Reviews of Comme des Garçons 2 Man (2004)
by Comme des Garçons

Love the opening! Smokey incense that takes me back to burning leaves as a child. A very light smoke mixed with pantry spices and vetiver. The smoke burns off too soon and the whole mix turns into a lighter version of Encre Noir after a couple of hours. Too bad as that smoke is why I like it.

I had high hopes for 2 Man but this is absolutely loaded with smoke and nutmeg (I believe). The first 1 hour of this was quite bad to me. Later on the vetiver comes in and the smoke goes away and it turns decent.

Revisiting CdG2 Man after a few years, I'm struck by how classic it smells. Perhaps this cross-over-from-artsy-to-mainstream CdG creation will survive all the other, more difficult ones in the CdG line-up.
I also got the shower gel, which is very bright and invigorating - everything I want out of shower gel.
This is truly one of Mr. Buxton's enduring gems!

Reminds me of eating grapes when they're still very small, tough, and sour. It's well made and unique - I do not agree that it smells like Gucci PH - but still not for me.

An inoffensive wisp of wood smoke and vetiver. This begins meekly with a dry nutty edge, but there is little to enjoy, no nuanced notes tantalizing the palate, just more of the same. This has negligible sillage, below average longevity, and has almost nothing to say.

Comme des Garcons CdG2Man

Back in 2004 Comme des Garcons asked Mark Buxton to create a male version of their very successful CdG2. As in so many art forms the sequel is not as interesting as the original Mark Buxton creation but it does carry its own charms. The top dives straightaway into the olfactory spice cabinet as cumin takes the lead along with saffron and nutmeg. The latter two are really there just to soften the rough edges of the cumin. The progression into the heart is where this one really comes alive as the spices slowly recede and a smoky wood accord takes over. This has been compared to the smell of a fireplace in other reviews and that is a spot-on description of what I get. It is like the memory of last night's fire on your sweater, very unusual and very comforting. Vetiver takes the lead as we head into the base and the woods become less last night's firewood and more today's log, ready to be thrown on the fire. Mark Buxton is becoming the perfumer who I think I should like much more than I do, his creations use many of the notes that I appreciate but for some reason don't mesh to make me go all giddy with praise. I can't say that I've found any of his compositions boring they just haven't lifted my spirits as high as I expected.

Begins as peppery smoke, turns to plasticy smoke, then settles into powdery smoke--as if a candle were made to give off the smell of talcum powder. If that sounds terrible, it isn't. It's more refined and less acrid than candle smoke, smelling a bit more like oil than wax. Hints of citrus tease the nose throughout. The powdery aspect mellows out in the dry-down, which is a dry incense. Unusual, but quite wearable, and good for both men and women.

Fiery at first. Smokey woods with a persistent vetiver throughout the whole thing. Damn sexy. Very much like Gucci PH but this is far better. I find Gucci unwearably woody and loud. If Gucci is the guy physically escalating way too fast on girls at the club, this one is the man who locks eyes and holds that tension which speaks depth about his sexual power - but it is not blatantly shoved around. I also find this somewhat similar to Azzaro Visit due to the nutmeg. Thank goodness it is controlled nutmeg, unlike Visit.

A striking warm, smokey scent. Perfect for winter. The spice notes are well balanced and not too dominant. Decent longevity. Recommended!

this, to me, starts off like burning wood or leaves. like my parents' fireplace when I was a kid. however, when it starts drying down it gets smoother and woodier, still retaining a bit of a spicy edge. I like the bottle, too.

Wow. Something that is definately in a class of it's own. Very good and deep.

I loved this years ago when it was first launched, but I find it a bit flat now, as though it has been rinsed through. I would take White, Palisander, Kyoto and even Vettiveru over this nowadays -- they may have been tinkering with 2.

Very nice. Shares for sure a lot similarities to Gucci PH but is still reasonably different after all.

CdG 2 Man is very smooth, spicy (cumin, nutmeg, saffron), woody (vetiver, cedar) and beautifully smoky. Incensy with distant feel of dusty orris root to it. Drydown developes some soapy accords, but it remains very warm and woody all the way through.

