Reviews of Oud Cuir D'Arabie
by Montale

Continuing my rounds of the Montale Aoud line, I've finally gotten to Oud Cuir d'Arabie, and this, along with Black Aoud, is among my favorites to date.

Oud Cuir d'Arabie launches itself in a spectacular blaze of oud and dark, smoky leather. Utterly intoxicating, if you've got the nerve to wear it. A rich tobacco note (think Cuban cigar) soon joins the fray, and the oud begins to settle down and integrate. As the heart opens up, the rose note so common among the Montale Aoud line members comes into focus, adding yet another dimension, though its sweetness also leads the whole composition in a slightly more conventional direction.

In its early phases, Oud Cuir d'Arabie shares a compellingly rugged, untamed quality with Black Aoud, though it becomes a less jagged scent after the first couple of hours. Oud Cuir d'Arabie also develops along a more conventional timescale than Black Aoud, which is to say you don't have to wait 12 hours before it starts to evolve. On the downside, it doesn't have its cousin's 24 hour-plus lasting power, though it is by no means ephemeral.

OMG! For the first few minutes, this stuff reeks to high heaven in an extremely bad way! However, it eventually develops into an impressive high-quality leather scent.

This is one of the few Montale aouds that I really admire but its moderate sillage and longevity (roughly 4 hours) has left me doubting if this stuff is bottle-worthy. Still, it’s definitely one of the best leather scents I’ve ever had the pleasure of wearing (well, after the top notes subside, that is).

However, I urge you to repeat this mantra:

Try before you buy,
try before you buy,
try before you buy…

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[Original submission date: 10 April 2008]

Yeah, try before you buy. Oud fans would like this. Leather fans would like this. Rose? Yeah, Montale NEVER has a fragrance without a rose. Too dry. Too bitter. Too bleak. Not an enjoyable fragrance. Not because I'm more of a fan of "fresher" scents that make you feel good this is just something to not wear. To me, the overall effect is "rusty old car".

The opening I could skip. This is the kind of frag you spray an hour before you go out so that you could get to the wonderful heart and base notes.

Once you get to the heart notes you discover a wonderfully fresh/light leather fragrance that is by no means weak. It's a rich brown leather that is tempered by the infused floral notes.

After a few hrs of the heart notes, we get to the base of this wonderful scent. It's my favorite part. I enjoy this take on leather because it smells like a person's skin, but better. It doesn't smell like you're wearing a fragrance, it just smells like your skin except better.

I definately recommend this scent, I'm pretty sure I will be getting a full bottle of this.

What a difference a year makes!

Around this time last year I first tried Aoud Cuir D'Arabie and found it a nightmare; something akin to rubbing alcohol but worse. A wrist-scrubber, to be sure.

Last fall I was at the Pefume Shoppe in Vancouver and while trying a variety of fragrances, Nez handed me a strip with something on I didn't recognize, but loved. I asked what it was and it she told me it was Aoud Cuir D'Arabie! What a shock.

While I didn't pick up that one in particular, I did retry this several times and have grown to love it.

It goes on with that boozy, almost winey top note I often experience with oud fragrances, but quickly moves towards something both animalic and slightly petrochemical, albeit not to the degree of fragrances like CdG Tar. I would not be surprised if castoreum played a part in its disinctive leather accord, and I suspect birch tar is here, too. The oud is ever present, of course.

This fragrance smooths out but never mellows or softens. It is stark, dark, dry, smoky and uncompromising and stays that way, start to finish, with no sweetness or modification. Somethng to be commended, really - too many fragrances come on bold and strong and leave softly woody or vanillic. Aoud Cuir D'Arabie will not let you down.

Like most Montales I've tried, the sillage and longevity is excellent.

I want this to be my signature fragrance, but I don't think I'm cool enough, old enough, or butch enough, and this is coming from someone who rejects all those as standards of wearability. I'm just not man enough to pull this off. I would, however, be very attracted to a man who could!

Don't get me wrong with all this man talk, though - this is a perfectly good fragrance for a woman if you happen to be Irina Spalko.

Simpy delicious oily leather scent. Extremely authentic smell of smoked, animalic leather. Raunchy. I enjoy especially those top notes. During the drydown it changes into quite "perfumy", although its everything but unpleasant quality in here. Lasting power is excellent.

This is one unique scent, and its very black and white in character wise. You like it or not, there is not so much space for anything else. The one won`t find it boring, at least.

My favourite pure leather scent ever. An absolute treat to wear especially on warm summer evenings.

When first applied this scent smells either like some strange, pungent cheese, or like someone just got off of a spinning ride at Coney Island and vomited. The kicker is that I love this stuff, because after a few patient minutes, those initial notes pass and what emerges is the fine rich leather that this sent is supposed to be about. However, simultaneously you get something like a used ashtray and fresh human sweat note that creates a kind of biker bar atmosphere around you. By now you're probably looking at that "Thumbs up" icon to the right of this review thinking "huh?", but what ties it all together is the warm rose that weaves in and out of the leather the whole time. This scent is NOT for the shy or reserved. Male or female, you have to have a sense of humor to carry this off. It has a real personality that creates a whole performance as you wear it, featuring seedy characters making cameo appearances and all.If I had to campare it to something else, I'd say Dzing! but with black leather arm bands with metal studs and a little less underlying sweetness.

Cuir d'Arabie-- Fresh leather with a bit of hay. There's a light mint, maybe vetiver? This goes flat on me and reminds me of those red erasers on top of yellow pencils. Weird.

