Odeur 53

This is the best of the synthetic genre, as far as I'm concerned. Abstraction is what modern perfume has been trying to reach all through the 20th century, trying to escape the conventionalism of the period. Odeur 53 is like a cubist piece of art. Abstraction is the main word here. It contains 53 different inert or inorganic notes as : freshness of oxygen, flash of metal, fire energy, washing drying in the wind, the mineral intensity of carbon, sand Dunes, nail polish, cellulosic smell, pure air of the high mountains, ultimate fusion, burnt rubber, flaming rock, and much more... My own nose could guess that more than 60% of the formula is comprised of hedione, a chemical molecule that represents a radiant jasmine odour in a dusty way. The rest is an absolutely amazing recreation of an electric feeling in the air, heavy and charged like just after a thunderstorm. I can even smell the electricity on it. The IFF describes it as “a perfume that evokes images, creating your own air around you,” and "a memory of a smell'", a olfatory deja vú. I couldn't agree more with this synopsis. There is no air freshener here, nor detergents or laundry cleaning powder. It's the capture of natural ozone odour. Hard to explain without the bottle in front of you; impossible, in fact. Odeur 53 starts ozonic but grey, but not heavy, light and airy, and there's not enough complexity yet to bring reminiscences of anything like a real flower, but something like the hint of jasmine floats through the airy, as a transparent blend. About the rest of the notes, I cannot detect even a hint of the cellulosic or fire energy, but there's a definite metallic accord, light one, and also a touch of linen drying in the sun. The nail polish is, maybe, evident in the alcohol-heavy opening but it doesn't last more than 2 seconds. Later, there is a vague hint of something such as lemon tang.The fragance turns more dusty now, even electric. I can visualize now, images of thunderstorms and heated pavement of cities, drying off after the heavy rain; maybe carbon accord here is getting obvious, but still heady remains the clean, transparent ozone dominating note. It is so incredibly easy to wear, at any occasion. The silage and projection are the best I've been experienced. A highly recommended scent.

Okay, so this is my first perfume review ever. I really felt the need to review this, so here we go. First of all: Yes, I own a bottle of this. I‘ll try to only review what I actually own. I don‘t quite understand the bad reviews of this, because I personally think it‘s fantastic. Now, this is something extremely odd and therefore hard to understand, but the concept is so unique that I really can‘t not like it. You get a bunch of descriptions on the packaging, however I don‘t really think all of them are true. To me, it smells like different situations. It reminds me of walking into a perfume store, a beach on a sunny day, fresh air, clean laundry, the waiting area in airports, sunscreen and modern clothing stores. My girlfriend just thinks it smells like her grandma. Odeur 53 really just smells like the definition of perfume to me. It‘s so generic and odd at the same time, which makes it undescribeable to me. I haven‘t sprayed it on anyone else but since I‘ve got a 200ml bottle now, I might as well do that and have some fun with it. I‘d consider it wearable but keep in mind, it won‘t last long. It‘s also more on the female side but since I‘m a guy, I think anyone could wear it and be fine with it. Just don‘t expect anyone to notice it. Odeur 53 is more like an art concept than an actual perfume. I like odd things, so that‘s why I got it. If you want a classic everyday scent, you‘ll need to look out for something else.

The first time I smelled Odeur 53 I was relatively new to perfume and couldn't understand why this was such a crowd pleaser for the weird and experimental enthusiasts. I thought it was pretty boring. Returning to it some time later, not only do I understand why it's so well-loved, but I now believe that it is truly a once-in-a-lifetime masterpiece. There is something so nostalgic and whimsical about Odeur 53 that it gives me chills. I have a total dreamlike vision in my mind when I'm wearing this; I'm looking out of the window of an office unit in a tall skyscraper. Somehow, the windows are open and the cold air from the high altitude is gently washing over me. From my window I see the beach. The sky is blue but the sun is low and it's almost time to go home. It feels like the early 00's, and Aphex Twin's "Lichen" is playing in my mind. There is something quite unrefined and almost primitive about the smell of clay and sand, brought into a modern context with a metallic swell, somewhat static and electrical as others have mentioned. It is so beautiful and pure and clean. Not clean in an earthly sense, but clean in the sense that this must be what you smell like in heaven. So utterly serious in how whimsical this fragrance is. Call me dramatic.

