English Leather Dana for men

I wore this cologne as a high school kid, and it was the my first cologne that drew huge complaints :)) 1977

I guess that it did not agree with my body chemistry

mine as well use your toilet water as a cologne

"Going out with skinny Marsha again?" (See YouTube - English Leather....)

I just found a mid-80's (?) era, tall, rectangular, cream-colored plastic flask full of fine vintage English Leather® - A Man's Cologne, from beautiful Northvale, New Jersey.

Wanting to waste no time, I slapped a bit on the wrists and am now sitting back trying my best not to gag. (I think I just threw up in my throat a little bit.) Now, to be fair, this bottle is probably about 30 years old, in cheap plastic, and could well be more than a bit cooked.

None the less, when first applied it suggested an alternate use for this product, it smelled of a cheap leather cleaner / conditioner. But..., given a moment to settle in and burn down, not-so-subtle fanfares of astringent soap and powerful detergent stormed forth.

Now, some five minutes in, there is an overwhelming aura of dime-store deodorant in the air, pervading the room such that my fine hound has demanded to burrow deep under the covers.

But wait, what's that I smell, is it my father, intoxicated, and blistering with anger, or is it my grandfather, in the self-same state? The notes are the same, but the lyrics are too slurred to differentiate the nuances.

Ahhh, now the soap is washing out my mouth, I want to spit, or dare I swallow, and wash the soapy taste from my mouth. Wait, that brings forth even more of the scent and taste of Lever 2000 to my nose and palate. That's what's unique about this scent, it's so palpable I can actually taste it, spit it, and yet it grows.

I rub my wrists together, there now breaks forth a Johnson's & Johnson's Baby Powder freshness overtaking my nose, demanding I sneeze or open a window.

As I get up to scrub my forearms I wonder, is this a special vintage bottle, where the poly-vinyls of the flask how somehow magnified the power of pungency logarithmically? It's truly a genie in a bottle, and a drunken, soapy one at that.

Fear the Vintage Leather Brit'!

(Scrubbing the forearms with dish detergent and extremely hot water has only served to somewhat lessen the potency of this powerful, insistent olfactory concoction. It's a survivor to the finish. The dog moans.)

The current version of English Leather does not list oakmoss on the ingredients, therefore there must be a synthetic oakmoss note. Otherwise, I get very little leather out of English Leather. Instead, I get a BIG neroli (orange blossom) that lasts into the drydown and gives way to a woody cinnamon smell. I mean, it's certainly not horrible, but then again I wish I could actually smell the leather. I plan to try the vintage MEM version and I'll make a comparison once I get some.

Never bought it. But the way it smelled in the 80s resembled the smell of burning rubber.

I'd never buy this.

Yes i remember sitting, "daddy" showing me how he shaves. Talk about oldskool, i love this. This is complex and layered, and lasts ALL day. It's strong as hell, and.... kinda reminds me of Azzaro pour Homme, only it's more intensive on the Lemon than the bitter Green notes.
The head is bitter soapy green, might be a bit offputting to some. but let it settle. The Lemon comes out. This must have a STRONG concentration of Limonene, a common industry standard lemon oil fragrance. After a while is softens out and the Leather notes become very obvious. It's like a soft sweet Suede, VERY much like the drydown of my Favorite Avon's Black Suede. This is for all seasons, but more Mature type guys. Daddy types. It's very very complimentary to the typical "guy smells". This is going to be a classic for me.

I just received an original MEM bottle of this, and this can't be the scent that everyone is talking about here. This stuff is HORRID!! Soapy, sweet, synthetic, nothing woody or mossy at all. Maybe a hint of leather in the sillage, but smell it up close and, well, let's just hope you haven't eaten much yet. This is a cheap no go, and I can't believe people would actually put this on to smell good. YUCK!
To be fair, the wafting aroma coming from this, does contain a nice leathery scent, but up close, this is a sweet rotting mess. Save up and buy Bel Ami or Knize Ten for good leather.

While most of soaps are flavored nowadays, this old school powerhouse can't hit the market as it used to. This is such a soapy that whenever I see it, I imagine boat rudder and oar, a man in polo shirt and sailing hat, white pants and black boots smoking Dunhill pipe sailing slowly on a bay.
It can be the grandpa of Prada amber pour homme.

