Reminiscent of the smoky embers of a wood fire, birch offers a blanket of warmth with distinctively leather-like notes. The tar-like, burnt leather facets of birch bark blend delectably in many masculine fragrances of woody notes, ferns and Chypres. Birch tar oil is commonly used in suede and leather tanning.
A broadleaved and deciduous hardwood tree, birch is most commonly processed across Russia and Northern Europe. To obtain essences suitable for perfumery, birch tar oil is extracted through a slow and destructive distillation process. Once the wood has been processed, the decadent birch essence is suitable for perfumery after dephonolization (alkaline processing).
The beautiful birch tree has a rather dark history: deriving from the Latin verb “batuere” (“to strike”), birch branches were traditionally used as whips to punish children. “Birching” has—rather unfortunately—been a common corporal punishment throughout our collective history. Through the Middles Ages, men would receive several strikes to their bare buttocks as punishment for petty crime.
Russian Federation
Cuir de Russie is an olfactory nod to the wild horsemen life, light smell of tobacco and tanned with birch bark leather boots of Russian soldiers.
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