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="">

Perfume Review - Kashmire

Kashmire by Enhanticals Perfume

I dismissed Kashmire as rather uninteresting the first time I wore it. But now that I try it on again I find that I do like it very much. In the bottle this smells a lot like Incendere actually, lots of creamy cinnamon. But on wet all similarities to Incendere end. Om me, this scent is cinnamon and not much else. A creamy, smooth, slightly resiny cinnamon. The scent decription tells me that there should be coriander, labdanum, cashmere, teak, opium and sandalwood in here as well, but at most I can find hints of resins and woods. There is a honey yellow oil in this blend that is heavier and sinks to the bottom of the vial... It´s hard to get this oil to blend with the rest as you can´t really efficiently shake the vial. I don´t know  what oil this is or if it affects how I experience this scent... I also don´t know what cashmere smells like, so I can´t really tell if it is noticeable in this scent.

On dry this scent is sweet, powdery and slightly woody with no clear notes that my nose kan sniff out. From what I have read about cashmere it is mostly a base not, so perhaps it´s cashmere I can smell here. Anyhow, it is sweet and lovely! Longevity is about medium in this one. The drydown sits very close to the skin while the wet stage has a medium sillage. On me it is not very complex or exciting, I´m not going for a full bottle, but it´s still gorgeous!

Perfume Review - Rama

Rama by Enchanticals Perfume.

Rama is a dark and murky blend. Before you shake it there is a thick layer of cocoa absolute at the bottom... I like that, it is really pretty! In the vial this smells sweet and boozy, a bit like a lovely chocolate liqueur or like one of those liqueur chocolates that I spend Christmas avoiding. 

On wet it changes completely, coriander and bergamot takes center stage for a short while. At least I think it is coriander, I can´t quite remember what coriander smells like and I can´t find any to sniff right at this moment. This stage is fresh and spicy in a way I can enjoy. After the bergamot fades it also smells a bit like yogi tea, not a cup of it, but the "tea" itself, a beautiful blend of dry spices. The vague spice stays for a while but is joined by wood, a dry wood, not a resiny one. This is also where the cocoa makes a reappearance, but now it is a slightly bitter dark chocolate, just the way I like my chocolate in perfume. The final drydown a soft, almost powdery, woody amber with hints of cocoa. I can´t quite find any tobacco in this one, even if the description says it should be there... If there are hints of tobacco here, it is the same tobacco as in Mephistopheles, a sweet and mild one and therefore quite hard to distinguish.

This one is about medium in both sillage and longevity. I love it, probably not enough to buy a full size, but there is something intriguing about it... The scent is dry in a way that I enjoy and I am a fan of woods and spices!

Perfume - The collection so far

Here are most of my essential oils and a few empty bottles for experiments...

Here are my perfume oils and samples (in the film canisters) as well as a few of my own experimental blends. You will note a couple of Body Shop perfume oils in here and a solid from Lush that I had completely forgotten that I owned, these are from the days when I was a coconut and vanilla gal... I don´t really know what to do with them now...

This post is inpired both by Dee's post about orginizing her makup and perfume as well as BrightestStarOfAll's post about her perfume collection. I´m feeling quite organized when I look at this! The wooden boxes are two of the drawers in a mini dresser that I have on my "desk". If you want to know what exactly is in my collection, you can have a look at my stash at ScentBase. The only things missing both in the pictures and in my Scentbase stash are a couple of full size vintage perfumes (Madame Rochas EdC and Yves Rocher Venice EdT) and a few vintage decants...

Perfume Review - Mephistopheles

Mephistopheles by Enchanticals Perfume.

Another early morning review from me... I seem to have gotten into the habit of putting on perfume before I go to bed, but Mephistopheles is not a perfume I´d usually wear to bed, it is more exciting than comforting. In the bottle this is sweet and rather mild with no clear notes to my nose, there is some delicate patchouli and whiffs of anise-like licorice but this scent does not make a definite impression until it hits skin.

