Dead Leaves, Raw Leather, Bourbon Vanilla, and Clove

[puellacaerulea]

[No additional description given.]

In the bottle: Mainly the leather accord and bourbon vanilla; the dead leaf note and clove are barely noticeable.

Right after applying: CLOOOOOOOOOOVES. All of the cloves. They're overwhelming everything else.

On drydown: The clove note stays really strong, but the scent balances out more, with the leather and dead leaf notes becoming more prominent. The bourbon vanilla note ends up really subtle compared to how the oil smells in the bottle.

Overall: It's like a sexy, spicy pile of leaves. (It reminds me of Leather Phoenix, except clovier. Seeing as I dread the day that I run out of Leather Phoenix, I welcome anything similar.) For me, this is definitely a keeper, but you should probably bypass this one if you're at all on the fence about clove.

[Dark Alice]

This is my favorite of the leaves so far! It has the lightest brown leather note, not headache inducing at all! The Dead leaves blends sublimely with bourbon vanilla and the clove actually takes front from wet to dry. IT morphs in strength throughout the day, but it is always there. 10/10

[izile]

Tested at NYCC (fair warning, I tested it on the sith, not me, so different male skin chemistry in play)

In the bottle: dead leaves in the background, I mostly smell that kind of wet leather smell that is kind of sharp, almost like it's aquatic, like the leather in whip when it's still in the bottle.

 

Wet: The leather is still mostly dominant with dead leaves in the background, I'm getting no vanilla or clove yet.

 

Dry down: There comes the clove! Not too dominant, but it's definitely there now, helps balance the leather which is less sharp now, and the dead leaves are balancing nicely - still not getting any vanilla, though.

[skyelyric]

While I can catch whiffs of the individual notes, on my skin this blends into a very nice overall haze of scent. The dead leaves in this blend don't have the tanginess that I expect with that note, they're gentled by the vanilla and clove into something almost reminiscent of scented tobacco to my nose. The leather is a soft, subtle one underpinning the rest of the scent. It's a littel sweet, but still unisex/masculine leaning.

 

My overall impression is that of an older, scholarly gentleman's study with his pouch of pipe tobacco and well worn leather couches. I'm not super-enamoured of it to wear, but I would adore that vibe in an atmo.

 

eta: my skin eats this. I'm not a slatherer by nature but if I use just my customary drop it's totally gone within half an hour, any throw or staying power requires a pretty heavy (to me) application.

Edited October 13, 2016 by skyelyric

[MischiefofRats]

God, this is beautiful. I really do love it, with one problem: I can hardly smell it.

 

In the bottle, I get almost nothing. There's a faint warmth and a slight vegetal note, which I presume is the leaves. On my skin (fairly generously applied to an area about the size of a half-dollar on my hand) it picks up a little, but even on the dry-down I have to get my nose within two inches of my skin to smell anything at all. When I do get a solid whiff, it's swoon-worthy. It's a warm, unisex scent that just smells like FALL. The dead leaves note is beautiful and blends with the clove like a dream, while the leather and vanilla add a beautiful background warmth that doesn't stand out as one note or the other. The vanilla doesn't come out much at all on my skin for about the first half hour, but even when it does appear, it's fairly muted. I seriously love this. I just wish it had *throw,* because I don't want to shove my wrist up my nose to get a whiff. Maybe a heavier application would help, but the fact that it's so quiet even in the bottle makes me think it's not just my skin or application--or heck, maybe I'm just nose-blind to this one. It's definitely worth revisiting to see if it changes. Unfortunately, a half hour in, it seems to be fading already.

 

The caveat here is that this is about three days out of the mail, and I'm still recovering from a cold I had two weeks ago, so I'll try it again in a week to see if it's any different. Fingers crossed for more throw!

 

EDIT: As an update since this has settled a bit now, it's gotten a little stronger, but it's still on the weak end for me. It's still gorgeous and I love it, but this is definitely one to absolutely slather.

