Reviews of Cuir Cuba Intense by Nicolaï
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.
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.
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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.
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!
Thumbs up!
Cuir Cuba Intense is exquisite to say the least. The magnolia note with the tobacco and licorice make this fragrance very interesting. I applied it in the morning and I could still smell it in the evening. After it dries down I could smell some civet with leather but not in a strong way. It was sweet as a matter of fact. I think it can be worn both day or night. Another great fragrance from the house of Nicolai Parfumeur.
I applaud PR wing of Parfums de Nicolai. Coordinating the release of Cuir Cuba Intense with the US administration's plans to normalize relations with Cuba? Brilliant!
Cuir Cuba Intense is a tobacco perfume. No surprise, given the locale in the name, but Patricia de Nicolai creates the notes the way a stage magician plays with your focus. I recognize the tobacco. I smell it as an arpeggio of floral, woody and herbal tones, but he tobacco takes two forms: the humidor and the fresh tobacco leaf. A humidor's richness is a result of both the container and the contents. Fresh tobacco leaf is filled with resinous juice and its fragrance is more characteristically floral than leafy.
De Nicolai uses the tobacco note to focus your attention, but it's a ruse. As with any good magic act, the real action takes place right in front of you without your notice.
Ta da! Cuir Cuba Intense is a fougère!
Granted, it's an impressionistic one, but an effective one. The classical fougère is typically described as soapy, but from Houbigant Fougère Royale to Caron Troisième Homme to YSL Rive Gauche pour Homme, the coumarin in a fougère smells of hay and tobacco. In Cuir Cuba Intense, de Nicolai uses all the tricks the fougère has to offer. It plays the cool, and anisic tones of coumarin against warmer woody hues. It balances delectable, caramelized qualities with soapy inedibility, suggesting forbidden fruit. And wrapping identifiably masculine aroma (tobacco, leather, rumbly woods) up in a pretty bow, it is a classical dandy. Also in classically Victorian dandy fashion, and epitomizing the early generations of the fougère, Cuir Cuba Intense opens with a generous, expansive geranium note.
Prestidigitation works best on the suggestible and Cuir Cuba Intense is highly suggestive perfume. The fougère is there, but so is the leather. A citrus note ties to a dry smokiness and the heartnotes hint at citrus-leathers like Hermès Bel Ami and Estée Lauder Azurée. The combination of botanical references alongside undisguised chemical qualities reminds me of Robert Piguet Bandit. There is a sweet, caramel-patchouli inflection to the quiet but durable basenotes that is the balanced, pleasant version of Thierry Mugler A*Men's hangover of a drydown. Cuir Cuba Intense isn't derivative, it's just composed of a lot of moving parts.
My strongest association between Cuir Cuba Intense and tobacco is not the way it smells, but the tone of voice and the synesthesia it triggers. It smells like Betty Bacall's gorgeous, cigarette-raspy voice sounds. Her husky feminine voice was exotic yet she was forthright and plain-spoken. This same duality runs through the perfume.
Classical perfumery's forté is orchestration, the ability to build notes and accords and swing them around with flourish. Contemporary perfumery, from about the mid-90s forward, used the tools of postmodernism, focussing on deconstruction and recontextualization to make perfume. De Nicolai's Guerlain heritage is often cited in order to emphasize her traditionalism. Cuir Cuba Intense shows that she is as contemporary as she is classical and that first and foremost she is an expert structuralist.
from scenthurdle.com
Cuir Cuba Intense is a tobacco perfume. No surprise, given the locale in the name, but Patricia de Nicolai creates the notes the way a stage magician plays with your focus. I recognize the tobacco. I smell it as an arpeggio of floral, woody and herbal tones, but he tobacco takes two forms: the humidor and the fresh tobacco leaf. A humidor's richness is a result of both the container and the contents. Fresh tobacco leaf is filled with resinous juice and its fragrance is more characteristically floral than leafy.
De Nicolai uses the tobacco note to focus your attention, but it's a ruse. As with any good magic act, the real action takes place right in front of you without your notice.
