Basenotes › Basenotes Forums › Fragrance Discussion › Male Fragrance Discussion › MFD Archive › Royal English Leather Review
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Royal English Leather Review

post #1 of 20
7/18/10 at 7:11am
Thread Starter 
everso
91 reviews
this is NOT a leather scent....it's just an amber scent...and it's crap! Shame on you C***d....again.
15 January 2009


Does anyone else see REL in this light? Amber? Just curious.
Reply
Reply

Features on Basenotes

Petals Falling From The Sky - A Report From The Cote d'Azur's Bataille De Fleurs
Basenotes Reader Awards 2013 - Finalists Announced.
Greatest Hits: Annick Menardo
post #2 of 20
7/18/10 at 7:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by neal View Post

everso
91 reviews
this is NOT a leather scent....it's just an amber scent...and it's crap! Shame on you C***d....again.
15 January 2009


Does anyone else see REL in this light? Amber? Just curious.

No.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 20
7/18/10 at 9:24am
I didn't get much leather out of Royal English Leather - mostly light, perfumey, slightly petrolium-like amber. I guess some leather products are (were?) scented this way... If a scent can be kitsch, this is it imo. Like a fragrance version of a male corset.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 20
7/18/10 at 9:29am
It really depends on what you expect leather accords to smell like. Take Ambre Russe. Others smell amber, I smell leather. *shrug*
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 20
7/18/10 at 10:32am
rel is a nice fragrance not my favorite creed but it is nice. i smell a sweet polished clean Englishman's leather. like a polished leather couch. tuscan leather by tom ford is a dirty leather which is totally different.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 20
7/18/10 at 10:37am
Try Bel Ami. Fantastic stuff!
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 20
7/18/10 at 11:38am
No.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 20
7/18/10 at 11:40am
No as well.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 20
7/18/10 at 12:38pm
I get a nice rich leather note. But there is also a kind of sweet-ish vibe that I've always thought was the ambergris.

Someone looking for pure leather scent may be put off by that.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 20
7/18/10 at 12:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by StylinLA View Post

I get a nice rich leather note. But there is also a kind of sweet-ish vibe that I've always thought was the ambergris.

Someone looking for pure leather scent may be put off by that.

probably the mandarin orange note.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 20
7/18/10 at 4:33pm
REL smell's like ladies hand cream to me and is extremely pungent and has no place in this century. I read somewhere that it was created for Royalty about 150 years ago. The King/Prince wanted a fragrance to drown out the smell of the common peasants who did not take a bath in those days and to drown out the smell of the stables when he went hunting. Well his Royal highness succeeded in his wish with REL.lol
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 20
7/18/10 at 4:51pm
Love the stuff. Love that it smells like what it smells like. Don't care if the title is a true or a false ingredient list.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 20
7/18/10 at 8:23pm
You can do a search on Basenotes for this - we have discussed this before.

REL uses a high dose of styrax (Liquidambar Styraciflua) for a 'leather' note. Styrax is responsible for that floral-animalic note in REL.

Fragrances such as Knize Ten, Chanel Cuir de Russie, Tabac Blond and many others utilize the iso-butyl-quinoline aromachemical to impart that (imo, harsh) 'leather note'. I find in particular Knize Ten's use of iso-butyl very aggressive and harsh.

The other material used to impart a leather note is silver birch/birch tar. Creeds Cuir de Russie makes heavy use of great quality silver birch.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 20
7/18/10 at 9:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DustB View Post

Love the stuff. Love that it smells like what it smells like. Don't care if the title is a true or a false ingredient list.

I second that. OP should note that the reviewer he quotes is Everso. If you examine his 91 reviews, they're about 70 percent negative. He has a love of leather scents and doesn't find REL to his liking.

REL is a bit of an acquired taste for sure. But for those of us who like it, none of the stories surrounding the scent really matter. It's a unique, lush, rich leather for men.
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 20
7/19/10 at 1:27am
Everso, God rest his driven soul, was a Knize in shining armour crusading against believers in the false Creed. He didn't mince words and didn't mind facts much either, as fundamentalists go.
Let's keep in mind that leather, in perfumery, is not a palpable object, but rather a flexible concept and can go anywhere from lush soft and sweet (Lutens Daim Blond) to Texas birchtar massacre (Tauer Lonestar memories). I happen to love both the aristocratically lush REL with its natural balsamic "Indian" vibe (I smell castoreum in there beside the styrax) - the cream-leather interior of the Maharaja's Rolls Royce and the modernist gasoline-tar plus oriental amber complexity of Knize Ten: a Bugatti Brescia Type 23 roaring through a Harem scene by Ingrès.
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 20
7/19/10 at 7:53am
I love Royal English Leather for its sweet leather and cannot stand Knize because it is gasoline! Each to their own .
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 20
7/19/10 at 7:58am
REL is within the spectrum of leather scents.
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 20
7/19/10 at 8:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by neal View Post

everso
91 reviews
this is NOT a leather scent....it's just an amber scent...and it's crap! Shame on you C***d....again.
15 January 2009


Does anyone else see REL in this light? Amber? Just curious.

i smell a little leather. mostly sickly-sweet rootbeer and cotton-candy. cloying and completely artificial smelling.

can't stand this one. wouldn't wear it on a dare.
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 20
7/20/10 at 7:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by StylinLA View Post

I get a nice rich leather note.

Me too.
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 20
7/20/10 at 7:58am
Yes, I do think it is leathery - but not in a tangible way that makes me envision leather. Tuscan Leather is the only leather scent that has that effect on me. REL reminds me more of leather curing plant...full of leather chemicals Not a fan.

Come to think of it, very few leather scents remind of anything that has to do with leather. It just recognize the note as "that which has been defined as leather by the perfumery powers that be."
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: MFD Archive

Features on Basenotes

Petals Falling From The Sky - A Report From The Cote d'Azur's Bataille De Fleurs
Basenotes Reader Awards 2013 - Finalists Announced.
Greatest Hits: Annick Menardo
Basenotes › Basenotes Forums › Fragrance Discussion › Male Fragrance Discussion › MFD Archive › Royal English Leather Review