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Ombré Leather 16 2016

8.3 / 10 151 Ratings
A popular perfume by Tom Ford for women and men, released in 2016. The scent is leathery-spicy. The longevity is above-average. It was last marketed by Estēe Lauder Companies.
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Main accords

Leathery
Spicy
Smoky
Woody
Floral

Fragrance Notes

Black leatherBlack leather CardamomCardamom Violet leafViolet leaf PatchouliPatchouli Jasmine sambacJasmine sambac MossMoss

Perfumer

Ratings
Scent
8.3151 Ratings
Longevity
8.3143 Ratings
Sillage
7.8141 Ratings
Bottle
8.3150 Ratings
Value for money
6.535 Ratings
Submitted by Danina, last update on 07/29/2025.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to
Ombré Leather (2018) (Eau de Parfum) by Tom Ford
Ombré Leather (2018) Eau de Parfum
Tuscan Leather (Eau de Parfum) by Tom Ford
Tuscan Leather Eau de Parfum
Suède et Safran by Nishane
Suède et Safran
Ombré Leather Parfum by Tom Ford
Ombré Leather Parfum
C for Men by Clive Christian
C for Men
Guilty Absolute pour Femme by Gucci
Guilty Absolute pour Femme

Reviews

7 in-depth fragrance descriptions
8
Pricing
7
Bottle
7
Sillage
9
Longevity
9
Scent
Giles

86 Reviews
Giles
Giles
2  
Oh how I will miss you
I only have a few ml of this animalic leather masterpiece left. It's such a shame. Although I do like the newer versions, this in its original state is one of the best leather fragrances created. Its a leather that smells of real leather unlike so many leather fragrance wannabees. I know I will have to say goodbye very soon to this amazing perfume because I have so little left. But if you can still find it. You will never be disappointed.
0 Comments
Mlleghoul

455 Reviews
Mlleghoul
Mlleghoul
2  
don't buy that car
Tom Ford’s Ombre Leather is a fragrance I both weirdly like and I don’t like and I can’t make up my mind. The new car leather scent is front and center, like you literally just slid into the seat of some posh, luxury vehicle to take it for a test drive. The smarmy salesperson slithered into the passenger seat next to you and they are wearing that screechy-sweet jasmine scent from Tom Ford that you really despise and at first you want to roll down the windows but you can’t figure out how they work so you just give up. But somehow the syrupy musk of the jasmine alongside the smooth, slightly bright, slightly animalic leather is a striking combination. But the two notes never really meld, they sit separately for the duration of the scent’s journey, and much like that trip twice around the car lot with the stranger that you’re not going to buy the car from anyway, it’s ultimately an awkward ride.
0 Comments
7
Bottle
9
Sillage
8
Longevity
4
Scent
K1

121 Reviews
K1
K1
0  
Leathery - spicy - soft earthy
The opening is coarse leather, displaying both akin to Tuscan Leather's darkness, and its own leathery characteristics. A simple touch of violet and cardamom in the beginning gives it a grease-smeared olfactory statement that tones down in a half way suede half way leather side, with warm earthy floral aspect, and a promise of fruity notes that never materialize.

Never materialize, yet the whole performance goes to a curvy femininity in dry down, using masculine ingredients. If it's compared to TL, it is rigid, spicy, fruitless and bitter version of TL. Kind of uncertain on luxury and ordinary. It also lurks between two genders without tending to both or either.
2/5
0 Comments
ClaireV

969 Reviews
ClaireV
ClaireV
1  
Haute luxe brown-on-brown tones
This is American Haute Luxe at its finest, a rich but dry leather with a smooth ombré effect not unlike the brown-on-brown tones of the set of his movie, A Single Man, where the tonal shifts between mahogany and chocolate and sepia are barely perceptible to the naked eye but still manage to convey the happy meeting of taste and wealth. The fragrance is also, like the movie, ever so slightly soulless.

The leather note is similar to that of Tuscan Leather but here is given a darker, drier treatment – there is no raspberry sweetness and the musky, sueded finish of Tuscan Leather has been swapped out for a very streamlined, almost buttery texture. It slides as seamlessly onto the skin as a handmade shoe slides onto a foot. Opening on a potent blast of leather, it momentarily skates close to chemical/tanning pungency but thankfully banks back in time. It develops into a rich, sturdy leather that speaks of fantastic wealth, like the interior of a Jaguar or the mingling aromas in a bespoke leather shop on Saville Row. For this reason, I find Ombre Leather 16 to be far more refined and more formal than Tuscan Leather, which seems outdoorsy and rugged in comparison.

Ombre Leather 16 also seems to deftly sidestep all the common faults people pick with leather scents - there is no powder, no excessive floralcy, and crucially for a lot of men out there, it does not in any way resemble the lipsticky, dusty insides of a lady's handbag. But neither is this a big, butch leather a la Peau d'Espagne or Rien. It is a masculine, stern, be-suited thing, to be sure, but this is a leather that stays firmly in the boardroom and well away from both fuel-soaked garage and prairie.

All the other listed notes (patchouli, violet leaf, jasmine, white moss, cardamom) are there to pull together towards creating that sumptuous but dry leather accord, and are not incredibly distinct in and of themselves. Towards the start, I can pick out a slightly fresh, watery herbal accent, which I assume is the violet leaf, but the effect is more of a dark, smooth leather that's been rubbed with something green to put a high shine on it than a note that sings strongly on its own.

