Art Collection by Jacomo #02

My favourite from the incredible Art series. You would think that this concoction would be too quirky to be wearable, but after the initial mind-teasing opener #2 settles into a creamy, calm & cozy perfume that snuggles close to your skin like a cashmere jumper. The artist in me loves the trip-down-memory-lane awakening I feel from first spritz...poster paints...dry, pasty, inky....modelling clay...cool, neutral, slate-scented, grounded.....playdoh....warm, putty, vanilla.....suede & wet earth....soft, nuzzly, expensive-beige & very settling. It really is a scent to exercise your mind - even if you find it too queer to grace your skin on a regular basis, you must surely enjoy the olfactory work-out it offers. Quietly unique, #2 is a mid-weight, mid/low sweet, cozy scent which offers one of the best suede-vanilla dry downs I have tried. On my skin it lasts fairly well, but has little sillage tending to play peek-a-boo with the wearer as one moves. I cannot agree more with NLS's & Jillzilla's reviews....if you like any of the frags NLS mentions, you MUST try #2. The box's artwork is beautiful & the bottles are reminiscent of my favourite artist's inks - simple, abstract, balanced, unfussy & unique. All-in-all, a true artist-scent: off-kilter, playful, uncompromising yet kind, warm & earthy.

Upon first sniff, I’m instantly transported to childhood, at Payless the shoe store. I open a shoebox and smell that unique leather/ suede and rubber combination, and a little bit of the powdery cardboard box. The resemblance is uncanny. This dense, putty-like scent sweetens as the suede note fades and that’s when I can detect the tonka and an almondy-heliotrope-vanilla note. I think the waxy lily note also helps create the modeling clay experience. This is the most literal playdoh scent I have ever encountered, and I’m so thrilled! Truly one of a kind, the only similar scent I can compare it to is Shunkoin, yet they really aren’t alike at all. There’s an overlap in that dry, doughy vanilla sensation, but Jacomo is somehow even denser than Shunkoin, which is saying a lot. Jacomo #02 is so specific— nicher-than-niche—and probably only appeals to a few people on this planet. Fortunately, I am someone who loves all playdoh scents and couldn’t care less about smelling weird. Definitely more of an atmospheric, abstract perfume that is fun to try, but perhaps too artistic to wear daily. Full bottles are recommended for childhood nostalgia chasers only.

*AKA Yohji* Jacomo Art #2 is a very opposite creation to the modern motto: “Give us Sexy scents!” Its too intelligent for mind games and body twists. Its tips of the fingers dipped into magical potion with our best innocent childhood memories. Each will find own associations within it, I am sure. On me (for me) its play-doh and scented erasers and I would put “check” for that cement dust with crème-brulee, but that suedy drydown with lilies and tonka bean is something that most of us will only dream about in the nearest future. Its like process of growing - from a girl into an adult, who deep inside kept her childlish attitude. As I really want to believe that in future people would be after not “sexy”, but after kind, androgynous and reflective aromas, which make us better human beings, relax us, rather than evoking vile instincts and provoking. Its like one radiant smiling face turned to the sun, someone who doesn't mind his/her clothes full of sand, - blithe personality. Amazing job with these Jacomo Art series, both artistic and perfumery-wise.

I love Jacomo #2 very much. You get just what it says on the box with this one (leather, anise chewing gum, clay) - & the whole sum of the notes described amount to an overall perfume that just smells "purple” - & like heliotrope. So I totally agree with the review below that mentions heliotrope, because my nose smells it this way too. This is a very comforting soothing perfume....I don’t find it at all strange or weird, it just smells really good to me. I actually think #2 is not a million miles away from Apres L'Ondee, which also has anisic/heliotrope notes. This is like a warm winter version of Apres L'Ondee to my senses. Because of my personal connection between the 2, I don't understand why this one doesn't get more love....Think I must be the only one who perceives such a similarity though.

