Leather

History

The world’s first leather perfume is said to be Creed’s Royal English Leather (1780, James Henry Creed).
Creed was originally a London maker of scented leather gloves, established in 1760, and supplied those gloves to the reigning monarch, George III. George III liked their leather scent and asked Creed to make a perfume that smelled like it. The result was the brand’s first perfume, Royal English Leather, also the world’s first leather perfume.

Leather’s scent is not a single smell; it encompasses hundreds of smells. Although it is expensive, many genuine leathers acquire a floral scent through natural tanning. Chemical smells are commonplace in leather. And when perfumers create a leather scent, it is not the scent of leather itself, but a scent inspired by leather’s aroma.

Jean-Claude Ellena

Originally, leather takes on unpleasant odors because various chemicals are used in turning animal hides into leather. To mask those odors, countries with developed leather-making industries each devised their own ways of scenting it.
For example:
・Spain used rosewater, ambergris (in Japanese), cedarwood, and musk (in Japanese).
・Italy used almond, iris (in Japanese), musk, ambergris, and civet (in Japanese).
・Grasse, where scent-making techniques were brought by Catherine de’ Medici of Italy’s Medici family, used ambergris, civet, musk, and rosemary.
These were the materials used.
Whereas Europe mainly scented leather with florals or herbs plus animal-derived materials, Russia used birch tar as an oil for leather, giving it birch tar’s smoky scent. That Russian-leather scent captivated Europeans through various leather goods, especially waterproof military boots.

Classifying Leather Perfumes

As with the differences in scenting leather described above, leather scents in perfumery are broadly divided into two types: Cuir de Russie (“Russian leather”) and Peau d’Espagne (“Spanish skin,” meaning Spanish leather). Leather itself cannot be used as a perfume material, and there is no single material that can represent leather, so perfumers essentially have to create a leather accord.

Cuir de Russie is a type of fragrance offered by many brands, including Chanel and Guerlain. It primarily centers on the synthetic material isobutyl quinoline, with materials such as birch tar. The animalic character of isobutyl quinoline and the smokiness of birch tar are characteristic.

By contrast, Peau d’Espagne is made by combining florals, fruits, and herbs with animalic materials such as civet and musk. Roger & Gallet and Santa Maria Novella made this type of fragrance in earlier times.

Today, rather than falling into these two groups, leather fragrances divide into many different types.

Materials Used in Leather Perfumes

Natural Materials

Birch, juniper, styrax, cassie (in Japanese), castoreum, labdanum (in Japanese), black tea (in Japanese), patchouli (in Japanese), tobacco (in Japanese)

Synthetic Materials

Isobutyl quinoline, suede accord, Safraleine (safraleine), aldehydes (in Japanese)

Representative Perfumes

Cuir de Russie (Chanel, 1924, Ernest Beaux; the version currently in Les Exclusifs was reformulated in 2016 by Jacques Polge)

Tabac Blond (Caron, 1919, Ernest Daltroff)

Scandal (Lanvin, 1931, André Fraysse)

N°19 (Chanel, 1970, Henri Robert)

Cuir Mauresque (Serge Lutens, 1996, Christopher Sheldrake)

Black (Bvlgari, 1998, Annick Menardo)

Cuir Beluga (Guerlain, 2005, Olivier Polge)

Patchouli 24 (Le Labo, 2006, Annick Menardo)

Tuscan Leather (Tom Ford, 2007, )

Kelly Calèche (Hermès, 2008, Jean-Claude Ellena)

Cuir d’Ange (Hermès, 2014, Jean-Claude Ellena)