Comme des Garcons 2011 Comme des Garcons for women and men

It smells like glue and masking tape. Very creative, interesting, and strangely addicting. Unfortunately, it's not something I wanna be smelled like.

this one is special indeed, the industrial glue touch is so strong and gives it a never smelled in a parfum before feeling,addictive I,d say, and I dont see it unisex but rather masculine

I have never tried anything like it. The scent combines the floral notes with a number of synthetic components and I thought that it would be difficult to wear but I was wrong. The notes fit seamlessly together creating an unusual but beautiful, fresh scent perfect for the upcoming spring. The scent is exciting and innovative. It is a wild romance of tender, natural lilacs and industrial, futuristic elements that are totally in love with each other.

I do not know how safraleine is supposed to smell but the opening smells to me fresh and a bit green with very pleasant, clean and light aldehydes. I am a big lilacs fan and I admire how the lilac note is used in this scent. I can smell lilacs right away and they continue to shine in the heart notes. There is an airy quality to the scent, a bit abstract but beautiful and spring-like. For some reason I think about being high up in the air on an hot air-balloon surrounded by the vastness of an open space and looking down at the lilacs garden. Once the freshness of heart notes passes, the dry down on my skin is totally abstract and industrial but very pleasant. It has a bit of a leather-like quality but not a strong one.

I am really impressed with this perfume. It is definitely representing a new trend in a perfumery and I admire how Comme Des Garcons managed to create such a beautiful and wearable scent with these unusual components. Overall score is 8/10 and full bottle worthy for me.

Well.. you have to hand it to them.. it really does smell like packing tape.

So, where to start? Here: Comme Des Garcons at its finest!

If you've been compelled by the most avant-garde deliveries from this house such as Odeur 71, Odeur 53, CDG for Stephen Jones, Guerrilla 1 or their Synthetic Series, you're in the right place as "Eau De Parfum (2011)" moves in the same direction of their most abstract/industrial/conceptual/ pushed-to-the limit type of stuff. All the CDG's hallmarks are here including the bottle that doesn't stand up on its own, but what it smells like?

A floral leather! Well...sort of. If this definition brings to mind of Chanel Cuir De Russie, Jolie Madame, Tabac Blond, Cuir De Lancome or Knize Ten be aware that this is nowhere similar to any of them. The rendition of the floral leather represented in "Eau De Parfum (2011)" is similar to what Kazimir Malevich achived with Suprematism in the meaning that a Suprematist is associated with a series of aerial views rendering the familiar landscape into an abstraction... In this context Eau De Parfum represents both the florals and the leather in a sort of familiar yet completely "new" way. Flowers are mechanical, industrialized, alien, stylized yet clearly flowery. The leather (achived with a considerable dose of safralaine) smells aseptic, brand new and treated but at the same time is able to provide a remarkable warmness and a touch of humanity to this robotic monster. Eau De Parfum (2011) is surely an android but with a big red and pulsating heart...and a tad of sweetness.

To all of the above you have to add something even more chemical that is what they call "Industrial Glue" and "Brown Sticky Tape". In this phase Eau De Parfums delivers exactly what he promised: the most true to life rendition of Brown Packing Tape and Bostitch Glue. Two of those type of smells that usually don't belong to body fragrances but we all still love (same as for gasoline, kerosene, steam iron, wet soil, brand new cars, tar and the likes). In this context the mastery of the perfumeur was to blend all of the above elements into a fragrance that results very wearable, comfortable and naturally plausible. Far form the typical approach we're used in traditional perfumery but nonetheless fascinating.

Wondering if this is more a smell than a proper fragrance? NOT AT ALL. The new Comme Des Garcons is a terrific perfume, modern yet extremely solid, very distinctive, versatile and easy to wear but it's surely not for everybody. Personally I've never smelled something like it. Lasting power is very good as well as projection.

Since 1994 Comme Des Garcons is confirmed to be the reference house for avant-gard, innovative and futuristic compositions (not to talk about their fashion collections) and after almost two decades we're so glad to discover that they still have a lot to add on the table. Kudos!

One more consideration:

One of the most common concerns when Comme Des Garcons announced the launch of this fragrance was the presence of safralaine (an aromachemical that smells somewhere between saffron and leather) that was previously included in their 8.88 with a disastrous result. Let me reassure everybody saying that the new Eau De Parfum shares absolutely no similarities with 8.88. The safralaine here is very well blended, never overdone or too prominent and used mainly to provide a leathery feel.

Rating: 8.5-9/10

About this line, the things charm me immensely are the flacons and concepts behind perfumes and not necessarily the scent. This factory earn the money more from the designs rather than the scents though the scent are supernatural as well.
I wait for it impatiently. Wait for an extraordinary idea.