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English Leather Dana 1949 Cologne

7.0 / 10 50 Ratings

A perfume by Dana for men, released in 1949. The scent is leathery-woody. It is still in production.
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Main accords

Leathery

Woody

Citrus

Smoky

Spicy

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Kaffir lime

Italian bergamot

Heart Notes

Leather

Oakmoss

Vetiver

Base Notes

Sandalwood

Cedarwood

Musk

Ratings

Scent

7.050 Ratings

Longevity

6.841 Ratings

Sillage

6.441 Ratings

Bottle

6.745 Ratings

Submitted by Sani, last update on 10/10/2025.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

English Leather After Shave

Reviews

10 in-depth fragrance descriptions

09/27/2021

8Scent 7Longevity 7Sillage

ChicoRoch1
163 Reviews

ChicoRoch1

Helpful Review 3

Again go Vintage

I'm sounding like a broken record but as long as companies change hands and then decide to RUIN a classic fragrance then I'll keep on exposing them. I grew up in the 1970s so i know how nice and strong and manly English Leather USED to be. I recently purchased a vintage bottle from the MEM company and also I purchase a current bottle released by Dana. English leather was born in 1949 and is a leather scent for men. I stood side-by-side and sprayed the Vintage version on my left wrist and the current version on my right wrist and the difference is shocking. It doesn't even smell like the same fragrance and I don't know about you but it bothers me when companies take classic fragrances and just decide to destroy them and then have the audacity to pass them off as the same. Call me old-fashioned, traditional call me whatever I don't care but I know what I like and 90% of the fragrances that I own are vintage versions and they are that way for a reason. Vintage is just better it was made better it lasted longer the smell was better it lasted longer the quality of the ingredients was better. The Vintage version is much more masculine the leather is stronger it's much more complex while the current version is much sweeter and thinner I guess to appease the younger generation yuck. I don't care as long as I have a dollar in my pocket I will keep searching for vintage while everyone else can go pound sand

04/16/2014

7Scent

Scentemental
29 Reviews

Scentemental

Helpful Review 3

Cheap and classy

This is one of those fragrances that many people claim has suffered as a result of reformulation. Well I never tried the older MEM version, so I can only go on what I smell in the newer version. I bought a huge 240ml bottle for $19.90 ( about 13 Euros) and it can be found even cheaper. I only have the aftershave version, but it is still worthwhile. It has a soapy, leatheriness that I find very 'comfortable' and attractive. It reminds me of a soap called 'Imperial Leather' available in Australia. It also reminds me, of Guerlain vetiver (2000's version) minus the vetiver.

11/08/2015

9Scent 7.5Longevity 10Sillage

GothicHeart
85 Reviews

GothicHeart

3

English tether, not...

The way this early postwar villain left me after first encountering it sometime around the mid 80's, could be summarised in just one (mostly british) word. Flabbergasted!

It was a Christmas gift for my father, by someone who kept ignoring that the only scent my father ever used was a lavender-lemon dirt cheap cologne that was sold not only in pharmacies but even in grocery stores. My father, being the exact opposite of my mother who was a zealot of the perfume cults, passed it to me, without bothering to give it a second sniff. If he had done so, maybe he would have realised that it was not exactly the kind of fragrance a teenager could handle. But apparently, being used to smell archetypical powerhouses like Macassar and Yatagan all around him, he probably didn't think this one could do any harm. He was wrong. For what it should be actually called was English Lewdness.

Before slapping it on my face for the first time, it raised its leatherclad hand and crowned me majestically. As if challenging me in a duel which proved nearly impossible to win. Not at least before I managed to wear the sucker instead of him wearing me. And that really took some time.

The commander of Her Majesty's shock troops came in a wooden box with a wooden stopper, bearing a wonderful embossed label in crimson and gold on its thick glass bottle. I guess it was some kind of a special edition which, as is the case with so many natural things nowadays, is nowhere to be found anymore. Being the first time I saw a fragrance not being in a carton box, I immediately jumped to the conclusion that this one had to be something extraordinary. And it was...
All the more that I love wood more than any other natural material, with the possible exception of emeralds.
In hindsight, I believe that even if someone failed to read the name on the doric bottle, this amount of wood was definitely not a harbinger of vanilla or cotton candy.

Until then it was hands down the dirtiest star ever to shine in my olfactory universe, and it still remains amongst the most prominent paragons of salaciousness. For some reason it turned otherwise cheerful and soothing notes like citruses, lavender and honey into guilty pleasures of which the world should never be aware of. It was as these notes had a dark and secret side that would take an arcane perfumer to expose. Unfortunately it seems that we'll never know who the conjurer behind its creation was, since even Dana doesn't bother to mention anything about him(?).

It seemed like it was enhanced with some shady age-boosting ingredient, for I felt like my years had doubled long before its top notes subsided.
First poured on one of my 16th year afternoons, evening found me flirting with 30 year olds, in places I was not supposed to enter. You know, just because of being 16. And I swear that I got some really funny looks overnight. And they were not of the miffed kind. It was like these ladies were weighing up the odds of making out with a splashy barefaced teen and get away with it. And not because of me being a male jailbait, since the claptrap called politically correctness was still a hazy dream in the minds of some self-righteous, self-appointed, self-centred pricks. You know, like the ones who would banish scents like English Leather if they had the power to do it. No, the ladies' only concern seemed to be how they would succeed in cornering me and being spared the excruciating details and the envious glances to an by their friends. God, how I miss those years!...

After blaring my silly cockiness for what I thought was enough, I went to sleep smiling with what I thought was a huge victory in the battle of sexes. And I dreamt of the leather chesterfield sofas in the House of Lords, where a slightly drunk young crossbencher had accidentally spilled a dram of rare Ardbeg, before escaping the boring meeting and driving with the sun on his back in his Triumph TR3, hastening to meet his concubine in Mayfair. In the morning I pledged to myself that I was going to be this man one day.

I never became a crossbencher or any kind of representative and I never came even close to having such a curvesome beaut (the wheels, not the girl). The successful part of fulfilling my dream was just tasting rare Ardbegs many times and spending some time in London. But I still remain a barefaced teen (although a little less splashy now) even though some 30 years have passed since that night. Especially when English Leather of yore joins me for a ride. Perhaps not in a TR3 but in an equally fascinating vehicle. The time machine that I have built in my mind, permanently programmed to the days of my youth.

10/27/2014

4Scent 7.5Longevity 5Sillage

Gmmcnair
40 Reviews

Gmmcnair

2

Suffered in Reformulation But Still a Contender

Unlike Scentemental, I have tried and used the old MEM version (many bottles over the years). It had a bit more potentcy and swagger, along with a nicer leather note to it, along with what my nose picked up as a bit of floral. It was a bit of a "rough tough cream puff" fragrance, and I loved wearing it as a teen.

Today's version is more subdued, but still acceptable. The leather is muted, and the Dana version is sweeter because of it. I still like it for casual wear, and I still get okay sillage and very good longevity with it. Not bad for a drugstore fragrance. I don't use it nearly as much as I once did, but I still pull it out.

03/28/2015

6Scent 5Longevity 5Sillage

Avoirdupois
79 Reviews

Avoirdupois

1

The original was an earthy leather that called out for attention.

Haven't seen this around for many years, used it a few decades back and enjoyed its feel and edge.

The leather aspect is obvious, but the support is strong with a woody, earthy presence and citrus for balance. The cedarwood and sandalwood oils form a strong base.

I recall it was very popular, low-priced, and I thought the bottle definitely classy, very masculine.

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