Edited October 19, 2016 by MischiefofRats

[mollison]

Wet: All I can smell is the cologne-y dead leaves! This is a much nicer dead leaves note than the one in October or A World Where There Are Octobers--that dead leaves note was really green and pungent and didn't work for me. This dead leaves reminds me a bit of men's cologne.

 

As it dries: the leaves are fading! Maybe a hint of clove, MAYBE. I'm mainly smelling a bourbon vanilla and soft brown leather (the one from Rogue, I think). I like it!

 

30 minutes on: I really like this, but this is all bourbon vanilla on me with a memory of the leather. I like it a lot! I'll have to test it more. I'm glad I have the bottle for now.

[Upstart Crow]

In bottle: Very soft leather with a slight hint of spice--which must be the cloves. I don't smell bourbon, leaves, or vanilla.

 

Wet: Very, very faint clove and light leather. Reminds me a little of The Two Old Men from this year's Fleurette's Purple Snails, but not as strong or satisfying.

 

Drydown: Clove comes out to play more and blends with the leather beautifully, and I think I'm picking up on a very dry, light vanilla. It's lovely, but its throw is super weak on me and it's just not one I see myself reaching for as much as I will some of the others in this plentiful pile of leaves. I'm curious to see how it will age, but at the same time I may swap it for another leaf bottle.

[Redillon]

I bought the bottle straight from the lab!

 

I loved all the scent notes in this one at first read.....except for the dead leaves. I tried it one year and didn't love it but I thought with all the other notes it HAD to be good.

 

Well, as most sniffers have already stated at first sniff it's SO LIGHT. I couldn't discern any clove, leather or vanilla at ALL. The blending of all 4 scents combined into something else.....

 

On the skin it was more of a CLEAN scent. Not rich or heady with clove or leather at all. I was bummed.

 

As it sat on my skin the scent stayed very close. Not much throw at all. It didn't change much on me from wet to dry.

 

It's not bad. It's just not what I was looking for.....

[Talizorah]

This kind of confused me when I first got it, I've had it about a week now and I'm still unsure. It definitely smells like cologne on me, but I can't really pick out what's what, it's like a slightly sharp blur . Ive never liked most traditional perfumes because they always gave me headaches and this is kinda doing that same thing right now. I think Itd be awesome on someone else I don't know I'm gonna put it in time out for awhile and check back later

[bheansidhe]

Sniffed wet: oakmoss-dominant dead leaves and lea-heh-heah-EATher. This is definitely a "wet" masculine fougere type.

 

Oddly, even though clove's usually the 900 pound gorilla in the blend, the leather completely smothers the clove at first. Clove's a fighter, though. Eventually I smell it around the edges - at this stage it's like a hit of spicy aftershave. The bourbon vanilla may as well not be there, unless it's just the glue softening the sharp edges of everything else.

 

Dry, I just get "clove-spiced fougere." This is too much of a dude fume for me, and the least dead-leafy of the five I tried. It's oakmoss all the way.

[hennessey_101]

Sadly, this is not what I'd hoped it would be. I imagined this would smell like a sexy leather clad bourbon drinking dream smoking a clove cigarette sweetened with a smirk of vanilla. Right out of the bottle this has an almost aquatic vegetation scent; I hoped this would bloom on my skin like Jareth had but, it remained pretty consistent. It smells like leaves that had once been dry saturated with a day's worth of steady rain; earthy and herbaceous and almost...petrichor...? I don't know. Maybe it's my bottle? Maybe it's my skin? I'm going to age this a bit more to see if it develops otherwise, I'll have to part ways with it.

[Cassandra Dudum]

This perfume has quickly made it into my top 10 favorite perfumes. It is so beautiful and well blended. I absolutely adore it. I bought backups immediately!

