Les Privés 603: Leather, Incense & Tonka
Regular price $ 189.00This daring fragrance opens on dark and intense notes with spicy yet floral aromas. Frankincense adds freshness and mystery to the body of the fragrance. The notes of leather and tonka lend a sensual dimension to this eau de parfum. With both warm and green amber hints, woody fragrance 603 will surprise you with its generosity.
PS: Can you smell the richness of tonka bean? Mylène Alran revealed to us that at one point she tried out a tonka bean overdose so concentrated that it crystallized. But rest assured, that is not the case for your bottle!
What is frankincense?
Frankincense or oliban, found in the southern Arabian Peninsula as well as in northeast Africa and India, is a resin obtained by making incisions into a tree from the Burseraceae family. Considered to be the oldest fragrance in the world, frankincense has been used in the rituals of many religions and civilizations. Frankincense takes us back to the sacred origins of perfume, from the Latin “per-fumum” (by means of smoke), as it allowed people to communicate with the gods by means of its fragrant smoke. Its powerful olfactory symbolism has stood the test of time and traveled across borders. It adds woody, coniferous, fresh, camphoric and spicy notes.
What is tonka bean?
The tonka bean comes from Dipteryx odorata, a tree that can grow up to 40 m (131 ft) tall and which produces a mango-shaped fruit containing a single seed: the tonka bean itself. It must be left to dry for one year, during which time white crystals appear: the coumarin that gives it such a powerful aroma and actually makes up 50 to 70%! After all this, the precious absolute can be extracted using solvents so we can finally enjoy it. In terms of its scent, tonka bean presents a succession of sweet, balsamic and tobacco notes, with a slightly rustic top note of dried hay and a warm and gourmand base note with accents of vanilla, toffee, condensed milk and almond.
What is the leather note in perfumery?
Leather is a material obtained from the hide of an animal. It is mainly used in clothing and to manufacture leather goods. Originally, leather smelled bad. In the 17th century, people had the idea to scent it, starting with gloves, the essential accessory of the time. The occupation of “gloverperfumer” was born. At the time the town of Grasse, a renowned center for leather tanning, developed essences intended to scent leather, such as orange blossom, musks, ambergris and other raw materials from animals. In perfumery, the difficulty lies in recreating the distinctive scent of leather. To do this, “pyrogenic” notes are used like birch, cade juniper or styrax, along with other components such as animalistic, honey or tobacco notes. It’s impossible to talk about leathery scents without mentioning Chanel’s Cuir de Russie; very elegant and marvelously balanced, it mingles notes of blond tobacco with a jasmine heart.
Notes: violet leaf, nutmeg, lemon, incense, cypress, sage, tonka bean, leather, styrax
Fulfillment & Shipping
We provide free shipping for USPS orders $75+.
Ministry of Scent offers shipping to the United States through USPS Ground Advantage and UPS. We ship orders within 1-3 days, major holidays excluded. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at orders@ministryofscent.com
We are not responsible for lost or stolen packages. We will not provide replacements or refunds for lost or stolen packages. If you have a risk-prone address, we recommend you send to a safer locale.
First-time orders $125+ and all orders $200+ will be shipped with signature confirmation to ensure safe delivery. Customers may request "no signature confirmation" in the Order Note section of the Shopping Cart page, at their own risk. If the item is stolen after tracked delivery, the order cannot be refunded or replaced.
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| Order type | Shipping Method | Cost |
| Sample-only Orders (including Sample Sets) | USPS Ground Advantage* | $5 |
|
Standard Shipping (anything other than full perfume bottles) |
USPS Priority Mail* | $10 |
| 3-Day Shipping | UPS 3-Day Service |
Variable |
*Ship times vary. All products ship from California, shipments can take up to 5 business days to the East Coast.
Returns
We do not accept returns of perfumes, simply because perfumes can't be resold once they've been opened and used. We encourage you to order samples before purchasing full bottles of perfume. And here's the good news — with every sample purchased, we'll send you a coupon code that allows you to redeem the cost of the sample and sample shipping if you buy a full bottle of the fragrance you tried (in other words, you get $10 off).
Please contact orders@ministryofscent.com if you have a question or issue related to your order or shipping.
Sample Orders
Samples are designed to help you evaluate scents you might want to later purchase as a full bottle. You may order one sample per fragrance, up to 15 total in a single order. Samples are non-refundable.
For sample orders, please check your packing slip for a special code that will allow you to redeem the price of samples and sample shipping when purchase full bottles of the scents you sample ($10 off full bottles).
Complimentary Samples
We provide complimentary samples with $75+ full bottle purchases. You may request up to 3 samples with any qualifying order. Please use the Order Note section on the Shopping Cart overlay to let us know which complimentary samples you would like. We'll try to provide the scents you've requested, but substitutions may occur if items are out of stock.