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оекошкш – :
To my nose, this smells like rotten or wet wood. And not in a good way. I just can’t handle the wet/rotten part.
SAS – :
Should have been a stone love – a distillation of many of the things I like best in solution – but unfortunately this is one of the CDG’s which my skin kills stone dead instead. From what I can get of it, Sugi is a lovely, spare, bright outdoorsy conifer – but honestly this one makes its presence felt on me for all of about 30 minutes before disappearing entirely into the ether. A lovely scent but not worth the money if it vanishes so fast on you too. Try before you buy…
attablitlefig – :
A bright woodsy composition designed to evoke the ambience of the Japanese Cypress (Sugi) this airy beauty from CDG has a central cypress note which is beautifully layered with cedar, pine, pepper and vetiver to create a modern, immensely wearable and unusual fragrance. The bright lemon colored bottle is a masterpiece of modern design in itself. This is for wood lovers and those who are into unusual orientals. Moderate sillage and projection, so try layering. Beautifully done without being overbearing, true Zen like experience.
arochi – :
If you happen to be in Tokyo, go right away to Tokyo Hands, in the home improvement department and get yourself a stick of sugi wood. The flawless service in this store also affords it to be cut into as many little cubes as one requires. Sugi wood has an incredibly fantastic smell, which is all there in Comme’s Sugi and much more, it is, even amongst Comme des Garçons’ ongoing embracements of wood themes, one of their best covering this area. I do get flashbacks to a similar beautifully concise construction of Blue Santal every once in a while – recommended !
Нодар – :
Hm… guess I missed with a bottle this time..
Having bought all the three Monocle series as samples, I bought this one as a full bottle.
But I have to agree with @Magnifiscent11’s review below; this starts off quite strong and intriguing (although it smells a lot like the stuff you clench of paint brushes with (terpentin?)), then fades off to a sweet and ok-only skin scent…
Of the three candidates from the CDG’s Monocle Series I would go for the Laurel bottle next time.
My rank would therefore be;
1. Laurel
2. Sugi
3. Hinoki
aoi114InsuffBooni – :
This is a wonderful, intriguing scent. Not sweet at all, and yet not austere: balanced between dry and not so dry, cool and warm. The woods are blended so well that they become something else entirely new. The pine adds an almost bitter-lemon aura to the cedar and vetiver. Lovely.
The first moments are sharp but very brief.
Projection is minimal, much less than Laurel from the same Monocle series. Longevity not enormous, but fine. Unisex without being bland. Yes.
Bravo M. Maisondieu.
Rating: 8.5/10
gdx547JeomiWogkig – :
Cool, pale wood with what smells like Asian bathhouse to me. It has a soapy quality, but not in the usual sense. It actually reminds me of Japanese soap; softer, cooler, and almost aquatic. This is a fairly quiet fragrance, even after immediately putting it on (and a fairly generous amount). Etheral and abstract. It also has a very strange quality of smelling differently up close and further away; when I hold my hand to my nose it has that Japanese bathhouse quality, when I’m just going about my business it’s more of a spicy/woody fragrance. Up close, this is overwhelmingly cool and wet, with pronounced minerality. Further away it’s dry and almost incense-like. It also diverges weirdly in it’s longevity depending on if you’re smelling up close or further away; even though I can barely smell it when close, it’s strangely persistent when you’re not really paying attention to it. Another fascinating modernist offering from Comme des Garcons.
NekludovaOlesya – :
Perhaps from the three Monocle – the most daring. The first “audition” in my head has jumped the thought – who is put on this one? For a long time in puzzled state I bypassed this fragrance… But it turned out in my future favorite!
A terrible bitterness and acerbity of the first notes (Cypress? – by the way, Japanese sugi smell is not so; have checked!) scattered on the skin in about fifteen minutes. All that can I hear in the beginning – it’s sharp needles of cypress, freshly picked carrot cobs and jets of strange citrus. Then flavor unbanal disclosed in the dry pine forest on a sand spit. Feel dry long needles under the bare feet, thirty-degree heating, a strange speech and soap root under the nose.