Certainly, I can smell a clean, saline moss in the far dry down and shadowy patchouli, but they blend so completely with the leather accord that I see them for what they really are: overlapping building blocks used to create that ombré effect . I thought I picked up on an ambery resin there in the background, which might account for the slight uptick in sweetness in the base of an otherwise dry (unsweet) fragrance, but none is listed. Longevity is phenomenal - easily 12-18 hours, and projection is pretty good too. It's a little quieter overall than Tuscan Leather, which makes sense as the character of Ombre Leather 16 is dark, dry, and refined as opposed to the more outgoing and cheerful Tuscan Leather.
0 Comments
8
Bottle
8
Sillage
8
Longevity
7
Scent
Chizza

299 Reviews
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Chizza
Chizza
Top Review 26  
Lives from its image and lack of availability
Friday evenings, a small pub in the Ruhr area: expectant and attention-seeking, the four blondes stood there at the counter. The sweat was already beating down on them, because they had long since noticed that they were being watched and four gentlemen were heading straight for them and...emptied the four Pils in one go. "Gee whiz, you've got a train on you as if you'd been dumped in the desert two weeks ago!" "and that's the way he smells!"
Everyone roared and cheered while Wolle took a nose from himself and turned away in disgust. "Boys, that's what happens when you work hard like me." "You've only been fishing today!" "Anyway, I'm spraying some good stuff here, fellas. Ombre Leather 16."
"Ne!"
"Yes, I do."
"The legendary OL 16?"
"That's the one."
"...ok, we don't know, wool."
"Me too, but I'm wearing perfume now, as you know." "It's obvious that you're trying to pick up women there after being banned everywhere else."
"But you can also test samples of scents So I read that this ombre leather is the best leather in the world and that's where I got it. We could test that."
"Okay," Hotte said, "but what about you and this chicken?" "Stop it, I thought when she was talking about the beer chord that there was a common flame being lit but in the end I didn't have that beery feeling with her, I lacked seriousness about beer. She doesn't ride a motorcycle either. I'm beginning to think that this is not a dating site for perfume lovers, like I am."
Nobody said anything and most of them looked embarrassingly touched to the ground until wool picked up the thread again. "Anyway, I knew that we owed it to Sparky, the Drunken Dolphin in our coat of arms, who seemed to be a vision to me at the time, to test this scent. There's no rum in it, Udo, so you're not allowed to join in."
In fact, Wool glorified the incident many years ago. He had been riding his motorbike drunk again, had lost his bearings several times and got off at Duisburg Zoo, which he thought was his garden. The front door he had guessed - or as they say in general: the dolphinarium - was locked, which is why Wolle forced his way in, fell into the pool and mistook the dolphins for his motorcycle crew. One of them made a noise that Woolle heard as "Hello, I'm Sparky the drunken dolphin". And so the club crest was born. Along with a hefty fine.
"You'd better serve, boss!" shouted Bolle Wolle. So they stood there and tested. They nodded their heads like this, poked at perfume and kept quiet. Until Totty said: "Either I got something else there or I had too much again today but it doesn't smell that great."
"That's probably true, it's identical to OL 18 except for the strong headache spreading beginning."
"Sweet leather, relatively straightforward, a little vanilla, and that's it. Anything else happening there?"
"This sweet one is meant to be softer, but nothing more. But it doesn't knock me out right now. I've smelled it many times."
"I think that after a few hours the leather comes through quite well, but that's something you've had elsewhere. That's probably due to the name and the fact that the water has been stopped. What do you think, wool?"
"I say, if it's too strong, you're too weak. But it's not too strong."

People looked at each other and then started to stagger back to the bar, which not everyone could do anymore, because the pub Biermageddon was the place to be; traditionally after Bieroween one of the classics in Wolles Eleven's calendar concerning the festivities. Only the strongest ones went home.
Ombre Leather 16 is partly worshipped here and I cannot share all this enthusiasm. Compared to OL 18 it is creamier, not so obtrusively sweet and therefore really better, but only becomes really good after hours when it really smells of leather. I cannot understand the constant comparisons to the Tuscan Leather because they are different. Of course you could say raspberry, so TL is sweet, but that is not quite true. In fact, TL starts out stronger because of the saffron and the sublimely perceptible roast aroma. OL 16 & 18 are both quieter, more simply knitted. Both are clearly sweet and only sweet. The leather dominates only after hours. Both are of course easier to wear than the TL but essentially they are simply different scents. For the price OL 16 is not worth buying. If OL 18 would smell like this, OL 18 would be worth a consideration. Leather from TF still offers the TL best, because it has many more facets and a more exciting scent.
11 Comments
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Statements

2 short views on the fragrance
GabrielCEGabrielCE 7 years ago
8.5
Scent
This is a softer version of Tuscan Leather with a bit of Black orchid dna, for those people who wanted a safer version of Tuscan leather.
0 Comments
HajuvanaHajuvana 8 years ago
OK, it's nearly TL.
But if I ever wore either, It'd be this. (For a minute it actually smells more like leather goods than anything I know.)
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