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BaZzuken – :
As It’s been nearly twenty years since I’ve smelled this fragrance, I cannot give a thorough assessment of it (plus I was a smoker at the time I owned it as well), however, as I recall it, was fresh and metallic-smelling with a hint of sweetness. It did not smell of celery to me; I would not have worn it if it smelled like celery and as it happened, I finished the bottle to the last drop (maybe the ‘celery’ smell is due to old stock having already ‘turned’).
(So intrigued by this fragrance I was, I looked it up on a now defunct encyclopedia of perfumery site and recall the perfume basically being described as an “overdose of hedione high cis.”)
SAHSA27091987 – :
I’m easy to please, but this is just drek. Slightly artificial spicy-alcohol (rubbing) note with a tangy, yes celery note following. Just yuck and a waste of time. Fortunately, it’s light and, virtually undetectable. Avant garde my arse.
dryzzt – :
Clean, metallic, slightly sweet. Very light. Smells a bit like celery, but sweeter. A bit briny, especially at the beginning.
vladOFF – :
This smells like the fake leather seat of a chair for visitors in a hospital room, sitting in a sunny spot by the window.
There is an antiseptic vibe, or maybe the scent is so subtle that I am accidentally picking up alcohol. But I also think there is some vague warmth at the heart of this fragrance.
It’s definitely clean, but not fresh in any organic sense, and not very soapy, not detergent-like or aldehydic at all or powdery. Just a very very soft and just slightly warm scent. I do not smell wood or spice whatsoever.
Skin-close. This smells like scent-free hypoallergenic warm washed hospital towel being pressed against your nose and mouth by a cold metal hand. It’s weird in a comforting way, eventually. I find this scent really cuddly, somehow. Like a rubber baby I want to kiss.
A way more pleasant scent than Odeur 71, but less wearable than 2. I don’t think you could offend strangers in an elevator by wearing any amount of this, and I don’t think it will get you any compliments either. Yet, I still think it’s an extremely interesting fragrance to try out and talk about.
damarius – :
After reading some of the reviews down below, I approached Odeur 53 with caution. At first, I couldn’t smell anything at all after spraying on a blotter, so I just stuffed it in my pocket and went on with things. One hour later or so, I sniffed the blotter again and… found it quite pleasant! Can’t see the comparison with Secretions Magnifiques – that being said, I didn’t spray this on my skin. To me, Comme des Garçons 2 is much more disturbing.
VUTT – :
This reminds me of Secretions Magnifiques’ cold morgue slab vibe without the gag-inducing briney quality. It’s not really BAD, per se, just sort of… bleh. Could be interesting to layer it with some solifleur scent, maybe. Otherwise, just seems like a weird soap that makes you go, “Hmm, that’s… ODD.” Doesn’t last very long, either.
runclan – :
This smells unpleasant, and the fact that it was meant to smell unpleasant doesn’t redeem it. If you seriously want to smell like a plastic garbage bag to make a “subversive” statement, then go ahead. Postmodernism is dying, and the perverse reign of ugliness in art is coming to an end. Trust your senses, and your common sense. A cross immersed in a beaker of urine is not art, and neither is a table loaded with rotting meat. I place this ozone-garbage-bag fragrance in the same category, call it “ugly chic” or simply kitsch.
For all of human history up until the early twentieth century, the artistic crafts were devoted to the worship of the beautiful and the sublime. Unfortunately, the moral decay spawned by progressive liberalism lead to a perverse valuation of ugliness over beauty.
I believe in using my nose to make discriminating judgments instead of following trends and social cues. If I smell a fart in a room, I don’t care if everyone around me thinks it deconstructs preconceived notions about what constitutes a fragrance.
liliya – :
What a strange one. Smells like the interior of a new office building that has not yet had furniture or people moved into it. The drywall is in place, the walls are painted and the carpet is installed. But it’s all fresh and untouched, lacking the smells that indicate human presence.
Lccogens – :
Smells sweet and flowery on my skin, pretty annoying and very much like a cheap soap you washed your hands with in 7/11.
My second disappointment from CdG.
evgen-76 – :
Bought a sample – and that was a good decision. It smells like NOTHING on my skin. Literally NOTHING. And even a scoosh straight to the nose does not trigger any sensation.
