New Perfume Release: LM Parfums Hard Leather

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As fate would have it, this morning I received the press release for LM Parfums‘ new fragrance, Hard Leather. Just yesterday, I talked about my overall impressions of the perfume which I got to test in Paris a few weeks ago, and absolutely loved. Hard Leather is set to launch in a few weeks, in November 2013. While I don’t have an exact date yet, I do have the notes and concentration of the perfume. [Update: The perfume has released and I have a full review of it. I have also placed it on my Best of 2013 list.]

I thought I’d post the full photographic press release instead of just writing out the text. I think the visuals are sexy and very sleekly cool, and I’m not just saying that because black is my favorite colour.

LM Parfums Hard Leather

LM Parfums Hard Leather 2

LM Parfums Hard Leather 3

LM Parfums HL 4

So, in short, the notes in Hard Leather are:

Rum, Leather, Iris, Honey, Sandalwood, Cedarwood, Oud, Frankincense, Styrax and Vanilla.

Hard Leather is an extrait (or pure parfum) in concentration and comes in a 100 ml/3.4 oz bottle. LM Parfums’ extrait line usually costs $225 or €195, with the company offering 5 ml decants for €19. I don’t have pricing for Hard Leather, but I assume it will be in the same range. The line is available in the U.S. at OsswaldNY, and Hard Leather should be no exception. In Europe and elsewhere, you can buy LM Parfums directly from Laurent Mazzone’s website, as well as from numerous retailers. Links to online vendors who generally carry the line are below.

DETAILS:
In the U.S.: Laurent Mazzone’s fragrances used to be European exclusives, but the range just came to America two months ago. It’s sold exclusively at OsswaldNYC, with samples available for purchase by telephone order. Outside the U.S.: In Europe, you can buy the perfumes directly from LM Parfums. (There is also this other LM Parfums site.) Samples are available for €14 or €19, depending on the perfume in question and its concentration, and they come in a good 5 ml size. In the UK, the LM Parfums line is carried exclusively at Harvey Nichols. In France, you can find the perfumes, and 5 ml samples of each at Laurent Mazzone’s own Premiere Avenue. In Paris, LM Parfums are sold at Jovoy. Germany’s First in Fragrance carries the full line and sells samples as well. You can also find LM Parfums at Essenza Nobile, Italy’s Vittoria Profumi, or Alla Violetta. In the Netherlands, you can find LM Parfums at Silks Cosmeticsor Parfumaria. In the Middle East, I found most of the LM Parfums line at the UAE’s Souq perfume retailer. For all other countries, you can find a vendor near you from Switzerland to Belgium, Lithuania, Russia, Romania, Croatia, Azerbaijan, and more, by using the LM Parfums Partner listing. Laurent Mazzone or LM Parfums fragrances are widely available throughout Europe, and many of those sites sell samples as well.

18 thoughts on “New Perfume Release: LM Parfums Hard Leather”

  1. Dearest Kafka
    Back into the swing of things so soon!?!
    I agree about the designs for this publicity material, they seem to owe more to the world of literary publishing than perfume shifting, which is an entirely good thing!
    As for those notes, they sound heavenly. As you know I am a leather fetishist in olfactory matters and also have a leaning towards the smoky and resinous… presto: a lemming!
    Yours ever
    The Perfumed Dandy

    • Haha, I hadn’t planned on getting into the more usual aspects of things quite so soon, but when the press release showed up the day after my rave about the perfume, I just had to post it! As for the notes, I don’t want you to have the impression that Hard Leather is a smoke bomb or even a smoky, resinous fragrance. It’s primarily a woody-leather one, with musk. The wood takes over some hours in. But, really, the whole thing is so superbly balanced and well-blended that it’s never really ALL just one single aspect. That said, I think the smoke and incense are the more subtle element, especially later when the amber starts to rise to the forefront. Ha, maybe it would be easier to read my description from yesterday. LOL.

      Anyway, I’m glad you’re tempted because I truly loved the perfume — and made quite spectacle of myself in my enthusiasm for it. *grin* I think you’d really like it, so stop by Harvey Nicks in November!

