Royal English Leather, from Creed was released in 1781. The perfumer behind this creation is James Henry Creed First Generation and Olivier Creed. It has the top notes of Bergamot and Mandarin Orange, middle notes of Ambergris, and base notes of Leather and Sandalwood.
Let's face it not many 'Leather' fragrances actually smell like real leather. Some have leather notes which are fleeting or androgynous, changing all the while. Even some of the best that I'd class as brilliant leather scents like Tuscan leather smell as much like resins, fruit, class A drugs etc...as they do of leather. This is another type again...the type that doesn't smell of leather much at all. Now I got my sample of Royal English leather from 'The perfumed court' and I've heard horror stories that they sometimes label scents incorrectly and I'm thinking they may have done that here. My sample smells very similar to Tauer's Eau d'epices, the second I smelled it I knew that I was familiar with this scent but couldn't think what it was. I scanned my olfactory databanks and thought I'd never get it...took me about 20 mins to realise what it was. This is just from memory here... because unfortunately I've warn all my Tauer sample to do a direct comparison. I seem to recall the opening of the tauer to be more aggressive and sharper, also the drydown much more gradual...this feels a bit mellow in comparison but essentially they are the same thing. Cloves, orange, hint of white florals, ambergris and sandalwood...and probably much more. I really like the smell of this I have to say but I was expecting something monumental. I thought some of these lesser known Creed's might just be hidden gems, I hoped for a knockout leather but instead I got a very complex and interesting fragrance. Not that I think Andy Tauer copied this or anything but it still makes Eau d'epices seem less innovative to me now.