can do that I have never been able to before! <3 p="">