Comme des Garcons Eau de Cologne

It's honestly such a shame this one hasn't seemed to get much attention, because it's lovely. Light yet still deeply complex. Spices, citrus & florals all open in perfect harmony. As this dries down, the citrus aspects fade into the background and the honey, woods & incense become more apparent. Very medicinal feel the whole way through.

Now the Comme des Garçons reissues are out, I was most surprised and delighted to find amongst these the original Eau de Cologne - it being the first fragrance that they discontinued long ago, I never thought it would come back - or maybe that's exactly the reason why it's included in the reissues. In addition to reviews that mention already it's similarity to the Eau de Parfum - I should add that this is true, however Eau de Cologne merges two extremes, which I find conceptually really excellent - also considering the time this was launched. The typical Cologne accords together with the unique Comme Eau de Parfum spiciness - it creates a somewhat really brutal in the best way, impressions of what the most common WC stones smelled like in Germany and Austria in the 80's and 90's ... to a level that one could even see it as an early experiment in what lead to the Comme Series 6 some years later - obviously it smells a zillion times better than my naive comparison, it clearly had a very technical note it to. Other than that, it might have been the most elegant thing they made in terms of product design - the juice had this fantastic, toxic green colour, the packaging was a lush orange and the whole thing shrink wrapped - well these features are all gone now with the uniformed packaging, hoping that it smells still has excellent it did when it came out *** edit: having had a chance to do a 1:1 comparison of the original version and the new 'olfactory library' reissue, it appears that it have been messed with quite a bit - the opening of the new version is completely 'new', eventually it settles down in something vaguely resembling the Eau de Parfum theme but with a somewhat ambery irritating gaze, blurring, around it, turning it again into something else - it's not necessarily a dismal fragrance, but missing the point of wanting to bring back the discontinued fragrances - bummer ...

Not what I was expecting at all, looking at main notes with roses and clove. What I get from this is a fresh cologne splash, citruses, neroli, (herbal) and spices beneath. Masculine, but not overly musky, definitely lots going on in here. It is a bit old school but I'm getting far more of that citrussy old school neroli than any of the main notes listed here. A little bit fizzy lemon candy scent too. Would have never spotted cloves or rose especially as a main note. Clove does make an appearance on the drydown, and the overall vibe I get is slightly herbal to (hence my neroli association) and sweet drydown.

Comme des Garcons EDP/EDC/White feel like three variations of the same fragrance, broadly speaking. A big hit of spice and honey drying down to rose and sandalwood in all three. The Eau de Cologne is the least spicy of the three variants, and also the softest by a large margin. Cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and bergamot drying down to rose, sandalwood, and faint white florals. A little like the EDP, watered down, then blended with Theo Fennel Scent. Very light, but decent longevity. Much less compelling than the EDP and White, but well composed. (This review is for the reissue.)

A "colognized" version of the original EDP. Opens with the typical citruses galore of many classic Eau De Colognes to then turn into the familiar (yet toned down) spicy/woody drydown already experienced in the original EDP. Not bad but nowhere close to the brilliance of the original. For collectors only. Rating: 6.5-7/10