Cuir Mauresque

in whichever category or family of Fragrances this particular perfume falls, it is all true and at the same time the perfume is so mesmerizing and mysterious that it sizzles above the mere 'Families' and 'Categories' being a timeless and in itself radiant perfume of which I recognized the smell immediately after 25 years. I must have bought this perfume around the year 2000. my 'Lutenses', eight in total while two given away, stand on the bottom glass of this Glass Menagerie and these are flacons that are really 'stackable !'. it also says, by their sheer positioning, that his perfumes are always somewhat awkward, challenging, out of the ordinary. but with 280 perfumes all such desiderata fall away and I guess I am the only person who makes them a 'synergetic' fluidum of likewise Opulence, Headiness, Intoxicative Presence, at once Vulgar as Super Refined Hooker Perfumes. yet in these latter weeks I try to concentrate on the perfume itself, its Notes, its Inner Workings and Outer Spectacle. and I do have some classic perfumes which behave quite lady-like, with finest of ingredients and poshest doings of legendary perfumers (Christopher Sheldrake). but of course also and even in particular, the older perfumes, say before the 1990s. yet as Lutens then already was active for Dior (I remember their Make-Up Glossy Leaflets with these fabulously made-up, beautiful women and Collections named 'Les Diaboliques' and a lipstick 'transsiberien') and he worked for Shiseido experimenting even further with his Berlinesque -Vampiresque- Anemic and Thinner- than Thin image of Femininity. I guess also his perfumes started around the 2000s, as from Éditions de Parfums Frédéric Malle with his Guest Perfumers. before this review (which hasn't started yet) I reviewed two perfumes from Parfum d'Empire, Cuir Ottoman and Ambre Russe. and it is from that first named perfume, Cuir Ottoman, that I can imagine a line of reminescence with SL's Cuir Mauresque. these are then Turkish and Moorish Leathers and I am insufficiently schooled to precisely pin down resemblances or differences. yet precisely that the 'Cuir' isn't so Forward and plays a Hovering, Airy, Supporting Role, thát then may be a huge resemblance. but also the soothing characters of both perfumes. common denominator is the use of all the resins which I always love. Resins & Spices as Cinnamon, Myrrh, Caraway, Clove, Incense, Nutmeg, Styrax, these are for now all the soothing, with each other in correspondence, swath of Medicins for the Soul. then with Civet, Oud, Amber, Leather, Musc the perfume gets a whole substance to incorporate embodying such languourous, Sahara, Taklamakan, Mojave, Namib Sweltering Landscapes of Strong Odors, yet somehow kept in the Clôche of Softness, Slowness and Histoire.