Orto Parisi Cuoium Parfum

You find yourself amidst lush Italian countryside — hay, violet and laurel pulsing with the low arid wind, distant mandarin trees and wildflowers releasing a humming florality and innocence, and the smoke of incense rising against the spire of a nearby monastery. You find yourself amidst lush Italian countryside, knife in hand as you eviscerate the freshly slain underbelly of a cow hung by rope — oxygenated blood spilling into oak buckets and congealing at its base.

There is then an instant departure from this fresh and peculiar opening, as this is definitely a perfume and not an olfactory assault. The developing leather of Cuoium becomes impregnated with the thick musk, sweat and androgens of the burly tanner. Bitter herbal and floral tones emerge — a reminder of the diet of the slain beast, with resinous, oily and metallic facets dissipating as the leather ages on the skin.

In this way, Cuoium is a perfume whose story begins in media res — we see the conception of the leather through to its end. This is surprisingly wearable, as in the air Cuoium has a dark and musky allure, but just be sure not to overspray!

So, remember Tom Ford's Tuscan Leather? Civet pee and cocaine? This is Orto Parisi doing it. Just whiney, sharp and anxiety-inducing violet leaf/leather. Aqua Di Parma's Leather is what you're looking for, but you went too far and bought this instead.