      • Dearest Kafka
        Ah yes, I’ve read the description from yesterday…’a boyfriend’s leather jacket’, non?
        Though I’m very partial to the military propriety of a birch tar like Cuir de Russie, I adore lived in leathers, tempered by other odours too. Balmain’s violet-scented Jolie Madame has hints of the fading rock star revolutionary, Lancome’s Cuir of antique glamour.
        So here a Left Bank hipster’s leather jacket with just a hint of catholic mass will do very nicely.
        Your posts have also whetted my appetite for a New Year trip to Paris and for some gooey cheese, which fortunately we can get here being just across the Channel.
        BTW am now searching for LM’s stockists in London as this certainly sounds like a brand worth investigating.
        Yours ever
        The Perfumed Dandy
        PS Please don’t forget to rest!

        • I’m so grumpy about the cheese here! I had a long list of cheeses that I wanted to pamper myself with, and almost ALL of them are illegal in the United States because of FDA issues with pasteurization and age. Bah!!

          Speaking of whetted appetites, now you have me yearning for vintage Jolie Madame! God, I loved that perfume. Just out of curiosity, have you ever tried Karl Lagerfeld’s vintage Lagerfeld? I’m sure you must have, but, to me, it’s very old-boyfriend-leather-jacket set in a spice market in Istanbul. Apparently, it was influenced by Lagerfeld’s love of Shalimar, so it’s not hardcore leather by any means, but it’s one of my favorite comfort scents. Montana’s Montana (or Parfum de Peau) also has a leathery side to its chypreness that I adore, but I’m in a huge, huge minority in my feelings about that poor scent. LOL.

          Anyway, thank you for the very, very sweet, affectionate postscript. I really do need to rest, but I’ve now gotten to the point where I’m too tired to sleep. And jetlag doesn’t help with my ever growing sleep-deprivation. I think I’ll go spray on some more of Hard Leather, as that clearly perks me right up. 😀 (A massive hug to you, cheri. xoxo)

  2. This sounds beautiful. I love leathery perfumes in the winter, the hard-edged ones on my husband, the softer plusher ones for me. I understand that YSL has a new and lovely leather out. Have you smelled it yet?

    • I did have the chance to sniff the new YSL Oriental line, actually, and yes, the Noble Leather, too. It wasn’t a proper test on skin but, from what I smelled on paper, I have to say that I wasn’t hugely impressed. Again, it wasn’t on skin which is where more notes can come out, but it didn’t feel hugely rich, luxurious or opulent, and definitely not enormously original. The real problem may be that I’m so damn tired of a saffron overload in perfumery. Plus, here, it smelled like the synthetic type to me. Perhaps my problem is that I’ve smelled SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many saffron perfumes lately that I’ve got fatigue of one of my favorite notes. Anyway, I think my favorite from the line was the Supreme Bouquet one, but even that one left me feeling rather “meh” as a whole. I certainly wasn’t tempted to buy it, let’s put it that way.

  3. Oh, I love the sound of those notes! 🙂
    And we’re lucky that Top here carries the line – I will have to go smell this as soon as it arrives…

    • YAY! I’m so glad there is someone else who is tempted by it. Please let me know what you think of it when you get the chance to try it!

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  6. Sounds absolutely fantastic! I hope I can try it one day. As you know, I’ve come around on boozy notes, and the combo of that with honey, leather, iris, sandalwood sounds like it has the potential to be really phenomenal.

    • Hard Leather actually doesn’t seem all that boozy to me, no matter what the notes may say. It doesn’t have an opening like Alahine, for example. It’s not really a cognac/Armagnac scent like some I encountered on my trip. Plus, as a whole, the fragrance is extremely smooth and so well-balanced (after an initial civet like touch that is very fleeting), that it all blends into a very harmonious sum total. Certain notes dominate, but it’s never boozy, boozy sweetness or amber like some other Orientals. I think you’d like it, though I know you have issues with oud.

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  8. Good morning Kafka. I received a sample from Ruth Kaminski and I smell Hard Leather and really it is very delicious. Now I have from LM Parfums both: Black Oud and Hard Leather. Both fantastic on my skin. I don´t feel it to boozy but perfect balanced.

    • WONDERFUL news, Walter! Just wonderful. I’m so happy that you love Hard Leather as well. And you’re right, it’s perfectly balanced and not too boozy at all. 🙂

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