New Perfume Review Comme des Garcons Marseille and Mirror X KAWS- Series: Laundry Room

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One of the earliest examples of independent perfumer thinking came through a set of perfumes by Comme des Garcons. Over a course of years, they released successive “Series” focused on a theme. The most well-known and revered is the Series 3: Incense collection. In 2002 they released five very different interpretations of incense perfumes. I own all these perfumes from every series because they are brilliant thoughts on a theme as expressed through scent. The most recent was 2019’s Series 10: Clash which I thought was another triumph within the series. My affection for these sometimes makes me try and imagine my own series. Two recent releases Comme des Garcons Marseille and Comme des Garcons Mirror X KAWS had me thinking about the laundry room.

Quentin Bisch

Marseille is inspired by the soap called Savon de Marseille. Creative director Christian Astuguevieille asked perfumer Quentin Bisch to put this together. One of the things I find often causes a soapy scent to fall apart for me is it gets lost in the lather. Anyone who has opened a fresh bar of hand-milled soap knows it is akin to that new car smell, it is at its best before it is used. M. Bisch turns Marseille into that moment.

This soap is neroli scented. M. Bisch uses a greener version of neroli. It has a slightly vegetal undercurrent which reminds me of the vegetable oil used to make the soap. This is surrounded with a lanolin accord which forms the soapy piece. Right from the start the scent of a good bar of soap predominates. As you bring it close to your nose there is a powdery feel along with a slightly sweet and floral support for the neroli. There is also a slight muskiness present in the heart. This is that new bar of soap accord completed. I kind of wish this had stayed here. It ends on a lot of an ambrox analog which overwhelms the subtle joys which came before.

Marseille has 10-12 hour longevity although the great soapy piece is gone rather quickly and the majority of the development is just the ambrox offshoot.

Nicolas Beaulieu

Mirror X KAWS sees the return of KAWS to collaborate with the brand. He designed the bottle for Pharell Williams’ collaboration Comme des Garcons Girl. Now he takes a turn as creative director for this perfume. Along with perfumer Nicolas Beaulieu they create a scent which embraces clean linen.

It also uses neroli as its focal point. The difference is this neroli is much softer with barely a tint of the green which is more present in Marseille. M. Beaulieu then goes up the scale adding in a soft orange blossom along with a set of clean musks. At this point there is a strong reminder of fabric softener, The remainder of the development is the soft sheet the laundry product was used on. A base accord of Cashmeran, Benzoin, and the synthetic Sinfonide. The last ingredient adds a powdery sheen which reminded me of shaking out a freshly washed sheet to make my bed.

Mirror X KAWS has 8-10 hour longevity and average sillage.

As I said it is a stretch to call these Series: Laundry Room but because I was wearing them a day apart, I went there. They both do what any of the Series fragrances of the past do; provide a perfume insight into the smells which surround us.

Disclosure: This review was based on samples provided by Comme des Garcons.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Michael Kors Super Gorgeous!- The Flip Side of Forgettable

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When I first started paying attention to the world of fragrance, I carried a healthy disdain for flankers. I saw them as money-making efforts meant to keep a consumer buying the same perfume over and over. Like many of my initial impressions the more I experienced the more I learned that all flankers weren’t cynical cash cows. There are the ones which illuminate exactly what a difference a few exchanged notes can do to my enjoyment. Michael Kors Super Gorgeous! is a much better version of the original because of this.

Nicolas Beaulieu

Gorgeous! was one of the first new perfumes I received for 2021. I found it to be a mostly forgettable mainstream release. The heart of tobacco and tuberose was nice, but it stayed on the safe side not allowing it to fully develop into something more interesting.

Anne Flipo

I received my sample of Super Gorgeous! just after Labor Day. When I sprayed it on a strip, I found a perfume which was much more to my taste. Three of the original group of perfumers, Nicolas Beaulieu, Anne Flipo, and Laurent Le Guernec make some critical substitutions which create a better experience.

