Archive Leather
Base note · Leathery
Leather.
Smooth, dry hide with a faint smokiness.
Our read on the material, not a measurement.
What it smells like.
Leather smells dry and smooth, with a soft smokiness and a faint animalic warmth. It is closer to a jacket or a bag than to anything raw, and it reads as worn rather than new. Of all the base notes it is the one that most changes the character of a blend rather than just its weight.
Use it for structure. Under rose it produces something classic and slightly severe; with saffron it goes rich and spiced. What it will not do is charm. If the blend is meant to be pretty, gentle or easy, leather will keep pulling it somewhere else.
Leather is an accord, not an extraction: nobody distils a hide. The note descends from the birch tar and smoke once used to cure leather goods, and from the scented gloves of the 1600s that first married perfumery to the tannery. Every modern leather note is a memory of that trade rebuilt from smoky, dry materials.
In a blend.
Adds structure and a hard edge. Leather makes a blend read as confident and a little severe. It is not a soft note and cannot be made into one.
Leathery. Smooth, worn leather with a dry, confident edge. Shop the leathery scents.
Pairs beautifully with.
Questions about leather.
What does leather smell like?
Smooth, dry hide with a faint smokiness. Leather smells dry and smooth, with a soft smokiness and a faint animalic warmth. It is closer to a jacket or a bag than to anything raw, and it reads as worn rather than new. Of all the base notes it is the one that most changes the character of a blend rather than just its weight.
Is leather a top, heart or base note?
It is a base note, so it appears last and stays longest. Adds structure and a hard edge. Leather makes a blend read as confident and a little severe. It is not a soft note and cannot be made into one.
What does leather pair well with?
The studio would start with bulgarian rose, saffron, agarwood (oud) and vetiver. Use it for structure. Under rose it produces something classic and slightly severe; with saffron it goes rich and spiced. What it will not do is charm. If the blend is meant to be pretty, gentle or easy, leather will keep pulling it somewhere else.
What fragrance family is leather in?
Leathery. Smooth, worn leather with a dry, confident edge.
Can I use leather in a custom blend?
Yes. It is one of the 42 notes you can choose at the Bench, where you build across the three tiers and we blend it by hand in Adelaide.
Blend with leather.
Pick it at the bench, choose up to four notes per tier, and we blend it by hand in Adelaide.
Open the bench
