Parfums*PARFUMS Series 6 Synthetic: Tar by Comme des Garçons, 2004

Tar is actually much less scary than it may sounds. Yes, it smells of pure asphalt and it is somewhat weird but, as usual with Comme Des Garcons, it results wearable, absolutely unique and very distinctive (assuming you're fine with the typical avant-garde aspect of most of the house's deliveries). Upon application, Tar delivers an industrial accord of black asphalt juxtaposed to a slightly strident note of bergamot. The overall effect is remarkably modern, sort of urban-industrial in a very artistic way, unconventional yet very compelling. In this phase Tar brings to mind of large clean basements, modern art exhibitions at the Hamburger Banhoff, minimal techno parties taking place in ex-warehouses now turned into alternative clubs, brand new modern buildings, high speed trains, cabs, temporary Guerrilla stores, rainy days, wet asphalt. Tokyo, Berlin, New York... The fragrance evolves into an amazing styrax driven drydown that while being slightly more approachable than the opening, it's still far from resulting conventional. Insensey, woody with just a hint of sweetness and with the typical synthetic facet that's the house's hallmark. Probably not a fragrance to anyone's taste but, if you're up for something really avant-garde, there's nothing like it. Once again, when it comes to the binomial "weird and wearable", there's nothing like Comme Des Garcons. Love it!

I pretty much like the description of this scent as "a modulation of vetiver into another key". Especially talking about "dry" and "earthy", except that here we're talking about oil, petroleum, coal, asphalt, rubber, almost pungent, very heavy and not aided by any "pleasant" note in whatever sense you may put into this word.For the first one or two hours I almost got headache wearing this. It's like you've put on a brand new cheap plastic/rubber/whatever synthetic raincoat or - to be literal - you're in the center of a renovated street with the asphalt still melting. I don't mind making strange impression or a strong statement to the world around me wearing this, if it wasn't that I myself would get dizzy wearing it. Still, I should add that I'm actually not a big fan of 'earthy' scents in general, if that makes little more sense.
Anyway, after this pungent phase some surprisingly wearable synthetic notes come to light, more vynil than tar. They don't have any depth but still, after the initial torture it was a nice surprise to have them. This 'base' is quite resistant on clothes, I would say. Makes your cotton t-shirts smell like rubber boots. It just depends whether you want this effect or not.
Speaking of complexity, smells to me like a single note which you cannot divide. I guess that's the concept.
It might be a good idea to mix this scent with some floral/fruity/green or whatever more or less "naturally" smelling perfume comes to mind, just to add a bit of alien groove to it. But then, it's pretty much possible that you'll end up with something similar to Bulgari Black. Which leads me to the following description:
Remove everything sweet, smokey, vegetal, flowery, profound and complex from Bulgari Black and you'd pretty much have CdG Tar.

When I was growing up as a kid, I got really really bad headaches and nausea from the smell of roofing tar. Tar, the CdG scent, walks that line between [I]headache inducing[/I] and [I]uniquely interesting[/I] very carefully. Here's the thing: it smells less like that boiling hot tub of smoky tar that roofers use to tack shingles down with - and much more like [U]asphalt[/U]. You know, the smell of a fresh paved road.

The drydown (as some others here on BN have mentioned) is a extremely smooth and silky interpretation of a very industrial and synthetic smell. Almost sensuous, I dare say. It is incredibly linear (tar, tar and just more tar). Sniffing your skin up close and your nose is filled with that warm asphalt smell. Comforting, if you will. Smelled from afar, as the scent rises up to meet your nose, the smell is softer, rounded and slightly petrochemical-ish. Think...a toned down 'dried paint' smell.

The second time I wore Tar, I intentionally over applied it - to really amplify the 'asphalt' note on my skin. Of course, it worked - but then I got a slight headache (it seems my nose couldn't tell the difference between real tar and Tar!), so I won't do that again.