Comme des Garcons Series 3 Incense: Zagorsk Comme des Garcons for women and men

Something about Comme des Garçons Incense Series 3 ZAGORSK does not sit well on my skin—or in my lungs. There can be no denying that this is an incense perfume, but it hits me quite a bit differently than KYOTO. ZAGORSK, too, is not very oily or resinous, but the wood of the incense seems more bitter than burnt and slightly rubbery as well.

Like KYOTO, ZAGORSK is also devoid of detectable floral notes, but this composition seems quite a bit more masculine to me. The sillage is rather big for a masculine scent, but this will be perhaps welcome to those who like the peculiar quality of the composition, although I'm wondering how many people would really want to be around other people who smell like this.

I do not mean to suggest that ZAGORSK is repellent, but on the other hand I myself do not find it very appealing at all, and my distinct impression is that, if over-applied, this fragrance might have a mildly suffocating effect—something like breathing at high altitude where oxygen is in short supply or inhabiting an old building with traces of asbestos in the attic. Désolée.

One word - pews. And why not? There's nothing wrong with pews. I like perfumes that transport me somewhere else. It's lovely but not as easy to buy as Avignon which is sweeter- very nice too but personally I find zagorsk more enchanting.

I don't know if this perfume reacts in a very peculiar way on me but I smell almost none of the listed notes, and smell a whole lot else.

Firstly I do smell pine, and possible cedar too, but instead of any of it's floral notes what I get is constant and intense smokiness. I get hints of birch tar and burnt paper, and also a strong wiff of freshly extinguished matches. I don't get any Iris or violet.

After a while this perfume (which despite it's oddness I do rather like) becomes damp and mouldy smelling, like an old mahogany closet in the attic. There is something haunting and weird and elemental about Zagorsk which it took me time to adapt to. After a while it transported me to some tumbledown ancient wooden orthodox church in Siberia where the trees crowd about darkly, and the snow melt dampens everything and where wood and the smells of charcoal, earth, lit tapers and clean dirt and dust fill the air.

This is a very unusual and very magical scent which is worth owning even if one cannot wear it often. It's certainly not as wearable as Avignon (which I adore), but it's a hell of a lot more interesting than Kyoto or Jaisalmer.

Like the rest of this range it's sheer and light and its sillage is only fair, as is its longevity, but the bottles are a handy size to carry about so you can always re-apply.

Wintery. Cold, damp earth in the middle of a forest.

On my skin I mainly get birch and carrots, not much incense at all which surprised me. It's a silent, cool scent that tells a story in a way, it calms my nerves. I come from the northern parts of Sweden, so I totally get this minimalistic call of nature. It reminds me of climbing trees as a child, the woodsy, sappy parts of this scent really resembles the woods where I come from. It also reminds me of my mothers homegrown carrots, pulled from the soil, brushed off and piled in the fridge. The smell you get from snapping an ice cold homegrown carrot in half is right there. Zagorsk is an amazing composition of scents that really touches my heart.

My ex boyfriend wore this one...to me it is like an evergreen, fresher and less sweet Avignon. Love the collection, but Avignon is the absolute, quintessential incense out there. Zagorsk smells clean in all of it smokiness, but something sterile comes from it that leaves me totally cold.

I smelled this today at Colette which is a Parisian concept store.

Right off the bat I would like to say that I'm Russian, 100 percent, born in the USSR Orthodox Russian. Now I was just curious about smelling this, but wasn't expecting much. Let me explain. Most western-american interpretations of our culture, like movies of our classic literature for example seem like weird caricatures to us. I promise this is true. I think this is because Russia is a remote place, kind of between east and west.
So basically, I thought uumm let us see how Comme des garçons do the caricature…Instead, I was actually humbled. They did such an awesome job, because this smells exactly, and I mean exactly like home. If Russia, and not just the orthodox church, which admittedly is the main theme here, could be summed up in a scent it would be Zagorsk. I'm not even going to go through the notes, the overall thing is so familiar I could have had been transported to Sergiev Pasaad right there, standing at Colette.
I am not going to purchase it of course. It's like when I asked my Mom why doesn't she want to purchase "En passant" given that lilacs are her favorite flower and scent, and she said "I just don't want to ruin it for myself by wearing it." I totally agree but I'm happy it exists.

