Comme des Garcons Series 3 Incense: Zagorsk

In the quest for the perfect incense fragrance, Zagorsk often gets recommended. The raw, lemony-smokey incense that most people in Western countries are used to (Avignon, Sahara Noir) is not to be found in Zagorsk. Instead, a pine-like, cold, crisp, resinous (almost powdery) accord is what Zagorsk offers, which is quite accurately described by the accompanying marketing. The scent is supposed to immitate a snow-covered Russian Monastery in the city of the same name. It remains quite linear throughout and develops little to my nose. The Russian-style incense is totally justified in my opinion, so most Orthodox people might feel at home with this scent. But this is no 'one size fits all' incense. However, it may well be one of the most appropriate cold-weather scent in a long time: one that is zero sweet and a million miles from oriental ambers or ouds. Comme des Garcons should be praised for their objective to create a fragrance for each of the world's largest religions, although I wouldn't associate Russian Orthodox with everything Orthodox Christian. That said, this scent is one of the closest things a fragrance can get to without actually burning anything. Therefore, it gets the thumbs up from me. Other similar scents to check out might be Polo RL for the pine note (although quite different to Zagorsk) and Amouage Jubilation XXV and Breath of God by LUSH for incense in general.

Zagorsk is not my favorite cdg incense but it's damn good. I picture a russian church, blanketed in snow, surounded by coniferous trees. The opening is very interesting. There is spiciness but overall it smells remarkably cold to me. Almost slightly metallic, like cold metal. The pine incense combo creates a strangely transparent, almost clovey airiness over top. This opening lasts a very long time, almost hours but eventually the pepper and other woods emerge from hibernation and it becomes much more inviting. The drydown is interestingly contradictory. Theres the cold airiness of the opening but theres also a spicy coziness. In the opening you're trudging through the freezing taiga. After hours of walking you finally see in the distance a large, gothic cathedral. The drydown comes as soon as you enter it and slam the large, heavy door closed. You can still sense the cold, biting air outside, but it is muted by the heavy wooden door and the warm scent of incense and a cozy fire within. While I love this, for some reason I dont feel the urge to wear it very often. Maybe it's a little too serious, lacking in charm. Performance is on par with the other incenses, being above average in both duration and sillage. All in all this gets a 7.5/10 from me for its transportive, if overly sombre qualities.

Boy, tough break for Zagorsk considering how much everyone loves the other four! It's definitely got the deep, dark pine forest going on right from the first whiff...makes me think of Polo almost. I find it to be a very natural, organic confer scent, even after it moves indoors, into the log cabin, losing some of the brisk coldness after a minute or two. This is what life smelled like in remote Hudson Bay Company forts in the wilds of 18th century Canada, pipe tobacco and all. It's slowly getting sweeter, with a single sweet note, almost like grassy vanilla, that stands out like the spring shoots reaching up through the last of the snow in March. But after the woods from the top notes dissipate more, this grassy vanilla note does get a bit one-dimensional, almost like a He Wood flanker. The dynamic, fresh-hewn log cabin smell ages a few hundred years to leave that sweeter but heavily-worn remnant that you smell when you visit that same old fort today, on a tour at a national park. If you took all the gourmand elements out of Zirh Corduroy, or maybe even out of Rocabar, you'd be left with something like this. It's much less "my thing" than some of the others in the series, but I'll still give it a thumbs up because I think it's well-balanced for the sweet antique wood genre.

So far I've tried this and Avignon, and I expected the latter to be my runaway favourite. However, I think Zagorsk has a cleanness and contrast to it that elevates it slightly higher for me than the more sweet, straightforward notes of Avignon. My initial impressions were of sharp pine and cold smoke, and I'm obsessed with how it dries down. Perhaps I'm doing Avignon a disservice due to the very small sample I'm working with, but Zagorsk is still the one I keep reaching for despite having a similarly tiny vial. While I'll likely buy a full size of both to get more used to wearing them, I can see Zagorsk remaining my favourite going forward and becoming a staple of my wardrobe in the colder months. It also makes me very curious about the Orthodox incense that inspired it, since I'm someone who was raised primarily around Lutheran and Catholic churches, so Avignon is far more similar to what I'm used to. I'd recommend this fragrance to folks who want a less typical churchy incense and who enjoy sharp, woodsy scents... and for any in the witchy and gothic crowd that want a more melancholy (to use CdG's word) incense fragrance than the lighter and sweeter Avignon.

Zagorsk is wonderfully unique. Both as a city and as a fragrance. I've been there and I don't particularly remember how it smells like, but Comme des Garçons definitely nailed Eastern European Orthodox vibe of our monasteries with this one. It opens green, fresh, dry woody and settles down as gorgeous austere incense. The birch note (or is it hinoki?) is a tiny bit scratchy and harsh for my nose but at the same time it's immensely nostalgic, too. I own Avignon from Series 3 and it's so wonderful to see the contrast between the smell of pure Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Pompous, dark and gothic Avignon vs light, fresh and modest Zagorsk. I find it interesting that people associate Zagorsk with snow because usually when it's winter and snowy in Russia, there's no particular smells around, let alone "green" smells or smells of wood. So for me this is more of a spring/summer memory, when the sun is shining and it's still might be a bit chilly in the mornings but everything is already blooming. CDG nailed it, I have nothing else to say. Lovely poetic fragrance which evokes the long gone memories of peaceful times in Sergiyev Posad (Zagorsk).

