bdk Parfums
bdk Parfums
713 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The initial burst is almost aggressively bright—pineapple cuts through with tart, juicy intensity, supported by the gentle sparkle of bergamot and mandarin. It's a disorienting clash with what you expect from the name, lending the fragrance a misleadingly fresh, almost fruity character that dominates the first ten minutes before gradually receding.
As the citrus settles into the background, the suede and that enigmatic solar note bloom with creamy warmth, whilst sandalwood begins its soft, woody ascent. Pink pepper adds a subtle spice that prevents creaminess from tipping into gourmand territory, creating a sophisticated, almost edible quality that hovers between leather and cashmere. The fragrance becomes increasingly intimate here, losing its opening brightness for something closer to skin scent.
What remains is a soft, creamy musk-and-vanilla base with whispers of birch providing a faint woody skeleton. The leather has receded into a subliminal, almost imperceptible quality—present more as a textural memory than an assertive presence. This final phase is gentle and skin-close, lasting perhaps four hours before fading to barely-there traces of creamy warmth and subtle spice.
Crème de Cuir is a perplexing creature—a fragrance that announces itself as a leather composition whilst simultaneously refusing leather's typical textural demands. Violaine Collas has constructed something far more nuanced than its name suggests: a creamy, almost buttery interpretation of tanned hide that dissolves into something closer to suede-draped cashmere than the animalic, waxy leathers of traditional fougères.
The pineapple and bergamot opening strikes with unexpected vivacity, introducing a tropical tartness that seems wholly incongruous with leather, yet this tension is precisely where the fragrance's intelligence resides. The citrus doesn't fight the leather so much as it cuts through it, preventing what could have been a dense, stifling composition from becoming suffocating. As the heart emerges, a solar note—that peculiar, creamy-almost-vanillic sunbaked quality—mingles with the suede and sandalwood, creating an effect reminiscent of leather goods left warming in afternoon light.
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Yves Saint Laurent
4.2/5 (122)