parfums*PARFUMS Series 6 Synthetic: Garage (2004)
by Comme des Garçons

Garage is a tarry, phenolic leather scent that occupies a space somewhere between the barbecued meat of Andy Tauer’s Lonestar Memories and the auto interior of Santa Maria Novella’s Nostalgia. It also hints at what Bulgari Black might smell like without its enormous powdery vanilla base note. In terms of development, Garage follows Nostalgia most closely, in that its drydown feels like an anticlimax after the aggressively rubbery, tarry opening. In this case the predominant base note is a laundry detergent-style white musk of no particular interest. While I find Bulgari Black’s powdery vanillic amber intolerably cloying and Lonestar Memories’ campfire base notes too literal, I give both credit for drydowns that don’t represent a cop-out.

I’ve decided that my problem with Nostalgia, Lonestar Memories, and Garage alike is that they’re more parfums d’ambiance than perfumes. By literally evoking familiar atmospheres they succeed as interesting smells, but not as personal fragrances. They appeal to me more on paper than on skin, and would suit me better as candles or room sprays than personal wardrobe elements.

3rd April, 2011. (Last Edited: 4th April, 2011.)

This is very weird. I get none of the smells mentioned here, just plain and simple dentist's rooms! The cold, sterile, lightly cinnamon-ey smell of a dentist's office, that's all. Would have SWORN there's cinnamon in here! After an hour or two that's gone and the thing is quite floral and light. Strange! Didn't say any kind of garage to me.

21st June, 2010.

In the marvellous CdG Synth series, this one is the one I like least. It’s still a fascinating creation though.

Birch tar is the main ingredient in this fragrance without a doubt. Smells very vintage woody, smoky and slightly metallic.
This takes me back into the summer cabin I used to visit a lot as a child, and the shed that was there. The smell of Garage is strikingly similar.
That woody shed was filled up with dry birch logs, couple of small motorboat engines, some oils plus other chemicals, tools and dry birch switches that we use here in Finland in sauna.
Really, the smell of that shed is bottled right in here.

To me Garage is definitely one of the most evocative fragrances ever. More than an actual wearing, I like to put this on my hands from time to time and let my mind flow to back in the days when everything was exciting and new…

3rd March, 2009.

Funny how everyone has their own memory and version of what a garage smells like. This immediately took me back the dusty, musky smell of my parents' garage when it rained. Rubber, brake pads and smells emitted from steam off the hood as the car rattled after being shut down.

No one else has mentioned - and maybe it's just me - but about 2 hours after application the heaviness of the synthetic garage smell was gone and what was left was a lightly citrus/floral, almost 'fresh' type of accord with the slightest hint of what came before it. In fact I initially forgot that it was Garage on my hand and for the life of me couldn't remember what I'd sprayed on my hand.

Fun for novelty purposes, but as Foetidus points out, even people who smell like garages may not want to smell like garages. The base accord isn't so unique as to make it worth a couple hours of smelling like a garage. The entire fragrance is fascinating, and I love that CdG has the balls to actually retail theoretical exercises, so thumbs up.

Notes (luckyscent) :Laurel aldehyde, traces of kerosene, leather notes, plastic floral notes, vetiver acetate, Chinese cedarwood

14th October, 2008.

It smells like brake pads.

My dad used to sell/deliver auto parts when I grew up (those big large white trucks, filled with belts, spark plugs, etc - he drove that for a living). The industrial smell of those auto parts is permanently engraved on my consciousness. I half expected for Garage to give me an oil/gas/lubricant note, but no it was PURE brake pads. Fresh out of their cardboard box in all of their shiny, sticky, metallic smell. Most mechanic garages I have smelled smell like lubricants and oil but a few very well kept mechanic shops or auto parts stores smell just like this.

I wore it once, at night to a smoky bar. When I applied it, the top notes were extremely sharp (as I expected) but didn't go into headache-inducing territory. During the night I ran into two people I know. No comments: good or bad. Maybe it was the average sillage and they didn't smell it? Maybe they just thought my scent was something else in the bar?

In the mid dry down its plastic notes are quite self-overwhelming and it does that olfactory trick that Odeur 71 does where the smell of the fragrance actually sucks all of the oxygen from around your body - so that your personal space becomes actually 'absent' of smell. Anti- smell. I was grinning to myself, because I love it when scents do that.

Will I buy a full bottle of this? Not sure yet. I need to try the other four scents in the Series to answer that. I'm going to wait a while and test again.

3rd October, 2008.

Very accurate description of a garage except there's no rubber smell of tires. Kerosine. Glass everything else but I don't get any rubber! Other than an artform, why would one make a fragrance depicting such mechanical smells?

29th June, 2008.