I'm impressed ! At first when i spayed , i was like "wow !" then " WOW" , then , "HELL WOW" !!! This scent is amazing , the opening smells tonka bean SO much ( also agree with plumblossom about the glue ) , but then it becomes so gentle , so delicate ... I love when the patchouli is like this : not harsh , sweet and gentle . This scent belongs to the " blanket scents group " , like Kenzo Amour or Fleur de Corail ( LLempicka) ; wearing it you really feel like you're on your couch , with a soft blanket plaid , relaxing AND no way you want to leave . It's not a sillage monster , really intimate fragrance you wear for yourself or the one(s) who hug you. BTW why it is so hard to find ? I've seen it nowhere on the traditional websites or shops like Douglas or Sephora :-/

Smells exactly as Jacomo describes: chewing gum, leather, and modeling clay. Really quite remarkable! But lasts no more than 1.5 hours on me, even when I'm bathed in it, so it's essentially a skin-scent on my chemistry. Still, I want to smell like this. It's very stabilizing.

ELDO. POTL. BNTBTBB. If you know what these acronyms are, you're likely a true perfumista with an educated nose that appreciates uncommon scents. Art Collection #02 is a fragrance you'll want to try. One of the American retailers that carries this scent describes the artwork on the box as "a mysterious girl who could have escaped Carlstedt's New York studio, leaving a trail of gum, leather and modeling clay scents in her wake." (From the Bigelow Apothecaries site.) That's a pretty good description of the scent, too. It's a bit sweet in the beginning, with a prolonged "play-doh" stage in the middle, and a salty leather-patchouli dry-down that lasted me through an entire workday. Definitely not a traditional perfume, but pleasant and unique. You'll stand out in this one. (If you're not familiar with the acronyms above, ELDO is Etat Libre d'Orange, POTL is People of the Labyrinths, BNTBTBB is Be Never Too Busy to Be Beautiful and you can read more about all of them here on Fragrantica.)

I found this and #08 at a local online vendor at quite a cheap price. I thought the bottles and packaging was pretty and after a quick visit here and reading the comments, I got them and I have to say it was a good buy! #8 is my favorite of the two but #02 is okay as well. It does start off as resembling Play-Doh. And, unfortunately, it kind of stays that way. I keep smelling as the perfume dries down and it stays that way on me. To be fair, the description on the box does state that it is "childlike" and that as if Cecilia's muse "had escaped from her childhood studio leaving in her trail, gum, leather and modelling clay." which sounds accurate enough. I detect some leather and gum after reading about it then searching for them. I like it, to be frank; it's a weird one. I'm attracted to weird, but, unfortunately, in this case, it was just a passing fancy.

Firstly, agreeing very much with NebraskaLovesScent, if you know/like anything by ELdO or Gorilla Perfumes at Lush (the old BNTBTBB) you will understand this one! It's very strange, but also very beautiful. The opening is almost watery, briefly, before a spicy tea and play-doh rolled in patchouli (then wrapped in soft suede) affair happens. Imagine kindergarten in India. In 1937. It is linear - not much happens after 30 minutes - but the drydown is cozy and warm: a soft and dusty vanilla leather. Jacomo #2 wears like a Bvlgari Black, ELdO Tom of Finland and Gucci Rush love triangle. Probably not my choice for every day, but I can see myself becoming wholly compelled to visit it often! Well worth seeking out. (My bottle came courtesy of the lovely Malia.)

This Fragrance ,transfer me in the Old Orient . I feel there......Im there...... I can dream as a princess of the Thousand and One Nights:) Jacomo Art 2 ist oriental balmy fragrance for me. I cannot use it ,only smell it somethimes:)

At the beginning it exactly smells like Play-Doh modeling clay; but after one-two hours the smells becomes softer, warmer, with vanilla, amber, patchouli base notes. I like this fragrance but I could not wear it.

