The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Yann Vasnier composed Leather & Artemisia for Jo Malone London in 2017, a cologne built around a clear trio: absinthe, artemisia, and leather. The absinthe brings an anise-laced chill to the top, its cool bitterness cutting through the air with something almost medicinal. Artemisia, the botanical that gives the fragrance its name, adds a dry, herbal pulse beneath, the kind of green that recalls wormwood and sage rather than anything floral. Running underneath both is the deep grain of leather, treated here as an aromatic material rather than a synthetic afterthought. Vasnier anchored the composition with cypriol oil and orris root, two materials that give the woody backbone its staying power while keeping the surface cool.
What makes the composition work is its restraint. There is no sweetness anchoring it, no vanilla or amber pulling the leather toward dessert territory. The leather here is dry and mineral, shaped by absinthe's bitter green edge rather than the smoky sweetness most leather fragrances rely on. Cypriol oil, also known as nagarmotha, anchors the base with an earthy character that carries the scent into its later hours. It brings something rooty and slightly bitter, a quality that reads almost like vetiver's earthier cousin.
The evolution
The first fifteen minutes belong to absinthe. That anise-green cool hits immediately, bright and almost mentholated, like stepping into a cold room after being out in the sun. There's a sharpness here that some people find bracing, others find off-putting. Give it twenty minutes. The artemisia settles in next, bitter and herbal, grounding the opening into something more contemplative. By the one-hour mark, the leather has moved from suggestion to statement. It's clean leather, not smoky, not sweet, more like the smell of a new book cover or a well-kept briefcase. The cypriol oil underneath adds an earthy depth that keeps the leather from feeling sterile. Three hours in, the orris root's powdery quality emerges, softening everything into a close-to-skin warmth. The leather by this point has lost its initial crispness, mellowing into something gentler, more lived-in.
Cultural impact
Leather & Artemisia draws on absinthe, artemisia, leather, cypriol oil, and orris root to create something darker and more herbal than a typical cologne. The absinthe's anise-laced chill and artemisia's bitter green pulse give it a cerebral quality, the kind of scent that rewards slow wearing rather than immediate impact. Among leather fragrances, it occupies the aromatic and green end of the spectrum, closer to iris-driven compositions than to smoky tobacco-leather territory. The leather accord is dry and almost mineral, shaped by the bitter botanicals around it rather than by any sweetness or smoke.
