Odeur 53 (1998)
by Comme des Garçons

I absolutely LOVE this. Reminds me of a mechanic working on his truck out in the country on a moonless dark night at 2:30 a.m., with all the smells of electronics and auto parts surrounding him, listening to the a.m. radio. I suppose there could be an alien spaceship lurking nearby. Yes, electronics, electrical tape, burning metal, etc. A very unique fragrance and weird fragrance--exactly WHY I LOVE IT!!! FYI, if you like Odeur 53 but want something VERY similar with a more gentle floral note, you might try Truth for Women by Calvin Klein. I think they share many of the same elements. What do you think?

I so wanted to like this, as a huge CdG/Rei fan. I even own some of their clothes... I know, I am crazy but I found what I have on good sale prices and the few items I have are very "me" so had to have them sort of thing... Fragrance is another passion of mine and I really want to be able to experience CdG for cheaper - as in fragrance.

I loved the vision of these "anti-perfumes". I get the idea, and I could get behind it too... As a person into unusual/weird/novel things, I had high hopes from "oxygen, flash of metal, fire energy, washing drying in the wind, mineral carbon, sand dunes, nail polish, cellulose, pure air of the high mountains, ultimate fusion, burnt rubber, flaming rock..." Alas, on me it smells like dryer sheet and migraine. That's it. I got a very strong "start of migraine" note from this and none of those cool imagery/ingredients. Sad but this just was very unpleasant for me.

(Overall did not like/got migraine-threat notes of different sorts from: CdG, CdG 2, 3, White and 71... I loved/purchased CdG 2 Man, and some of the incense, red, and synthetic series)

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I love CdG's aesthetics and was interested in their perfumes as well so I tried a lot of their offerings 2-3 at a time in 2006-2009 when I lived in London and went to Dover Street Market frequently. I got samples of some, full bottles of others. This review is from my notes back then so may not be what I think now, or take into account reformulations etc.

The juice in the bottle that I bought recently is very similar to Odeur 71. I smell here a large dose of cheap hairspray right after applying and a cellulosic musky drydown. The smell is quite pleasant and wearable.
It was a blind buy, as usually. I'm not disappointed, used to love all the strange concoctions from CdG, I just wish there were a bigger difference between 53 and 71's modern versions. As was mentioned before, should be sprayed on clothes only.

Smells like my cat after coming inside, from being out in the snow.

Synthetic, minimal, linear, "white", basically the theoretical absence of a perfume. But still, one of the most evocative scents I have ever tried. The first minutes made me feel like sitting in a 24h/24 automatic laundry, a delicate, synthetic, freezing and floral white blend of steel and soap. Then it progressively "humanizes" as it penetrates skin, fading into an ozonic, invigorating, really (really!) light and almost unperceivable but incredibly persistent iodine note of clean skin drying after a bath in Mediterranean sea (apologies for the cliché). I would not wear it - and in fact I don't - but it's still interesting to smell from times to times.

8/10