A New Perfume,1 the latest from Comme des Garçons, is a welcome thing: I miss Comme des Garçons. They haven't done anything under their own brand since 2010's Wonderwood,2 and they haven't done anything that I loved since their 2009 collaborative effort with Monocle, Monocle Scent Two: Laurel.3 A New Perfume is something of a return to form — it's old-school, weird Comme des Garçons, although perhaps not quite in the way I expected. It features the usual ad copy mumbo jumbo in the Comme des Garçons style ("A rejected bottle survives to hold an imaginary flower constructed linearly"), and a description that pretty much sums up what it smells like:
The fragrance opens with the man made organic composites of aldehydes and safraleine, opening up slowly to hawthorns and derivations of lilac, before exploding in a riot of flower oxides, then finally succumbing to notes of industrial glue and brown scotch tape with hints of musk and styrax.
That's just right. The opening is in-your-face synthetic (and diffusive), and the flowers, which join in quickly (lilac is the most recognizable), smell like they're filtered through various man-made materials, ranging from fingernail polish remover to crushed concrete. The glue and scotch tape (or whatever) are strong, and most of the experience of wearing A New Perfume, after the strange ride of the first 15 or 20 minutes, is about waiting for the whole thing to calm down.
So it is strange, but it's also very clean: an offbeat laundry detergent fragrance, perhaps. It smells like what might be carried on the air on a very hot summer day if you lived near, but not too near, some sort of factory that made industrial cleaning products. I did not find it unpleasant, but really there isn't much you can do, strange or otherwise, to make me love a laundry detergent fragrance.4 So I don't care for it, but if you're a fan of the line it is well worth a try.
Comme des Garçons A New Perfume is available in 100 ml Eau de Parfum, $140. For buying information, see the listing for Comme des Garçons under Perfume Houses.
1. The official name (to the extent that Comme des Garçons bothers with things like official names, and I am not at all sure that they do, and as you can see there is nothing on the bottle but the brand name) appears to actually be Comme des Garçons Eau de Parfum. As that is absurdly confusing given that they already make something called Comme des Garçons Eau de Parfum (their first fragrance), I'm going to go on calling it A New Perfume. I do wish they'd called it Comme des Garçons 4 — and then they could have put it in the wonderful pebble bottle instead of this molten lump of a thing.
2. I do realize that's only a break of about a year (A New Perfume launched in 2011), but with the cascade of new niche fragrances, it seems much longer...it's not 12 months later, it's 1500 perfumes later.
3. And the last perfume under the Comme des Garçons brand name that I absolutely adored was Comme des Garçons 2 Man, way back in 2004. But I'll add to the list of the collaborative scents that I love: the brilliant fragrance for Stephen Jones in 2008, and the first Monocle fragrance, Hinoki, also 2008, also brilliant.
4. And of course, if you want something clean and weird that doesn't smell like detergent, there is always Comme des Garçons Odeur 53.
It was a disappointment, all fuming glue and industrial waste, and yes, the brown packing tape accord, and nothing worked on my skin. The far drydown had a soft and agreeable musk, but it wasn’t worth the trouble.
This one felt like posturing, like making something weird for weirdness sake, and I haven’t felt that about CdG before; the fragrance became what it had to become, simply because! The weirdness always had a point. Not this time.
I know exactly what you mean! I had to laugh when I found myself actually sniffing the tape I’ve got on hand to see if they came close.
But for me, it is not the first time I’ve thought they were posturing. And I’ve liked some of the scents that I thought were weird for the sake of it! And I’ll take weird for the sake of it, usually, over another strawberry fruity floral, LOL…but not this time.
I was sniffing a roll of tape as I tried this too!
This reminded me a little of some of the stranger accords from CB I Hate Perfume—interesting to know that such a thing can be accomplished, but not something I want to wear. (And I’m not sure all of the CB ones—Rubber Cement, Cellophane Tape, Baby Aspirin, etc.—are intended for wearing….?)
Oh, I think they’re intended for wearing! Just not in the mainstream sense of things to wear to catch a mate, I guess.
Succumbing to notes of industrial glue generally doesn’t end well!
HA, true enough.
Hi, Robin. I’ve been VERY curious to try this one, though it doesn’t sound incredibly wearable.
Sounds very much in the vein of their Odeur 53 and Odeur 71 offerings. Would you say that? I believe it’s 71 I liked quite a lot and it’s hovered on my to-buy ‘B’ list for a couple of years. I can’t keep the numbers straight though. Thanks for the review.
(Note: I bought Laurel in the last Beautyhabit sale and I’m so glad I did; CdG really is a favorite house, on the whole.)
Joe, I don’t know — it’s so clean that I can’t call it unwearable. I just can’t see *wanting* to wear it — not because I’d smell bad, or even weird. I do wear things that are weird! But the combo of weird + clean is not for me.
I don’t remember 71 so well as 53. I should try it again.
And lucky you! I want a bottle of Laurel, and a bottle of Hinoki, and the Stephen Jones. The prices for the CdG series scents are so much nicer than the prices of their regular & collaborative scents.
Joe just asked EXACTLY what I wanted to ask you.
Your description reminded me of 53 and 71.
I love 71 and I have the 200ml bottle (I’m down to half bottle now, after like 3 or 4 years!)
