Few fragrances marry butch and elegance as well as a good leather. For the most part, leather is easy to smell in perfume. Think of Caron Tabac Blond, for instance. It’s a snootful of sweet, oily leather. But sometimes leather weaves itself more cleverly into a fragrance and, if you’re expecting a true saddle leather, might not be obvious at first. Bottega Veneta is an example of a leather fragrance with less blatant, but still very present, leather note.

I thought it would be helpful to run through some of the different ways leather can star in a fragrance — a sort of “Leather 101.”

Birch tar-loaded “Russian” leather: This is what most people think of when they think “leather perfume.” Birch tar on its own is smoky, burnt, and leathery as a slab of oil-rubbed hide. It’s a powerful note. Sometimes it’s left seemingly untouched in a strong leather fragrance (Knize Ten), and sometimes it’s complemented by something equally assertive (the sharp galbanum in Bandit). Examples include Caron Tabac Blond…

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