Cuir Beluga Guerlain for women and men

I bought a sample of this from The Posh Peasant and hoped I would like it. I so want to have a "leather" scent in my wardrobe. I have never found a leather that wasn't to harsh or plasticy smelling and I don't usually like vanilla. It's to sweet and in my opinion way over used in frags now. Also I haven't found a Guerlain that worked with my chemistry. So it was with much trepidation that I opened the vial and sniffed it. I put a dab on my wrist and waited.

On me it opens with quite a bit of the sweet vanilla I'm not so in love with and a bit of tangy citrus which I do quite like, but that fades on me quite quickly and allows the suede and florals to come forward. I'm one of the lucky ones with this frag it seems, because it does develope and I can smell the heliotrope and immortelle flowers. The suede accord, on me anyway, is there from opening to end. It stays quietly in the backround never overwhelming or synthetic, but adding depth and interest to the perfume. The amber nicely rounds out the sweet vanilla so it turns into a soft and sexy fragrance that is spicy and feminine. Very alluring and great for cold weather or those little black dress evenings. It makes me think of cashmere, suede and silk, sensual and sexy, a fragrance you can actually feel as well as smell...

Sillage is great in my opinion. I can and have worn this to the office and not one of my patients or co-workers have complained about it. One actually said it was nice because occasionally she would get a little whiff when I walked by, but couldn't smell it otherwise. This is a scent that I can enjoy without feeling like I'm fumigating the room with my perfume. Lasting power is quite good a solid 6-8 hours on my skin, but it does linger on clothes for days if it gets on them. It has given me the courage to try a few more of the Guerlains and I have found my leather scent! Cuir Beluga is soft not brash.

At first, this kinda-expensive-impulse-buy reminded me of Jicky (of course, it is the vanilla, the slight leather, the mandarin, and the amber); and I was struggling to find the situation where I would want to wear this INSTEAD of Jicky...

(I don't wear Shalimar - rose notes make me gag, so Jicky was what got stuck in my mind.)

This scent conjures up an image of a leather-appointed lounge with a glass of sweet vanilla-y cognac in my hand. Amber lighting....amber liquid... winter...everything in a soft glow.The image is a bit masculine, but I am always drawn to unisex scents. Stays close to the skin, so you almost want someone to be close enough to smell your neck.

And there was my answer: Jicky is a heck of a lot more complicated - and you don't need to be touching me to smell it. Cuir Beluga on a woman is a warm sensuality with a bit of an edge.

This winter, I am loving spraying it on my overclothes and scarves. On the fabric, the scent lasts for days. (It stays relatively well on my skin, too. 4-6 hours.)

Like Cruel Gardenia, Cuir Beluga seems to use the main note just as an excuse for a luxury smooth fragrance. This line seem to have a powdery secondary theme on most of the fragrances, and on Cuir Beluga this is showed by a vanillic sweet flower aroma that only shows a hint of leather sometimes; it`s not your classic, dry leather, it`s more of a suede accord that stays on the background of the sweet flowers and powdery ambered vanilla. Cuir Beluga, in some aspects, seems to be a homage to Shalimar, and it`s a pleasant scent to be worn on a winter day.

Cuir Beluga is neither leather nor caviar. Discuss.

The incongruous name aside, I find myself frequently turning back to my waning decant of this plush blend. That signature Guerlain vanilla works to perfection here. An uncomplicated, less-is-more fragrance. I detect a light dose of heliotrope, and the gentlest whiff of leather, lending the vanilla its crisp, distinctive, aloof charm. There is no Guerlinade here, and I detect no amber accord. The almost leather note comes through in a close-to-the-skin bouquet, and remains after I shower off the top notes; but I find none of it in the projection. I worry that the sillage may be powdery--not a quality I seek in perfume. This is my reaction to the close-vs-far performance of most Guerlain Elixirs and A&Ms.

So what's in a name?
Though it doesn't work literally, Cuir Beluga is a clever metaphor for luxury in all its sensual forms: it evokes taste, touch, sight, sound (say it out loud. It's a mouthful, and a whale of a phoneme mix for non-native speakers of French), and of course, smell.

To me Cuir Beluga summons the softness and trompe l'œil nature of microfiber. I mean this in a good way.

(previous review replaced)
I am coming back to Cuir Beluga exactly one year after first trying it.

It's still getting the love from me, so my opinion won't be changing.

I think what is interfering with people's enjoyment of CB is the designation 'leather'. At this point I've tried "leathers": Cabochard, Tabac Blonde, Sycomore, etc, and Cuir Beluga is to leather what American idol is to opera. Yes, there are some shared notes, but the tune is vastly different.

Since most people have heard of/or sampled Citizen Queen i will call on that as a comparison. Do you think CQ is a leather? Or would you call it a powdery, soft suede?

What leather can do is give something a little 'crackle', it almost acts like incense here (as it does in CQ, and Sonoma Scent's Tabac aurea)

What I love about Cuir Beluga is that it never gets too sweet, and stays in that resinous realm of earthy goodness. This is my second favorite scent from this line, and one of my favorites from the house of Guerlain.

One of my Guerlain faves - it smells deliciously warm and seductive on me.

Guerlain CUIR BELUGA is really the Emperor's New Clothes of leather perfumes. How strange that one would want to make a non-leather leather fragrance. After all, no one forces a perfumer to make a leather perfume, so he/she can always choose to create another lightly floral amber vanilla instead, and that is in fact what we have here.

I'm not saying that every leather perfume must approach CABOCHARD, but CUIR BELUGA is much closer to L'Artisan Parfumeur BOIS FARINE! It doesn't make sense strategically, either, I think. When I got out my sample vial of CUIR BELUGA this evening I looked forward with great anticipation to a new leather perfume that would be refined and sophisticated, perhaps something really out of the ordinary (given the price...). What I thought I could certainly count on was something very daring--isn't that the point of leather frags, after all? Leather is an intrinsically eccentric note--the very antithesis of most.

Instead, I find myself wearing a pleasant, but rather nondescript linear scent with a touch of the gourmandise of IRIS GANACHE and ANGELIQUE NOIRE in a floury-amber, not a leathery base! What a disappointment.

Not very leathery. I really liked the name and imagined a deeply animalistic leather. Instead, it is a very pleasant vanilla-type. Not worth the price.

it is not a leather !
but a sweet vanilla perfume, so feminine, but very much expensive ....it is a shame ! beautiful but not indispensable !

I must try this ...
you describe an amazing scent
e-bay has it at US $325.00 75ml (tester)


How do I get a hold of this Fragrance!??

Update:
The Perfumed Court
has a 5ml glass spray bottle
for $45.00

Cuir beluga smells of camomile tea with a lot of sweet honey in it. I cannot smell leather at all :( On my skin it is almost a linear fragrance and, surprisingly, it does not last at all.

Creamy vanilla and mandarin with subtle floral tones. Edible, with a leather note only at the very end. On somedays, I only get plain sweet vanilla, but it's very nice and not one of the Guerlains that goes nasty on me. (Like Shalimar.)

A powdery and woody fragrance, for me, it's reminiscence of the Shalimar base notes, but lighter and calmer.
A very tender scent of creamy white velvet leather.