Leather Oud (Christian Dior) - new exclusive fragrance review

With Leather Oud, Dior gives us one of the most elegant solutions to the agar wood equation. Not very well known in the West, certainly not understood and even rarely sold as a natural ingredient, the agar wood is one of the most special ingredients of this planet. Its history, chemistry, properties and impact are not fully disclosed. After the omnipotent creations of Montale, with a strong oudh note over the rich oriental rose base, after the oudh note in the woody sweet context of Tom Ford (an exponential M7 interpretation), the pure oudh like a dark ink portrayed by Kilian, and the extremely dark heavy ambery interpretation of Le Labo, here comes the couture version. Dior combines the rich note of agar wood with the refined leather facet of Diorling and the result is sensational. It smells like the Kingdom of Cambodia in the Cabochard era - the best oriental oudh combined with the most refined western leather of the couture decade. Indeed, the smoky facets of vetiver, patchouli, cedar and IBQ are in perfect harmony with the oudh note, an ingredient that was rather exotic in the Dior era. On the skin, the perfume reveals an intense animalic civet-honey note of a refined sensuality.

Leather Oud brings a totally new note in the modern oudh fragrance family, the animalic scent of burning agar wood. Some ingredients in classic perfumery show in their raw state a "living" quality - they do not smell like flowers/spices/woods/balms but like a presence. Their ability to fill the room with an "invisible creature", as it is the case of black amber, daman, some types agar wood from Laos, several orchids and several Ferulae, is the novelty delicately dosed by Dior. This intense and unusual note, but in a very civilized interpretation, attenuated yet perceptible, is the essence of Leather Oud.

Leather Oud is not an extreme version, nor an "impolite" interpretation of a natural note revealing the most astonishing animalic accents. It is soft, velvety, wrapped in tender powdery woods, sweet balsamic notes with honeyed beeswax elements, soft white flowers, delicate caramel amber with just the right dose of pungency, so characteristic of classic leather perfumes. The perfume starts with an explicit oudh note, with subtle accents of smoke which will unveil the animalic musk-goat-fur-civet-honey facet, uncovering slowly the classic woody dry leathery dry down and the ciste labdanum amber facet. Here the perfume shows several similar facets with Antaeus (Chanel), one of the most original creations of the 80's. Spicy notes of cardamom and clove, benzoin, narcissus (maybe), dark vanilla, tonka and mosses are perfectly blended with the dry woods, sandalwood New Caledonia and amyris, orris and the leather-castoreum effect enhanced by the birch tar. The leather note was previously worked at Dior in a flanker of Eau Sauvage, but the oudh note, as seen in Fahrenheit absolute is the beautiful theme in the exotic woody forest.

The rich floral aldehydic bouquet from Diorling (a victim of IFRA cultural genocide) is not present but I believe that the original formula of the extract worked with an intense animalic oudh would give a sensational dramatic effect.
Curling, swirling - the smoke of "Sinks-in-water",
A crow cries out - the spectacle of a worn night,
A winding pond - the ripples among the lotuses,
The waist-girding, white jades are cold."
Li Po (701-762), translated in Trail of Time, an exceptional account of time measurement with incense in East Asia. "sinks-in-water" or ch'en hsiang is the aloès wood / oudh.
Like Mitzah and New Look 1947, François Demachy achieves here an exceptional smoothness and a perfect transition of the notes. He achieves something similar with the couture work - simplexity - the perfection of the purest recognizable form through the complexity of construction. This is the opposite of Miss Dior, the 1947 apotheosis of complexity with an outstanding originality and contrasting shades. Leather Oud from the new exclusive "La Collection Couturier Parfumeur" is the new fragrance that will embalm the Dior Homme boutique in the next era.

François Demachy about Leather Oud in L'Express: "J'ai tout de suite vu une correspondance entre Leather Oud et cette silhouette de Kris Van Assche [...]Tout cela fait écho au bois de oud, à ses notes profondes et "cuirées". C'est une essence à oublier pour les timides: elle ne se fond pas sur la peau, elle l'habille. J'y ai adjoint d'autres composantes sombres et fortes, à l'instar de cette tenue: de l'encens dit "vieille église", du labdanum... A réserver à un homme et à une mode à forte personnalité!

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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art