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!

I got a sample of the original red bottle one and then the new white bottle one, sprayed them on each arm and did a comparison...,they are pretty much the same but the red bottle has more umpf and naturals, the white bottle dry down was a bit urine like and soapy on me where as the red one wasn't, it was sweet and beautiful all the way. If you want a better and more unisex version of jubilation man, definitely get this 8/10 The red bottled one is way better but discontinued :/

This has to be one of the most pungent openings I've ever smelt. Rancid apple juice to my nose. That just lasts for a few minutes and then the woods come out. It's a magical transformation really. This one ages well on my skin and I feel shower fresh all day.

For me, this is more reminiscent of a wooden bench on a scorching hot day rather than a tree. I love it and it wafts meditatively around me all day almost like an incense perfume. Absolutely stunning in Summer.

Sequoia is a rather nice bit of elegant perfumery from Bernard Duchafour and a bit of a trailblazer by incorporating oud long before it became fashionable. Sequoia opens with woody and sweetness, a hint of rum, some oud and some leather. The sillage is moderate. The perfume feels unisex. Around twenty minutes in a hint of cloves and black pepper join the cedar and redwood and rum trio. An hour in it's settled down to sweet woods, a boozy rum note, cloves, a black pepper bite in the background along with an incense-like vibe in the background. This is where it settles and becomes linear from this point onwards. About four hours in the peppery bite has gone and the perfume is gentler. Five and a half hours in, Sequoia is fading big time and what you have is a nice woody smell. Seven hours in its very faint. It sticks to clothes beautifully so the following morning you'll have a beautiful smelling jumper. Sequoia is best during the cold weather where that sweet woodiness moves through the air like a gentle autumnal touch.

Starts out with wood and incense, mostly aromatic cedar wood. There’s also something sweet, possibly contributed by the rum accord that’s listed in the notes, but it doesn’t come across as at all boozy. Gradually the sweet and resinous notes fade away, so that what’s left is mainly a woody scent that remains linear to the end. I have a sequoia tree growing behind my house, so was able to compare the crushed fresh leaves with the perfume, and have to say there’s a certain resemblance. Both have a sweetish, resinous, balsamic fragrance, but the perfume has more woody basenotes than the leaves do. Of course, I couldn’t smell the wood of my tree, so it may be accurate in that respect, too, first creating the leaves, then the wood of the trunk. Sillage is moderate, with the scent lasting at least 6 hours. I find Sequoia to be simple, pleasant, wearable, and fairly true to its name.

First of all, this definitely feels like a classic Comme des Garçons concoction. Like many of his fragrances, this too has an avant garde feel to it. It almost feels like an experiment with woods and incense. I feel like this holds a similarity to incense Kyoto - also from CDG, but with toned down incense and fired up woods. The wood in this is almost sour smelling - like a wet oud and pine mixture. This is absent of sweetness. Overall, I think this is nice - and I appreciate CDG for being one of the top designer houses around and never conforming to the mainstream. 6/10

It's a much more well-rounded masculine woody scent than their Palisander, and (surprisingly) bears more resemblance to Aedes de Venustas Palissandre d'Or as well, although it doesn't feel as complex or "fancy" in comparison. I don't detect such strong rum as the votes suggest (and no oud), instead more woods and opoponax; in fact, it feels like an upgrade from Demeter's Mahogany!

Rich woody boozy scent. Finished wood, not the forest. Like an old paneled library minus the mustiness.

i do love the way this smells but in all honesty just buy Febreeze Air: Wood instead and call it a day

