parfums*PARFUMS Series 6 Synthetic: Tar 
Comme des Garçons (2004)

I will never get tired of this one, too bad they ditched the original bottle, hope they didn't change the formula either. love it!

The original formulation of Tar was something that I could never conceivably wear, but something that I would always want to smell. It was just a deliciously foul bottle of hot, freshly paved asphalt. It was a hot, but breathably vivid Los Angeles day. I first smelled this at the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA, which at the time was one of the few easy places you could find CdG and this series in particular. The memory is indelible, like a footprint imprinted into a new road by a firm foot.

Let's hope the rerelease for Olfactory Library adheres just as well.

An interesting experimentThis is a very interesting and complex scent. It has three stages.First, there is a clean, industrial, plastic-y bright stage. Like a plastic doll, left in the sun. Definitely some tar notes, but not the warm smell of freshly-poured road asphalt, more like well-aged or well-tempered old tar. An old industrial site... whiff of a metal ashtray... yet attractive, interesting and wearable. Not my style but I am intrigued. Then a great pyrogenic/flinty note develops. The reviewer who mentioned "old concrete basement" really captured this. Old, but clean -- not musty or moldy. Thus, this stage is high-concept and well done.The second phase stalls. It gets a bit sweet and tiresome. I wonder if the scent is losing its edgy nerve. It gets dense, like plasticine. Then, a third stage appears! A woody incense! Quite a surprise, given what has gone before. Though, in thinking of the CdG line, that really is their signature or house style. This is very nice and has good longevity.Overall, a very interesting scent. Try it, don't be put off by the synthetic aspect. :coolold:Pros: The synthetic notes work wellCons: Stalls but recovers"