Blackpepper

(January 2020) My signature scent! Still the favourite in my collection. I remember when I first tried this out at a perfume counter. It was Valentine's Day 2019 and me and my love were browsing perfumes before having our Valentine's Day dinner. I tried this out on my wrist, and I don't know what it was, but my skin had an extreme reaction to it. It caused a really bad smell, so I went to scrub it off in the warehouse bathroom. It was hard to get it off, in fact I didn't really succeed. Later when we were having dinner, I was suddenly catching some really nice wafts from my wrist. My skin had calmed down and there was the most beautiful smell of pepper and smoky woods. My love kept sniffing my wrist all night. Months and months passed until last fall I was at that same warehouse and decided to try that scent again. I sprayed it on my wrist again, but this time I didn't get that strange, bad smell. Instead, suddenly I vividly remembered that wonderful night in February and how fantastic this smell was! I went home and couldn't stop sniffing my wrist all night. I went to bed thinking "How did I never buy this?! It's the most gorgeous scent ever!" Waking up the next morning the first thing I did was go into town and buy myself a big 100ml bottle. I didn't say anything to my girlfriend, I just put it on when we were going out later that night. She passed me by and said "Huh. That's not your Zadig & Voltaire, is it? Oh wait, I know! It's that peppery one! Did you buy that one? OMG that is the best scent ever!" The funny thing with Blackpepper is that it's my favourite fragrance and on my perfume-eating skin it has the best projection and performance of my collection. (Except maybe for TF Ombré Leather) It's crazy. Most perfumes don't really last on me, but this one does! Also, people say it really suits me, and I get a lot of compliments both from men and women. Other people are simply curious and come up to ask me what the hell I'm wearing because it doesn't smell like any perfume they're familiar with. And that's right, it doesn't! Beautiful smoky woods, and it just goes on and on. The other day I put my shirt in the washing machine and it still had some leftover Blackpepper scent on it after washing! Go figure! I get that this is officially a unisex fragrance, and personally I'll wear anything, even really floral fragrances like Velvet Orchid, but this is pretty damn masculine to my nose. It's a special occasion scent though. I've worn it to the office, and my colleagues loved it, but it's not something you'll want to wear every day. At least, I don't. It's too special for that. My girlfriend says it turns her on like nothing else in my collection. I'm so happy with it, and will immediately repurchase that big ass bottle as soon as this one threatens to empty out! For me personally: Longevity: Long lasting. Good projection for several hours, then sits closer to the skin for a long time. I can still smell it after showering sometimes. Sillage: a few feet for me! Not too shabby! All in all, fantastic perfume: 5 stars!

The top notes are smoke and burnt rubber Middle notes are Cedar spiced wood and black pepper Space notes is musk it's kind of the delicious smell that somebody might have some spending all day tending a bonfire with a hint of space that. The perfect scent for fall it's very reminiscent of bonfires burnt wood and soft crispy leaves on the ground the smell of an Autumn day but also with the burnt rubber smell full stop the burnt rubber smell is not unpleasant because as it mixes with the spiced Woods it creates and ood it creates a very exotic unusual smell , that is delicious in the same way that the bonfire smell is delicious I would say it's kind of addictive very dark quite sexy but at the same time it doesn't give you a headache it's not Rich it's an absolutely unusual smell if I smelled someone wearing it with think they'd been in a very delicious smelling bonfire beautiful sense of spiced gentles spiced wood like cedar . It's kind of it's definitely unisex and it's perfect for dates the sillage is very gentle and only very close maybe you can smell it from six inches. The longevity may be three or four hours. What I wear it comma probably not full stop it is an absolutely addictive beautiful scent for autumn but I would have wanted something more spicy and punchy this is more a gentle cozy almost kashmir-like scent with an edge. I would say this fragrance is suitable for men in their 30s plus because it's a mature smell. I would say the type of woman to wear this is quite edgy quite a bit alternative . Would I wear it on a date yeah definitely but I would have wanted something a bit more beautiful maybe a bit more spicy maybe a bit more something floral or something more spicy it just feels a bit too musky and powdery for me

A creamy, powdery black pepper and dry wood scent that develops the smoothest ambery dry-down. It opens with a blast of realistic black pepper that’s dark and earthy and so spicy that it makes your nose tingle. To some wearers, it could give a spicy B.O element at the start. There’s an aniseed type of fennel/liquorice note in the opening. But the dry-down gives way to a smooth woody haze of dry, peppery patchouli, with a gentle sweetness of tonka to give an amber-type of warmth. I don't get any oud, maybe from a slight medicinal woody-way. The smooth, creamy, powdery, woody dry-down is everything. Unisex and you can wear this for all occasions and it lasts a reasonable time. Definitely worth owning. As a comparison to Wonderwood, they share a similar quirky Comme Des Garçons DNA but Wonderwood is a smoky-smooth creamy-wood whereas BlackPepper has zero smoke but has a sweet tree resin element and more vibrancy from the dynamic pepper. Edit: I love it so much I’ve bought it and both myself (I’m female) and my boyfriend wear it. Only 3 sprays isn’t enough to last but 5-6 sprays and it lasts all day. It’s herbaceous and resinously alluring and oh that creamy wood dry-down! It reminds me of the warm earthy herbal trees under the hot Mediterranean sun of the Balearic Islands. I’m currently in Ibiza and the coastal countryside smells just like this. A peppery, herbal patchouli, which suits the metallic purple bottle.

My favorite of everything I sampled from CDG. Blackpepper is so smooth and sophisticated and it fills a hole in my collection-- something that isn't challenging to wear for a formal occasion but also doesn't smell like all the other "formal" coded fragrances out there. Part of the genius of this is that it's a perfect chameleon-- wear it with jeans or a suit, day or night, hot or cold. It responds to the character of the wearer, if you're dressed formally it has the notes to support that, but it doesn't go so formal that it would be out of place in a casual setting. The pepper itself is the first note one detects, followed by a complex and very "dark" feeling cascade of woods and earth. Think Encre Noire but better, darker and edgier. Similar to Terre d'Hermès too but updated and contemporary. This feels "goth" to me in a very high fashion, sophisticated way. Wear with head to toe black but it's, obviously, CDG or Rick Owens or similar, formal or casual but the color is black. Once the pepper dies back a bit the woods and patchouli are the dominant features, and such a well used musk and tonka-- not quite there on their own but used to give body to the dryness of the woods. I wish it projected a bit better but it smells so good that I can forgive the more moderate performance. It's a masterpiece.

Blackpepper and Wonderoud have replaced Comme des Garçons’ Black and Wonderwood in my collection. Blackpepper has all of the spicy, lava-rock edginess that I loved in Black, but it doesn’t get drowned in the Liquid Smoke & liquorice accords that took centre stage when I wore the latter; I literally smelled of charred hot dogs. This has a tiny bit of that going on, but it somehow works, and it just smells of what it should, no surprises—CdG are so skilled at this, but I also appreciate their surprises, like Concrete, which isn’t a literal translation of it’s label—dry, but somehow not scratchy, black pepper, with just a hint of sweetness & petrichor loveliness (I LOVE a good petrichor). I don’t always love everything that Comme des Garçons releases, even though I at least try every single one (I’m a hopeless fan-girl of the brand) and I find that I at least like a majority of them. I’m tired of the pebble bottles (sell stands with them, man!) but I just can’t help myself when their contents beckon with quality fragrances at such great prices. (But how about some more of those great chunky bottles a lá Standard (Artek) & the Odeurs, CdG?)