Rose & Cuir
Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle (2019)

This is a peculiar one. It's a rose, but not a rose. It's a leather, but not a leather. It's like you have all of the components of a rose, but they never really come together to make a rose accord, and it's the same for the leather. I'm hesitant to use a buzzword like deconstructed, since hype and trend put some tiresome and unfortunate stereotypes to the 'deconstructed' style of perfumery or culinary arts, etc., but that's basically what it is. Up top there is a blast of blue and black fruits (blackcurrant is stated, and I'll believe it), and pepper. Roses have a sort of fruity aspect to their accords - most roses anyway - and many can certainly be quite peppery. This works. There is a material in here through the heart and base that is meant to be rose, strictly speaking, but it's only part of the rose: very quietly floral, creamy, and just a touch soapy; you don't really notice it until the dry down. But, before that and after the top notes start to die off comes a part that I wasn't expecting: the massive green-ness.

Huge doses of geranium are riding on the big wheels of vetiver to deliver sharp, piquant, and very aromatic green notes like cut and concentrated rose stems. Geranium is one of those notes that I am quick to dislike; there's just something about it, ever since I was a kid, that is very off-putting to me. The camphoraceous geranium+vetiver combo here reminds me a lot - in both strength, stridency, and sharpness - of the camphoraceous geranium Tauer loves to use, and used with abandon in Lonestar Memories, but this is done much better and in a more elegant fashion. I cannot stand Lonestar Memories, but I'm finding myself attracted to this accord in R&C, which is sort-of blowing my mind! It must be JCE; his signature style of making notes transparent, weightless, very breathable, and full of air and light is what is making the green accord of R&C attractive and much easier for me to take, I think.

Now is the time to talk about the leather - or, rather, what's supposed to be leather - which is the quinoline material surrounded by a good dose of Iso E Super (cedar) and what might be a type of castoreum or animalic musk. These are so weightless, diffusive, airy, and "deconstructed" that you could be forgiven for saying it's not a leather accord. In fact, I'm going to go there. The woody vetiver of the dry-down plus the combination of cedar from the Iso E Super sort-of overrules the simplistic quinoline material and takes R&C in the direction of a green chypre rather than a rose leather. I get more green notes and more woods in summation from R&C than I get true rose or leather accords. And while, in most circumstances, I would deduct some points from the perfume for what seems to be a clear lack of direction or execution, JCE rides the line so well between "geranium chypre" and "rose leather" that I have to conclude it was on purpose, as if the point of this perfume is to take the line between the two genres and blur it to imperceptibility. It's fascinating. Despite the disparate and sharply angular juxtapositions of all of the notes, it's easily wearable and pleasant. I think this a tough perfume for the average consumer though, since most want their green chypres and their rose leather perfumes to be separate perfumes, and to wear a perfume that is having an identity crisis of the two genres will likely off-put the average wearer. I normally struggle with perfumes that are having an identity crisis as well, but that's usually because whilst in the midst of their crisis they display aggressive, confrontational, and histrionic behaviors towards the wearer. Not Rose & Cuir. Despite not knowing what it is, I'm thoroughly enjoying wearing it.

Is it worth the money? no unless u can find a deal somehow.. this scent does so much and is completely adequate for any time or situation so i have to give it an obligatory 8/10 disregarding its absurd price. the price is absurd cause theres no immaculate blending of naturals going on its just immaculate blending of synthetics

Gertrude Stein opines in "Sacred Emily" that a" rose is a rose is a rose is a rose," but surely this is just poetic license—a rose, any rose, is not monolithic. Roses of all colors, all numbers of petals, numerous shapes and sizes, and—most importantly—all manners of scent, including no scent at all. Cultivars of rose can smell very "un-rosey" as well, including some that smell more like the rose geranium; after all, there is a sizable geraniol content in both, along with a number of other shared constituents. Still other rose varieties can smell almost leathery, or tobacco-like.

Then we have the idea of leather in fragrance, a concept that surely isn't hidebound, given the early interpretations of it through the birch tar inflected "Cuir de Russie" or the castoreum-meets-saddle-soap "Spanish Leather." The usage of isobutyl quinoline (IBQ) since the early 19th century by Coty and Caron has, over time, come to represent more an abstract representation of leather only as a facet of a whole accord. It imparts that coarse ferocity and mineral quality to a leather accord that often would include the aforementioned birch tar or castoreum, but what if it is unmarried from that which is so often associated? Does it still represent "leather" to a contemporary olfactory bulb any more than Pelargonium roseum represents "rose"?

