parfums*PARFUMS Guerrilla 1 (2006)
by Comme des Garçons

If you've ever been in a greenhouse in spring where the flowers, herbs, plants and various grasses are in full bloom, then you've smelled the essence of Guerrilla 1. Heartfully floral but it's the aroma of flowers and their leaves indicating they are ready for pollenization. I worry a bee might try to pollenate me if I wore this!

I wasn’t at all eager to experience the pear, saffron, and cloves accord of the opening because they are three of my least favorite notes. But I didn’t have to worry about my reactions to those notes: I can’t identify any of them in any of the accords. The opening accord is interesting – interesting and disgusting. To me it smells like a butcher’s shop – that raw meat and disinfecting cleaner combining to form an aroma that, while it is expected in a butcher shop, is disgusting on the skin. Vibert has more than adequately described the olfactory progression of this unfortunate fragrance, and he’s right, too, in that Guerilla 1 is very synthetic – unappealingly synthetic as far as I’m concerned. That raw meat / champaca / synthetic / disinfectant smell is actually stomach turning. I just did not like what was happening in Guerrilla 1 and I washed it off before the drydown. I didn’t want to be there for the end – I know what happens to raw meat that’s been sitting around ...

A simple fragrance that holds well on my skin. It does have the metallic coolness of a butchery which was the aim of this scent. The creamy fresh floral of champaca is strong thoughout. It's a nice accessory for a black outfit.

I always receive loads of compliments when I wear this!!!!!

Beware! Guerilla 1 is utterly disgusting on paper. I smelled the rotting contents of a trash can: putrifying fruit, hairspray, cat poop, watermelon rinds, and old cheese over a powdery base...

It's better on the skin. Guerilla 1 is blatantly synthetic when it goes on, and clearly so by intent. The harsh synthetic fruit and burning plastic accord at the beginning might be some sort of guerilla tactic or shock effect, but it could just as easily be taken as ineptitude. I get no saffron or clove at this point - only a queasy overripe fruit note that I imagine is supposed to be pear.

The composition softens and becomes more conventional as it ages. The synthetic vinyl and the fruit remain up front, but they're joined by some resinous wood and powdery musk that help integrate the arrangement. By this time there are also hints of pepper and saffron that give the heart some extra edge.

The drydown is extremely rapid, so that after an hour Guerilla 1 becomes a skin scent, albeit a fairly compelling one. The burning vinyl and dry spices hold on over woods, vetiver, and a distinctly dirty musk, leaving my skin smelling as if I'd just been workig hard outdoors in an urban environment, with a faint odor of burning garbage clinging to me. All in all it's interesting, but not as radical as some might have imagined. It's hard for me to imagine when and where I might use this fragrance, and wearing it has sated my curiosity. Needless to say, this absolutely must be tested on the skin before purchase.

My boyfriend and I sprayed this on our arms at a high end sneaker/fashion boutique in Miami Beach & were transfixed in a couple of minutes.

This is a love it or hate it scent - we loved it and bought it immediately.

I smelled the saffron immediately (it took us a while to figure out what it was) and then the slightest smell of 'flesh' or 'raw meat' at the top of a flower note...sounds incredibly horrible on paper, so you've got to smell this, to really understand what the flower note smells like.

Lasts for atleast 8 hours on me.