Cuir et Champignon is part of Dawn Spencer Hurwitz's Parfums des Beaux Arts line. As the name suggests, this perfume is mostly about leather and mushrooms, and what an interesting and at times startlingly realistic interpretation it is.
I don't know if I have encountered a mushroom accord in perfume before. I've seen truffle used before, for example in Frederic Malle's Un Rose. Cuir et Champignon opens with a very smoky and leathery feel. Although it is a very sophisticated perfume, to me it is all about the outdoors, to my mind evocative of an autumnal walk in the woods, tramping over leaf-strewn paths, the smell of early season decay in the air, the smell of woodsmoke wafting on the cooling breeze. Perhaps this is fanciful, but this is really a very woodsy perfume. Leather is most evident at the start, and while it never fades, it, along with the smoke, soften and blur as the perfume progresses.
The mushroom accord is also very realistic, mainly in the first half of wearing it. Later on, that smell segues into a more recognisable woods accord, but is anything but conventional.
I don't know what else to say about Cuir et Champignon, other than it is a fabulous perfume, possibly the best I have tried by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz. It also, unlike a few others I've tried, has very good lasting power. I'd certainly recommend this to anyone.
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