Cuir de Russie Chanel 2016 Eau de Parfum

Now this is gorgeous and opens up with a creamy buttery ylang ylang followed by a very refined supple almost suede like leather.

As time passes you can smell jasmine,dry woods, iris all woven tightly together that the scent shimmers on your skin. Smell it one moment you get the leather, smell it again and you can smell the jasmine. It is a beautiful classy multifaceted fragrance.

Deep into the drydown after many hours I can even smell a soft and sensual animalic scent on my skin.

This scent lasted seven hours on my skin and the projection and sillage was decent.

I have to say this is one of the most luxurious and classy fragrances I have ever smelled. Bravo to Chanel this is just a beautiful refined gem of a scent. Big thumbs up!

It is a lovely delicate floral leather, a milder cousin of Dior Fahrenheit. If Frederic Malle had met with the creators of Fahrenheit and asked them to edit some of the notes out and soften the leather to a whisper, you will get Cuir de Russie. It opens with the sourness of bergamot, but other opening notes - orange blossom and orange - are less prominent. The flowers from the middle - jasmine, ylang-ylang and rose - come up quickly and complement the citrus opening. The leather note - produced by birchwood - is very mild and inconspicuous. But it is there to make some reviewers call it animalic. In a blinded test, many may not pick this out as a leather scent.

When I was testing this one, I went back and tested Fahrenheit again on paper to compare. What an amazing perfume Fahrenheit is!

The opening of this perfume is an open-handed slap of aldehydes and flowers in true Chanel style, reminding me very much of No. 5. The expected leather never arrives, however, because Cuir de Russie is a leathery scent, but not overly so. Once opened, the scent settles on a leathery yet not dry note, supported by floral/aldehyde notes that lighten it while leaving the animalic tone inherent in the olfactory profile intact. In the background of the composition, there remains a hint of smoke and resins that support the leather and make it more decisive, contrasting the lighter floral notes. The opening tends to be more feminine, while from the heart onwards, it becomes unisex, tending towards masculine; overall, truly beautiful and worthy of a bottle in a collection. Excellent longevity, with a contained sillage, especially after opening. Excellent perfume for spring and autumn; I don't find it too warm or too cold; I associate it with the transitional seasons. Beautiful!

While many seem to bemoan the loss of everlasting, sparkling aldehydes and the animalic twang of the EDT, I am not aware of what was lost as I've only laid my nose on this EDP, and I discern a well-mannered yet effulgent blend that smells great on my skin.

Cuir de Russie EDP is bright and vivacious to start, with a clean and somewhat soapy quality courtesy of orange blossom and aldehydes classically paired with ylang-ylang, but this sooner turns to this soft, smooth, velour-like heart. The jasmine and sweet tobacco which renders a precious tonality, the contrast between the two lending to the "clean-layered-over-dirty' sensibility through the dry down.

The birch tar here is but a drop, leavened by musks that seem to not only carry the leather but also the florals, close to the skin, for a number of hours, with whatever has graced fabric lasting even longer. It is a persistent but nuanced ambience that is the hallmark of Chanel it seems, and which may often be mistaken for lack of performance. However, that isn't the case at all, it is more a translucency. One doesn't prefer something visual merely because it is dense and opaque, right? Herein lies the problem of defining value while disposing of experience.

Once again, I haven't smelled the EDT, but with this EDP, the experience has proven more than worth it, and I look forward to revisiting it time and again.

"Cuir de Russie" has the classic opening of bergamot zest with light floral backdrop of the orange flower. Almost immediately comes a leathery-tobacco note, and one knows that this is not "just another floral" perfume. Tobacco is dry, without fruit or oiliness, which harmonises it well with the leather and birch. The name is in the pudding, as they say - Russian Leather almost never goes without the sappy woodiness of birch.
Did you know that the Russians, and other slavic people, collect birch "juice" (sap to be precise) in the early spring? It has a light lemony-sweet taste and makes a most refreshing and enjoyable drink. The care is taken not to take too much from the tree, as otherwise it will not have enough for its own awakening and growth. But I digress.
The florals step in tentatively, ylang-ylang powders over the leather, giving it a suede-like nuance, and jasmine supports bergamot, becoming crisp and refreshing, giving a pleasing accord of the white jasmine, rather than the oriental one.
Projection is not the strongest, and I would advise a somewhat indulgent spray application, to achieve a reasonable and pleasing scent bubble. Sillage will not be loud either, but the staying power is good, once the fragrance has settled on one's skin.
As a whole, "Cuir de Russie" is a beautifully composed and blended fragrance, with the olfactory notes weaved together seamless and smooth; they may not necessarily keep to their places in the pyramid, but that does not spoil the experience or makes it lesser in anyway. It is a perfectly unisex scent, as rose and orange blossom are barely detectable, and jasmine and ylang-ylang are very well balanced by the leather-wood-tobacco trio, which also creates a very light smokiness, adding depth and versatility.
"Cuir de Russie" is perfect for any time of the year and any setting, as mentioned earlier it is on a light side when it comes to projection, so generous spraying and re-application are perfectly alright. It lasts well as a skin scent and with time deepens and expends into resinous tones (which can feel sweeter in summer). I most certainly prefer it to Chanel No 5 as a fragrance of a modern, unapologetically unique and confident personality, unbothered about the fleeting trends and "cores", and ensuring that they leave their mark in this world on their terms and in their own time.