Personally I prefer Gucci over this, but I recommend this warmly for everyone who enjoys smoky wood fragrances with churchy, spiritual incense feel to them.

When I first sniffed this fragrance I was instantly reminded of Le Labo's Vetiver 46. Both are very masculine fragrances, both are a little astringent, and both are growing on me. After the initial top notes though, the similarities fade. More of the smokey incense notes come out on my skin as this fragrance develops. I like it!

A dry smoky woods with a soft sweetness to it. I clearly smell the vetiver intermingling with the rest. A very encompassing warm scent.

Warm, smoky, and woody. The incense shadows the top notes. This juice evokes an image of an elegant setting during a winter evening. It manages to be formal but modern, dark yet surprisingly this fragrance gets compliments from women. This stands unique in my collection, furthermore it is a keeper to be sure.
Colossal!

I definitely think it's a great fragrance. I didn't hang on to my bottle simply because I really enjoy woody scents and have quite a few that I found myself putting ahead of this to wear. I would highly recommend trying this to anyone.. the combination of wood and earth is blended nicely with white smoke for just a touch of light incense and sweetness. Very casual and not at all overpowering.

It's CdG. So it's like noother. Can't compare it with Gucci things. 2 Man is masculin, soft, sweet, yet modern, unique and really strange. Somewhat metallic like CdG parfum, but this one has its own metallic, that makes 2 Man is incredible! Totally energy and sexy. I totally love it.

Foetidus said somewhere that one sign of an exceptional fragrance is the way it evokes polarized opinions. That seems to be the case here! I like this scent very much, and don’t get any of the so-called synthetic, metallic or problematic elements. To me, it is a luxurious and beautiful scent. It is not heavy nor sweet, there is no vanilla (thankfully) and its powdery elements are restrained. I find it to be masculine and suave. I think it would work well as a date scent: it has exceptional sillage (as some have noted) and women love it! I think one reason that women like it is that it does project a ‘masculine’ aura. Having just read the excellent article “What Makes a Scent Masculine?” by Ayala Sender [ayalasmellyblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/what-makes-fragrance-musculine.html] I agree with her point that the natural smell of a man’s body includes elements which have a similarity (inter alia) to cumin, wood and vetiver… precisely what we have in this scent. This starts with a brilliant overture of all its elements: there is smoke and incense, spice, a creamy power/leather note, and very good dry wood. The scent settles into a dry spicy-wood vibe that is very enjoyable. The cumin is noticeable but IMO well-modulated, restrained, and combines well with the wood. I find the incense to be a minor note, lovely but not as mysterious and evocative as that in the CdG Incense line. Excellent!

First I get a dry, astringent, aromatic opening that smells strongly of rosemary and dried lavender. Incense and tarry notes soon follow, along with a sweet artificial fruit note. The overall impression is relatively stark and gray. The only color comes from the air freshener fruit note, and that color is glossy hot pink.

The sweetness doesn't last long, but it somehow manages to leave a ghost of its synthetic edge, so that the remaining accord is spare, harsh, and oddly "mechanical." Powdery elements in the base contribute a dry, musty component to 2 Man, and I'm suddenly reminded of the dusty, metallic interior of a well-used CPU with its cover removed for repair.

The incense note becomes more and more tenuous over time, and as it fades it uncovers a dry, smoky leather in the background. This is not the cowboy boots and barbecue smoke of Lonestar Memories, or the velvety suede of Eau d'Hermes. Instead it is the harsh, bitter smoke of an electrical fire. After an hour or two what remains on my skin is mostly mineralic dust dust and smoke, as if someone had recently burned an electronic device on a concrete floor. 2 Man's sillage and projection are both minimal, and the scent is not among the most tenacious that I've worn.

When I look back at what I've just written, I realize that 2 Man is far less intriguing and provocative than my description makes it sound. Yes, it's odd, but I don't find it as challenging as many Comme des Garcons scent can be. It's bleak monotony is ultimately dull, and wearing 2 Man only reminds me how much better this house has done in the past. In the end 2 Man is nothing more than a protracted yawn.

