Firstly, I want to clarify that I had never smelled "Cuirs Nomades - African Leather (Eau de Parfum) | Memo Paris" or
The One Luminous Night before. Before purchasing this fragrance, I thoroughly researched through YouTubers (from the USA, Indonesia, and Bulgaria) - basically, I watched all available videos on YouTube, sometimes just using subtitles - and all of them basically said that although the bottle design might make the fragrance look like a clone of African Leather, it's actually a good clone of The One Luminous Night.
So I thought to myself: Great! I've heard a lot of hype and praise for this perfume, so let's give it a try! Now that I have ordered the fragrance myself (for an incredible 13 euros, what a deal!), I can say that I don't understand these reviews at all. Maybe the wrong juice was filled into the bottles in the first batch? Or perhaps the fragrance has already been reformulated? My batch is from 11/2023...
The fragrance is officially described as follows:
Top notes: Bergamot, Cardamom, Black Pepper
Heart notes: Leather, Clary Sage, Cedarwood
Base notes: Amber, Musk, Sandalwood, Vanilla
On the other hand, based on my own research on the internet, The One Luminous Night is heavy on the dates and incense - scent notes that I cannot detect in this fragrance.
To be honest, I don't like leather accords in my fragrances. They smell too animalistic or too much like a leather seat for my taste. But I was pleasantly surprised by this fragrance. I perceive a strong note of clary sage, which carries all other scent notes. There is a good amount of soapy-spicy cardamom and a good splash of black pepper, which pleasantly tickles the nose receptors. There is a slight bergamot freshness that persists throughout - unusual for citrus notes. I am pleasantly surprised by the leather note. It is definitely there, but it doesn't take center stage - it's more like one of the co-stars alongside the spices, clary sage, and dry-woody cedar. It doesn't come across as too animalistic or like a leather seat. It's more of a light, balanced, soothing type of leather (perhaps it's even more of a suede than leather). I also perceive a patchouli-like minty earthiness, maybe it's just not listed in the official scent notes, or it's due to a combination of some of the accords. The base note is a classic creamy sandalwood-vanilla-musk-amber base that harmonizes beautifully with the spice, leather, and earthiness.
The longevity at this price point is completely okay - about 6 hours on my skin with good projection in the first 1.5-2 hours. Also Arabian fragrances are known to improve their performance after a couple of weeks/months of maceration (I had my bottle for a week now).
The fragrance needs some temperature to unfold all of its notes in the air. Therefore, I think it works best in autumn or spring, but it could also work well in winter for indoor occasions.
In the end, this is not at all what I expected at all, but I am thrilled by this fragrance. Especially for the price at which I got it.
Top Notes 
Bergamot
Black pepper
Cardamom
Heart Notes 
Cedarwood
Clary sage
Leather
Base Notes 
Ambergris
Musk
Sandalwood
Vanilla
