I am no qualified nose but, to me, all of these fragrances smelt pleasant rather than weird, and they were somewhat similar. Dent de Lait is lateral thinking on childhood - it smells like baby powder. Concrete supposedly has metallic threads underneath the rose, but it’s buried too deep for me – it’s certainly the sweetest concrete I have ever smelt. Rubchinskiy’s fragrance will appeal to the teenagers that occupy skateparks but it’s clean and out-of-the-shower, rather than gritty - the rubber and tar seem absent.
— Lauren Cochrane of The Guardian finds niche perfumes don't always live up to their promise. Read more at Wake up and smell the concrete: the rise of alt perfumes.
Some of these conceptual/concept perfumes seem a bit too ‘try hard’ to me. They tend towards the banal rather than the thought provoking end of the spectrum. A classic scent like Mitsuoko is far more challenging and interesting than, say, the CDG skateboard scent. I’think someone should create an ‘Eye Roll’ and ‘Yeah, right’ collection.
I would agree, but I think most of the “try hard” lately is in the PR, not in the juice. Both of the brands in the blurb — Serge Lutens and Comme des Garcons — did used to do more thought provoking fragrances, and lately, they seem more geared towards selling bottles than they used to.