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

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…

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

I love this fragrance from the moment it comes out of the admittedly fecky sprayer. It is gloriously "mechanical," with smells of petrol, oil and machinery in equal measure. The dry-down is redolent of Bulgari Black, but without the softness of the Bulgari. I'm sure no one near me will like smelling it, which could be problematic, as it has powerful sillage and lasting power (eight hours and counting), but it is so unusual that I cannot resist it.

Actually much more wearable than I thought it would be, top notes are a bit harsh, but the dry down is nicely sweet and musty and warmly petrol like. My boyfriend has a thing for big, burly, somewhat dirty, mechanic types and really seems to like this one as well. So it seems it lives up to everything I hoped it would be.

A quite warm and musty garage scent, not cool and damp as one might expect. I detect leather, plastic, oil and gasoline. Perhaps wood and dust as well, concrete? It dries to a sweet, warm, woody scent, almost like licorice, with hints of incense or smoke.

Garage smells exactly like a toolshed: woods, various electric appliances, chemicals, motors, gasoline... A mechanic would probably feel very comfortable wearing Garage! ;)