The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Épices, Cuir et L'encense launched in 2016, with perfumer Tzivia Segall building the composition around Italian rum matured with suede and saffron. This is incense thickened by resin, warmed by rum, and grounded by an agarwood base that doesn't apologize for itself. The opening moves like a spice bazaar at dusk, saffron catching the light before the rum rolls in with its dark, syrupy weight. Suede arrives not as a clean leather jacket but as something older, a hide stretched in a workshop where resin drips from overhead beams. Agarwood anchors everything from below, smoky and dense, refusing to soften into something polite.
What makes the composition unusual is its refusal to separate the families. Saffron arrives early but never leaves, and incense shows up before the leather does. The cannabis note in the heart is the pivot point, an herbal dryness that stops the spices from sliding into sweetness and keeps the leather from feeling like a furniture showroom. Raspberry and iris in the opening give it an unexpected powdery lift, a softness that catches you off guard before the heavier notes take hold. None of these elements behave the way they're supposed to.
The evolution
The first thirty minutes belong to rum and saffron, boozy and almost candied, raspberry flickering underneath like a wink. Then something darker moves in. Myrrh and cannabis pull the composition sideways into herbaceous territory, and the leather starts to register, not as a topcoat but as a foundation the spices are stacked on. Around the two-hour mark the incense takes over properly, and the oud underneath it stops being an abstraction and becomes the smell of bark smoldering in a closed room. By hour four the spices are still climbing, cinnamon and thyme refusing to fade, while the base settles into cedar and amber. On fabric the next morning, it reads as a single warm note, resinous and slightly sweet, the leather softened into something close to skin. The drydown is where the composition reveals its patience, each note taking turns at the surface rather than fighting for dominance.
Cultural impact
Atelier Segall & Barutti has carved a niche for itself by refusing to play by the well-worn rules of mainstream perfumery, and Épices Cuir Et L'ecense sits firmly inside that philosophy. The composition draws on Italian rum and suede as anchor materials, weaving them together with saffron, raspberry, iris, cannabis, myrrh, oud, and a constellation of supporting spices. The result is a fragrance that doesn't apologize for its own intensity, one that wears its materials openly and rewards close attention. Rum provides a boozy, almost candied warmth, while suede adds a tactile, almost visible texture.
