parfums*PARFUMS Series 1 Leaves: Tea (2000)
by Comme des Garçons

Well, I get the tea part but everything else is kinda... bad? It's very plasticky, like the smell of Saran wrap being stretched right out of the box. But man that tea note is nice. I just cannot get over the true synteticness and sterile facade of the whole thing.

Ten minutes of Lapsang Souchong and rubbing alcohol followed by thirty minutes of nondescript sweet basenotes. The rest is silence.

Hardcore, and like they say, not for the faint of heart.
Quite brutal, animalic opening is very impressive. Love at firts sniff, but the drydown is place where the magic actually happens : Wonderful blend of stiff tar, cedarwood, rose and shiny, hard plastic. Can be quite hard to handle, and I`m not suprised by the negative comments at all.
I love this very much though, but I don`t reach that bottle very often, and when I do, I cannot allow myself to use more than 3 sprays.

Amazing bottle with wonderful spray mechanism. High quality performance.

The initial whiff of Comme des Garcons Tea perfume conjured up thoughts of an ancient wooden tea chest, blackened over time and filled with rare, carefully packed Lapsang Souchong tea leaves. It had an earthy, smoky rich smell that would be gorgeous to wear on a crisp fall day and would also be an excellent layering scent. There was bit of soapiness in the basenote which appeared to be white musk. If you are a fan of tea by Mariage Freres or Hediard, be sure and try CdG's interpretation of Tea.

In the interests of giving a complete review, I feel I should point out that that Tea's luridly green bottle is cheap-looking and an unfortunate marketing choice for this well-crafted perfume.

Here are the notes, courtesy of Luckyscent: black tea, zest of bergamot, rose petals, cedar wood, absolute maté.

Count me on the ‘Perfectly dreadful’ side — (well, not ‘perfectly’ dreadful — the dry down of Tea is very good). Strong black tea — smoky tea, but that’s the good part. My problem is that the ‘tar’ note and some of the ‘wood’ notes come off as highly synthetic and bordering on revolting. I wish I could call it “Gothic,” but it doesn’t have that much character – it’s vile and nasty. I have enjoyed the tar notes I’ve encountered in fragrances until now, but this one is too bitter, plastic, and just plain off-putting. The rose petals try hard, but they can’t really counter the plastic smoky tar note — THAT is dreadful.

This is so gothique' ~ Reminds me of a huge Chinese Black tea warehouse that has just burned to the ground , and upon your arrival to this there are little gothic geisha women- clad in vinyl kimonos dropping rose petals freshly picked upon the whole smoldering mess. There an odd PVC/vinyl fetishistic kind of backdrop.
Little gothic hipsters and Older semi-retired Batcave era goth folks
would make it a signature scent for sure. Not for the faint of heart-
it's strong , intense , and avant-garde
stuff you expect from CdG, so of course
I LOVE IT !!!