Being from Northern California (San Francisco), I am very familiar with the scent of redwood forests and sequoias, and this does not even come close to capturing anything that would ever make me think of them. Perhaps the fragrance is purely conceptual? An artistic impression or assumption of what that landscape might smell like in the mind of someone who dreams of visiting? I get a huge floral scent that I thought was jasmine. You'd never smell jasmine in a redwood forest or anything particularly floral for that matter. I’m also getting a lot of spice and sweetness. This is more like an Oriental fragrance than woody. There is nothing sweet, spicy or Oriental about a sequoia. Also, where exactly IS the wood here? I smell everything but wood. A better approximation to a redwood forest or sequoias is April Aromatics' Precious Woods, Tam Dao, Tanoke, Redwoods by Elizabeth W (a San Francisco company who knows what redwoods smell like and is half the price of this terribly synthetic stuff), even Vetiver 46 by Le Labo (which I actually wore last time I was hiking in the redwoods, and it blended in beautifully!) but not this. This smells like a wet dog as it develops, bringing back horrible memories of houses in the 70's with faux fur rugs and cheap aftershave. Also has a soapy base, which does nothing to help. Why anybody would put a white flower into a sequoia fragrance boggles my mind. Wonderful concept with terrible execution. (Edit: I definitely wore the re-released one. Perhaps it was reformulated? It smells nothing like previous reviewers describe. Woods and pine-like? No way, not in this bottle.)

like many, I assumed that this was unobtainable following the discontinuation of the red series. When I heard they were rereleasing it, I was totally giddy. Unable to smell it during its hiatus, I was stuck reading reviews which seemed overwhelmingly positive. I imagined the richest, smoothest woody fragrance, with a kiss of rum and a deep spicy earthiness... Alas here we are, whereupon by way of the olfactory library series I am finally being exposed to one of my white whale scents (albeit through a much more depressingly nondescript flacon). Immediately, I am disappointed. It’s certainly pleasant, and I imagine at the time of its release it would have really stood out, but in the current paradigm of niche-idea super exposure, this smells done to death. It’s almost too smooth for its own good, where the nuance folds over into blobbiness, leaving a strangely boring purple slab of ambiguous woody notes. Pomegranate noir is certainly an apt comparison (sans pomegranate here of course) and my hatred for that one slightly carries over into this. There’s clove, there’s wood, there’s sweetened booze underbelly, but none of it feels interesting or evocative of any place or even material. It feels almost youthful, and is certainly a tonal shift from my idea of the brand. Performance is middle of the road and very close to the skin. I’m not mad at sequoia, just disappointed. 5.5/10

Best tree scent in the CDG Red series thicket, in my opinion - warm, complex, rich in all the right places, and seeming more organic and less abstract than is usual for the house. This is the one where all the things just went right, and the overall effect is welcoming and embracing and real. Deep notes of well-polished hardwood - no sap or wax or sawdust or anything else - just cleverly-worked, beautifully burnished timber. Didn't get any specific rum notes, on my skin they're just rounding out the whole thing to a beautifully spicy multi-faceted high-class hardwood extravaganza, with shades of cinnamon and nutmeg for savour. As with all CDGs the longevity could be better, but it's reasonably resilient, hanging on for 5-6h, though never huge and always keeps its bark pretty closely stuck to your skin. Completely unisex and rather inoffensive, wouldn't choke out or repel anyone, of any gender, and could be safely worn to work even if you're a pretty conventional officeperson. I truly love and want it.

Its very well designed, I can smell 4 notes: Fresh Cut Wood, Oud, Rum and Sweet Amber. Its like you took a walk in a semi light/dark forest full of pine trees in the months of Fall, The earth has a layer of dried twigs, Moss on rocks, cold earth floor, Red scarf around the neck and you are wearing your grey jacket and grey jeans. and Behold, the lumberjacks had just cut and fell a very large tree. There is freshness coming off the oozing sap (amber). The initial whiff is wet and immediately followed by a very dry hint of (toned down) oud and thirdly rum. The rum brings in a gentle sweetness to the simple composition. The perfume is linear and probably lacks a soul. But I like it. It is distinctive

A light, non-intrusive woody composition that shows the CDG's fingerprints all over. A sligh boozy accord of rum and woods (mainly cedar) joined by spices and some patchouli (?). Hints of oud somewhere, incense and other resinous notes with just a tad of sweetness. The cedarwood is just perfect, never sharp or overdone. Overall Sequoia has a consistent body but avoids the typical heaviness of other conpositions in the same vein and it's a perfect candidate for anyone who's looking for an easy-wear with a good amount of character. Moderate lasting power. Sequoia may result pretty linear but it'smasterfully executed, thoroughly enjoyable and most of all, immediately recognizable. Rating: 7/10