Laurent Le Guernec

There remains a citrus opening focused on mandarin. What makes it better is the baie rose in the original which added nothing is changed to myrrh. This begins to form an ambery through line which will persist to the end.

The tobacco and tuberose are relegated to supporting players. The perfumers focus their floral heart on iris and jasmine. These two florals form a nice give and take between the rhizome and the night-blooming stalwart. This time the tobacco and tuberose fit themselves into the spaces between the lead florals. In this role they continue that ambery thread.

In the base that amber spreads out into a stronger presence. It is paired with the dry sandalwood of New Caledonia. I found this much more appealing than the slightly leathery accord from the original. Once it is all together it forms a woody ambered floral which is ideal for fall.

Super Gorgeous! has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.

It just reinforces how much a few integrated choices can take something from forgettable to the opposite of that.

Disclosure: This review was based on a sample provided by Ulta.

–Mark Behnke

Editor’s Note: For the month of October in the US in support of Breast Cancer Month there is a special bottle with a pink ribbon. 10% of all sales from that will be donated for cancer research.

New Perfume Review Paco Rabanne Invictus Aqua 2018- A Quick Return

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The perfume business is a strange beast. Here’s the latest exhibit. Paco Rabanne’s fragrance releases have been solid mainstream offerings over the past few years. For my tastes I keep finding myself drawn to one of the flankers over the original pillars. One of those flankers was Invictus Aqua which was released at the beginning of 2016. Composed by perfumer Anne Flipo this was a nice take on the masculine aquatic which stood out among the other choices at the mall. Then inexplicably it was removed off the perfume counter in 18 months. I was fascinated to find out why because I wanted to use the story as a Dead Letter Office column subject. As I shot off emails and made phone calls trying to ascertain the reason; I was contacted by the PR company representing the brand. I was told Invictus Aqua was going to be re-released early in 2018 followed by the offer of a press sample. I took them up on it and waited for my opportunity to review it; which is here.

Invictus Aqua 2018 Perfume Team

Before we go too far I will say that Invictus Aqua 2018 is overall fresher than Invictus Aqua 2016. I do think they are similar enough that you probably don’t need both in your collection as they both cover enough of the same ground it would likely seem redundant. Besides the scent profile the perfume was composed by a trio of perfumers who joined Mme Flipo; Nicolas Beaulieu, Juliette Karagueuzoglu, and Dominique Ropion. It seems like a lot of firepower for the slight difference on display.

The biggest difference I found shows up in the first few moments. Aqua 2016 opened on a sunny citrus mix before the typical ozonic aquatic accord arrived. Aqua 2018 opens with that set of aquatic notes making the first few seconds slightly sharper. When the grapefruit comes forward in Aqua 2018 it begins to dovetail with the previous version more closely. From here until the finish the two perfumes are on the same track but when wearing them side-by-side the Aqua 2018 always felt a little cleaner and a little lighter than Aqua 2016. So, the green violet leaves, the light woods, and the synthetic amber are close enough.

Invictus Aqua 2018 has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage. The sillage is another difference from the Aqua 2016 version; 2018 has a bit less of it.

I think Invictus Aqua 2018 takes its place on the department store counter in the same place it was when it left as one of the better aquatics in that sector.

Disclosure: This review is based on a press sample provided by Paco Rabanne.

–Mark Behnke

The Expansion of the Perfumer’s Palette

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Over the last year or so I have been fortunate to be given a bit of a crash course in new perfume ingredients. The chemist in me is fascinated with the structure of the molecules and the difference in effect moving bonds and atoms around has on a scent profile. Equally as fascinating is the way natural materials are extracted and then further separated via different physical techniques.

It is fun to meet a perfumer who is using a new raw material as they build a new perfume. There is a palpable enthusiasm at using something different. I wonder if the same kind of enthusiasm was present when new pigments expanded the options for the painters. I suspect any artist when given something new to consider they immediately begin to think of the places this could fit into their current imaginings.