My wife smelled something like soap and metal, but she also said it that it smells like nothing. The whole scent disappeared in 15 minutes (!). Dead loss!
hryushkin – :
If blade runner had a smell. This would be it. Also, I love it. Cyborg sweat.
VefJemocemo – :
Tough crowd here. I LOVE this fragrance on many levels.
I remember first smelling this at Museum of Contemporary Art in LA and I was immediately love with Comme des Garcons Odeur 71. The notes in the packaging say: 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
I love the concepts of these very modern fragrances. Most of the time I want a complex fragrance that describes for me mood, place and time. This certainly gives me a feel of big city, day time or evening; the evocation of sophistication and comfortable in it’s own skin.
I love the idea of the anti-fragrance fragrance–I love the not often described or even obscure note. How interesting to mention a nail polish note.
I also review wine and I give this a 95 points out of a 100 for it’s pure uniqueness, sophistication, delicateness and yearning qualities. I glean from this fragrance ozone, country creek, new metal, white tea, moist granite, Cala lily, Prosecco and Pinot Blanc, organic marshmallow and Champagne cave.
I wish only the fragrance lasted longer but people around do notice it–and I love that subtly – even though I can’t detect someone else can.
bbx167bedyWelty – :
I bought a sample and smelled nothing, absolutely NOTHING! Added more to the test paper and smelled the faint smell of garden weeds and lawn! No lie! I would be happier to smell aluminum beachside furniture and clay potted planters or something closer to the description. But, only a whiff of weeds and lawn came out. I would prefer stink weed. Stink weed has better projection and I could use it to keep the dogs out of my potted plants. Now, it’s just wasted money for the sample.
sur0k – :
my initial thought was this is a white floral something. Flowery. Fresh and don’t think a man can pull this off….weird frag!! not bad though to sniff…would I buy it NO.
excboy – :
I got a sample, on my skin it smells like a cat after liking himself clean ..
greshnik128 – :
It’s like eating anise and licorice candies waiting in a new, white office. There are forniture, pens, pencils, plastic…I can also smell the fresh grasslawn in flowerbeds out there an all is absolutely abstract.
Definitely a little bit plastic soapy fragrance…but in an interesting, strange way.
rezisto – :
CDG Odeur 53 i had this 5 years ago as a gift and a day hasn’t gone by about not thinking about this shitty ass overpriced BS fragrance. Dont get me wrong i like some of CDG Fragrances especially CDG MAN 2 & Avignon. But this is like the remains of a fragrance that went bad and said you know what the scent snobs will think this brillaint Bottle it up and put it in Nordstrom you are probably right but not here. Not ever.
fxlbirdslv4 – :
This just doesn’t do anything on me. It’s sweet and fresh. Very soft, little sillage—minimal. I get a little bit of ozone and metal, maybe laundry, but nothing of hot bulbs or rubber or clay or plastic. It’s definitely a unisex scene, but I’d vote more on the feminine side, at least for notes I usually wear. I’m intrigued by Odeur 53, it’s just too wispy and ephemeral for me.
madick – :
Driving past a plastic factory I thought this is exactly what this fragrance smells like, plastic, and cellulose like, with a strong PVC ethylene smell. It is unique but just smells like you finished your shift at ACME plastics.
miks-13 – :
I had read about this fragrance and loved it in theory long before I had a chance to sample it. After being thwarted at the CdG shop in Hong Kong (where the shop clerk told me she hadn’t seen it in three years) I finally got my hands on a bottle at the CdG Parfums botique in Paris.
I must say, it is unlike anything I have ever smelled, and I am completely in love. I am addicted, I cannot stop smelling myself when I wear this, haha. For all the reviews describing the cold, metallic, harsh etc nature of the fragrance, they are only capturing half of the picture. The opening is indeed quite bold (I was once in an small elevator with two friends shortly after spraying and it smelled like someone had dropped a bottle of nail polish ont the floor). But there is a richness and delicacy that comes out that makes this fragrance a true original.
