English Leather Lime
Dana (1966)

I procured a bottle of English Leather Lime back in college in 1979. I had a college house mate who was moving out and had a box of stuff he didn’t want to haul back home to New York. The bottle was new and a few months later I decided to crack open the bottle and try it out. The scent was different than most lime scents around at the time and a little more refined and smooth. Lime with a presence of mint and cedar and a bit floral. One of my friends in my circle said she thought it smelled daring and exotic. Different than the Brut or Aramis that I usually wore. Another friend said that they recognized it immediately and said I didn’t smell like a frat boy. I found a bottle on eBay a few months ago and got it inexpensive, the original, not the silly reformulated Dana version. It is a little dated and not something I would wear often, but is brings back some nostalgia of the day.

The combination of splashing (right word) citrus, lime, bergamot, cedar, woods and leather is iconic of a left back era, exotic (great men, great enterprices, great travels, cruisings ad frigo bar) and fresh. The lime feel is prominent for sure overcasting a bit the leathery feel that on the  contrary is more stressed and starring in the English Leather formula. Here, in the English Leather Lime, the leather effect comes out just very late in the hesperidic splashing burst and with a faint and subtle effect. This is not the mossy and denser  leather of English Leather yellow as it's indeed more citrusy, sporty and airy. The smell is astringent, mature and elegant.

This gets a thumbs up because I am thinking that at one time this was probably longer lasting and projected more but the present product which is no longer made in the U.S. is rather weak.

I love limes and the English Leather lineage is in the background and together they seem to combine to make a cedar-like accord at the top and thoughout.

It is linear and does not "mature", evolve or change in any way. It must be re-applied after an hour. It is cheap and will not be a big let down for the price you pay.

Now that I think of it............I guess I'll start off on a quest for a vintage bottle of the MEM version.

The Dana version was a poor imitation to the Mem Lime. Dana produced a more minty cheaper fragrance while Mem had a pungent fresh lime scent, attractive packaging and liquid color. It's not surprising that lime was discontinued because it just couldn't hold up to the original. Hopefully in the future it can relaunched with better packaging and a fragrance like Mem had for 25 years. Even the flagship English Leather cologne changed when Mem sold out. This is why these old new fragrances are still popular on Ebay. The Mem English Leather Lime was the best lime cologne I ever smelled.

Personally, I rather love this. It does not smell anywhere near as cheap nor as old as you'd expect. Especially since I bought a 0.5 ml bottle for 99 cents at the 99 cents only store. Yes, you heard me, 99 cents. It smells well-formulated and delightful to me - happy, fresh, limey, lively, clean, and simply yummy. Unfortunately, it literally lasts about a minute or two on my skin, if that. But at that price, I just keep splashing it on. It's nice for an at-home "I want to smell clean but I don't want to waste a nice scent" day. I used to splash some on after a particularly smelly lunch, too. Made me feel as if I'd just showered. Very simple. Complex? Base notes? Nyet. It's lime in a cologne. End of story.

I feel a little disappointed that they discontinued this one, but it's so weak that I won't be devastated. Once I put a fair amount on, did a full day of heavy physical labor in the sun, and realized that I wasn't smelling it at all, which really shocked me given the circumstances. Right out of the splash bottle it smells great, like the original with a good dose of an appealing but "blunted" or dulled lime, like when the creaminess of a key lime pie counters some of the tartness. I think at the time they were afraid or unable to make the lime as sharp as they might today, but that also means it doesn't smell as artificial as it might. If it were stronger I'd keep it.