Cuoio dei Dolci
AbdesSalaam Attar Profumo (2016)

Cuoio dei Dolci is a bright, herbal leather that belies its gourmand-sounding name by taking a bitter, anisic route to deliciousness rather than via the edible notes associated with gourmandise, such as chocolate, caramel, or vanilla. I thought this was going to be a syrup-and-amber fest, but it is really not. Think digestif rather than dessert.

Although Cuoio dei Dolci retains its cool-toned snappiness throughout, the addition of a creamy, nutty vetiver and cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove in the later stages of the perfume does warm things up, forming the impression of fine nubuck leather massaged with a reddish paste of finely ground spices. Despite the slight increase in warmth and ‘deliciousness’, I never really find Cuoio dei Dolci to be the gourmand fest that reviews make it out to be. For me, that is a positive.

One downside of the Cuoio dei Dolci, however, is its poor longevity for a perfume in oil format, as well as a slight flatness of expression. It runs from fresh-herbal to creamy-spicy in the space of an hour, after which, well, the party is over, and everyone has gone home.

If you are generally in the mood of cozy (oriental/ semi-oriental) creations a la Arabian Oud Kalemat, Il Profvmo Chocolat, several Serge Luten's spicy appointments, La via del Profumo Amber Chocolate or Milano Caffè (which exude anyway a basically diverse kind of coziness), or if you even appreciate the brighter (creamier) heliotropic-vanillic Farmacia SS Annunziata Cara or Kiori by Kiori, well you will surely enjoy the warmly animalic Cuoio dei Dolci's sultry tobacco. Actually, I borrow the word "cozy" since the vanilla-ylang-ylang's remarkable presence (as usual on my synapses) provides me with this sort of "far lands exotic" twist but at same time since a superb castoreum's presence elicits in here this wide sense of carnal (kind of salty-yummy, dusty sweet, luxurious and liquorous) aromatic warmth. Sort of anisic is the sudden approach with this semi-gourmand intimate scent, a sort of "across the board" coniferous aromatic aura surrounding all the straight to follow unveiled elements. Cuoio dei Dolci actually opens its run with an adamant assault of castoreum, dried orange, dry almond, cocoa beans, spices (may be hints of nutmeg or clove) and coniferous resins under my grotesque nose. Sugary, boozy (kind of cognac's presence evoking), warmly yummy, "wooden nuanced" Christmas holidays conjuring. Castoreum is immediately notable in a sort of fresh-aromatic (somewhat minty-piney), surely mouldy and just barely honeyed way (I mean somewhat sugary, almondy-heliotropic and "sweet liquorous pastries/Christmas cakes/icing sugar/dried orange/sweetmeat/white-sugary molasses-ideally conjuring"). An evocative approach due to exhume the most arcane of your childhood memories. Anyway this sort of almondy-aromatic-vaguely talky castoreum is the main initial presence on my skin with its salty-sugary (talky-resinous and vaguely "truffley") provision. Tonka, vanilla, may be cypress and ylang-ylang are clearly quite notable in this exotic phase while gradually tobacco jumps up with its pipe vanillic (and at same time salty-humidor-acid-"agricole") feel. Honestly is hard to retain along dry down "the cocoa beans-presence's perception" which is indeed throughout heady in (more straightforward on cocoa beans-temperament) scents as Amber Chocolate or Milano Caffè (which is far spicier) while the yet notable tobacco is anyway surely more heady in diverse La Via del Profumo's creations as Don Corleone or Tabac. Castoreum (especially along the first minutes) and a sort coniferous almondy/heliotropic presence are the most relevant presences on my skin throughout. I don't detect any buttery or particularly intense ambery feel which somebody claims to pick up from this blend. Repeat, the honeyed feel is moderate and never thick. Dry down is more than vaguely woody (seasoned mild woods) and musky under my "deceitful" nose from the far southern lands. "About the leather" actually Cuoio dei Dolci could not be properly defined a leather-dominant accord (the juice does not claim to be a straightforward leather-manifesto a la Aramis classic) but frankly you could notice a subtle (gradually emerging) leather's final presence along the dry down and the "leathery feel" jumping up from the dominant castoreum. To conclude..., ealued on its whole array of nuances Cuoio dei Dolci is surely a fully satisfactory "natural in approach" intellectual fragrance with a sheer sense of literary manneristic decadence, "golden age cheerful bacchanalia" and bourgeois inexorable debauchery. Moderate sillage (or better, somewhat faint sillage) and longevity on my skin (just my personal alchemy on this perfume while I enjoy a greater longevity and projection with scents as Don Corleone, Mecca Balsam or Muschio di Quercia).