I want a scent to get my fantasy going and CdG has made many beautiful intriguing scents that works for me. I can see that 2 Man has a lot in common with Gucci PH but where PH is consequent in its rather narrow masculine woodyness, CdG 2 man seems to add a granpa soapy metalness to it that I dont like. I appreciate the idéa of making a complex and modern parfume with a lot of wood in it but 2 Man leaves me in my grandparents bathroom.

Rather conventional drydown - lovely smokey oriental. Then... 20 minutes later it turns really nasty on me. The smell of cheap room freshener pervades and I have to reach for soap, water and rubbing alcohol to get rid of it. Compared to other CdG offerings, this one is particularly dull.

WOW! THis is the first Comme des Garcons I have ever tested, and all I can say is wow. As many have mentioned, it is a close relative to Gucci PH, except waaaaay better. Gucci PH is very one dimensional, it is smoky amber and that is it. THis stuff here goes beyond that. At one point, it smelled like Gucci PH plus Versace Man eau Fraiche (or Polo Explorer or Paco Rabanne Black XS). SO I tried to mix said fragrances to see if I can reproduce CdG, but failed. If you've sampled Gucci PH but can't stand the campfire smoke in your face thing, CdG is the answer! Thumbs waaaaaaay up!

Oh how I love it. Oh how I deeply love CdG 2 Man. How can one not love resins, woods, incense, and VETIVER all rolled into one? It's earthy, fascinating, burning, smoky, sensual, warm, abstract, and a true work of art. In terms of sillage this is brilliant. In clubs, smoky bars, and, well, everywhere, you will be noticed! Please as a personal favor to me, allow this to unfold until you get the vetiver note. Holy lord, when the curtain of incense and woods parts, the vetiver takes its bow and it deserves a standing ovation. Yes, it's that good.

just ok. interesting though...smells like a salon. like all the products melded into one.

Three days ago I got two samples of this scent. For the first time I'm testing something from CdG. After the first spray I felt my self in a church. I guess there is a lot of liquidamber orientalis in this fragrance. I have Gucci PH, but it is way different than this. After reading the comments here, I ran to my room and tested my Gucci PH. No way it gives me the feeling being in Church. By the way; I'm coming from Turkey, Catholic and Greek-Orthodox churches smell almost the same as 2MAN in Turkey. Not that it is a bad smell. I like it and it gives me a fine, relaxed and peaceful feeling, but I still can't think of it as a fragrance on me. Maybe it is just in my mind, but at leat it would be a good fragrance that you can use with religious occasions or while going to a church. A nice fragrance but not somethink very special or original to me.

I'm a big CdG fan, but this one falls flat for me. I'm willing to try again, but I found it rather derivative, both of other CdG scents, and other lines' creations as well. I got a very synthetic opening, which wouldn't surprise me from the house that made "Tar," "Garage," and a line inspired by sherbert.

CdG2 Man is very masculine, I'll give it that, but it's an arid, dry, creepy masculinity, not a welcoming virile masculinity like Chanel's Antaeus. I get an imagine of a somewhat sickly (menthol, benzoin) man who's got a latex fetish (that weird rubber note that Dzing! also carries), sweating it out during a session in his basement (dust, mold).

Yes, this is kinfolk of Gucci Pour Homme, but that is no big crime. (How many citrus colognes has the world seen in the last two hundred years? The devil is in the details.) To my nostrils, 2MAN is both distinct and distinctly Comme des Garçons. In fact, I agree that it has a "Best of CdG" feel to it -- the medicinal spices of the original CdG Parfum, the smokey inkiness of CdG2, and the monstrously good incenses of Series 3 (particularly Avignon and Ouarzazate, in my mind). Unfortunately for me, it also retains one element from CdG2 that I've never been fond of -- namely, the "perfumey" direction of the drydown. (Is it aldehydes? Tonka bean? I'm not entirely sure.)

