Kilian Royal Leather – MDCI Les Indes Galantes

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Reviews of Kilian Royal Leather and MDCI Les Indes Galantes today should be interesting.  I’m suffering with a horrible flu, but my nose seems to be one of the few things on my body that is working.

Kilian Royal Leather’s list of notes could not have sucked me in harder when I saw the word HAWTHORN.  Hawthorn flashes like a neon sign in Vegas for me, so I paced and nervoused and Googled and bothered until some bottles showed up at the Kilian boutique. This is a London exclusive normally, but they do still have some bottles yet, but they aren’t sure when they will get more.  Hawthorn in nature smells like rotting flesh, which makes it the perfect note to throw in almost any perfume. Not sure why more perfumers don’t do just that.  Pairing it with leather is awesome – especially a nice raw leather that won’t go down easy when Hawthorn starts squicking up on it with the first hints of decayed flesh.  This pairing is perfect.  Notes are hawthorn, black tea, heliotrope, leather, agarwood (oud) and patchouli are listed. To be fair, throwing in black tea and oud and patchouli to tamp down hawthorn seems fair.  It works. The open is all leathered heliotrope with some other scary things rolling around fighting it out for the first 30 minutes. I expected to be peeling paint from the walls when I sprayed this one, but it’s actually most subtle on the open when the notes are in tension.  Tea stays pretty background, and I really get it as an underpinnning and not a main feature, but it’s a great underpinning.

Leather is something I admire, but usually don’t wear when it’s too strong.  The use of heliotrope and hawthorn are a nice touch with a strong leather note.  As it dries down, the leather becomes more prominent, but the other notes add interest, keeping it from being a linear leather fragrance.  You leather lovers, don’t worry, there’s enough rough-up leather to make you happy.  Deep in the drydown, it turns mostly leather.

Now watch me get over this flu and find out that this is peeling the paint from the walls, and I just had no idea.  I love it.

MDCI Les Indes Galantes is the first gourmand from Parfums MDCI.  I was surprised to see a gourmand from this line, but pretty excited too. I didn’t think it would be any normal gourmand, and I was right.  Notes of Bergamot, orange, almond, raspberry,coriander, cinnamon, clove, geranium, vanilla, leather, incense, benzoin, labdanum.  The open on this is a glorious cloud of  orange, almond and vanilla.  Deep under it is the incense and spices.  Leaning gourmand, it has a light touch – you won’t smell like you’ve been rolling around in vanilla cookie batter.  I’m enchanted with how the orange stays with this long enough to let some of the base notes settle and warm up then it does a soft fade,.  This is a wafty gourmand.  It reminds me a little of Fendi Theorema on the open, but classier.  Oh, stop, I love Theorema, but it’s an orange creamsicle.  A pretty one to wear, but orange creamsicle nevertheless.  MDCI Les Indes Galantes is gorgeous in the way MDCI does gorgeous, and it wafts.  The spices play gently in the fragrance, not an overpowering spicy oriental – a soft gourmand’ish oriental. I keep thinking it’s a Guerlain gourmand without the need to hit you over the head with the gourmand part of it. Elegant, soft, warm and so snuggly.

I’m so lucky!  I’ve gotten some beautiful things to review the last two weeks, and I’ve got more I need to get to. I love winter perfume releases this year.

Winners of the sample sets of Aftelier Vanilla Smoke (if I have enough), AJ Arabia V and Cartier Musc & OUd are Sublumisomnium and riverlife callie. Just click on Drop Us a Note at the top, send me an e-mail, remind me of what you won and get me your mailing address. I’ll send you a quick e-mail to let you know I got your e-mail and it didn’t land in a spam filter and then get it on the way to you!

Let’s do another giveaway of a sample set of these two perfumes to three lucky commenters. They are both too good to not be shared!  Just drop a comment about anything at all. I’ve been killed by flu for the last week, and it’s been brutal.  Have you avoided it so far?  Had your toes curled with the nonstop sneezing and coughing yet?