Ellena's Rose & Cuir deconstructs both accords and this becomes obvious to many who seem deft at identifying their notes in a fragrance. Yet, when I smell it, I still feel the impressions of rose and leather: is my nose wrong? Of course it is not. The aldehydes, the galbanum, blackcurrant bud, the timut pepper, they all aid in illustrating this kabuki theater rose, massaging the geranium with tart fruitiness, stems, leaves, and luminous flesh. The vetiver shades in where the IBQ would otherwise feel somewhat stark and brittle, while there is additional alchemy that anchors it, of which I can only speculate. I smell fragments of Nuit de Noel here and there, without the carnation and oakmoss, which delights me. But what makes me most merry is how Rose & Cuir has both heft and a haunting feel, like Ellena summoned ghosts through its essence: like apparitions of rose and leather from a long forgotten past.

My view on this has drastically changed, i love it now...

This smells like springtime, the happy euphoric warm weather after the cold, the blue skies with 2-3 little clouds hanging around. Greenery and blackcurrant in here are a beautiful slap in the face that will wake you up. Only a few fragrances capture the feeling of true happiness, and this is one of them.

This is a genius creation, combining ingredients that make rose and leather a reality. Rose and leather are holograms here, you can sort of feel them, while knowing its all smoke and mirrors (in the best way possible).

The scent features a sourish rose note along with a hint of leather, which is decent but not particularly impressive. However, if you're not a fan of the typical sweet and ambery oriental style rose and leather combination, you might enjoy this fresher alternative. Some people detect the leather note more prominently, while others sense the rose note more strongly. In my opinion, both notes are present in the fragrance, but they are both very subtle and delicate.

To draw a comparison, I would say that this fragrance is reminiscent of Galop d'Hermes, but with a more subdued leather accord. The longevity and projection could be better, and if I had to choose, I would go with Galop for its more prominent leather note.

Rose & Cuir by Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle (2019) borders on the usual Le Labo trickery of saying one thing on the bottle, and delivering something else inside of it, but I still kind of like it in spite of that. Jean-Claude Ellena knows his way around potently fresh but transparent accords, and he's built a career out of it working for houses like Cartier and Hermès, plus to an extent Malle himself of the course of successive contributions to the range. With all that in mind, I sort of expected what I got here with Rose & Cuir, a non-rose sort of rose and non-leather sort of leather, hammered into something greater than the sum of its parts; true perfume wizardry, Harry. Whether or not you agree with me depends on how you feel about fresh green smells. I like this a lot, but I don't think I'll be seeking a bottle just because I already have my fill of the style.

The basics of Rose & Cuir constitute a green rose chypre-type smell, with geranium cosplaying as rose, and isobutyl quinoline going solo as leather. By itself, neither material smells like either thing they are trying to be, and there is shaping to be done, like carnation alongside geranium to make it rounder, or birch and oakmoss alongside the isobutyl quinoline to impart leather; but neither of those things happen here in Rose & Cuir. Instead, we get aldehydes, galbanum, and vetiver bringing in a really old-school 70's feel, with geranium and timut pepper (like Sichuan pepper) forming a stemmy "rose" feel alongside blackcurrant bud. Taking a page right out of something like Guerlain Chamade (1970), Rose & Cuir eventually dresses up more modern with Iso E Super, ambroxan, and sheer musks. Wear time is long and projection is great too.

Rose & Cuir is green, stemmy, and deliciously throwback to scents like Tea Rose by The Perfumer's Workshop (1973), done according to the usual Malle standard. I wouldn't say this justifies its price because no Malle really does, but neither does Rose & Cuir smell particularly cheap or crass. Ellena could have just the same made this for Hermès and pitched it as Galop d'Hermès (2016) if he had wanted, so that's right about where Rose & Cuir falls. I think Rose & Cuir is also a lot more unisex in tone than Galop d'Hermès actually is, although Synthetic Jungle by Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle (2021) is even more so. Ultimately, this fights for space against old champions in the genre like Fleurs de Bulgarie by Creed (1980) and L'Ombre Dans L'Eau by Diptyque (1983), but fans and collectors may have room for one more in the style. Thumbs up