Cuir Cuba Intense
Nicolaï (2014)

Cuir Cuba, or Cuba Leather, intrigued me when I first read the brand's blurb about it. Nicolai has fond memories of smelling her father's cigar humidors as a child, no doubt stocked with Cuban cigars - some of the best in the world, and I know this from experience. The fact that she emphasized leather in the title instead of tobacco was all the more intriguing because Cuban cigars, thanks to Cuban seed and terroir, have a distinct leather aroma to them. This might be a perfume for Cuban cigar connoisseurs like me.

I sprayed it, took a big whiff of it, and instantly asked myself "what the hell is this?" I immediately get notes of lemon rind zest and anise. Oily, wet, and dully spicy. These notes have nothing to do with leather or cigars but after a few minutes I finally got it: it was the smell of the humidity of the cigar humidors. Cigar humidors need to be kept at fairly precise temperature and humidity ranges. When done properly, cigars can last years and maybe even decades. When you open a cigar humidor that has been properly cared for, kept at the right levels, and has had beautiful high-quality cigars stored in them, both the smell and the tactile sensation of that first whiff is unlike anything else. The precise temperature and humidity levels, combined with the water and oil in the air of the humidor that comes directly from the cigars as they age, can be felt upon your face and inside your nose. The opening of Cuir Cuba certainly reminds me of that, though olfactorily it smells nothing like any cigar humidor or cigar I've encountered. Odd and intriguing, but dubiously so.

I can sum the heart and the base together with a couple of statements. The first being that I do not smell leather anywhere in this perfume. Neither the leather of a Cuban cigar accord, or leather hides. Strike one. The second statement is that I certainly smell tobacco, but I have little idea what kind it is. It is not cured pipe tobacco, it's not cured cigar tobacco, it's not cigarette tobacco, and it's not fresh green tobacco. It lives somewhere between green tobacco and pipe tobacco and flavored tobacco: sweet, a bit of green from geranium, a bit floral and hay like, and a bit fruity. If I had to take a guess, this smells the closest to flavored cheap-crap machine-made cigarillos you get at gas stations (that usually just end up having the tobacco pulled out of them and replaced with... something else). Strike two. Nicolai's style and materials keep the heart and base from shouting at you like those terrible cigarillos do, thankfully, but, just like them, Cuir Cuba doesn't smell good from start to finish. Strike three. Fortunately, it is very rare for Nicolai to strike out. Even the greats have a bad game some seasons.

Initially I get something gnarly, stale, wrong. This atop an overdose of licorice and star anise and mint. Occasionally lapses into a smell similar to Cutter insect repellent. Stale thing does dissipate. Too minty though. Leather nonexistent. Tobacco maybe if you squint .Is spicy, esp. cumin, coriander. I wouldn't buy. Good performance though and the fragrance does improve somewhat as it dries down.

This is essentially a masterful version of barbershoppy herbal-floral that could pair beautifully with a linen suit and a cigar: not necessarily "Cuba in a bottle," but a scent that would nevertheless be a true pleasure to wear in Cuba.

The heavy licorice here is the best version of the note I've encountered in a fragrance, making this a nice tribute to the memory of Hemingway (shades of the "Death in the Afternoon" cocktail). In the base is a hay-leather fantasy tobacco note, rich and satisfying.

initial sparkling burst with some lime in there...smooth and sophisticated...i can picture walking into an old wooden barn...smelling the wood and the fresh piles of freshly cut tobacco and hay...the breeze blows in the scent of minty herbs and touches of flowers as i stand there and chew on my black licorice stick...get a little gourmandish touch of something resembling caramel fudge or sauce...a pleasure to wear...in the final phases get just a trace of civet...love tobacco scents and i found this to be a wonderful addition to my wardrobe...

Rather bitter or acrid type of perfume reminiscent perhaps of hot dry climates around the mediterranean. Dates, opoponax, labdanum etc. It is a well ploughed furrow for perfumers and is most familiar with blends such as, if I recall correctly Aromatics Elixir (Clinique).

I really can't understand the negative votes about this fragrance. So many dislikes? Really?!! Something is going wrong here. IMHO, Cuir Cuba Intense is extremely refined and elegant fragrance. It is very well blended with high-quality materials. The opening is nice, actually during this stage it reminds me of a smoother (much more unisex and slightly floral) version of Creed Tabarome. A few minutes later it changes a lot and from that point, Cuir Cuba is a totally different story than Tabarome. It has very sexy and seductive base part, I like it a lot.
Thumbs up!