I’ve also begun thinking about this because of the new wave of transparent minimal fragrances being released to appeal to the younger generation of perfume buyers. Since there is seemingly a market for minimalist constructions it provides an outlet for the different isolates of the cornerstones of perfumery to provide a different perspective.

What has been trending particularly this year is to use a particular isolate which is missing a characteristic part of the full-spectrum ingredient. For instance, the sandalwood used by perfumer Nicolas Beaulieu in Comme des Garcons Concrete is missing some of the austere woody character. The white flowers at the heart of Chanel Gabrielle can be dialed to a desired indole level by perfumer Olivier Polge. Daniela Andrier uses a specific less rooty version of iris in Tiffany & Co.

What is interesting is each perfumer adds in what is missing with a different ingredient providing an opaque abstraction of the keynote. M. Beaulieu uses rose oxide and its metallic nature to replace the desiccated wood. M. Polge uses a set of white musks to set off the small amount of indoles present. Mme Andrier lets patchouli provide a different earthiness.

This is what will drive this current generational shift in perfume styles. By having more options, the perfumers can more precisely find a desired effect. It is the definition of modern perfumery to take nature and interpret it through our sense of smell. With the cornucopia of new options, the expansion of the perfumer’s palette promises a creativity that fragrance has not seen before.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Comme des Garcons Concrete- Sandalwood Skyscraper

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With the re-release of the Comme des Garcons Olfactory Library plus last year’s Blackpepper, which felt like a Series style fragrance, I was excited for all the wrong reasons when I saw the new release was named Concrete. I was expecting an exploration of the smells of fresh concrete. Especially since it was inspired by “urban cityscapes”. Then I read further to find out this was the opposite of what I thought. It was meant to be a “deconstructed sandalwood” fragrance.

Nicolas Beaulieu

I was still interested because I have had some access to the incredible number of different sandalwood isolates for a perfumer to use. If the perfumer, Nicolas Beaulieu, chose well he could use those different sandalwood sources leaving spaces for other ingredients to fill in. This is what I thought of as I experienced Concrete. The sandalwood used is like the steel infrastructure of a skyscraper. Not in the way it smells but in the way it provides the framework from which other ingredients can fill out the rest of the structure. Under the ever-present creative direction of Christian Astuguevieille he and M. Beaulieu form a sandalwood edifice.

Christian Astuguevieille

From the first moments, the sandalwood presents itself. I would dearly love to know which sandalwood ingredients he is using for sure. What I experience is one where the austere elements are removed while the sweeter woodiness is enhanced. The creaminess is also attenuated but not as much as the desiccated qualities. Then a spice trio of cardamom, clove, and cumin begin to add to the sandalwood structure. The cardamom is the greener version contrasting the amplified sweetness. Clove complements the same quality while cumin provides a bit of the sweat of the construction crew, but just a tiny bit of that. Besides the sandalwood the other keynote in Concrete is rose oxide. I always think of rose oxide as sci-fi rose because it feels like the rose a robot would produce. It has a geranium-like rose effect shot through with metallic threads. This turns it into a perfect partner for the sandalwood here. It inserts an industrially pretty floral right in the heart. A little jasmine provides some lift to the upper stories of our skyscraper. The base uses cedar to provide a cleaner woody partner to the sandalwood while some musk, as the cumin did before, adds some humanity to the final moments.

Concrete has 8-10 hour longevity and average sillage.

This is an excellent addition to the Comme des Garcons collection. It might not have been a riff on the smell of poured concrete; but after wearing it for a few days I have come to prefer Concrete as produced by Messrs. Astuguevieille and Beaulieu. I am extremely happy to ride the elevators in my sandalwood skyscraper all-day long.

Disclosure: This review was based on a press sample provided by Comme des Garcons/ Dover Street Market.

–Mark Behnke