Pierre de Nishapur review on Métamorphose Lilas Cuir

Nadia Zuodar

Intriguing fragrance titles, bizarre handmade shona stone sculpture caps made by local artists from Zimbabwe, exciting smells and exotic ingredients are cannoned to express emotions in a distinct olfactory voyage and these emotions are deep and tied to praise of nature. Nadia Zuodar is the nose perfumer and creative director behind her own Swiss-based natural perfumery house who has been producing fragrances and skincare products since 2014. Her real studio is in nature where she values plants in their own ecosystem to give them all their chemical properties. She finds her path through perfume by looking back to nature as ultimate refinement and linking it to modern virtues, borrowing spirituality from various ancient cultures, to illustrate a new modern landscape, for which all her fragrances conjure up feeling of ancestry and culture.

Very unexpectedly and delicious it unfolds. Métamorphose Lilas Cuir is unlike its title that promises for leathery aura, a yummy vetiver with cute floral aspects that is equally gendered. Vibrant herbaceous and cute quasi-black-currant’y opening immediately delivers an exuberant mood. It’s almost fruity, kindly skanky animalic, softly sparkling herbal and warm green with sort of toxic or exotic air. It shouts it is a weird specie of plant. Say hello to buchu! It’s an indigenous South African plant that I had no clear idea in mind how it smells until Nadia Zuodar described how capable this specie is. The plant has a very dominant characteristic that easily takes hegemony to all over composition if it’s used in bountiful volume. This enchanting fruity layer is allied with murmured floral curtain and earthy patchouli that delivers fungal effect and strange sweet twist to the fragrance. While the fruity floral side appears with oily quality, the patchouli plays diluted yet full-bodied. Lilac and tinge of tuberose enrich this happy beginning. In the core of this vibe strawberry displays a strange face. I know this fruit with either bizarre taste like in Neil Morris Woodland Strawberries, or with ridiculous gummy taste as appeared in many teeny designer fragrances. But in Métamorphose Lilas Cuir it has an ephemeral yet bulky impact on the introduction that I have to strain to match a word for it.

After a bit from application when the delicious vibe settled, it wrinkles into woodsy layer broadened and softly smoked by peaceful honey. The result of clash of the fruity top and woody heart is an sophisticated leathery aura without using actual leather in composition. Resinous ambiance and vetiver open gates for a bread-like smell that appears and alters delicious vibe to more serious, less happy and deeper dimensions. Yet the animalic stream and fruity layer are still over there merging with tonka bean. The bread-like smell reminds me Italian Angel by O’Driù and tonka bean implemented in it. In general the beginning, heart and end of the actual perfume are different layers and the top layer is in big difference with the rest. While the top exhibits piquant fresh floral mood, the heart and base are more about earthy, animalic and woody spicy renders.

While Métamorphose Lilas Cuir looks a simple fragrance it has actually over 50 ingredients. One part of this judgement might be for fragrance’s medium strength which is a frequent complain about using natural components. I personally don’t take it serious, for me smell and quality of notes is rather in higher importance level than tenacity. Métamorphose Lilas Cuir stays for long on skin with murmured projection. It also plays different shades on different skin types regarding to gender, skin chemistry or whatever impacting skin smell.