Cuir de Russie

The version sold today is the Les Exclusifs eau de parfum. The house does not break it down into top, heart, and base: it names birch wood and cistus labdanum for the ambery, leathery framework, and jasmine and ylang-ylang for the floral facet.

Top, heart, and base

Around 2009, the house announced for the eau de toilette a top of Tunisian orange blossom, Calabrian bergamot, and Sicilian mandarin, a heart of jasmine, Oriental rose, and ylang-ylang, and a base of Albanian birch wood.

The notes of the eau de parfum are arranged here according to that breakdown: jasmine and ylang-ylang in the heart, birch in the base, with the cistus labdanum the house pairs it with. No top notes are announced.

Birch and leather

Birch carries the smoky note of Russian leather: the oil drawn from its bark was used to impregnate tanned hides, making them supple and waterproof. The house speaks of mysterious accents of smoked wood; Elena Vosnaki mentions a rectified birch tar, probably accompanied by styrax.

The flowers and the iris

Jasmine and ylang-ylang form the floral facet. Denyse Beaulieu describes a leathery aldehydic floral whose structure derives from that of N°5, and a powerful iris that opens up the leathery material and draws in rose, jasmine, ylang-ylang, and orange blossom.

Iris is not among the announced notes of the eau de parfum, but the label declares alpha-isomethyl ionone, with its violet and iris facet. According to Denyse Beaulieu, Luca Turin considered Cuir de Russie a leathery iris rather than a leather.

The earlier lists

In 2005, Victoria Frolova gave a longer list: orange blossom, bergamot, mandarin, and clary sage; iris, jasmine, rose, ylang-ylang, cedar, and vetiver; styrax, leather, amber, and vanilla. Elena Vosnaki added aldehydes, balsams, incense, and cade.

A house description of the extrait evokes tawny, dark scents of balsams, jasmine, and birch wood, with tobacco, hay, and smoked wood. Denyse Beaulieu notes that the extrait, if it still contains castoreum, no longer uses the Russian kind.

What the label declares

The list published by the house for the eau de parfum places bergamot peel oil right after the fragrance, with linalyl acetate, the main ester of its oil, and alpha-isomethyl ionone. Bergamot, absent from the announced notes, is therefore part of the formula.

Rose, jasmine, and ylang-ylang oils or extracts are declared, along with santalol and sandalwood oil, patchouli oil, Virginia and Atlas cedar oils, acetyl cedrene, and sclareol, derived from clary sage.

Vanillin, coumarin, orange flower oil, lemon and orange peel oils, lavender oil, and clove oil complete the declaration. No lilial or lyral: the list complies with European law.