Cuir Velours
Naomi Goodsir (2012)

A dark, thick boozy syrupy honey opening, that opens the door for what is to come - suede, and tons of suede, realistic brown high quality suede. This is that typical night out, leather jacket scent, but the quality and realism of the suede is on another level. Easier to wear than the rest of NG line-up.

Alchymia. Perfumare. Magnum Opus.

More “”velour” than “cuir”, technically I shouldn’t like “Cuir Velours” due to its seeming overly sweet nature, as many other reviewers have pointed out. However, there is some magic in it that defies explanation (what a relief!) and it works for me very well. I think this magic lies in the fact that although sweet, it is not gourmand. Not that the only way to make a sweet perfume is gourmand, of course, but I am still impressed by how my reason and my senses are opposed here. Needless to say, I opt for my senses.

I put “Cuir Velours” into a boozy-ambery category, alongside fragrances like “Une Nuit à Doha” by Stéphane Humbert Lucas (although I need to immediately point out its difference and superiority due to the implementation of spices), “Id” by Mendittorosa, “Sables” by Annick Goutal and “Caravelle Epicée” by Frapin. Interestingly, the first couple of minutes strongly throw me into association with “Chypre Mousse” by Oriza L. Legrand (can’t help but smile whenever I remember that scent – as unique as it is unwearable!)

I barely detect any leather. It is not listed either, which is either a lapse in the pyramid or the effect relies on the tobacco-incense combination. Be it as it may, there is something very balanced and complete in the composition of this perfume – yet very full-bodied and thick – that wins me over. Gives me the feeling of plums soaked in rum and the aroma they emit when taken out and left to dry. I wouldn’t wear it as a leather though, but as a sweet fermented amber, although in that respect I would rate it beneath “Une Nuit à Doha” and “Sables” but above “Id” and “Caravelle Epicée”. If you want a more purified leather without the potentially off-putting gourmand vibe, I would suggest “Cuir Chine” by Les Indémodables, which relies potently on osmanthus. And while on osmanthus, my fantasy immediately starts to think: what if “Cuir Velours” tones down the labdanum-immortelle, adds osmanthus and tones up the tobacco and incense? M-m-m-m…

Naomi Goodsir, Cuir Velours:
Composition: 8/10
Complexity: 7/10
Development: 7/10
Naturality: 7/10

Cuir Velours is a bit too sweet for me to really sink my teeth into, but that aside, I can appreciate the rum accord, which is one of the better renderings I've experienced. The immortelle here does seem to "fix" it into the dry down in a pleasant manner, and I definitely pick up the delectable davana oil here.

Be that as it may, it just doesn't resonate with me. Sure, its eminently wearable, and that davana is a juicy dose, but the whole thing just grows a bit too cloying and sticky for my liking, not to mentioned there is parched, scorched woodiness in the dry down that gnaws at me. I'd probably be more pleased if there was a shift into something a bit warmer, damper and savory in its dry down. I completely get its appeal, though.

The last several reviews are spot on, there's not much I can add.

This has a type of leather sweetness that gets to your stomach. It's not sickly sweet as in a foody gourmand, but in the way that some leathers can 'get down your throat. Maybe a drier, cooler climate would help curb this, but keep this away from humid heat for sure.

When I think of sueded leather, I think of Bottega Vaneta Pour Homme, and I would reach for that every single time over CV. I'd say that if this is your bag, performance is much better than BVPH, though they are not similar scents.

5/10

Revisiting Naomi Goodsir now that her ‘flavour of the month' moment in perfume fora has long passed feels a bit strange. The Goodsir perfumes I tried then all had their flashes of interest, but failed to attract me enough to part with cash for a bottle. Cuir Velours was the one that I was least drawn to because leathers that hold me beyond a couple of hours are few and far between.
It's a solidly made thing – perhaps a bit too solidly made, for it cannot help but remind one of some gentlemen's warhorses of the 1980s, with the exception of the hulky, smoky backing, which is very much of our own time.
At first the combined impression of the main players here – leather, sweet but meaty immortelle, cured tobacco and booze –was, oddly enough, that of a ‘pine' perfume. And once that had lodged, the notes kept separating and then recombining in my perception to suggest this: pine needles and sap but in a concentrated, somewhat honeyed mode.
I'm all for dry green, almost herbal interpretations of leather but here it comes at the expense of definition – some have referred to suede and new leather but neither of those are apparent to my nose, this Cuir remains in the background.
For all the ambition of the Goodsir line, I can't help but think that here we have ended up with something that is a bit too reminiscent of tobacco and pine ‘man colognes' of days gone by, but now with added smoke.

Somehow, I had high hopes for Cuir Velours. I love fruit-suede fragrances like Visa and Daim Blonde, and am slowly coming around to the idea of Traversee du Bosphore.

Indeed, there is something in the fruity, syrupy heart of Cuir Velours that reminds me of the cherry-pomegranate-apple syrup in Traversee du Bosphore, and also something of that pink-grey powdered suede with a thick dusting of icing sugar on top. To say that Cuir Velours has something of a lokum feel to it would perhaps be going too far. But there's a familial connection, and it's interesting to me.

Maybe 75% of Cuir Velours is attractive to me – in particular that hushed, plushy suede and spiced fruit compote note. The immortelle is nicely folded in, and I can only pick up that strange, savory syrup note in the heart of the fragrance, where it adds a necessary point of interest.

But two things throw Cuir Velours way off track – the overwhelming sweetness and the burnt-woods aromachemical lurking underneath, which is most definitely Norlimbanol. Believe me, I know my enemy well. And it is he. To me, it sticks out like a sore thumb and I don't understand why a perfumer would think it necessary to use such a brutal material in what is essentially a plush-toy sort of fragrance. Another Naomi Goodsir fragrance written off for the sake of one element that just doesn't work for me.