Ta da! Cuir Cuba Intense is a fougère!
Granted, it's an impressionistic one, but an effective one. The classical fougère is typically described as soapy, but from Houbigant Fougère Royale to Caron Troisième Homme to YSL Rive Gauche pour Homme, the coumarin in a fougère smells of hay and tobacco. In Cuir Cuba Intense, de Nicolai uses all the tricks the fougère has to offer. It plays the cool, and anisic tones of coumarin against warmer woody hues. It balances delectable, caramelized qualities with soapy inedibility, suggesting forbidden fruit. And wrapping identifiably masculine aroma (tobacco, leather, rumbly woods) up in a pretty bow, it is a classical dandy. Also in classically Victorian dandy fashion, and epitomizing the early generations of the fougère, Cuir Cuba Intense opens with a generous, expansive geranium note.
Prestidigitation works best on the suggestible and Cuir Cuba Intense is highly suggestive perfume. The fougère is there, but so is the leather. A citrus note ties to a dry smokiness and the heartnotes hint at citrus-leathers like Hermès Bel Ami and Estée Lauder Azurée. The combination of botanical references alongside undisguised chemical qualities reminds me of Robert Piguet Bandit. There is a sweet, caramel-patchouli inflection to the quiet but durable basenotes that is the balanced, pleasant version of Thierry Mugler A*Men's hangover of a drydown. Cuir Cuba Intense isn't derivative, it's just composed of a lot of moving parts.
My strongest association between Cuir Cuba Intense and tobacco is not the way it smells, but the tone of voice and the synesthesia it triggers. It smells like Betty Bacall's gorgeous, cigarette-raspy voice sounds. Her husky feminine voice was exotic yet she was forthright and plain-spoken. This same duality runs through the perfume.
Classical perfumery's forté is orchestration, the ability to build notes and accords and swing them around with flourish. Contemporary perfumery, from about the mid-90s forward, used the tools of postmodernism, focussing on deconstruction and recontextualization to make perfume. De Nicolai's Guerlain heritage is often cited in order to emphasize her traditionalism. Cuir Cuba Intense shows that she is as contemporary as she is classical and that first and foremost she is an expert structuralist.
from scenthurdle.com
What's in a name?
Not much, if we are to look at (read go sniffing) Cuir Cuba Intense. There is neither the leather, nor any evocation of Cuba. Only some faint tobacco bears the possibility of a thin conceptual link, if any. Once we conveniently forget what it is called, it is a pretty palatable composition. In the opening there's the burst of sweet licorice and lemon with some florals in the background. There is a hint of freshness, perhaps attributable to the mint. The tobacco is near untracable. The lemon bids farewell as the composition turns less brisk and more soft and floral. The magnolia shines. The tobacco becomes more discernible. The licorice is omnipresent, so is the sweetness. There is a lavender, but it is hidden underneathe the licorice-magnolia pairing. There is some soft spicyness, but it's still mostly a sweet floral. There is little further transition as the fragrance enters its base. It is finally less sweet, but the magnolia never leaves. There are hints of soft patchouli and timid woods.
Overall, this is a sweet floral fragrance with vague hints of spices. Projection is good in the beginning and then dies down; longevity is decent. It is gender neutral. It is perhaps wearable on spring and fall afternoons to tea parties, and on summer evenings to the local boutique shop.
But there is no compulsion at all.
Not much, if we are to look at (read go sniffing) Cuir Cuba Intense. There is neither the leather, nor any evocation of Cuba. Only some faint tobacco bears the possibility of a thin conceptual link, if any. Once we conveniently forget what it is called, it is a pretty palatable composition. In the opening there's the burst of sweet licorice and lemon with some florals in the background. There is a hint of freshness, perhaps attributable to the mint. The tobacco is near untracable. The lemon bids farewell as the composition turns less brisk and more soft and floral. The magnolia shines. The tobacco becomes more discernible. The licorice is omnipresent, so is the sweetness. There is a lavender, but it is hidden underneathe the licorice-magnolia pairing. There is some soft spicyness, but it's still mostly a sweet floral. There is little further transition as the fragrance enters its base. It is finally less sweet, but the magnolia never leaves. There are hints of soft patchouli and timid woods.