After 5-6 hours, when it seems that the scent flew finally, gently but firmly out of the coniferous cypress flooring starts to crawl mono-iris flavored with vetiver (I understood it lately). Here, iris delicate and at the same time, coniferous. Noble and slender iris. And totally unexpected.
In general, it is difficult to describe this fragrance. So it is unpredictable in its disclosure, but depressing its apparent instability. After 8-9 hours, even at low dosage application, being in a small airspace it unexpectedly sharply back, reminding me of themselves with pristine vigor.
***
After a while, looking at the pyramid, I come a little puzzled. So much wood, and a “no woody” in the aura. Fresh, sharp at the start, the composition is like no other. And in later notes it combine in a special way the softness of vetiver and astringency of needle. And the most important task for me – it’s not annoying and does not exhibit, Sugi cope perfectly well.
4udik – :
wow…that’s my first thought. wow wow wow…
i just got back from a holiday to japan over the easter holiday. went with my wife to the northernmost (major) island of hokkaido where, even in the middle of april, it was still snowing lightly. whilst there, we took part in some onsens (heated pools/bathing). the outdoor onsens are especially a wonderful experience; it’s near/below freezing point in the air and the water is warm forty-something degrees (above body temperature). the outdoor onsens are usually made from either hinoki wood or sugi wood. this smell took me RIGHT BACK to those outdoor onsens. i was back in sapporo, watching the snow dither its way down as i relaxed…
this has captured the smell of sugi wood amazingly well. scent and memory and all of that.
now, if you want this smell, well and good, but if it means nothing to you, well, then, whatever. for me this is an instant teleportation back to that wonderful outdoor onsen…
fac666 – :
This is kind of a weak fragrance. Strong in the beginning but it fades quite quickly like most of the CDG fragrances I´ve tried. So I usually apply it on my clothes for increased longevity. It´s not a bad concept in my opinion though, as I find it very light and enjoyable. I do not mind applying it twice a day instead of once when using it on skin. It might not be the best fragrance I´ve tried but it´s surely not the worst either. I like the transparent aspects of it, the Cypress is dominating the start. A bit boring drydown.
Liafaccousa – :
From the notes, this should be a good fragrance.
However along with the huge pepper and cyprus opening notes comes something faintly nauseous that I can’t identify but that I certainly would not want to wear.
The cyprus fades and a woody note continues in the drydown, but faintly – along with the whisky a earlier reviewer noticed.
The whole composition does not last long, and fails to be very compelling at any stage.
Also FWIW I would not consider this to be unisex. It is a man’s fragrance. Just not a very good one.
Dimka1312 – :
The perfumer has done some greats such as Burberry Brit and Armani Code and plenty of other work as well. None of the notes will jump at you at once but it’s more like one of those collaboration CD’S. A few Isley Bros hits, some Smokey mixed with some R.Kelly and Brian McKnight. Very smooth and laid back. I get a piney woody and vetiver drydown in which neither sticks out but they all play it’s role. For thise that like woody but not too woody,piney but not Polo, vetiver but not too dirty this will appeal to you a it does to me. I have only had it on for about 2 hours and it’s not a projection beast but will appeal to Liquidnight fans I think.
kazarcev.yura – :
The first icy blast of the top notes from this fragrance remind me of a bracing, ice cold Gin & Tonic. Juniper and quinine, thirst quenchingly then immediately dry.
That’s literally the first second of application then it becomes a combination of bright pine, dry cedar and sappy cypress, with earthy peppery qualities of vetiver. This woody combination makes for an uplifting, cerebral, incense like scent which stays close to the skin in a peppery laid back drydown.
These are all fairly common elements in perfumery but when brought together in such a way they sing, it’s a very good achievement, akin to writing a hit song from three common chords.
I didn’t get huge projection or superb longevity from this fragrance but I enjoyed it for what it is and will be sampling again properly soon.
