Cuir
Eau de Parfum, Molinard (2015)

I smell leather but not so masculine. I can wear it and feel the sweet spices (cinnamon and cardamom) envelope me softly. I love this leather. That’s a first. Only the performances don’t seem so good

I really like the French-styled leather here; it's not heavy, but it's not too airy either.
The touch of suede is light, so that the petrol hints shine through.

However, my wife gets hit with a load of cinnamon wafting off of me, so I won't be able to wear this one. Bummer... Add this to this list of loves I cannot wear: Carven Homme, Oscar de La Renta Pour Lui (vintage), and now Molinard Cuir...

Sillage is pretty good for the first hour, but longevity is not good at all. The beauty of this fragrance nudges it above Neutral, but I recommend sampling before buying.

Vroom! Fascinating fragrance. Gasoline and motor oil opening, rather heady. As a woman this accord makes me feel daringly, provocatively macho, in a borrowed-from-the-boys, motorcycle jacket way – it's how I imagine women in the 1920s felt wearing Tabac Blonde. But under the jacket is something more elegant. The fragrance takes a while to settle – for a while, quite a strong lemon verbena takes over, mingles with the petrol, and meanwhile the leather impression is slowly taking form via the saffron and oud - a fairly smooth leather but with some tannic sharpness. In and out float the lilies, sometimes there, sometimes not, hovering a couple of inches above the leather and tilting this at times in a more feminine direction. There is also a soft, pervasive, rounded skin scent that arises and carries through the end of the drydown, which I *think* is musk (a scent I don't have much experience of). Later on I get some kind of dried green note – the patchouli? The longevity of this development is about four hours, followed by at least a couple more of the quite soft, lovely, gentle leather/skin scent that wears very close to the body.

Edit: now 8+ hours in, the lilies are back, now over very soft suede.

I find myself addictively smelling my arms while this whole thing goes down. I love it. I think Luca Turin has missed a trick in dismissing all the “ards” of French perfumery as simplistic and touristy – Molinard's Cuir, for one, is fabulous.

This is for the purple bottle formulation with composition as listed by ClockworkAlice below.

I tried the purple bottle with the white label. This is slightly sweet, slightly spicy, slightly leathery autumnal goodness. Probably more spicy than leathery, but the leather in here is of the hard and juicy-feeling, slightly sour-ish kind. You don't think about a leather bag while smelling it, it's more like a saddle. Feels unisex to me, although I think many women would consider it leaning masculine. It's quite loud and strong upon application, although it doesn't last very long on my skin (or maybe I just get anosmic after a while and stop smelling it? Maybe it's my fault, not the perfume's). I truly enjoy the smell, finished my sample with pleasure, but decided not to buy a bottle - it is beautiful, but a bit too intense for me.

I am seeing different notes everywhere else on internet and what I smell better corresponds with these instead of what's written here. Maybe the purple bottle is different from the one in the photo:

Top Notes: Bergamot, Nutmeg, Verbena
Heart Notes: Pimento, Lily, Saffron, Lavender
Base Notes: Sandalwood, Oud, Amber, Leather, Patchouli, Musk

To me, this is quite an intoxicating fragrance. I am instantly transported to an early 19th century gantier. The leather is quite sublime, masked by the overdose of tobacco and woods to almost give a floral quality. The fragrance is not strong and it projection quite weak. However, for the wearer it is quite enough to keep an interest. It is definitely a mood piece, strictly for the wearer, more so than to be noticed. I relish the days that I wear it! I also keep it on small strips of paper throughout the house, as a book marker, and to quietly scent my little corners of life... It's quite magical!

Cuir? I don't think so. There is nothing even suggesting leather or tobacco, let alone "precious woods" here.

What I am getting is the fruity overload of yet another Mugler Angel rip-off. Although I love the originality of the Mugler Angel, one bottle was enough to get me over the fun of wearing something "different."

This is a bit of a rip-off, stating it is a genre representative in its name, and then delivering something totally different.

As such, it is not bad – it's just not what it claims to be. Hence the neutral rating.

Beware and sniff before you buy!