In 2004, Comme des Garçons introduced their PARFUMS Series 6 Synthetic line composed of five scents: Tar, Garage, Dry Clean, Skai and Soda.

Marketed as anti-perfumes, they are designed to reflect the smells of big, urban centres - as opposed to a garden or a forest.

Tar starts out with a blast of plastic that smells deliciously like a chemical fixative or cellophane packaging. This is followed by a chemical hit of petroleum gas from bitumen.  This is the smell of gas at the pump, jet fuel from a plane and rubber tires. These make Tar smell interesting, but what makes it wearable is an organic depth it gets from bergamot and laurel. Sandalwood at the drydown, gives it a woody warmth that tempers the coolness of the chemical notes making Tar distinct yet familiar and great to wear.

 For me, Tar is the smell of a building site on the outskirts of a large city after the workers have gone home – lingering gas fumes from dump trucks and earth movers, plastic debris on the ground, new blacktop over earth that has been worked, insecticide, cigarette butts, plants along the side of the road – no people, pets or food. It smells new and exciting.

Notes: bitumen, bergamot, laurel, sandalwood.