HS3

Comme des Garcons has some really quirky packaging. From the plastic dummy bottles in the Guerrilla series to the unfolding metallic box in the LUXE series, their packaging (though not the most luxurious, is definitely some of the most original. Comme des Garcons EDP, released in 1994, is no exception. It comes in a simple white card stock box with plain black printing on it. Open the box and the bottle is presented in something you might expect to save meat in the freezer with. The “as-seen-on-TV” style pouch seems to cover all the bottles of the same shape from CdG that I’ve tried. I’m still not completely sold on the bottle shape – though it serves its purpose quite well, it has a hard time sitting next to others in a collection. It ends up just being plunked there in the front.

As for the scent, it can certainly hold its own. This 1994 EDP is a melange of spices, loaded with clove and hot cinnamon. It advertises itself to work like a medicine and behave like a drug – though I don’t find the opening quite as medicinal as some, it is undoubtedly intense and slightly medicinal, perhaps due to the camphorous notes that you’ll find in the top. I find a good bit of rose throughout, but it’s never overly floral – merely a supporting note. It settles nicely into a smoother cedar and sandalwood-rich scent with the black pepper present through most of the day. Longevity on me is superb, which is not a surprise with its nearly 20% concentration. Sillage is above average for me on this one – I wore it yesterday and felt at times that I was leaving a trail a bit more tenacious than I usually like to. 12 hours into it, the GF (wife in a month – woo!) had her interest piqued and pressed her face into my neck to exclaim how good it smelled.

From what I gather, this scent was reformulated and the new version is now made in Spain. Some reviews point to the reformulated version as being lighter and less intense, but I’ve only tried this version (French made version), so I can’t compare. There don’t seem to be many good pictures of it online, but the ones that I have seen of the newer one (on Luckyscent and Dover Street Market sites) look considerably lighter in color. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily always point to a noticeable shift in ingredients.

Chanel (Jacques Polge & Christopher Sheldrake) did it right with this one. This is in the top 5 scents I smelled in 2008.

I would describe it overall as a rich, yet accessible take on patchouli and chocolate. However, there are just so many wonderful aspects all along the way that make it as wonderful as it is. The opening has the peppery tart spray of bitter orange peel with a sweet chocolate undertone. The spices are gritty and light, not ones to hit the back of your throat.. A wonderful patchouli that you wouldn’t necessarily identify unless you knew to look for it emerges with just the slightest powdery feathering. It settles into a rich, warm leathery scent that still retains some of its top notes punch and even has a comforting, classic feel to it. I don’t know many classic Chanels, but the dry down makes me think of a complex scent with such depth a company like this would have produced.

This is really a masterpiece for me. I knew I would end up buying it within minutes of sampling it. I took a sample and wore it that night and the next day and bought a bottle the next afternoon. The bottle is gorgeous and the base of the box doubles as a Chanel stand for the bottle. The packaging is top notch – even the cap is magnetically polarized so that the Chanel logo is horizontal when you put the cap on.

Be sure you love anything you buy from Les Exclusifs line… you’re getting a jug of it. The price may seem daunting at first, but when you account for how much you’re actually getting, it’s no more expensive than any other standard designer scent.

Huge A+ from me.

Olivier Durbano Jade – This opens as dusty mint laden tea leaves. It’s a very lush, earthy mint – not like the smell of common mint flavoring, but rather the smell of the mixture of the soil with the moist mint that grew in the woods behind the house I grew up in. It seems to follow the pattern of Durbano’s previous releases and shares a number of qualities. There’s something about them that actually does bring the image of rock to mind – gritty, dust covered rock. This particular one seems to sit very close and keep its projection at bay. It stays dry and austere with classic notes of vetiver, patchouli and herbs that linger long after the initial mint and tea trip.

Omnia Granato – I’ve read a few places that this is supposed to have some dirty, animalic notes to it. I personally didn’t get much of that on the first few tries. I was pretty excited to try it in anticipation of those animalic notes, but luckily I still like the result quite a bit. What I do get is an initial blast of sweetened musks and vanilla, followed by a smattering of spices and smokey cedar and vanilla. I get a considerable semblance to Bois 1920 Sushi Imperiale, but seemingly not quite as complex and a bit sweeter in its drydown. As it settles, a few notes creep out that may be construed as “dirty,” but one might assume much of that claim was included in a PR brief. Either way, it works well.