Cuir Ottoman 
Parfum d'Empire (2006)

Like a flower bouquet wrapped in leather. i have visions of dashing, James Bond-esque types rebelling in old time glamour.they are smoking cigars in leather-upholstered penthouse interiors and flirting with martini sipping ladies with meticulous hairdos.an absolute dream of a perfume.rich and powdery, beautiful labdabum leather.it is such and exquisite perfume,so good,so gorgeous.

It starts out classic and dry by the famous strange leather chord.it feels like the entire apartment has transformed so the walls are made of leather,that there are big birch trees growing up from the floor.later the dark and smoky part of the leather settles down and it gets a lot softer.at this point the iris gets a little bit more prominent together with a soft,and very smooth,warming hint of vanilla, labdanum and benzoin.but it still is the iris and especially leather that has the leading role in this incredibly beautiful creation that stays on my skin all day long.

Very nice fragrance overall with good longevity.

Ambre Russe comes to mind with subtle nuances of leather.

I prefer Ambre Russe over Cuir Ottoman.

Thumbs up!

As someone who loves leather scents, I had to try this, and try it I have--several times, in fact--but somehow I still can't quite make up my mind. I admire this fragrance for its rather determined and single-minded approach to leather. In fact, I don't think I've smelled any other scent that replicates bag and shoe leather this realistically; I'm just not entirely sure I want to smell like a Coach or Hermes store. But maybe I do! Maybe this scent if the classiest thing going, and I'm just too much of a plebeian to realize it. Or possibly, I have just been spoiled by my close relationship with CHANEL's version of leather to genuinely appreciate this unadorned, unanimalic iteration. Perhaps I just need to meet this fragrance at its own level. Hmmmm....

Cuir Ottoman is my second try from Parfum d'Empire, after Ambre Russe, and I detect a connection to Ambre Russe, but Cuir Ottoman is more middle-of-the-road, at the meeting of several different types of fragrances: leathery, powdery with the iris, resinous with tolu balsam and benzoin, and spiky with styrax.

The resins foil the iris excellent, and present a less sharp leather/iris fragrance than, say, Dior Homme Parfum, and I imagine that most of the time, that makes Cuir Ottoman preferable to DHP.

Performance is good, not quite as good as Ambre Russe, but still worthy of the type of scent it is and going rate (retail is $160 for 100ml at Luckyscent).

Overall, this is one I like but don't love. I'm picky enough about leather fragrances that I much prefer the more modest floral leather Knize Ten that I tried earlier this week, for one.

7 out of 10