Cuir De Russie by Chanel, 1924

Cuir de Russie Parfum Cuir de Russie is a masterpiece, and quoting another fellow reviewer from basenotes (of-scenter), it belongs to my pantheon of leathers. Its so beautifully done, the overdose of iris, the smoky birch tar with the citrus in the opening creating a sour animalic aura, its very dark and luxurious at the same time. An image that comes to my mind is Coco wearing a black patent leather cape over a white satin gown or even the famous Helmut Newton photo in witch the model is wearing a Couture Saint Laurent tuxedo. Beaux and Coco managed to capture the essence of the feminist movement and the free spirit of the contemporary woman, that is, the duality of femininity and amazone fighter. I can see the working girl that uses seduction as a weapon, the dominatrix controlling her male slave and even house wives that knows how to convince their husbands to do what they want. The strange thing its that its is so classical and modern at the same time, i think thats why it reminds me of Yves and Helmut Newton, the erotic gender bender game, women dressing as men, women taking control over their desires and taking care of their lives. I fell like it represents Coco's own personal way of life, financially independent but emotionally dependent of her lovers at the same time. CdR is a very feminine fragrance and you can smell that because its full of flowers but then again its so masculine, the flowers are very animalic, the birch is incredibly smokey and improper for a women and I think thats what makes this fragrance so grand and important. Its full of contradictions, its very personal, not the type of fragrance you would wear to attract someone but rather to satisfy your own desire. This fragrance and nº19 to me represents much more then nº5 whats Chanel is all about but unfortunately they doesn't get the attention they should specially Cuir de Russie... 5 out of 5

Cuir de Russie (current edt version) opens with a nose burning blast of aldehydes with just the faintest hint of orange before an extremely animalic leather accord emerges in the heart notes. This leather is more of the fecal farmhouse animal stench variety and is somewhat difficult to tolerate. There also must be some iris in here, because I get just a faint hint of the powdery makeup accord I have experienced with other iris based scents. Luckily, the barnyard aspects of the scent recede in the base notes, and a much more pleasant smelling birch leather remains with just a hint of the powdery iris supporting it. Projection and longevity are both excellent. The opening of Cuir de Russie edt was difficult from the get-go and did not portend to good things to come. I tend to be quite sensitive to fecal aspects in scents (like my problem with Jicky, for example), and as such the heart notes with their fecal smelling leather and powdery iris were really not to my taste at all. If things stopped there this would be a definite thumbs down for me. What saves Cuir de Russie edt somewhat is it has a very nice dry-down that easily is the best part of the scent. Because of that, I will upgrade my rating to a tenuous neutral, but I am not a fan of this one at all. I think one should not have to put up with several hours of smelling like they were in a farmhouse barn before they get to "the good stuff." I'll be generous and give Cuir de Russie a very average 2.5 out of 5.