Oriza L. Legrand Peau d’Espagne 1872 & Leather In Perfumery

Posted on September 1, 2022 by Kafkaesque

Peau d’Espagne 1872 is the most recent addition to Oriza L. Legrand‘s collection of leather fragrances. It’s supposed to center on Spanish Leather, a specific sub-genre of the leather family of fragrances. I found it to be more of a hybrid, however, that also used Russian Leather and modern isobutyl quinoline methods of leather recreation. I think that makes an olfactory difference, especially if you’re expecting the softer, gentler fragrance style of Spanish leather, so today I’ll talk about the different olfactory ways in which the scent of leather is recreated in perfumery as well as what Peau d’Espagne 1872 smells like in particular.

Leather. Source: atulperx.com

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Oriza L. Legrand Empire Des Indes

Posted on June 5, 2022 by Kafkaesque

Oriza L. Legrand‘s recent release, Empire des Indes, is an addictive delight with many faces: spicy floriental; gourmand amber; ambered vanilla; ambered opoponax incense; spicy woody amber; smoky, sweet, spicy resinousness; and a few more. There is even a stage where the fragrance smells like spicy vanilla infused with dark, smoky French Roast coffee on my skin. While Empire des Indes skews a little too sweet on occasion for my personal tastes, I would absolutely wear it for myself and I want to buy a bottle some day soon. I loved it.

Oriza L. Legrand Empire des Indes bottle and packaging. Photo: Oriza

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Oriza L. Legrand Cuir de l’Aigle Russe (Cuir Impèriale)

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Kafkaesque

The Russian imperial coat of arms and eagle. Source: Wikipedia.

1892 was a year of empires, part of The Golden Age when aristocrats flourished and opulence was the order of the day. It was also the year when Oriza L. Legrand released a leather fragrance designed to appeal to its imperial Russian clients. A few weeks ago, the modern Oriza re-released the scent which it called Cuir de l’Aigle Russe. The name translates to “Leather of the Russian Eagle,” and the fragrance is based on the 1892 original formula with only a few tweaks to conform to modern perfume regulations.

The scent is quite different from what I had expected. To the extent that there is leather, it is the Spanish leather or Peau d’Espagne of Catherine de Medici, not the tarry, smoky birch leather of the Russian cossacks. And the first three hours were something else entirely.

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Oriza L. Legrand Marrions-Nous (Let’s Get Married)

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Kafkaesque

Gloria Swanson, photo by Edward Steichen, 1924. Source: galleryhip.com

Love and marriage, virginal propriety and lusty naughtiness. Marrions-Nous runs the olfactory gamut from the virginal, cool aloofness of an aristocratic aldehydic floral, through the consummation of lust with darkly skanky notes, before ending with a sigh as creamy smoothness. The fragrance was released by Oriza L. Legrand (hereinafter just “Oriza“) in 1928 and feels very much a product of its time, a decade when the cool hauteur of Chanel No. 5 had become a runaway hit that revolutionized perfumery, but one in which Josephine Baker also ruled the stage and naughty, animalic seduction was in the air. I find Marrion-Nous to have been influenced by both competing trends, resulting in an elegant fragrance that is one-part aristo in white, one-part Mae West and a Folies Bergère showgirl doing the can-can in black.

Source: Oriza L. Legrand.

Technically, however, Marrions-Nous was inspired by “Gai! Marions-Nous” [“Great! Let’s Get Married”], a successful 1927 novel by Germaine Acrement that later became a famous play. As Oriza explains on its website, the perfume house was moved by the play to make an eau de parfum that was meant to be “an expression of sensory playfulness.” The various notes were intended to be symbolic parallels to the various stages of the romantic process:

Inspired by love and marriage, which are not always related to each other, “Marions-nous” offers the virginal touches of orange blossom, rose, jasmine, and hyacinth.

Charlotte Babcock Brown, gown by Jeanne Lanvin, photo by Edward Steichen 1928. Source: onewed.com

In an interplay of propriety and informal understandings, the marriage reaches its peak as the heart succumbs to the essences of carnation and iris and the comforting accents of aldehydes and Ylang Ylang.

On the chessboard of Love, mutual consent seals the arrangement… and we slip into the gentle clutches of sweet emotion.

Tonka Beans, Musk Tonkinese accord, Civet, and Sandalwood add their fragrances to the happy ceremony… “Gai! Marions-nous!”

Marrions-Nous bottle and box via Oriza L. Legrand.

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