This smells like the fake leather seat of a chair for visitors in a hospital room, sitting in a sunny spot by the window. There is an antiseptic vibe, or maybe the scent is so subtle that I am accidentally picking up alcohol. But I also think there is some vague warmth at the heart of this fragrance. It's definitely clean, but not fresh in any organic sense, and not very soapy, not detergent-like or aldehydic at all or powdery. Just a very very soft and just slightly warm scent. I do not smell wood or spice whatsoever. Skin-close. This smells like scent-free hypoallergenic warm washed hospital towel being pressed against your nose and mouth by a cold metal hand. It's weird in a comforting way, eventually. I find this scent really cuddly, somehow. Like a rubber baby I want to kiss. A way more pleasant scent than Odeur 71, but less wearable than 2. I don't think you could offend strangers in an elevator by wearing any amount of this, and I don't think it will get you any compliments either. Yet, I still think it's an extremely interesting fragrance to try out and talk about.

This scent isn't as 'ridiculous' as the notes might suggest. I find that it has quite a consistent smell, with not much difference between the top notes and its base. Everyone seems to find a different way of describing this smell, but to me it smells mostly like a combination of palm hearts and ozone (the smell you get of newly photocopied paper, after a lightning strike, or put your nose right in front of a regular CRT television). For the most part though, it doesn't really smell like a composition of scents as its 53 notes might imply, but once applied takes on a rather singular scent all its own. After wearing it for a month, I would recognize this scent in an instant. It's one that really must by tried to know if you like it or not. And like I said, although it definitely isn't like other perfumes, it's not such an unusual fragrance, and many perfume aficionados might very well enjoy it. It's quite likeable, and to tell the truth I actually love it.

Comme des Garçons, Odeur 53 is the scent of: • a new Barbie doll’s skin; Charli XCX’s song “Card Declined” — all the lyrics, but only the music from the second half; a 5% cerulean halftone overlay • Chanel’s most expensive powder foundation, if it was made of the dust scraped off a book hidden deep in the Vatican’s secret archives • Gwen Stefani’s song “Bubble Pop Electric” • Sue the T. rex, from the Field Museum in Chicago, if she was made of solid chrome and not bones • musk, but underwater in the Marianas Trench • the Upper East Side of Manhattan during a blackout caused by a rainstorm that started an electrical fire • what I would wear if I was on a cocktail date at 1:30am at Beauty & Essex with a mysterious and sexy ass man, and I just knew we were going to fuck 5/5 — but I would only wear this at nighttime, preferably in the late spring/summer when it’s still above 70 degrees, and ONLY when I plan on being in an intimate (not just sexually) setting.

Wow. Right away I was hooked. This is amazing. As soon as I smelled this, I new instantaneously that this was the one i have been looking for. This is the one. This is what I wish scents like Ghost in the Shell or Dancing on the Moon smelled like. This smells like space in a bottle. This is that white noise of being an airplane captured as a smell in a bottle somehow. A sky you can wear. It smells like a mix between Squid by Zoologist and Maison Margiela’s Beach Walk, but very calm, neutral, and not exactly beachy, tropical, nor watery. It smells futuristic somehow. If I had to guess, some of the notes are pink pepper, amyl salicylate, benzoin, other than that I have no idea. Amazing, that's what. It is insane how incredible this is! EDIT: I bought a full bottle of this and I absolutely love it. It also smells nice paired with odeur 71.

I had read about this fragrance and loved it in theory long before I had a chance to sample it. After being thwarted at the CdG shop in Hong Kong (where the shop clerk told me she hadn't seen it in three years) I finally got my hands on a bottle at the CdG Parfums botique in Paris. I must say, it is unlike anything I have ever smelled, and I am completely in love. I am addicted, I cannot stop smelling myself when I wear this, haha. For all the reviews describing the cold, metallic, harsh etc nature of the fragrance, they are only capturing half of the picture. The opening is indeed quite bold (I was once in an small elevator with two friends shortly after spraying and it smelled like someone had dropped a bottle of nail polish ont the floor). But there is a richness and delicacy that comes out that makes this fragrance a true original.

Hailing from a family of medical professionals and spending a season as a hospital chaplain, I can, with assurance, say that I know my way around a hospital. This fragrance embodies the cleanliness and ennui of a large medical institution––sanitized. Imagine sitting on an uncomfortable chair alongside a beloved intubated patient, and you just received unfortunate news from a doctor with a shit bedside manner. As the doctor walks away, you begin to wipe a restrained tear with your freshly washed hands––the florescent light imbues grey, the industrial pink soap lingers in the air, and you are left with the deafening beeps of the vital signs monitor. Odeur 53 is that in a bottle.

Exactly what a weird synthetic scent should be. Abstract and hard to place in the most pleasing way. Warm, wet gravel and sand at a construction site after the rain. Huge, glassy office buildings full of boxy beige computers, their plastic coverings glossy and hot from the constant use. Nostalgic in a way that's hard to fully explain, because honestly, I still haven't quite put my thumb on it. Smells like a memory that's so faint you think it may have just been a dream. Obsessed. My new favorite scent. Subtle but intriguing. Perfect scent if you want to smell like a marble sculpture, which personally, I'm very into.