Raw, pungent, smoky. Leather for the S & M set. Cigarettes and latex. When the smoke dispels, the leather remains, still bold, but with a more natural aroma. There is a surprising, creative mint interval that I cannot explain. If I had any guts, I would wear this downtown to the Cinema XXX and see who follows me.

Notes: tobacco, leather, burnt wood dry notes, Oud

After having tried many spanish, english and russian leathers, I came upon Montales' Cuir D'Arabie (Arabian Leather). While I love many classic leathers, Arabian Leather left me indifferent.

Cuir D'Arabie opens with an extremely antiseptic smell - it smells sharp, like some disinfectant. I wonder what note this is ... is it the result of mint and tobacco ? Things get worse - within seconds, a dirty soggy unwashed sock accord appears. This seems to be the result of the leather and burnt wood notes. Its quite disconcerting. I dont know whether true Arabian leather smells like this, but even if it does, its a very repugnant smell. I prefer my leathers to be Russian or English, thank you very much. Are camels some how involved in the creation of arabian leather ? Just wondering. Their meat has a distinct smell, you know. Eitherways, Arabian leather lovers might like this scent (if its an accurate creation, that is) - even then, this leather accord doesnt last long. 20 minutes max before it disappears like Aladdin on his magic carpet running away from Jaffars castle. Slowly but surely, that familiar high quality oud makes an appearance. And just like in Aoud Lime, takes over the fragrance. 30 minutes into the fragrance progression time line, and its all aoud. Its not bad, its just not what the scent is about. Longevity is good, but the leather accord is short lived.

Montale Cuir D'Arabie falls short in two main areas:
1) Its leather accord doesnt last,
2) Even if it is an accurate recreation of arabian leather, I find this leather smell not to my liking. Montale Cuir D'Arabie falls short of the lofty standards set by Royal English Leather, Cuir D'Russie and Knize Ten.

Rugged leather soaked in night dew with a signature dash of oud. Bold and heady, this one is heavy on leather (genuine leather in contrast to many other scents deceptively marketed as leather-based) and easy on sugar. The smell of new hiking boots after a walk through a wet field mixed with some floor wax and smoke from the fireplace hall. Possibly the best Montale offering so far. Sits next to CdG's Tea and Route de Vetiver in my book.

This is a combination of tobacco, leather and burnt dry wood notes, here the Oud produces all of its strength and softness.

I tried doing some research on the use of leather in fragrance. I found in the Wikipedia that the smell of leather, which closely resembles ambergris, comes from the use of Labdanum which is obtained from the Cistus shrub (rockrose). The odor is tenacious and long lasting. Its odor is described as sweet, woody, ambergris, dry musk or a lot like leather.

I doused myself with my sample and still it wasn’t strong enough. When I first put this on, I pick up a black tea note…along with leather. This is the most “true to life” leather I have ever smelled in a perfume. This is what sweaty leather pants smell like, or the luscious smell of a new car. The oud adds a strange chemical quality to the scent which is no accident. When you sit in a new car you smell new plastic and fresh epoxy…and leather seats, it’s a stew of animal and chemical smells. I love it. This is what someone would wear that was into bondage. It is black leather coats and harnesses and riding crops. Yeehaw.

Sillage for this is low and stays very close to the skin for the duration of the scent. I would guess that it lasts about 3 or 4 hours on me. If I had a bottle of this, I would spray my chest and then quickly press my shirt into it so it would last longer. Not much development either although the oud note starts to disappear after about an hour and it becomes more of a pure leather scent. So, I call this Montale, S&M in a can.

I think I could love this concept if it was made by some other perfume house. As it is, it's too perfumey/generic/vintage-styled for my taste. I love leather scents, with the exception of vintage leather scents. This has a similar powdery/dry/sharp/sour vibe as Bandit. Not as bad as Bandit, not downright unpleasant, and at least I do get a little leather out of it, but it's like a great scent hiding in a conventional vintage costume. I think I like my scents a little more raw, with detectable notes.

Considering the complexity of oud, Oud Cuir d'Arabie seems very unidimensional and surprisingly unrounded to me. The opening is pure Band-Aid. As it unwraps, what it releases is reminiscent to me of the smell of an old housefire--furniture that has been hauled to the curb by firemen to smolder. There is far, far too much cade or birch tar, not enough leather, virtually no tobacco and if there was ever oud, it is overshadowed by being smoldered to death. Smell 10 Corso Como; that's oud.

Close to the skin, there are some detectable nuances, I love fragrances that "unfold" as you persist while we tune out the persistent familiar. But what persisted for me was a flat, burnt rubber smell after the firemen had washed any detectable top notes from the rubble.

The biggest redeeming factor of this scent was that it comes with an unscrewable lid so that I could fix it with three drops of myrrh essence to at least give it some dimension and the richness I was expecting. Some saffron, something interesting for $210, Mssr. Montale!

This is a really awesome leather scent. The medicinal aoud note is not as dominant to me now as it was when I first started smelling it - I guess I've gotten used to it and now it blends in with the other notes. Being more able to handle the oud really opened this one up and I now smell the rich, almost sweaty or musky leather. This is very much a darker, nastier take on leather than my "holy grail" of leather scents, Cuir Mauresque. There would be room in any wardrobe for both of these magnificent scents...they are totally different takes on leather: one day, one night; one crisp, one sultry; one sweet, one nasty.