I think I’ll give this one a try.. I love the brown tape smell. It is oddly sexy to me. I guess it reminds me of the time I used to work at a stationary store (like a staples, but very very small) and I had a REALLY hot coworker. Nothing happened in the storage room, mind you! but I guess the image and the smell created this memory.. Sigh!
I think if they’d done more packing tape and less clean musk, I’d have liked it much better.
(and hope it will call up fond memories, LOL…)
Joe, I think this one (I’ll just call it No. 4) is less wearable than 71, it’s so relentlessly industrial. Did you like 8.88 and the metallic aspect of it? If you did, you might like 4.
Bjorn, I’ve never tried 888. However, I remembered that I have a decant of Skai from the Synthetic series and I find that somewhat, but not totally, unwearable.
I confess, I don’t mind *some* “laundry musk” smells at all. I really enjoy Tom Ford’s Jasmine Musk. I’m curious about the floral accords in this one; I love hawthorn, and maybe that will push this into something I like.
Maybe this was something they should have numbered like Odeur 53 and 71… 92?.
Yeah, I know.. (facepalm), fragrance superstitious.
I like weird, but not sure about flowery detergent. I’m more into gasoline and brand new gadgets smells. One of my favorite fragrances is Odeur 53, I just don’t know what happened with the last bottle (200ml), ever ytime I use it I get a smell like sweat from it and suddenly I started to get the lettuce notes, I bought my first bottle in Paris and the second in London. It used to be my lucky scent, now it doesn’t work anymore
Oh dear, I wonder if it was reformulated?
And should have said you’re exactly right: they should have given it a random 2 digit number and put it in the same bottle as 52 & 71. Would have been a perfect fit.
Not sure that “weird+clean” is me, but I still want to smell it. (Seriously, I love the smell of packing tape!) And I still rather like the look of the bottle, although not having held it, I don’t know if it’s awkward to hold or spray. Is it?
Have not loved another CdG, though CdG2Man might be closest. It’s lovely. Bought a mini for The CEO, and have been restraining myself from stealing it. Stephen Jones was barely smellable, and Series Red: Carnation was bitter/soapy, and White turned out to be absolute nightmare (acrid, wet-ashes sourness) – and those are the ones I thought I’d LIKE.
I liked the bottle, it was nice and easy to hold, though it won’t stand up.
I have not held the bottle either, but have also read that it’s not hard to hold at all.
Well, I am not feeling very compelled to seek this one out, but I would sniff it if it crossed my path.
I DO still wonder how my tape adhesive-licking kitty would react to it! Makes me giggle to imagine his response! Here kitty, kitty. . .
Never hurts to have a fragrance that kitty loves
I’ve actually enjoyed wearing this one. I’m not getting the detergent bit (may be anosmic to the musk you’re picking up). What gives me a kick is the way the smells of glue and flowers connects. I find it evolves into a big heady flower over time, and the tape/glue accord reminds me of the rougher (though not animal) part of leather…
My cat loves tape too, BTW, but she though some perfumes interest her, she hasn’t been reacting to that one much.
Me, too! It’s very pleasant and comforting. Also, I love smelling something lovely and indecipherable on me from time to time during the day.
Really glad it’s finding fans — I root for anything by CdG even if I don’t love it myself.
This could easily be another offering from the Series 6: Synthetic collection from CdG. In fact, it could be described as Dry Clean plus packing tape and lilac petals. I can detect the laundry detergent aspect if I really look for it, but my nose reads this overwhelmingly as the odors of polystyrene and acetone with a light floral breeze wafting through.
Totally love it. If it came in a 50mL size I would already have a bottle in hand. The only off-putting aspect for me is when the lilac asserts itself more strongly about an hour into the development and I am reminded that lilac has been forever ruined for me by Glade bathroom spray and the like. Too bad the odious IFRA can’t recommend a ban on torturing innocent floral notes by forcing them into horrible toilet products.
Anyway, for me this is a comfort scent. It reminds me of sitting down to build model cars and airplanes when I was a kid, the aromas of new plastic mingling with Testor hobby cement and enamel paint for detailing. I am getting dangerously close to the end of my bottle of Dry Clean and, since the Synthetic series seems to be out of production, this will be a suitable replacement.
Glad to hear another Yes vote! And yeah, I just recently noticed that the synthetic series wasn’t on the Dover Street Market site, which is way too bad.
I need to go back and sniff this again. I liked the weird bottle and and was just trying to get my nose around the smell (very industrial but not unpleasantly so) when I got caught up in some people watching. A pair of young women in Liberty wearing what looked like Juicy Couture type trackies discussing Comme de Garcons scents. “I don’t like smelling of stuff that’s OBVIOUS. I like CdG Odeur 53 or is it 71?”. I was so surprised they weren’t discussing the latest fruitchouli/sleb scent that I forgot to concentrate on A New Perfume. That will teach me to make assumptions based on appearance!
Nobody can get 53 and 71 straight. I know I can’t ever remember which one it is I like.
Nice story!
I am looking forward to trying this just because I have also kind of “missed” CdG. I like weird – if it is too laundry musk I may not be able to smell it.
Isn’t the bottle made out of recycled glass or something?
Tama, I hope you’ll like it better than I do. I really am glad to see some positive reviews above.
I’d think it was recycled glass, and I ought to know but I don’t.
this smelled like burnt rubber to me. and somehow clean. I’m not saying it’s bad. it’s just something that I wouldn’t like to smell on me or on someone else.
Money saved, right?