Cuir de Russie (Chanel) vs Cuir Ottoman vs Others... which would you buy?

I have both Cuir de Russie and Cuir Ottoman in my collection and enjoy both.

Cuir Ottoman for me of the two.

My favs are Helmut Lang Curion and TF Tuscan leather. Aside from Clive C.

Cuir de Russie, without a doubt, followed by Knize ten.

I own Cuir de Russie, Knize Ten, and Cuir Ottoman, all excellent top-notch fragrances. According to my sotd stats, I wear Cuir de Russie more than anything else. There is my vote.

Leathers can be striking, so you should make an effort to smell before you commit.

Knize Ten is the most classic, confident but elegant. If one needs to start from one, I'd probably go with this. But there are many more equally, if not more, worthy.

Going from smooth to butch, Lancome Cuir is sweet and smooth. Very inexpensive online, so much so that for that price it qualifies as blind buy. Cuir de Russie in EDT is smooth and more floral; in parfum, it is less floral, still smooth and pretty much a "skin scent". The Chanel boutiques carry the parfum as well, but the problem is that they never let you smell it, they say it's like the EDT, just more concentrated, which is not true. Another smooth one is 1740, with burnt sugar notes. Between smooth and butch is Azuree (cheap in the US, but I don't think it's marketed in Europe) a confident quinoline leather with citrus notes.

On the butch side, Rien is very bitter, even disturbing. You need to like bitterness and raw leathers. ELdO sells an inexpensive set of vials on their website, so that may be a way to try it. Oud Cuir d'Arabie is a big leather with strong oud. And the butchest of them all, Bandit, butch leather with some green on top.

Leathers tend to be both strong in sillage and very persistent. I have not tried Cuir de Russie EdT extensively, but I suspect as an EdT it's not as durable as others. CdR parfum, as said, has very low sillage, but a lot of longevity (as typical of parfums).

cacio

For a great leather I would suggest Knizen golden edition. It's a beast and my favourite leather overall. I also own cuir ottoman and while it's absolutely gorgeous I dont reach for it often.
Rien was too hardcore for me. Try before you buy in this case.

Cuir de Russie is beautiful but the EdT was to weak for me and the others I couldnt afford.


Anyway, may I ask where you get PdEs for 92 € other than the evilbay??

This! Then I'd go for all the others as they're all top notch. Consider also Bandit and Onda!

Have a look at the following thread so you can get an idea of what are the most suggested leathers around

http://www.basenotes.net/threads/279...nce-poll/page2

You might wanna check out Cuir de Lancôme, too.
It's a bit more feminine than the other suggested, but,
it's somewhat cheap and really delish.

Yup, I agree with this, Ducky.

Cuir de Russie by Chanel is the one to get, but the vintage pre-Exclusifs versions are the best ones (EdT for me). The current one is nice, but the vintage stuff has that extra "oomph".

Tuscan Leather is my choice. ;-)

I'd go with Knize Ten. It's replaced Bandit as my everyday frag. Bandit is worth getting if you can find the right one but since no one's quite figured out which it is I'd say Knize :P

I love Cuir Ottoman, so I'm biased. Cuir Ottoman is more of a cozy, iris-violet leather; warm, non-astringent; Cuir de Russie is lighter, more cologne-like, green, slightly astringent and tangy.

Even though they're both leathers, I see them as from different families.

Chanel's Cuir de Russie I see as a light relative in the family of leather chypres, like Bandit, Alliage, Azuree.

PdE's Cuir Ottoman is a very different fragrance, its closest cousin being Or Black, but perhaps also Cuir de Lancome and PG's Cuir d'Iris ( counter-intuitively, less iris and more leather than Cuir Ottoman ).

Knize Ten Golden Edition is great and if you want softer- try Cuir de Lancome.

I've been wearing Cuir d'Oranger the last few weeks and I really love it. Orange and leather that mixes perfectly.

Cuir de Russie I find doesn't last on me in the edt but it is heavenly.

Both are nice but different. Kinda like comparing apples to oranges.

Out of the two I prefer Cuir Ottoman but thats only because CO is so different than the other leathers. CdR smells similar to Bandit, Knize Ten and a few others.

Tricky to answer, because I don't like Cuir Ottoman (too musty, too library-like to me). I adore Cuir de Russie, but only in the parfum concentration. Grottola has said it all... the point is the new Les Exclusifs EdT is no leather to my nose, but only an iris scent. I don't like Rien. Onda is no leather either in my books. Cuir de Lancome neither and I quite dislike it (yes, bought it blind because it was so cheap )... not very helpful, I know. I could only add En Avion extrait by Caron, which is feminine territory and only available in Paris. Mitsouko EdP has quite a leathery vibe, too. Others are vintage and feminines. Sample Knize Ten!

This is a very good analysis! I would have NEVER thought of there being the slightest similarity between Cuir Ottoman and Or Black, but I can kind of "smell" what you're saying. I'll have to further this research.

In regards to the original post, I would use both. Each leather scent is wonderful in its own way. (Although the Cuir Ottoman is much cheaper.)

To my nose, the biggest similarity is in the leather note itself. I'm not sure exactly what its constituents are, but they strike me as the same ''shoe store'' type of scent.

The background is fairly different though, Cuir Ottoman being mostly about iris, Or Black being more tobacco and musk ( and I think some lavender in there, too; it's been a while since I sampled it ).

No love for Bel Ami, one of my most respected scents?

Can I pop a golden question here on this tread? What about Cuir de Russie L.T. Piver for men. I have not smelled this and am thinking about getting a bottle.

Piver's CdR is a kind of sharp lemony birch tar which I find fairly unpleasant...

Agreed!

I've tried this one years ago. It's quite nice, but don't expect leather; I remember finding it a nice, light green fragrance. Think Chanel Cuir de Russie minus the citrus, and, well, the leather.

Thanks for informing me on this! I am not looking for any sharp lemony notes.

Lancome's Cuir should also be considered especially if you're not looking to spend that much money. It is just as high quality of a fragrance as the others listed. I would say that this is THE single BEST buy under $50.00, and once this is gone from the online discounters, people are going to be willing to pay more!

I just received my Cuir Ottoman today. Its in the middle between Cuir de Russie (soft leather) and Cuir Mauresque (raw leather).

So far i prefer Cuir de Russie, perfection in a bottle.
Cuir Mauresque i really hate (that raw and crude leather isnt my type).
Cuir Ottoman i will test tomorrow but so far im liking(not loving though)

Mona di Orio's Leather is rather good. Not feminine to my nose and good sillage/longevity.

More like a cannibal !

CUIR is an extremely hard fragrance to pull off. Most people only get an ashtray and incense note from it.

After buying a sample I realized that I couldn't dare walk out of my apartment with it on.

Im wearing Cuir Ottoman today. Its a very good fragrance.
It opens kinda strange, raw leather (maybe its what some people were calling shoe polish?) with something like rubber. But it goes away very fast and the fragrance change to a very comforting, sweet and warm leather.

Its good but its reminding me Shalimar Parfum Initial. Its just me?

Why doesn't Or Black get much of a mention when we talk about leathers?
I know others find this dark but this is the easiest wearing leather I have. Office, home, out - it works anytime.

Apart from that check out Cuir Pleine Fleur and Parfum d'Habit.

@ d4N13L, it's probably the iris that's reminding you of SPI. I find the iris in CO quite prominent.

From your list, Chanel Cuir De Russie is the hands-down winner.

There are other leathers out there but Chanel still trumps them (except maybe the Creed version, but let's not go there).