It's quite an intense incense fragrance. I smell a lot of olibanum, cedar, and pine, but I can also feel a subtle sharpness from the pimento. Fortunately, I don't find the pimento to be a prominent note on my skin, and as an olibanum lover, I appreciate how this intensely woody fragrance makes me feel grounded. There is also something unexpectedly cool and fresh about incense scents in the intense summer heat. I suppose they remind me of winter!

My favorite.
Sring. Summer. Fall. Winter.

If you like the hinoki cypress smell I think Zagorsk is a much better interpretation of the theme than it actually is Monocle Scent 01 by the same house. A dark-green coniferous base (pine and hinoki) mixed with the most chilling and stark frankincense around. Minimalistic and austerely distinctive but incredibly compelling as well. One of my favourite incenses of all time. Highly recommended!

Rating: 8.5/10

I must have a skin chemistry issue here because I mainly get chilli, but more vegetal than spice. The incense is smoky and reminiscent of the forest camp fire and is just lovely. I only wish I had more of the pine resin others speak of. Interesting comination but I like my incense perfumes to be cosy. This on me is too unbalanced so I find myself somewhat distracted by it rather than comforted.

Thanks Scorpiosheep for this sample. It's been a great ride!

This is an unusual and intriguing incense fragrance. At first I thought it was very masculine, as on top of the deep woody incense I got the impression of burning rubber, quite weird. And hidden in there was the occasional whiff of bitter lemon. I shook myself and told myself I couldn't possibly be smelling these notes, and sure enough the lemon faded but the rubber took a while longer. I wonder if I am game enough to wear this, but I think I'm going to have to get a full bottle. If I smelled this on a man I would be putty in his paws! I could not remove my nose from my wrist while I wore this, and that was for a few hours. I can't wait to try the others in this series as well. I wish there was another category to tick: "absolutely cannot exist without".

In short, strangely mesmerising and beautiful. 10/10

All about pine and fir balsam with a tiny curl of incense smoke, the opening notes of Zagorsk really do evoke the image of a tiny Russian church in the middle of a huge dark fir forest on a cold snowy night. As the scent warms a little it becomes greener and the image changes to the inside of the church, constructed out of fir wood, decorated with freshly cut evergreen branches, and scented with the smoke of a small amount of subtly spicy incense that’s being burned for a ceremony.

As time goes on, it warms even more, revealing a soft violet/iris scent that’s still very green, becoming progressively sweeter and spicier. To me, this phase evokes pastel colored violet flavored candies. There’s quite a bit of sillage, especially in the violet phase. Zagorsk does a complete about-face, evolving from a cool and stark evergreen-laden woody incense to a violet floral that’s sweet and soft, although it does maintain an undercurrent of evergreen leaves and wood.

I love the first act, with its woody incense, but the second act with its sweet violets becomes cloying after a while, especially since it has amazing staying power.

Maybe this is no scent for people who have never been to a Russian church... to a place like Zagorsk (nowadways called Jewgenij Possad again) or a fairy-tale town like Suzdal....-
but if you want to travel to such a place... scentwise... try Zagorsk in a bottle. It is a theme-fragrance, probably inappropriate for daily use, use in offices and banks...but in the privacy of your home, in winter, it might turn out extremely atmospheric and heart-moving, especially when you long for the medidative, sheltering feeling only a Russian church can provide you with. Well, I know this is highly subjective stuff I'm writing here, but on the other hand, olfactory experience is totally subjective.
8 out of 10 points on my personal scale

This one went all the way where Prada Infusion d'Homme chickened out. It is based on the same bitter herbal note (which is parsley to me), but this note is here complemented by manly and sophisticated mixture of leather, tobacco and incense. The tobacco note here is definitely the one of smoked tobacco rather than dry leaf (read "cigarette butts" - but in the best possible sense).

I am underwhelmed by this...not because of the quality per se but probably because I put it on too high a pedestal in my expectations. Honestly, at first it reminds me of classic "Grandma" perfume - omnipresent cough-inducing sweetness. After a while I could almost sense the "snow/cold" note a lot of people mention - but it was so fleeting I didn't know if it was my imagination. Incense, yes...especially in the way it pervades everything around you like a veil of olfactory fog(you can almost see the smoke when smelling this). But the only "Russian" association I got from it was mens' aftershave from the soviet union. It's not unpleasant by any means...just for me feels absolutely nothing like the description.

Classic incense, right down to the resin and smoke. I'm told it smells like a Russian Orthodox church. It's lovely, but probably too close to real incense for most people. Still, I like it very much for it's evocative atmosphere.