If you’ve ever put your nose in a bag of actual frankincense that they use in orthodox churches, unburned, this is EXACTLY how this smells. It doesn’t catch the smell of the woods or the myrrh or the wine or the bread or the gold and the velvets, but it smells exactly like the incense itself alone. I find this one to be the most “masculine” from the line, I really get the pencil shavings scent that a lot of people seem to talk about. I also find it to be the most simple and no-frills, straightforward incense. It’s cold, dry, bitter incense. There’s really something very enchanting about how simple and COLD this perfume is. No other scent has ever made me physically cold like this one! It feels like you’re in the middle of an endless arctic forest, though I don’t really see the embellished cathedrals of Zagorsk with this, it’s a more small modest middle of nowhere kind of church. I can’t get out of my head that this is how Tarkovsky’s film “Andrei Rublev” must smell. Not a safe blind buy, it smells so cold and dry and bitter and dusty that it’s hard to perceive it as a person’s scent, as incredible as it is.

Another beautiful incense fragrance. Darker, deeper, cooler, wet and kind of dirty. I didn't really know what to say at first and I thought about it for a long while. I think I love it as much as Avignon, but for a different reason. Avignon is for me a nostalgic perfect recreation of my favorite smell in the world. Avignon isn't very powerful or long lasting, but it's accuracy is incredible. Here, with Zagorsk, I wasn't sure what I should expect. I have been to an Orthodox church before, but not while it was being incensed, so I didn't have a memory bank of information to go to when I smelled it. It's green, woody, a bit smoky and quite dark/cool. It warms up a bit as it sits, but really for me this is an angsty fragrance. A bit bitter, contemplative, aged. Definitely agree with alfarom's review: it's dark, green and cold. Really mysterious. Evokes for me the idea of Orthodox monks living in the forest alone, contemplating God. I think it's beautiful. 9/10

When i sprayed this, immediately i was hit with a naturally wintery, gasoline (not in a bad way) minty kind of smell, it then evolved into a slightly sweeter and peaceful yet still very cool and fresh smell after, throughout the day. I can smell pine, incense and the hinoki wood which combine to give a relaxed, spiritual sense of state. Its not a scent to wear to please others, yet i can see people acknowledge the scent, it almost has a calming effect on them. its a solid signature scent, something that a monk in the cathedrals or even a young man in his 20s in Russia would wear. It's smells industrial yet very natural at the same time. I spray 4 around 8 am in the morning and projects for the first3-4 hours and can smell it lingering around for another 3 after. I can smell hints of it the 1 or 2 days after. I would say this is a definite buy for those into the wintery, cold air, incense and meditative scents.

Being a Russian Orthodox Christian, living in the US for many years, I miss the scent of my church in Moscow and tend to look for it in perfumes and aromatherapy. I was so excited to find out about Zagorsk. But it fell somewhat short for me. Initially I smelled gauze bandages, now the most prominent scent is beeswax candles that are used in Orthodox church, however, that is not how my church smells like. Maybe Zagorsk (now Sergiev Posad) monastery smells like this, I do not remember (I only visited it once). Seems like a tiny village church might smell like this. I like Zagorsk enough to keep it, yet, it is not reminiscent of my Orthodox church experience in Russia and I do not crave it. Edit: despite all that, Zagorsk became my fragrance of choice to wear to church. It seems to be the most appropriate scent from my wardrobe, most perfumes seem out of place there.

Avignon gets all of the love... and it is a great perfume. But Zagorsk is my #1 from the entire CDG Incense series. Actually, it's my favorite coniferous fragrance to date. Admittedly I haven't sampled very many fragrances in this category--and I'm not sure I really need to since Zagorsk appears to still be in production. It works well in the winter, especially if you're of the opinion that cold-weather fragrances don't need to be weighed down with sweetness, oud accords, or both. There are no ham-fisted sugary afterthought notes thrown into this mix. The pine note here is ethereal and not the least bit heavy or tarry. It's from the mid-to-upper canopy, not the forest floor. For me it shines best and brightest in the summertime. But really, it's just all-out beautiful no matter which season.

