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Fragrance family

Leathers: the fragrance family of leather, birch tar and tobacco

The leather fragrance family gathers perfumes with dry notes that reproduce the smell of tanned leather, through smoke, burnt wood, birch tar or tobacco. The French classification treats it as a family apart, close to the leather chypres.

Tobacco leaves hung in tight rows under a drying shelter in Bulgaria

What does the leather family cover?

The leather family covers perfumes that chase the smell of leather. The French perfumers' society classification of olfactory families (text in French) calls it a formulation apart, made of dry, sometimes very dry notes that rebuild leather through smoke, burnt wood, birch and tobacco, with top notes that lean floral. The Wikipedia overview of perfume families describes leather fragrances featuring honey, tobacco, wood and wood tars, with a scent that alludes to leather.

Which sub-families does the leather family include?

The French classification counts three sub-families: leather, floral leather and tobacco leather. Floral leather softens linear, gentle leather notes with violet, orris or other flowers. Tobacco leather tempers the leather with woody, honeyed and hay accords, the signature of blond tobacco.

Which materials give the smell of leather?

Birch tar, smoky and tarry, is the historic leather material. Leather itself is rebuilt by the perfumer from smoky notes, animal notes, labdanum, honey or tobacco. The club also files saffron in this family for its dry, warm smell.

Where does the leather note come from?

The leather note goes back to the tanner's workshop. Wikipedia's article on birch bark tar explains that Russia leather was oiled with birch bark oil after tanning and became a major Russian export in the 17th and 18th centuries; by the turn of the 20th century, birch tar had become a perfumery base note for leathery, smoky effects, especially in leather and tobacco scents. In Grasse, the UNESCO listing of the skills related to perfume in Pays de Grasse, inscribed in 2018, places the growth of perfume plants "in a craft industry long dominated by leather tanning".

How do you recognize a leather fragrance on skin?

A leather fragrance shows itself through dryness: a smoky, sometimes tarry impression that recalls a saddle or a new bag, softened in some cases by a powdery flower or a honeyed tobacco. The opening can mislead, floral or citrus, and the leather emerges as the perfume dries down. The Class on animal notes and their substitutes explains where some of these notes come from.

Notes in this family

Leather Tobacco Saffron Birch tar

Further reading

In the feed

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