Oduer 53 opened on my skin as the buzzy warm staticky smell you would pick up on when you would press your nose up against the family tv as a child. The big clunky kind that would zap you if you touched it at the wrong moment. I envision Oduer 53 as a thick plastic cream colored IBM PC resting in the sand on an abandoned tropical beach. It’s fresh and clean and somewhat 90s. The metal note is not a prominent to me as the warm plastic and sand. Almost a dead leaves note hidden in there as well. Absolutely really truly love. Unique but far more loveable and wearable than the reviews I read had suggested.

Reminds me of an office from the 90s, reminds me of the beach: not aquatic not blue, it’s mineral and metallic like the bar graph says. Initially smelled exactly like sand to me, which I still stand by, but after reading a review (where is this review??) that pointed out carrot seed I now totally smell the carrot seed earthiness too. I love this perfume. “Neutral” yet “weird.” You can’t really overspray it and the bottle is 200ml, which lends itself to a “just have fun with it” ethos. Edit: now it makes me think of a swimming pool and the laundered recently wetted recently poolside towel.

Still to this day probably the most truly "postmodern" fragrance ever made. It was for the new millennium what Jicky was for the dawn of modern perfumery a century ago, and Angel for the gourmands. This fragrance is allegedly 63% hedione by composition. You will either like this because you like hedione or you will hate this because you hate hedione. I feel like a machine when I wear it, like my skin is made of oxidised steel and stretched rubber, devoid of warmth but still producing a gentle, musky sweat, a perfume straight from a William Gibson novel, I like it a lot.

The first time I smelled this, I absolutely hated it, there was something so off putting to me, and I was sad because I had really looked forward to using this. The day after, I put it on before work to give it another chance. The opening, I still hated, but after letting it sit for a while, it mellowed down and this clean, earthy, pure scent appeared, and I really enjoyed it. Now after a couple of weeks of using it every day, I like the opening more and more, and I understand what people are saying about this fragrance. It really is a one of a kind fragrance.

I just sampled this and am in love! I don’t typically like scents like this but am trying to be open minded and try scents that are more experimental or outside of the scent profiles of amber and resins. When I first applied this scent, It smelled like clay, soap, and somewhat metallic. As it dried down, it smelled soapy still, somewhat airy, and fresh in a very comforting way. The soapy/fresh aspect is not overdone at all and doesn’t smell overly artificial. I could really see this being my everyday scent. Will definitely be purchasing.

I don't get alien, robotic, metal. I get clean, smooth, pristine, refreshing. Clean as clean skin, clean as air, clean as a marble slab. Delicate and smooth as an egg. An entirely industrial perfume that achieves a purity only found in the organic. Very 90s. A little frigid in a fun way. Quite divisive based on skin chemistry and not a crowd-pleaser, so try at your own risk. Not a perfume—it's something else entirely. Reminds me to be open to the possible and impossible, to accept abstraction, to embrace the mystery. My new favorite.

Been wearing this for a decade, everyday. I also own 71 (but that makes me a bit nauseous after a while). I love 53 because it reminds me at first of my art studio supply closet, then a sort of xerox smell, then something like being outside and a scent of ozone before it rains, maybe a flower shop for a split second, sharpies, and then it just vanishes into a really subtle light floral smell on my skin. Definitely doesn't linger, at all, on anything that i have tried, but Im obsessed.

often framed as a bizarre niche art experiment, but odeur 53 is my comfort scent. i often put it on in the few hours before bed. undoubtedly avant garde. a peaceful sterility. it dries down to a warm ghostly jasmine (highest concentration of hedione at the time of creation) paired with a milky sandalwood. it does not smell like hospital to me lol. i love this scent so much. it is incredibly special. and also very c*nty that it only comes in 200ml. try it, you’ll prob grow to love it.

For as much as this perfume is described as embodying the idea of synthetic, to me this smells utterly natural, more floral than any other floral perfume I've ever smelled. To me this smells like dying flowers, when their scent turns sickly sweet, tulips that are starting to loose their petals, like the actual peach juice of the fruit that has been left out for slightly too long. Completely not what I expected when I blind-bought this, but fascinating, charming and very comforting.

Some of the edgiest shit i've ever smelled. THIS is a REAL antiperfume. Super industrial sharp, fresh and metallic, I think it's got a carrot vibe with the earthy side of the perfume. Smell is kind of agressive, nose gets tired of it after a while. Pretty good longevity for an edt - 9h on me. 200 ml is an interesting format for such a perfume. If you're interested in very niche scents I'd absolutely recommend smelling it. 9.4/10 Very weird, creative and bold, not for everyone