This is a serene, peaceful fragrance...the pine and birch tar perfectly complement the frankincense, this is the last stop on my CDG Incense trail and it's been an eye opening, whistle stop tour around the world. I've reached the conclusion that I love incense when surrounded by other notes in complex compositions the likes of Amouage epic, memoir and interlude. Another reason I like them is they have a smokiness, I honestly couldn't describe any of these as being smokey with the exception of Kyoto and Zagorsk which have a mild smokey texture but I was expecting more. Again, not that I'm complaining this collection has more than delivered and educated me about different faiths and the smells associated with them. Hats off to Comme de Garçons!!!

to me this doesnt smell like orthodox church at all.. maybe small wooden church in some distant Siberian village.. to me orthodox church smells a lot sweeter... but this one smells like depression and i love it. scent is something between "smoky pine forest" and "molding carrots in a cold basement". scary in a philosophical way. just like death, its kinda always there but we always forget. melancholic but not whiny, more like contemplating that loses are inevitable, misfortunes may come, illness may prevail.. but at the end its all part of life and those negative things make life worthy. i adore this scent!! unfortunately, very very weak :( one spray will last you 40min if ur lucky

Perhaps my favourite of the Incense series (although I wear Avignon and Kyoto more often). I don't get carrot from it, but do get nutmeg, which I associate with carrot soup. I'm not sure this has been discontinued @nisz_snob. It is hard to get, but does come back into stock from time to time. I have been keeping an eye on the Selfridges and Liberty websites here in London and a single bottle just popped up on Selfridges (which wasn't there earlier this week) and so I grabbed it as a back up. The more niche CdG scents seem to come into stock in very small quantities, so you can easily miss them and then they don't reappear for months. Not sure what the supply issue is.

It's a masterpiece. Usually I'm allergic to those over-romanticised ideas and backstories behind fragrances, but the execution of this one is just insane. Melancholic, solitary, harsh atmosphere of an old wooden church in the middle of snowy nowhere is undeniable. That's the first time the perfume brought me an actual vision of that kind, it's truly remarkable to me. In that case, details like sillage, projection, drydown doesn't really matter. It took me for a brief moment to the different time and place and it's far more than I ever expected from a little bottle of smelly liquid. -If you want to learn about my approach to reviewing, please see my profile bio-

On my skin I mainly get birch and carrots, not much incense at all which surprised me. It's a silent, cool scent that tells a story in a way, it calms my nerves. I come from the northern parts of Sweden, so I totally get this minimalistic call of nature. It reminds me of climbing trees as a child, the woodsy, sappy parts of this scent really resembles the woods where I come from. It also reminds me of my mothers homegrown carrots, pulled from the soil, brushed off and piled in the fridge. The smell you get from snapping an ice cold homegrown carrot in half is right there. Zagorsk is an amazing composition of scents that really touches my heart.

This one is better for the colder seasons, I think, but it's surprisingly fresh for a scent with this much (frank)incense. Those smoky notes dominate on my skin, but they dominate subtly, if that makes any sense; they're balanced out so beautifully by the greener notes. The smell evokes a walk through a nordic kind of forest in the fall: lots of pines and birch trees and dark wet earth, and somewhere nearby someone is burning incense. It's great, cold and warm at the same time. So I guess I'm experiencing this like it's meant, maybe with some help from the suggestion of the name: it does remind me of (an idea of) Russia or northern Scandinavia.

I don`t know about the other commenters and their experiences, but this scent is so nostalgic to me, and smells exactly like churches of my childhood in my homecountry -- the insense mixed with the cold stony smell of the old church walls...to me it hits the nail on the head with Orthodoxy. I love the scent, but I am not sure if I would really ever wear it; this is for someone really bold and confident to be worn as a perfume, but then again, that is what the Comme des Garcons perfume philosophy is all about - avantgard, excentric, unexpected, unusual. I think I will eventually purchase it and experiment with wearing it.

Overall: 9/10 Here's Why: Sad. Rustic. Dreary. Slow Burn. I've never smelt something like this before. It's transporting. It tells a story. The Pine and pepper linger behind a strong birch and frankincense. Iris and Violet take the backseat. It's masculine, but young. fresh and stale at the same time. It's a beautiful and polarizing smell. The juice is wonderful, and it tells a story. It's deep and layered, bitter and sweet. It's full of contradictions and it shouldn't work. for my skin, it was magic. Does not play well with others. A little too morbid to wear daily, but it's special.

Great review below from Dr Kool. :) I have no idea what authentic Orthodox Russian church incense smells of? I'd assumed CDG had done some research? maybe they had? Perhaps the sample churches they chose smelled like this? or maybe a cock up and this incense range was labelled incorrectly? maybe zagorsk is supposed to be jaisalmer as he suggests....I love this one all the same and has been a recent addition to my wardrobe but I can't wear it yet as for me it's not warming enough for winter...will be lovely in spring I reckon.

This peaceful fragrance is perfect for an aromatherapy, especially when one needs concentration, as it keeps the mind clear (actually, it's an effect of olibanum, which could be purchased as an oil or in it's pure form). The question is, where to wear such a "spiritual fragrance", as an association with the church is too evident (especially for those who live in the countries with dominating Orthodox or Catholic churches). So I just enjoy it as an abstract aroma, not as a perfume.