This one is hard to describe. I guess woodsy with bits of everything else mixed in is the best I can come up with. My wardrobe covers a wide variety of scents but I think this one will always be in my top ten. I have bought many blind, using BN reviews to guide me. I never would have bought this one blind off BN recommendations. I'll always be glad someone sent me a sample of this one. Once I sampled it I was hooked.

I know this is incredibly well received around here, but the very idea of this scent sends chills down my spine. Inconceivibly difficult to shake, one of the only fragrances which I find truly cloying. I must admit though, it is certainly unique, but definately not for me.

Did someone bottle toe jam and call it this?

Having worn Gucci PH for over a year and loving it, I must give this thumbs up. I would probably even prefer this to GpH as it seems a bit more complex and not as sweet as GpH. It is also more smokey than GpH which is always a good thing and it's pretty long lasting on me as well. An exquisite fall/winter man's fragrance.

I love the hardness and coolness of the fragrance. It evokes the feelings of independence and loneliness, of sitting in a train on ones way to nowhere at a frosty winter's day. It's a somehow monodimensional incense fragrance (o.k., it's a light coffee scent in it) with a sweaty but nonetheless clean drydown. Very unique.

I love aldehydes in the openings of fragrances—they so beautifully capture attention and provide an irresistible sparkle to the fragrance if the notes and accords are good. The danger of aldehydes for the fragrance is that, when they disappear, the normal notes of the fragrance need to work very hard to keep the momentum going, and often they fall flat. The first thing I noticed about Comme des Garçons 2 Man was that it almost disappeared on my skin once the aldehydes gave out—that’s not a good sign.
Noticing the similarity to Gucci Pour Homme (Duh…), I did a side by side test: 2 Man lost on all counts. On my skin, Gucci is superior, so I will just stick with it. That’s okay, though, I wouldn’t buy 2 Man anyway because I much prefer CdG’s incense series to it. I agree with MMM that this is a rip off.

Very similar to Gucci PH and that is my 2nd favorite, so I would never buy a bottle of this, as I feel it is inferior to Gucci PH.

As many others have said, the topnotes on this one are very, very similar to Gucci PH. As it dries down however, a few hours in, it gets more of a powdery/soapy scent than Gucci PH. On me, it lasts longer than PH (though neither last all that long). Also, the basenotes in Gucci PH seem to have more caramel and burnt wood, whereas CDG 2 Man has a slightly more synthetic (probably intentionally synthetic) basenote scent. Someone said CDG Man 2 has a burnt plastic basenote...that might be it. Or maybe it's burnt treated lumber as opposed to PH's burnt cedar. I like it, just no need for it with PH in my collection. I like PH's clearer (read: non-soapy) dry down. PH is maybe classier, more "gentlemanly" whereas CDG is more urban, more hipster.

Thumbs way up! I'll always have this in my collection. It is a piece of art. I think it is different from Gucci PH. Same farm, different pig. I own both and use Gucci for more casual mettings or work. CdG 2MAN is for a night out on the town when you want someone to know you're comming. What a scent. Although I am a bit suspicious of Gucci and CDG marketing. Same box/ bottle color...same smell-ish....same time premiering...hmmmmmm???? I know there's a story behind this. It's killin' me.

If you want really woody, like living inside of a tree woody, than this imo is the best option. While it is incredibly woody it also conveys an inviting warmth. I find this scent to be very alluring, though I don't think I'd wear it myself.

I bought this in the summer, but couldn't really wear in until fall/winter. At first I thought it similar to Gucci PH, but 2MAN evolves more and moves in different directions. The first thing that struck me about 2MAN is that it seems to combine pieces of other CdG scents. There are bits of CdG 2, Odeurs 53 and 71, Avignon, and Vettiveru all lashed together in this scent. If you are a CdG enthusiast, you will be able to pick these parts out. Sometimes I have a hard time deciding which CdG to wear out, and 2MAN lets me wear more than one in a way. My brother said it smells like "yellow Dial soap, and like a "stick", but in a good way. If you think this scent is a rip-off of Gucci PH, then do an A/B test. Spray each on a separate arm and wait about five minutes. The Gucci gets sweet and vanillic, but it stays within a certain narrow band between top to bottom, as a whole.The 2MAN seems to blossom in that the top notes spread out and the bottom seems to get deeper and it has a wider range. Plus the 2MAN has more quirks... I really detect alot of the oddball metallic things that Odeur 71 has, slipped into 2MAN. After ten minutes on the skin, Gucci PH and 2MAN have both changed so much that I find them pretty much nothing alike.