Overall, this is a sweet floral fragrance with vague hints of spices. Projection is good in the beginning and then dies down; longevity is decent. It is gender neutral. It is perhaps wearable on spring and fall afternoons to tea parties, and on summer evenings to the local boutique shop.
But there is no compulsion at all.
Cuba? Cuir? Intense?? WOW! Talk about name-dropping! Do not blame me for having my expectations raised prior to sampling this. This is not the dense, uber masculine tobacco-leather I was hoping for but rather a translucent, gender-neutral (or should I say neutered?) aromatic woods (cedar mostly). Projected aura is predominantly minty-floral (geranium, magnolia, patchouli) with nary a trace of leather even up close.
That I was left disappointed is probably an understatement. Not that it's a bad fragrance; just that it wasn't meant for me. Too clean, too mainstream, nothing remotely 'intense'. If you like MFK Amyris Homme, chances are you'll enjoy this too.
That I was left disappointed is probably an understatement. Not that it's a bad fragrance; just that it wasn't meant for me. Too clean, too mainstream, nothing remotely 'intense'. If you like MFK Amyris Homme, chances are you'll enjoy this too.
On first application I get a soft haze of a aromatic smell of licorice and lemon with slight hints of mint. After a short while the tobacco can be smelled mixed in with other notes.
The opening does not last long and the Magnolia soon takes over and it dominates the composition from here on out. As you smell the Magnolia there are a lot of other notes that are dancing and interweaving through this main accord.
We have a light smell of tobacco on top of the magnolia almost like it has been sprinkled on top. There are hints of Ylang Ylang and other notes but the fragrance is so complex I just cannot pick them out to Id them.
Underneath the magnolia I can smell a warm emerging leather note and sometimes a hint of civet. This is what I believe is given the scent it's warmth under the magnolia accord.
As we move into the basenotes when the Magnolia has faded you are left with leather, hay and a hint of civet on your skin. Though the scent has pretty much lost it's power at this stage and is pretty muted on the skin.
I have to say the quality and complexity is top notch and very impressive. The scent is definitely unisex as the contrast of the floral and warm tobacco and other notes make it ideal for men or women.
The only thing that I'm not totally taken with and it's just a taste thing is the dominance of the Magnolia note. It's nice but a bit too much, I think I would rather the tobacco to be dominant. What I'm liking is the complexity and how the other notes interplay with the floral note, I like how the leathery warmth seems to be at the base of the Magnolia note.
All in all a very good complex fragrance that is very well crafted, I'm impressed!
The opening does not last long and the Magnolia soon takes over and it dominates the composition from here on out. As you smell the Magnolia there are a lot of other notes that are dancing and interweaving through this main accord.
We have a light smell of tobacco on top of the magnolia almost like it has been sprinkled on top. There are hints of Ylang Ylang and other notes but the fragrance is so complex I just cannot pick them out to Id them.
Underneath the magnolia I can smell a warm emerging leather note and sometimes a hint of civet. This is what I believe is given the scent it's warmth under the magnolia accord.
As we move into the basenotes when the Magnolia has faded you are left with leather, hay and a hint of civet on your skin. Though the scent has pretty much lost it's power at this stage and is pretty muted on the skin.
I have to say the quality and complexity is top notch and very impressive. The scent is definitely unisex as the contrast of the floral and warm tobacco and other notes make it ideal for men or women.
The only thing that I'm not totally taken with and it's just a taste thing is the dominance of the Magnolia note. It's nice but a bit too much, I think I would rather the tobacco to be dominant. What I'm liking is the complexity and how the other notes interplay with the floral note, I like how the leathery warmth seems to be at the base of the Magnolia note.
All in all a very good complex fragrance that is very well crafted, I'm impressed!