For me it was the first 'NICHE' of some kind - like NLS siad: this is not your PERFUME of a usual kind, it's ART. Where the other two are twisting around and combine "being different and nevertheless possibly wearable for the stream" - this doesn't even try to be easy. This is - PLAY-DOH ... From top to down, with just slight nuances (like when wind blows slightly different wasps of scent around you), this perfume is imitating the modeling clay (which, as I was informed by a member of another community, has many types of smell - I wouldn't know) and just whispers lily, bergamot, and maybe even tonka and suede here and there. For me it was a big one goo, and though I tried my hardest to stay open-minded and conquer this "niche" - I failed bitterly. In the end I was getting slightly nauseous ( I mean I would have never tried to get the individual notes out of pLaY-DOH, and I tried only so hard because of my mantra:"It's perfume, it's art, get a grip!") from sticking my nose on hunting the notes, and have to admit my loss and defeat. You can't always win with art + body-chemistry :) WEll- la di da - IT IS a very unique, interesting brew JACOMO invented here, but for me it is TOO ARTSY, I'm sorry to say. I still think that the aim of perfume is to make me smell good, and let me feel splendid, which this scent didn'T invoke in me. But nevertheless: Thanks JACOMO for this experience! It was my initiator for trying myself more often on other unique ones, to further my horizons!

If you want to smell like a pre-school teacher (or for that matter a pre-schooler) this fragrance is for you. As others have stated this smells like playdoh. This is not something I would like to smell on anyone, unless they are under 6 years of age and are wearing a necklace made of the aforementioned modelling substance. There is a faint bit of patchouli lingering somewhere in the background, but not enough to make this smell like it is supposed to be worn. IMHO numbers 8 and 9 in the collection are the best, this one is distant last. I had a chance to buy no. 2 for about $6 for 100ml, but I turned it down and bought no. 8 (as a gift for my daughter) instead.

This is my second time testing Art Collection #2. The first time I tried it, I didn't get a lot of patchouli, mostly that play-doh quality. I really like that play-doh aroma so I immediately added it to my "to buy". Well, I got another sample and I'm unsure if it's the season or what, but now it's a cloyingly sweet patchouli. No powder, no play-doh. I'll have to put off purchasing this one for a while. Bummer.

Like the smell of playdough? Then this is the scent for you! Smells just like playdough...not that that is necessarily a bad thing lol ;)

First of all... let me highlight what a wonderful review Yohji has written below here. Really explains this fragrance perfectly IMO. She was kind enough to send me a decant to review... Now, for me, I get a very heavy hit of suede. Very heavy and intense. It is this note, combined with the tonka bean, that gives the impression of "play-doh". This is something that perfumers do all the time... by combining two or more notes to create a "fantasy" note. I do also detect the lily there, as it always to me has a very ripe, almost meat-like smell. However it is the vanilla for me which saves the day. Which turns this fragrance from being a Comme des Garçons , "experimental" style fragrance, and which brings in into the "conventional" world again. So it is very wearable. Overall, I have not been disappointed from this house at all, I am very impressed with Jacomo as a perfume house and they make very intelligent, complex, "niche" style fragrances for an extremely worthwhile price. Their price/quality ratio is fantastic. Please give this one a try. It is very wearable and extremely interesting to wear at the same time. A fragrance which makes you think, and that's something special!

PLAYDOHHHHHH!!! Immediately and indefinitely on my skin. Bingo. Will restest. Traded for it really hoping someone was correct in their comparison w/ Shunkoin, which on me smells like those fun but silly easter egg sugar-coated candies in the US with super grainy sugary shells and a weird pseudo-mallow filling of equally nondescript sugariness... but they smell great ;) This one does not. It's so nostalgic I feel like I'm a preschool teacher right now, ahhh babysitting deja vu! :P Also, it's like a lighter, sweeter, more acceptable version of Reminiscence's Patchouli EDT. Though I really hated that one and this one's more playful/light/spicy/playdoh patch than that one's dirty dankess, I can't deny that that's the 2nd thing that came to mind.

bananas and custard, creme brulee, creme caramel, playdoh with sweet incense burning in the background and as time goes on, the sweet incense is in the foreground with the desserts and playdoh in the background. Sounds weird but a lovely scent for autumn or winter daytime. Cosy and homely.

Wow, this really is play-doh... But fancied up with patchouli, amber and vanilla. I don't dislike this, but I don't know if I could wear it either. It's probably one of the most interesting scents I've ever tried though! I can't help but appreciate the art that went into creating this.

Salty and sweet modeling clay with suede and a hint of clean patchouli. It's unusual, yes. I don't find it childlike, particularly, but if you do, I think it's likely the Play-doh association. It's artsy and fun. I go back and forth on this one, but I do come back to it.