Concrete (2017)
by Comme des Garçons

Slight fruit, like peach, hint of rose, light cinnamon - all of those, to start. Cinnamon increases, resembling chewing gum accord. The sandalwood begins to creep in. Then I get some nutty thing going on. It's nice overall.

As far as I can tell, this might not actually accurately reproduce the 'smell' or olfactory ambience (as is it really a smell atall? but then there _really is_ a 'salt ' note!) of concrete; but I would say that it is a true quasi-petrichor fragrance (if you like), as it _does_ strongly evoke, to me anyway, rain & wetness of earth, etc. It is like Xerjoff's ~Birdie~ in that respect: in fact, I would say it's very similar to that. I haven't sampled ~Rain~ by Marc Jacobs, but it's probably similar to that also, from what I have read of it. Certainly I would say this is truly a fragrance _of that genre_. I am astonished at anyone saying that not only is it gourmandy, but a cloyingly sweet gourmand at that! I do _not_ get anything _remotely_ like that from it. No, to me, this is a bona-fide quasi-petrichor fragrance - and a good one at that!

Guerlain Samsara, made more unisex by toning down the jasmine

Here I was thinking I'd never smelled a CdG I didn't immediately love. If I'd not read the notes of this I'd swear the top was "Dill Pickle." Maybe it's the chemistry of my skin - I know enough about fragrances to know that scents can smell different depending upon ones skin chemistry. But I don't get cinnamon or cardamon or rose or sandalwood (all of which I love) in hardly anything that's listed in this one. If it were called "Dill Pickle" I would probably wear it now and again. Or rather, if someone GAVE me a full bottle I'd wear it now and again just for the shock of smelling like a pickle. After all my husband swears he smells electrical fire every time I wear 'Odeur 71', and in a weird way it makes me giggle, because I love the smell of it and I don't smell "electrical fire." Anyway, "Concrete"...it calms after 45 minutes to an hour and it smells a tad like fresh concrete but it still doesn't smell much like the listed notes. It's barely a whisper of sandalwood coming and going. It's not awful but it's just...that wisp. And it's a long road to the faintest wisp of sandalwood. I'm not sure I'd pay a hundred fifty bucks to ride that road. If I wanted to smell like sandalwood I'd just grab a cheap sandalwood oil. If you're inclined, try a sample.

"Sandalwood is shattered...a radically new scent emerging from its fractured form".

That's the description. And to be fair you can certainly smell sandalwood here, or something very like it.

A radically new scent? There is a sense in which Concrete is a chip off the old block, in that it is quite similar in character to Gaultier's Le Male, with its many offsping. The same creamy gourmand character is clearly evident. There is a liberal helping of peach, nutmeg, and ice cream soda.

However the fragrance does project some novel features, a sort of dry plaster aspect alongside the sandalwood. You get the same type of effect with C de G Calamus. With some imagination, wet concrete may come to mind.

For an alternative rendering of the odour of concrete and stone, you can to go to an American artisan perfume called Limestone, which is also pretty good.