Cumming by Alan Cumming, 2004

With such a name, I'd expected something extremely challenging, provocative, unapologetic and sort of love-or-hate but, Cumming, is a very easy to like fragrance. Basically this is a leather centered composition with boozy notes, a smoky-cigar accord and something else that strikes halfway bewteen spices and coniferous hints. If all of this may bring to mind fragrances such as Idole De Lubin or cetrain deliveries from Frapin, be advised that Cumming is VERY far from either being surrounded by a remarkable urban vibe as opposed to the spice market allure and oriental quality of both the Lubin and Frapin. Cumming is modern and with its abstract nature, it clearly shows the experimental aspect of most of the Christopher Brosius' compositions for CB I Hate Perfumes and Demeter. The opening is quite misterious with a boozy accord of whiskey and an extremely aromatic dry-tobacco quality. It's like smelling a cigar and then lick it while holding in your hand an opened Zippo. This accord is very efemeral and it's immediately joined by a bold animalic leather note that brings to mind of saddled horses passing by in the streets of London or New York. The strong animalic presence is handled to achive a metrosexual, sort of urban vibe as opposed to the typical barnyard/cowboy imaginary of most of the compositions that move in the same direction. In this context, Cumming is a damn sexy fragrance that will appeal to both hardcore leather fans and experimentalist-avanguardist perfumistos. Overall Cumming is a moderately powerful composition that while staying quite close to the skin throghout its evolution, it's still able to provide an incredibly distinctive allure with its oxymoronic dirty-clean presence. One of a kind. An hidden gem.

I put this on as the first Mr Brosius scent I had ever tried. I had no idea what to expect but it is quite an extraordinary olfactory adventure. It seems the more you sniff, the more you get and the more the imagination can take hold. I'm getting a big leather studded armchair, a leather briefcase, including the metallic clasps, a woolly jumper, paper that has been thumbed, there is a bit of fountain pen ink, a cigar that has been smoked but is out and the butt is in a far away ashtray, there is a current bun in the distance, a watered down peaty whisky. There is a peppery skin, very slightly sweaty in a nice way with a trace of that mornings gentlemans cologne left. I'm not getting any fireplace, only the cigar ashtray bit. Overall, it feels safe and secure, making me have a desire to snuggle up to this comfy person. It is an incredibly evocative smell and it reminds me of the older men in my family although not as an equal, more like an enveloping sort of smell, such as a child would perceive on a grandfathers knee. I would value this as an olfactory painting rather than as a perfume. I liked the journey and didn't want it to stop. It almost made one sad as it dried down, like a fading memory. Mr Brosius, thank you for this little trip to the past.

OK, I just tried this again today. I tried it years ago. And really, I shouldn't be reviewing something that I just tried today, as I don't feel like I "know" it, but here's my quick impression:

First sniff: phenolic, burnt wood note. It reminds me of the leather fragrance I bought from The Good Scents Company. It also reminds me of a Bois 1920 scent which has the same phenolic character. The burnt-ness reads as leather. Wasn't crazy about that.

As it dried down, to me it seemed almost completely a leather scent--it got softer, a little oily maybe, kinda chemical and then inky. I loved it; I wanted it; but I'd just gotten Bel Ami a few months ago and Yatagan a few days ago. I couldn't buy another scent. Besides, it seemed like something good for layering, but maybe not as a dazzling main scent.

But the more I smelled that inky, chemical leather, the more I kept thinking, "I could make this." And if I could find some kind of castoreum or an extreme, extreme dilution of something grotesque like skatole, I could make it even "dirtier." I thought, "I could use that leather scent from tGSC and the oil called Baseball Glove by Christopher Brosius, which smells like chemical leather (and when I blended it with something--I think a caramel note--it smelled like just-washed hair)."

So of course when I read the notes here, and that it was a collaboration with Christopher Brosius, I wasn't surprised. And to be honest, when I think CB I think bullshit. Go to his store in Brooklyn and look at his "absolutes," which are all crystal clear and have the same viscosity. I think it's misleading to call something an absolute when it appears to be something ordered from a chemical company and diluted in something ending in "glycol." Also, what exactly is "white truffle"?? Isn't the smell of truffles androstenone and androstedienone?? It's a chemical found in human male sweat (2/3 of people can smell it and rate it with terms like "urinous, sweaty, chemical, woody"; 1/3 of people, who have a slightly different genetic makeup, rate it as pleasant and vanillic). It's also a pig pheromone, and it's used in stuff called "Boar Spray." I saw a can of this spray at a presentation by the New York Academy of Sciences.

At any rate, I like it as a leather. I wish the top note wasn't so burnt, and I wish there was just more to it.

And I wish "fragrance marketing" would go away.

Strange opening accord quite suspect as far as Im concerned: a little dirty and little more belch, but interesting enough to make me want to keep smelling to find out whats over the horizon. I think its the rubber note in the near recesses that holds most of the mystery / intrigue / nausea. It isnt longfive or ten minutes that the accord rearranges itself to become quitepretty, or, as odysseusm, says precious. Yes, it is precious. The list of notes is misleading. There are whisky and rubber and pine and cigar notes there, but they seem to last less time than it takes to type them and Im a 94 wpm typist. It is a pretty heart accord, though, and the dominant note is heather, according to odysseusm, and I am certainly going to take his word for it I have never smelled it that I know of. The dry down is too much of a skin scent for me to identify notes it has a definite component of rubber (burnt) in there that gives a rather incensy background; other than that it is a rather neutral accord to my nose. Cumming ends up being a pleasant fragrance with an interesting but short lived top, a nice but rather neutral middle with transient fly bys of various cool sounding notes, and a short lasting, neutral drydown that closes in on and hugs the skin surface for an unacceptably short embrace. Hmmm I kind of wanted to like this one.