 

When I sniff from the bottle, I get major flashbacks of being in the dressing room of my high school's theatre. We would leave the back door open and dry dead leaves would blow from the wind and get smashed up underneath costume racks backstage of a drama production. We had a lot of old, soft, worn leather jackets on the costume racks that had a lingering smell of warm men's cologne. We would all have homemade, baked goods backstage for the first night of the play for a cast party. It was usually vanilla cupcakes or some spiced cake. Dead Leaves, Raw Leather, Bourbon Vanilla, and Clove remind me of this wonderful memory exactly.

 

I can pick out each note individually in the bottle but it all swirls together in perfect harmony. The dead leaves smell more like a cold fall night rather than the typical green/rainy dead leaf note I get from other dead leaf blends. The leather is very soft and worn. No chemical smell at all which is lovely. The cloves and vanilla give the perfume a gentle sweetness. The vanilla never goes plastic on me. The scent stays the same scent on the skin as it does in the bottle. As hours go by, I smell the vanilla and clove more on the skin.

 

If you are afraid of leather notes, I suggest this perfume. It is very mellow for a leather perfume. It is unisex and very nice for the fall. Nothing is overpowering in this scent. It is very wearable out of all the dead leaves scents I have tried.

[Jenjin]

Maybe I'm nose confused because I've been testing a bunch of scents today, but I'm really not picking up any leather, clove, or even the typical dead leaves note. It's all blended together into something a bit like vanilla bay rum for me. It's lovely, but if i'm hankering for some smooth, boozy nilla, I have other choices.

Edited November 8, 2016 by Jenjin

[PersimmonSeeds]

This is the biggest winner for me this year, there were SO MANY that I loved but this one won over all!

 

When first applied wet, it's strongly just LEATHER on me. It's extremely similar to the shiny, rugged, black leathers in Rogue and Mutant Hot Rodders (which is my favorite!) but not quite as sharp nor quite like shoving your nose into a new leather seat or heavy leather armor. It's a bit softer, but still very strong.

 

After melding with my skin the dead leaves and bourbon vanilla come to the front and smooth things out.

The dead leaves note is very faint in this for me. It's definitely there in it's dirty, peppery glory, but not as sharp as it is in the other blends. The clove is always in the background making things deliciously spicy.

I will forever love the clove + leather combo I see in a lot of men's colognes and this is definitely reminiscent of that!

This is VERY masculine at first. After things have smoothed out and the leather fades a bit, I would say this is pretty unisex. Not everyone will agree, but that bourbon vanilla is making it very smooth and sweet on me.

 

Throw and longevity are amazing. When wet the leather leaps out at others and I have to wonder if they think I'm wearing some sort of leather bdsm harness under my clothing lol

Once that fades, it's super smooth and blended and just really great. I still smell it on me the next day when I wake up and shower! (leather usually clings to my skin, though)

 

Over all, a new scent I can't wait to slather!

[Casablanca]

Wet on my skin, this is dead leaf-covered leather, and some of that odd, musty musk. I can pick out no more than a light trace of clove, and no vanilla (bourbon or otherwise). There's a more rustic quality to this leather -- the "raw" -- that pairs well with the leaves. This reminds me a bit of Hunter, although the clove is stronger in that one.

This later turns on me into a dried, leathery, lightly clove-spiced, musty musk. I never find vanilla in it.

[lizardskin]

I really like this one! It's the perfect autumn scent--a bit dark and spicy. The cloves are stronger at first, but as it dries it turns into a well-blended spiced vanilla leather. The leather and cloves are the most prominent notes on me--the vanilla is mostly in the background. I can't really pick out the dead leaves, but there is something else grounding the other scents. I'm impressed that I can really smell the leather in this one, since in some of the other leather scents I've tried it just disappears or gets overwhelmed by everything else.

 

It doesn't have a lot of throw, but it does last for a long time.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: This is a morpher, and the notes are elusive in terms of what's dominant from the very second it hits my skin. First I get a very cologne-like leaves, then soft leather, then the clove comes out but sadly disappears on again....what is happening on my arm?! This may need a bit more settling? I do keep catching the same leaves not from the Sugared Cardamom scent, which I find very masculine and somewhat soapy, and different from other leaf notes.

