Baby it’s rectified birch tar honey.

You likely have never smelled any fragrance in your life that is like Cuir de Russie. Here’s why:

The other isoquionones or whatever it is that makes Aramis smell like Aramis or whatever smell fine, it’s also in Bandit. Birch tar is banned and has been known as a carcinogen for a while— it’s phenolic so it smells amazing but hurts you.

Top: burst of leather saddle in a horse barn

Heart: horse, saddle, hay, boots, but a floral bouquet (rose/jasmine/other) emerges to sweeten and be a foil to the relatively “one note” quality of Cuir de Russie. Except the one note/accord is the best smell in the world. Leather smell— real leather, old leather, new leather, shoe treatment, shellac— it’s everything at once.

Base: none; has nuclear sillage without the crayon note of the current exclusif. It is incomparable and worth the money.

Top 3 of all time.