The bottle is one of the coolest bottles I've ever seen, I should also mention.

Masculine, deep, woody, smokey...this scent is dark, heavy, and yet serenly praceful, like sitting by a slowly dying camprife late at night when you're all alone, deep in the heart of the wilderness...the scent is out-doorsey, kind of dry and natural...All the while very seductive...deffinately a good evening fragerance...

Visiting my friend Marcel on his sick bed again the other day, I brought him a gift of Comme des Garcons 2 Man. On application, a smile of quiet pleasure stole over his pale lips. 'Ah, mon cher Nitram,' he whispered, 'what deep and evocative woods! Sensation-memory immediately transports my whole being back to an afternoon in my youth when I sat with my first love Gilberte in an old wooden summer house near Paris. It had exactly the same smell. How infinitely poetic yet wearable this scent is! Thank you, cher Nitram, for introducing me to this exquisite and poignant fragrance!'

A rich, decidedly masculine woody creation! I much prefer this to the unisex CdG2. This one is similar in a way to Gucci pour Homme, but it contains that unmistakable boldness and distinctive "CdG" character that the "Odeur" scents have. Unique and a great scent to stick apart from the rest.

In my honest opinion this is a shameless rip off of Gucci PH. They're 95% the same. Doesn't make things better I wasn't too fond of that one either. Also this one is very ordinary compared to the usual avant-garde style of Cdg, is this really the path Puig has in mind since taking over?
Thumbs down from the MonkeyMan!

From the house with 1000 different and strange scents, comes this most mainstream creation. I remember thinking if you mixed Gucci pour Homme in a three or maybe four to one ratio with L'Artisan Pasage d'Enfer, this is about what you'd come up with. Granted, I only tried what was two wearings I could squeeze from a purchased sample vial, but still. Though I've never purchased a CdG created scent, I've always respected their dare to do anything sort of flare. For those who like metaphors, imagine Tim Burton churning out a Spielberg.

CdG 2 Man is fantastic. It is ultra "manly" smelling-- not at all unisex by most definitions. For me it starts quite spicey-- lots of clove and nutmeg, but you can immediately smell the incense and smoke. It ends up very woody and smokey. I don't usually like incensey fragrances, but this one I do. The vetiver adds a green, earthy quality that makes the smoke more wearable. CdG 2 Man reminds me of the old Halston Catalyst a bit, and of super-expensive, good-smelling bug repellent (weird, but really sexy).

I like the creativity of Comme des Garcons. 2 Man is no exception. It smells like many things at once. To me, i get the smoke, wood, soapiness, insense and body odor smell, it is quite strange. Everywhere i go people ask me about it, and i often keep it as a secret. Some people say that it smells like Gucci Pour Homme, i tend to agree with this. But Gucci Pour Homme is more dry in comparison and is definitely more woody. But if you like one of them, you'd like the other. This fragrance also lasts a good amount of time, will pretty much carry you through the day, but it's definitely for winter use. Final words, i whole-heartedly recommend this one, especially those who seeks originality and woody insense fragrances.

this is a wonderful scent. extraordinarily complex, great for fall and winter. the vetiver note is dominant at first, but the smoke quickly takes over and seems to last for a long, long time. normally i don't think i'd like the smoke scent, but the other notes round it out enough that it works quite well. definitely a keeper.

Magnificent, complex & opulent – but sadly as evanescent as white smoke wafting from the zendo. Suitable, perhaps, for an occasion where no sillage is permissible: 20 minutes after the tenth or twelfth application of the day, if I put my nose inside my t-shirt, I can just detect the incense and mahogany. Such frustration – like waking up from a beautiful dream, everything a vague and shadowy memory.