English Leather is an old classic, and it holds lots of memories for me. I grew up in the 60s and 70s, and back then (the 60s, to be exact), this fragrance was worn by lots of men. There wasn't much out there to choose from. You had a few, and mostly sold in drugstores, such as Brut, Aqua Velva, Old Spice, Hai Karate, Mennen Skin Bracer, and British Sterling, are the main ones that come to mind. English Leather was probably the first cologne I ever bought or received as a gift. I had a piano teacher who wore it in heavy doses, so I'll never forget that smell. It never worked well on me, but I'll always remember the fragrance and it evokes good childhood memories. Oh, boy. ...

For the price this is a good masculine cologne that has a strong leather scent and lasts a long time.If you want a strong,masculine scent with a strong leather dry down,then for the price you cant beat English Leather.This cologne has been around for over 60 years,a fragrance doesnt last that long without having mass appeal.

Update this lasts pretty neat almost 6hrs on my clothes & projects well after the initial stage. For the price pretty neat.

I like this only for the dry down which has lot of leather & forgetting the old spice start off this is pretty decent Although i bought this for its pure classic stance.

Although should have gone for the Glass one instead of the splash bottle.

6/10

English Leather may have been reformulated, but it's still a great scent and a great bargain. It's drier and lighter than it used to be, with a woody smell that was absent in the older versions of this. The leather is still present, but it shares equal space with the woody notes.

Basically, English Leather is now a woody eau de cologne with a leathery twist. It's now more versatile than it used to be, mainly because it's not as overpowering. It projects well and lasts a good 6 or 7 hours, which I think is perfect for this kind of fragrance.

Like Tabac Original, Old Spice and Brut, English Leather is a bonafide classic that you can wear every day in any occasion, and still not get tired of it. Bravo!

MY RATING: 8/10

I always laughed when my Mother told me how she "loved" English Leather. Dana? (think Canoe, British Sterling, etc)...PLEEZE! A perfumista/-o must (if they are a halfway decent one, IMO) give each and every scent a sniff, and maybe a second sniff; as tatses DO tend to change. When I saw this 2oz. cologne spray and 2 oz. (MEN'S!) lotion for three US dollars in a bargain basement store, I figured WHY NOT? (I've spent more on a venti white mocha).

For Dana to keep on making this, SOMEONE has to be buying it, right? NOW I see why! ONE spray down my shirt and this has eclipsed everything else splattered, dabbed and sprayed on different areas of my body today as I am writing! Citruses (a sheer lemon, some lime, maybe grapefruit and *of course* bergamot) make this young (okay, forty something!) man think twice about "old man" colognes. Here citruses meet moss (thick dry green moss) and lovely light woods. There is a "leather" note listed here. But I believe the beauty of this scent (like Penhaligons English Fern) is that it defines and describes soft supple English saddle leather without ever including anything overly animalic (like birch tar, or "skin musks") into the mix. Ironic, and at the same time a stellar feat of perfumed alchemy. That something this cheap smells this good just blows my mind! That initial "loudness" does fade, but what it becomes is something smooth, dry and VERY sexy. Clean, but not soapy or "fresh", it's just right.T here is something in there *points at $3.00 bottle* that smells way more expensive than what it is, not exactly like REAL leather...but more like buckskin or suede in how soft and ultimately sensual it is. Color me: ashamed! That I avoided this wonderful scent for so long...I guess what they say is right: Mothers just know!

Sillage: great then good
Longevity: impressive
Overall: 3.75/5

On sniffing this my mom said it smells right, but it used to (in the wooden capped SPLASH bottle) smell somewhat sharper and project better. Now, we are on the lookout for an ORIGINAL bottle of this, one of the longest lasting (as far as how long it has been available) mass market mens scents. THIS is twenty years older than I am for Perfume's sake, and I am really really quite impressed. It does not (despite the reduced to 3 dollar clearance tag on my giftset) smell "cheap" or calone-y. Something not all men's scents today can boast. It does have a bit of a "barber shop" scent to it, but nothing all that soapy (like Royal Copenhagen) or spicy musky (like Wild Country). It is just a quality "cologne" at a decent (or ridiculously LOW) price. Wow...