Desant.585 – :
Cypress, pepper and pine – green but also sort of chemical. Very close to the skin, very poor longevity – less than an hour on my skin and it is hardly noticeable. Almost non existing but still very interesting and I like it a lot.
joker911 – :
This one opens with a rubbing alcohol mixed with very sharp, strong cypress essential oil that is very close to the skin. I don’t know if its me but im having trouble even smelling this on me. I have to bury my nose into my arm to smell it. And now even into the drydown I struggle to smell it. Its a very soft pine but WTF. What good is a scent if you cant smell it.
OVOZ63 – :
At first, a blast of fresh green sap of cypress. 30-40 seconds later, a very nice bourbon whiskey on ice (you don’t believe me? Try it!) Then it turns into something which feels totally organic, as if it were not a human creation but a natural vegetal substance newly discovered. It stays very very close to the skin (Japanese discretion), but has a good fixation. Base notes come as pure cleanliness. Beautiful.
Badless – :
A highly unique and original scent that doesn’t rely on an overly extravagant composition or any gimmickry—it fact, the ugly-ass bottle even undermines the possibility of smoke and mirrors, leaving the fragrance itself to do all of the talking.
Out of the gate, it smells crisp, refreshing, and more than a little like a carrot juice smoothie. This comes from the combination of peppery notes merged with the slightly bitter facets of cypress. It’s sharp and spicy, but keeps from becoming an overly culinary affair—it stays very natural and plant-like. I don’t get much iris personally, and I’d assume that it’s there for structure and smoothing of the more jagged notes—of which there are a few. Last, it drifts into a fairly sharp vetiver scent—not unlike Encre Noire, but not quite as dark or gritty. And that’s about all it does.
But it does this very well indeed, and stands out from other coniferous scents through nuance. Whereas with other CdG scents in which you often get a playful side-by-side merging of something industrial against something natural, the impression here is less of a merger and more of a study—as if a natural object were placed onto a disinfected surface, fluorescent lights serving to amplify the natural facets even more. The sense of something artificial is present, but is never insincere.
This challenges genre expectations; it’s a scent that’s “safe” and “accessible” for a wide reception, yet it’s interesting enough for a more discriminating nose to enjoy as well. In that sense, it’s a success.
Akaruna – :
Like it. A bit peppery perhaps, but the sugi is definitely there. Opening smells a bit oddly like agave cactus (to me..), but it dries away.
пургеноид – :
Antoine Maisondieu at his best. It’s absolutely incredible how little elements it takes to create something special when you have a solid concept and an incredible artistic direction. Sugi is minimalism at its best as opposed to the plethora of simplistic pranks we are too often asked to buy as minimalistic and modern forms of *art*.
Sugi is an entire composition based around the most fascinating synergies amongst otherwise pretty common notes. What comes out is something unique, novel and totally plausible at the same time. Something that doesn’t need to try so hard to be unique. Something that is refreshing for its natural simplicity. No make up, no gimmick, no special effects and no hype.
The fragrance opens with freezing dark green notes (cypress) paired to pepper. The pepper here is not of the most usual quality but, instead, it verges towards the aromatic spiciness of Long Pepper which is a lot hotter than the more common Piper Nigurm. The opening is quite something for anyone into CDG’s quirkiness as the pairing of these two notes, give birth to something extremely novel. Sharp, freezing and nose tingling. A rooty orris note breaks in right away and together with vetiver and smooth woody notes, start fascinating synergies between all the elements that strike for being both gentle and sophisticated as well as abstract, futuristic and rough-ish. There’s an overall earthiness going on that brings to mind of wet concrete as well as an outdoorsy vibe that feels both naturalistic and industrial at the same time. Sort of a futuristic urban agglomeration surrounded by a forest. The fragrance is simple yet anything but simplistic. A gem of minimalism from people who know their stuff.
Longevity is extremely good (yes) while projection is a bit tricky. Definitely not a projection monster but sort of like you think it’s gone and then BAM.
One of my favorite fragrances of 2013 and the best in the Monocle Series.
Rating: 8.5/10