I realize the only thing that sequoia has in common with Spicebomb is the leather, but man... the opening is identical with some booze added in for good measure. After about 5 minutes, the rum chills out and you are left with spicebomb. Albeit, Sequoia smells a bit more more full, less sharp, and lacking the honey. About the 10 minute mark something that smells like some king of resin is introduced and sweetens up the whole fragrance. NOW there is very little difference between sequoia and spicebomb with the exception of the afore mentioned; sequoia smelling more full and less sharp. Ultimately, this is everything I wanted spicebomb to be

Like the rest of the series Red, Sequoia, being my absolute favorite of them all, is a pioneering fragrance. Seemingly paved the way for Pomegranate Noir of Jo Malone, or even Initio - Oud for Greatness if it were Cloves for Greatness. A pioneer formula. Much respect to Bertrand Duchaufour for this timeless creation. I mostly get a great clove/cinnamon/black peppery blend with oakmoss, Cashmeran, cloves, cedar, and woody ambers like Ambrocenide or AmberXtreme. Oud note is probably an illusion created as usual by Cypriol oil and Kephalis (another woody ingredient). Slight red-fruits at the top, raspberry like. Instant love, nuf said.

I get L'Artisan vibes from this fragrance. It's funny to learn that Sequoia actually stood tall long before Monsieur Duchaufour made his woody giants for L'Artisan - Timbuktu, Dzongkha, Al Oudh. In retrospect the connection is obvious. What is funnier is that I prefer the L'Artisans. Sequoia gets a bit too boozy for my taste. Smells like a brilliant concept that needed a few years to be fully and exceptionally realized. ***(**)

Comme des Garçons is an out of the box risk taking house...and Sequoia another interesting take on a traditional wood...the rum gives this scent a twisty take. Thick, lightly liquored and close to the skin. Take your after dinner cocktail out to the backyard where the pile of firewood waits expectantly to be kindled and breathe in its fragrant scent, fresh night air and drink in a boozy sip.

This is pretty much the fragrance equivalent of a walk in a Giant Redwood (sequoiadendron giganteum) forest. If you love coniferous trees, you'll probably love this. Rather linear, but very interesting (as most of this line is), you'll think you are John Muir's relative when you wear this, and might suddenly have the urge to hike Yosemite!

BOOZE. The top notes, anyway. Sipping rum on a pile of wood chips. Or a pirate ship. I don't know. I agree with the reviewer saying this wasn't so much a living sequoia tree as much as it's bark peelings decomposing in the hot sun. If you are a fan of woody scents, you will probably like this. Big sillage and all day longevity on me.

I adore this scent. It's woods woods woods which I needed for my collection. I went to buy it online, but it's nowhere to be found. Luckyscent's website says CDG asked them to make it unavailable until 2015! Is this normal for them? Is it discontinued forever? Just when I was about to get it!

Every good word about it is true, but wouldn't wear it. I guess it just doesn't have the "wearability" that great fragrances have. A good parrallel would be a great experimental music piece that will never get airplay because it doesn't "fit". I think I will give the candle a try.

This is my favourite in the CDG Red series. Lovely fresh, rummy, sweet but short opening followed by a slightly abrasive, synthetic woody drydown. Love the first spray but the drydown makes me hesitate about a purchase.

I smell menthol and cloves. It has the same nasal clearing/burning properties as eucalyptus oil. Very refreshing for my nose but not what I would choose as a perfume, more for a pleasant and expensive sinus clearer.

Smelled amazing in the bottle - hot, red, woody rum - but almost immediately turned awful and extremely urine-y on my skin. The first time I've ever been truly averse to a CDG fragrance. Might just be my chemistry!

I love this one. It's a soft, boozy wood that is never intrusive or harsh. Just a delicate, lovely perfume. It doesn't actually resemble trees in any way, but it's like a tone poem of one, perhaps. Lovely.

Woohoo!!It reminds me birch and woods,but rum is that which stands out.Indeed if you want to feel like a primitive in his natural enviroment you should pick that one!

Well I really wanted to try this, but that seems to be impossible now. I guess I'll just have to keep checking eBay ..

Just got my sample my first impression, its similar to Pomegranate Noir by Jo Malone!

Pleasant, sweet, spicy. Not offensive, not fantastic.