Decent.. Nothing Great.. reminds one of the barber's shop.. Sweet smelling.. fragrance has a sum what Honey-ish note..
A Good value for money Scent.. Nothing Exceptional.

this one smells like an old barbershop !!!!! i kind of like it, i give it 6 out of 10 :D

Although its been reformulated, I still love this stuff its KLASSIC! and my father used to wear this in the 70s. gone is the monstrous projection and silage of the original, where splashing this on more than every 3 days would seem redundant. still an all-time classic.

I absolutely LOVE this on my husband. I like it that although there are SOME citrus notes in it, that it doesn't contain LIME. He has worn it pretty much all his life, I think. We are both 55 and I don't remember him ever NOT wearing it. It is not a SCREAMY mans fragrance. I would say it is lighter classic/masculine. Ass TESSTURE mentions, it is definitely MELLOW. This is definitely NOT a smell the guy as he walks down the street scent. It is more of a subtle almost sweet essence...probably from the oakmoss which can even work just by itself. Strangely, I don't really smell leather in it. I guess my husband has good chemestry. Yes, like Knights, I would say that it has the mossy, slightly spiciness to it on my husband. Very subtle. It's the kind of scent where one would say 'I know his smell'... as opposed to saying " I smell his cologne'. Really subtle, quiet, classy, and masculine.

This is a nice scent in general. At first I was not so sure about it, but after I bought it I liked it. I don't get many compliments with this though. In fact, in school the girls sitting behind me were saying stuff like "what is that smell" and "can anyone else smell that"...idk if that's good or bad...??? But assuming its good I will keep using this, but if its not...well I will use other things more often than this. As for me, I like this scent.

I like this on my skin. It started out fresh and citruswith a hint of wood, then became sweet and slightly powdery with occassional hints of new leather jacket.

It doesn't seem to last on my skin in cooler weather, so it might be a summer night scent.

Other members are much better at describing scents. So I will simply say that, for me, oakmoss is predominant. In fact, there is (to me, anyway) a powdery sweetness after a while.

I like it, but there was a time, 30+ years ago, when I used to love smelling it on young men. I don't think I'm crazy to think the formulation has changed. I was hoping to get a whiff of nostalgia; however, it's a mere hint of what it used to be. Shame.

I have an original MEM Co. bottle of this, and the aftershave that goes with it. Lots of leather, with some citrus. Here's the problem - it doesn't work on my skin. I end up smelling dirty. But if you have the sort of skin type that works well with a cheap leather fragrance (no intention of this sounding like a put down - lots of people like inexpensive leather scents and I am one of them) this is for you. Definitely very manly.

had the honor to smell this wonderful scent when i was busing tables, definately had a moth ball aroma to it, luckily nobody got up anywhere near him until he left

definately funny how anyone would actually buy this stuff, its WAY out of it's peak and zizanie, brut and old spice are much better

Is it birch tar? Cosmetic chemists say this is the chemical responsible for the smell of leather.

I've got a miniature given as a compliment to my father by the hotel he stayed at when on one of his trips to the USA back in the 1970s. I tried it as a layer option and combined it with Hermes Bel Ami. No surprise, leather became the main and almost solitary note.

This convinced me I should get a bottle. Given the price it is being sold at, it would make a nice surprise if the concoction is the same I have.

The first. English Leather, 60 years old and still going strong. Everyone should have this in their wardrobe. Classic Leather, with very little else. It smells just like putting on a brand new, quality, full leather coat while wearing a mossy, slightly spicy, citrus cologne. It delivers exactly what it's says. It's simple, potent, and long lasting. Happy 60th Birthday!

A classic men's cologne. There are no 'clean' aquatic notes in this one, only that mellow, tobacco-y leather and the dusty, slightly antique oakmoss. Warm and still masculine, this one is a men's scent I hold others against as a standard. "Smells like English leather" is a phrase I've used many times in describing more recent colognes that do little more than duplicate this original. Not for men who like sporty scents. A good autumn/winter scent.