Scent Three: Sugi

This is probably the most beautiful woods-based fragrance I own and have ever smelt. Sugi, as with anything minimal, is actually really tough to describe. The opening is a sharp, angular lemon cypress note that sticks out quite vividly and sets the tone for the dry-down. There's a tiny bit of spice from pepper, but it's not strong and doesn't last very long before it sits way, way back in the overall fragrance. As the top settles in, a creamy Iris that feels a little old skool and soft cedar dominate, whilst the lemon cypress just rests in the background. The pine is there throughout giving the whole thing a lovely coniferous vibe but the vetiver is very minimal. I love vetiver but here, it's no bad thing that it's not at all dominant as I feel like it might have been way too heavy for this fragrance if it was stronger. For the most part, that's due to the lightness of scent 03, it's simple, traditional but modern and extremely ethereal. That's about it really. It's extremely transparent and minimal and that may sound boring, but it's anything but. It's pure class in blending. I have to admit, there are very few fragrances anymore that move me the way this one does. Utterly beautiful. In an effort to be objective, this is far and away from anything "beast mode", so if you're looking for that, you'll leave disappointed. It's a very light fragrance. Whilst it does project quite well, it isn't dense or bold in any way. It also doesn't last very long, three, four hours tops. Very safe for office wear and possibly one of the best work fragrances available. I'd also dress it up for the evening, though I think it works best during the day. It's expensive for it's poor longevity, but I still love it.

Perhaps from the three Monocle - the most daring. The first "audition" in my head has jumped the thought - who is put on this one? For a long time in puzzled state I bypassed this fragrance... But it turned out in my future favorite! A terrible bitterness and acerbity of the first notes (Cypress? - by the way, Japanese sugi smell is not so; have checked!) scattered on the skin in about fifteen minutes. All that can I hear in the beginning - it's sharp needles of cypress, freshly picked carrot cobs and jets of strange citrus. Then flavor unbanal disclosed in the dry pine forest on a sand spit. Feel dry long needles under the bare feet, thirty-degree heating, a strange speech and soap root under the nose. After 5-6 hours, when it seems that the scent flew finally, gently but firmly out of the coniferous cypress flooring starts to crawl mono-iris flavored with vetiver (I understood it lately). Here, iris delicate and at the same time, coniferous. Noble and slender iris. And totally unexpected. In general, it is difficult to describe this fragrance. So it is unpredictable in its disclosure, but depressing its apparent instability. After 8-9 hours, even at low dosage application, being in a small airspace it unexpectedly sharply back, reminding me of themselves with pristine vigor. *** After a while, looking at the pyramid, I come a little puzzled. So much wood, and a "no woody" in the aura. Fresh, sharp at the start, the composition is like no other. And in later notes it combine in a special way the softness of vetiver and astringency of needle. And the most important task for me - it's not annoying and does not exhibit, Sugi cope perfectly well.

I wore this daily for a while. it is perhaps not the strongest, or my personal favorite, but maybe the "best" of the four cdg x monocle fragrances. if you can only get one, and your reason for wanting one isn't simply to Smell like Wood, you might want to make it this one. it immediately grabs the attention with black pepper and cypress, not much else, and it does so in a way that is more forward and bold than other peppery fragrances, but that is sweet and aromatic enough to keep it from feeling abrasive. it then dries down to a more subtle, cooler, woody, floral scent. it is simple, but bold, and in my experience, it lasts the longest and smells the most broadly appealing of the cdg x monocle line. Yoyogi probably projects more, but this smells less niche. i think hinoki smells the most perfectly like damp cypress wood, and that one remains my favorite, but it dries to a skin scent very quickly - nobody will really smell it an hour after it's been sprayed. this is a wonderful, appealing fragrance, that will get you a lot of compliments. most niche scents don't get me many compliments - this is the biggest exception. I tend to wear this more at night, and more in winter and spring - to me, it doesn't feel right wearing a simple, spicy fragrance like this during the day or during extreme seasons.

My absolute favourite from CdG and one of my most favourite scents. Don’t expect a thick dense forest, Sugi is a single ancient cedar tree that stands in an open space full of light in the middle of a very quiet forest, and you can see little rays of sunlight peeking through the canopy. It’s undeniably a woody scent, but not the typical dry woods. Its the type of living woods, a branch of tree that still have the sap running through its veins. I also like its soft and minimalistic and modern character of the scent, and from all monocle scents, this one may represent best the style and the aesthetics of the magazine. Its definitely a scent for fashion-conscious crowd with a tendency for scandinavian/japanese minimalism. The projection and longevity seems poor at first, but after 7 hrs i still occasionally smell a waft of sugi. Many reviewer has stated this very strange property of the scent, its somehow lurking underneath and catch your nose by surprise, and not necessary when you look for it 10/10

Cool, pale wood with what smells like Asian bathhouse to me. It has a soapy quality, but not in the usual sense. It actually reminds me of Japanese soap; softer, cooler, and almost aquatic. This is a fairly quiet fragrance, even after immediately putting it on (and a fairly generous amount). Etheral and abstract. It also has a very strange quality of smelling differently up close and further away; when I hold my hand to my nose it has that Japanese bathhouse quality, when I'm just going about my business it's more of a spicy/woody fragrance. Up close, this is overwhelmingly cool and wet, with pronounced minerality. Further away it's dry and almost incense-like. It also diverges weirdly in it's longevity depending on if you're smelling up close or further away; even though I can barely smell it when close, it's strangely persistent when you're not really paying attention to it. Another fascinating modernist offering from Comme des Garcons.