On wet I can only smell licorice at first, and how I love licorice! Then comes the patchouli and drowns out everything else, and how I love patchouli! This is quite an unusual combination, but it works! Patchouli and licorice play a game of dominance for quite a while and at times I can catch whiffs of brown sugar. The tobacco stays in the background in this one, it is there and adds a certains smokyness but it does not dominate. It is a very different kind of tobacco from the one in Miel de Sauvage et Tabac, much sweeter and not as pungent. I get no fig at all in this scent, even though it is there according to scent description.... That´s a shame, because I do love fig... As Mephistpheles dries the tobacco becomes more and more noticeable and the drydown is a beautiful blend of tobacco and patchouli.

I´ll sleep with this on and see if I can still smell it in the morning. I`ll add longevity then as I can not remember from my earlier trials. Update: I could still smell it this morning after about 9 hours of wear, so longevity is a bit more than average. Sillage is about average, perhaps a bit less.

I love this one, maybe enough for a full size bottle, we´ll se when the samples is gone. It is earthy and smoky and delightfully deep with a sparkling anise at the top... makes for an intriguing blend! I might try to layer this one with Miel de Sauvage et Tabac and see what happens, that combo has potential I think. Update: This combination is just as gorgeous as I thought it would be!

(Speaking of MdSeT, I tried it on my friend Blomma, who has a very different skin chemistry and WOW on her it is AWESOME! On her it is honey galore with gorgeous tobacco backdrop, I´m envious! And she is envious because she loves how it smells on me... The world is unfair!)

Perfume - Samples from Enchanticals Perfume

Back in December, when the world was about to end as you might remember, Enchanticals Perfume (Etsy shop here) had a short End of Days sale that I promptly exploited! (I just loved the concept of an End of Days sale, complete with the ironic promise of a refund if the world did indeed end.) I ordered twelve samples and got to choose three more freebies.


These are the samples I received and their primary notes according to scent descriptions:

• Dungeon - burning leather,  icy scent of a cold stare and steel bars, freshly dug dirt.
• Kashmire - labdanum, cashmere, teak wood, opium, cinnamon, coriander,  sandalwood.
• Juna - moon flower, oak moss, benzoin.
• Mephistopheles - sweet tobacco absolute, Indonesian dark patchouli essential oil, black licorice, brown sugar, deep dark ripe figs.
• The Old Crow - 3 different resins, blue musk's, whiskey, black pepper essential oil.
• The Haunted Mansion - leather, labdanum, cocoa absolute, dark chocolate, sweet woody tobacco absolute, patchouli essential oil, rootbeer.
• Harvesting Zombies - aged patchouli essential oil,  amber,  cinnamon, harvest fruits and spices.
• Frankie's Wild Bride - Amaretto, clementine, cranberries,  graveyard weeds, chypre (patchouli and oakmoss absolutes), cinnamon.
• Embracer la Mort - violet flowers,  dark juicy berries,  greens,  incense and vanillas
• Sara's Dragon - dragons blood, clove, blood orange, cinnamon, dark chocolate, exotic flora.
• Ghouls Night Out - blood orange, apples, pumpkin, warm spices, dragons blood. 
• Rama - sweet tobacco, cocoa absolute, sandalwood, spiced rum, bergamot, coriander, sweet marjoram essential oil.
• Hathor's Horizon - patchouli and vetiver, greens, vanilla, chocolate, caramel, cherries.
• Absinthe - anise, green tea, angelica root.
• Typsy Gypsy - soils of the earth, rose, fig, exotic spices, rum, wine. 

There are many here that I like, a few that I love and a few that go straight to potential swaps. I will not review all of them, probably only the ones that I love and/or find very interesting. Scents that I will definitely review are Dungeon and The Haunted Mansion, Mephistopheles and Rama. But if there are any other scents that you want to know more about, do let me know and I´ll review them for you!