Comme des Garcons Series 2 Red: Sequoia

When I was a small boy, my parents packed up our Volvo station wagon and we set out to tour the US for the summer. It was a fun trip for me and my brother. Our parents introduced us to a lot of new things, outside of the world that we knew at the time. One of the new discoveries where national parks across the country. We would find a new park and pitch a tent for the night or a few days, before continuing on the journey. I remember one park in California that had this scent. Being a small boy, I do not remember the park, but I do remember the scent of the park. This fragrance reminds me of that park in CA, years ago. A good memory for me. Fast forward, several years later and I am at Universal park in Orlando with my daughter. She was a little girl at the time. We are going on the ET ride. As we wait in line, we are taken through a forest. The scent in that line was similar to (not exactly the same as) the scent I remember from the park when I was a boy. A combination of waiting to ride ET, being with my little daughter and the scent from standing in line brings me right back to being in that park in CA. Fast forward, several years later (yes, I am old) and I try the fragrance for the first time. WOW! I am a small boy once again. In a happy time and a happy place. I am very glad I was able to find a bottle of this! In a nutshell, Red Sequoia is a fresh, clean, sweet wood with a touch of booziness. It is very much a unisex scent. I can easily see this worn by a man or a woman. I can also see wearing this in casual or formal wear. I get good projection and great longevity on my skin. Bottom line: If you can find a sample of this one, try it.

Sequoia has been re-released under their Comme des Garcons: Olfactory Library collection and is now available in 50ml bottles at LuckyScent. I have been wanting a bottle for the past four years so I ordered a bottle last night. Can't wait to put my mitts on this one. Update: I opened my bottle the other day with some trepidation since I have been wanting this fragrance forever and a day. Would love it or would I be disappointed since I had set such a high bar for Sequoia? Would it be one of those..."Yes, Yes, Yes" moments or would I have that confused look on my face after sniffing it as I searched for ways to convince myself that I really did love it? And would it be well received by my girlfriend and others....or would it just smell like any other fragrance to them? Well, I LOVE IT...it did not disappoint...and I am thrilled to add it to the top-shelf of my Scent Armory. I haven't spent much time with this fragrance since, to me, it's much better suited for the Fall and not a balls-hot Summer day. However, when it opens is momentarily gives off some hints of a kinder and gentler Tobacco Vanille (literally just a flash of a few seconds) before moving into that gorgeous woody direction. Sequoia and Creed Bois du Portugal are going to be my go-to fragrance come this Fall.

I'm getting a lot of booze in the top notes of this one, like a straight, peaty scotch just for a minute or two. Soon the actual notes arrive, and initially it's smooth, sweet wood. Not the usual woods + vanilla masculine oriental type, and not the CdG harsh, dry woods with a blast of smoke, but somewhere nicely in the middle. There's just enough resinous sap to remind you of a real conifer tree, but it's not like some scents where a bully at summer camp shoves your face into the side of a pine tree. Unless I'm fatigued from too much reviewing, there's surprisingly little here. It's not that strong, but it doesn't need to be because it's just a big tree, not a stick of incense burning in a monastery that demands your full spiritual contemplation. There's some sweetness, but not too much; it's still well within the territory of mainstream masculine wood scents, like Rocabar decided to lay off the sugary christmas cookies. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that there are a lot of things that Sequoia *isn't*, because it's just a pretty tree in the woods. The simplicity of sweet wood is somewhat of a relief before I try and conquer their Incense series, and now I understand why this was put in the Red series: because like Palisander, it's about quiet, happy warmth.

Sequoia opens with rum-soaked aging redwood, soft and damp to the touch, the sweet decay of forest impermanence. For some reason I hear in my mind Bread's "Make it With you," 'life can be short or long, love can be right or wrong,' and theme to the 70s series "Grizzly Adams", 'deep inside the forest is a door into another land.' Granted, this Grizzly Adams may have a bit more manicured beard and more tailored apparel, but there's a corner of rustic beauty in this CDG. Its heart announces a dry leather, legible, brought to relief through the saturated woods, the feeling of evaporation. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I'd pick at the bark of a deceased tree to see if there were any cool creatures underneath to study. This smells like the color of a mahogany Crayola crayon ('do you know where you're going to?'), feels darker and more earthen as time progresses, with an opoponax oozing under the wooden surface, bittersweet and somewhat reminiscent of aged scotch. Sequoia is an exemplary study from Bertrand Duchafour of the pungency, texture, and spirit of wood. As John Muir once said: "“This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising.”

So Duchaufour beat Cavallier and Morillas to the punch on introducing "oud" to the Western hemisphere. M7 is thought by many to be the 1st but that is simply untrue as this was done a year before. M7 is way more popular as well all know but they both get a 4.31 rating. That seems kinda odd. However, this is much more wearable IMO as the booziness sits at center stage and oud being in the background. This also can be found on Luckyscent for much cheaper than the discontinued M7. If you are tired of all the rose/oud combos then check out this original!