Comme des Garcons Series 6 Synthetic: Tar

Putting this one starts my journey. I am walking down the side of a freshly paved road on a hot day. I pass by a factory of some sort, perhaps an automobile tire manufacture? In the parking lot there is a test track, where a driver is testing a new set of tires on the pavement, leaving long black trails. The scent of rubber fills the air, mixing the the fresh tar from the road. The sun beats down on me causing me to perspire a bit. I remove my leather jacket and throw it over my shoulder. I slowly walk along the roadside leaving the factory behind me as the test track rubber scent begins to fade. The path along the road start to diverge slightly from the road, taking me inland and away from the fresh asphalt, leading towards a pond surrounded by blooming flowers. Tar is a casual scent IMO. Anywhere from trendy casual to that ratty old T-Shirt with the hole and the mustard stain. But I do not see this in formal. I am glad I did not wear a sports coat today. And my coworkers are glad I did not wear the mustard stained shirt... I get good longevity on my skin. Tar projects well for the first few hours, then becomes more of a skin scent. While I do consider this to be unisex, I find it to be more masculine than feminine. Bottom Line: This one is worth a sample. Edit: I am wearing this one again today. This wearing I am picking up a faint barnyard stink lurking beneath the paved road scent. Almost like there is road kill on the fresh tar, but off in the distance. The really adds to the feeling of walking down a fresh paved road on a hot summer day.

It took me by surprise to realise that "tar" is just one piece of a bigger picture in this scent, which smells almost industrially clean at first, more like plastic fresh off a factory conveyor belt than the dirt the name suggests. The opening notes come across almost like a photo-negative of tar: shiny, white, and a little alien. If you were drawn in by the name like I was, the true filthy black tar you're probably looking for doesn't really come through until a little later, when it brings a lot of "tar-adjacent" concepts with it - rubber, motor oil, leather, exhaust, and just a puff of smoke. But what makes Tar unexpectedly wearable is when the same cleanliness that jumps out at the beginning comes back tamed as the whole thing dries down, a bit like that "new car smell" made for humans. Ultimately, no matter what you're looking for in this one, there's definitely some element of it waiting to sneak up and surprise you - if you can't find a tester or a sample (I couldn't), the "Synthetic" name gives you much more of an idea of what to expect than "Tar". It's what robots must smell like, and I love it.

Review in one sentence ? POLLUTION HAS NEVER SMELLED SO GOOD ! Review summarized in one song ? Sons of Anarchy theme song. You want a full review ? M'okay ! =) Yes it smells like tar, and smoked tires, with a leather touch. Like a biker, wearing proudly his new leather jacket, who smokes his cigaret after a ride in a big city on his metal monster. But wait ! Why this bad boy have made this ride ? For his girlfriend, and he doesn't come empty hands, he has a very delicate bouquet of flowers on his hands. Not that one which smells a lot, but those ones, white, with a perfume almost fleeting. So voila... A very masculine, virile smell, leather, tar and rubber with a lovely flower note. The sillage is ok, just enough to notice it, but not too much, so you don't have to worried about asphyxiate people who won't love this particular "urban" smell. The longevity ? Awesome.

With some perfumes, there is no point in enumerating the notes that the perfumer used to try to get where s/he was going. It's better just to say what it really smells like and leave dithering about ingredients to perfumes that just smell like perfume. For the first couple of minutes I smell a decided overtone of brand new vinyl shower curtain, but then Tar gets down to business and smells just. like. tar. I am very, very impressed. Then some burned rubber, like hot rod tires on a sun-baked street when a driver has just peeled away from the curb. Amazing, just an amazing job of truth in advertising...if Bond #9 was really interested in creating perfumes that smell like the districts they are named after, I can think of several parts of NYC that would be fine candidates for the honor of having this scent as their namesake.

I wish I could give an accurate review for this fragrance, sadly I have to work from memory as it's been discontinued. This was a favorite of mine in 2020. I loved using it on days where I'd just washed my hair with neutrogena's T-gel shampoo (also discontinued) although it smelled little like it. A gorgeous scent reminiscent of hot tires on asphalt and leather seats in a new car. Oddly clean and refreshingly chemical despite what you might assume, like a hardworking mechanic fresh out of the shower picking you up for a date. Sexy! I miss it. I found myself constantly nose to wrist with this one. I seem to remember it having a poor performance, with a pretty intimate sillage and not lasting very long, although I only had many stick-applicator samples and never got to spray it. Would buy FB if I ever found one.