Cuir Ottoman was launched in the fall of 2006, alongside Iskander, by Parfum d’Empire, the house of Marc-Antoine Corticchiato, who composes it himself. The house presents it as an iris and leather oriental: a leather of burnt styrax and birch, powdered with iris, warmed with cistus and steeped in Tolu balsam, benzoin and incense, around a heart of Egyptian jasmine.
Kafkaesque praises one of the most refined leathers in its experience, softened by iris and vanilla; Luca Turin, more reserved, gives it three stars and judges it very well built but unsurprising.
What critics say
Kafkaesque, July 2013
Kafkaesque considers Cuir Ottoman the most civilized and refined leather encountered in a long time. The opening evokes new Italian shoes brushed with iris powder; the whole slowly melts into a creamy cloud of iris, leather and vanilla.
The blog finds neither the excesses nor the brutality of the Ottoman Empire in it, but rather a Victorian leather, that of a Regency dandy, and likens the tonka base to the Guerlinade. It recommends it to anyone wary of leather in perfumery.
Luca Turin, Perfumes: The A-Z Guide
Luca Turin gives Cuir Ottoman three stars. He sees barely a leather in it, rather a sweet, woody composition with tea-like accents; solid and very well built, it strikes him as predictable as the compulsory figures in figure skating.
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