Les Exclusifs de Chanel Cuir de Russie 1924
Cuir de Russie opens with a flash of bergamot and clary sage that quickly gives way to its true character: birch tar leather, austere and nearly medicinal in its severity.
The scent fingerprint
Weighted by intensity across 16 accords.
Every perfume in Sillage is represented as a distribution across canonical accord slugs — a lingua franca for scent. Two fragrances with overlapping fingerprints are scent-twins, even if they share no literal note.
- Leather70
- Tobacco35
- Vetiver35
- Bergamot30
- Iris30
By the editors · 2 min readCuir de Russie opens with a flash of bergamot and clary sage that quickly gives way to its true character: birch tar leather, austere and nearly medicinal in its severity. This is not the supple leather of gloves but something darker and more ceremonial, smoke-cured and bracing. The florals—iris, jasmine, rose—orbit this leathered core without softening it, lending refinement rather than sweetness.
As it settles, tobacco and heliotrope emerge with a faint powdery warmth, while vetiver keeps the composition grounded and dry. The overall effect is androgynous and somewhat remote, evoking ink-stained cuffs, wool coats, and rain on cobblestones. There's a melancholy elegance here, a refusal to charm.
This suits those who prefer their fragrance unsentimental and slightly severe—a scent for cold galleries, autumn libraries, and people comfortable standing alone in a crowd.