 

 

Dry: Dries down to a single note of that cologney leaf note that I don't care for. This one is not for me!

[zankoku_zen]

Leather, cloves, and leaf fougere. This one is rugged, and manly and makes me think of Quincy Morris. The leather is definitely that sueded brown leather note. I quite like the addition of clove to it. Good throw and wear length.

[Blood onmy hands]

I expected a heavy, spicy leather blend from this, but it's more of a clean, musky men's cologne with a hint of spicy clove (kind of reminds me of bay rum cologne). It's not as green as the dead leaves can be, but has that strange, aquatic cologne vibe. I don't smell leather or vanilla at all, and this doesn't last very long on my skin, maybe an hour total.

[Katillac]

This smells fantastic on my husband.
I admit, i ordered it "for him" (air quotes. because i live for leather smells.). On me, it smelled like truly dead leaves; not the crinkly/crunchy kind, but the florida kind with roaches.

On him...oh, sweet Christmas, yes.
His starts with vanilla clove with a really warm back bone, almost tonka in the level of the vanilla. Then leather comes in. It's sweet, but not "sweet" (like how the perfect espresso has a sweetness to it, it's that sort of feel). After 10 hours, it slowly goes down to an actual pile of dead leaves.

Never been jealous of my husband before, but he pulls off this better than i do.

[Melani Robison]

The clove is definitely most prominent on me, but it's mellowed by the vanilla and leather. There is a slight dry herbal note when it's first applied that I suspect is the dead leaves, but that sinks into the background fairly quickly. As the oil dries down it becomes a lovely warm, slightly spicy scent that I really adore. It has really good lasting power on me and I find the throw to be just about perfect, enough that I know it's there but not so much that it overwhelms me and my surroundings.

[sprout]

Add me to the list of reviewers who get oakmoss like whoa! from this. Like Keanu Reeves in the Matrix whoa. Maybe like Keanu Reeves as Ted whoa!

 

I can detect the vanilla, leather, clove combination, like a distant radio station Riding in and fading in and out on the main Channel playing the song oakmoss night and day.

 

I enjoy Fougere perfumes, however, this is very different than I expected. Wonder if there are batch variations here or we've discovered a new amping ability super power?

 

I will retest, but I doubt that I'll want a bottle. I'm keeping the imp. I like my oakmoss with flowers or Grass and the faint amounts of the other notes means there are other vanilla, clove, leather scents to hoard instead. To be fair, the whole Dead Leaves series are mostly unpleasant for me, must be a skin chemistry thing. I still have October and Samhain to love though and the Dead Leaves with Tobacco and Currant worked out, so I keep trying these. Considering how expensive the Weenies updates can be, I should be grateful for a proverbial death note.

[puddingirl]

I wore this last week and remember the lovely leather smell when I first put it on, but can't remember anything else. I was wearing a lot of layers though! I will test it fresh now.

 

In the bottle the dead leaves note is strongest, with the others merging together underneath. A slightly spicy masculine fragrance. As it dries the clove comes out to join the dead leaves, and underneath, the vanilla gives way to the leather. The leather starts to get stronger, but I wouldn't say this is a strong scent (which I thought it would be!). I think I'll leave this one to age and see what happens.

[milo]

In the bottle, I'm getting mostly the Bourbon vanilla, and a touch of leaves. On, mostly leaves, fresh and airy. Not dead leaves, but almost. After a bit leaves and clove, not much else. This was so promising from the sniff in the bottle, and I like this, but it really didn't live up to my expectations. I may hold onto this one, as I can see it being spectacular if the notes do come through with age.

[torikitty]

The leather and clove come out the strongest for me. Because I don't find it very sweet, I think it's a good masculine scent. I know clove smells wonderful on my husband.