Lylehka – :
This fragrance takes me straight to cucumber skin: in deep contrast to the fresh, almost sweet flesh, it is deep, earthy, and on the edge of bitter. Odeur 53 makes my mouth water.
opponeeds – :
Calm before the storm.Lightning has a smell associated with it. The electrical breakdown of air helps ozone to form, and this has a distinctive metallic smell.odeur 53 smells exactly like air before the storm,very disturbing.also it has unhuman and industrial character.masterpiece,”with no human intervention”.
fcp095Negeltzex – :
I absolutely love this perfume. The moment I first time I smelled it, I was immediately hooked. Bought it right away and I have been wearing it since. The metallic tone is not too harsh for me and I love the cold-robotic impression of this perfume. Very clean, in a very seductive way. My only complaint is I wish it lasted a bit longer.
romanik76 – :
Cyborg Scent for the silicon enhanced….
Michael Fassbender could wear it for his part in “Prometheus”,
Or Jude Law, as Jerome Morrow
or a Delorean Sports-car transformer
evgen-sklif – :
This is one of the only fragrances from Comme Des Garçons that just doesn’t seem to do anything for me.
Conceptually, this sounds very interesting, but it just smells like hand sanitizer on my skin for some reason.
I was really disappointed.
CDG say that this is designed to smell different on each wearer, and it seems from the other reviews that this is very true.
Maybe I should ask some of my friends to try it out and see how it turns on them?
On me however, it just doesn’t seem to work.
xelrox – :
Interesting concept for a perfume. At first I didn’t smell anything. Then it began to smell like laundry that had been sitting out wet too long – like a faint linen/cotton sour cocktail. I kept re-applying thinking that if I had more on I would smell more of the fragrance. I doused myself! Unfortunately after only a few minutes the wisps of scent were gone.
Grabadora – :
I didn’t know that this fragrance had so many mixed reviews. I’m not familar with Comme des Garcons, not usually a brand I feel attracted to.
This Odeur 53 smells fresh even cold and vaguely metallic, but not disturbing. It’s actually very clean and I agree with previous reviewer Deadidol it’s not sickening like so many “clean type” detergent-like are. It seems that humankind needs an obsession every 5 years, candy sugar, awful cheapie synthetical musk, fake fruits…
At least Odeur 53 is openly made of chemicals with no pretention to smell like the real thing. Well, which real thing? It smells so abstract and oxygen, it smells of nothing, still it smells good, highly wearable, fresh, unisex, but a little bit more masculin. Mmmm, maybe not. It depends on men.
I’m not interested in having this scent or similar ones. Apart from the actual smell, I associate this smell with a specific kind of people: the ones who go and buy in exclusive alternative fashion atelier. Think of a very soffuse light in a dark boiserie atelier with soft lounge music, beautiful and kind male SAs and very expensive clothes tidily hanged on stands as if they were popular clothes while most of them would need an alarm system.
Then you have little corners on fragrances you never heard of, very esclusive, never seen in any mainstream perfume store even for a consumed shelf-crawler. A vest you would pay no less than 300 euro and a jacket no less than 1500. Enough to make a honest family food feast for one month.
There you meet a certain kind of people: mostly male, foreigner, absolutely extravagant, sometimes to the extreme, sometime sloppy, but never cheap, soft spoken, a bit arrogant but quiet, with the face of who has no worry in life, self-assured and self-centered, children-less, often very tall and model-looking.
Odeur 53 is one of those smells I associate with these places together with brands like Escentric Molecules, Armani Privè.
totally not what you smell in a crowd in commercial shopping mall or popular cinema on a sunday afternoon.
Not a bad thing in itself, just personal association.
Snoom – :
This is all about synthetic musks such as Galaxolide and Cosmone used to create a dryer-sheet type effect with a subtle sweetness to it. There’s very little to it (despite 53 components), but it does have some power in what it does. Imagine one of those horrendous, cheap dry musks—the kind you find at The Body Shop or places like that—and strip away all of the headache inducing shrillness that they usually give off, and that’s sort of what this is. Musks, detergent type-notes, with a touch of ambergris. Obviously, the notes of sand, light bulbs, oxygen etc. is a bit of a joke, but the scent does force you to make associations about some of these things—and that’s where it’s a success. The metallic note’s there, but it’s not nearly as prominent as something like Secretions Magnifiques or Blood Concept—this is far less harsh.
This is the kind of scent you could wear a lot of on the days where you don’t feel like wearing anything. It’s largely imperceptible, “clean” without the sickening effect of other “clean” scents, and totally unique.
vorokoff – :
I don’t smell a thing.
fuarsov – :
The tester in the shop smelled to fresh laundry of cotton clothes. Very nice. But, when I opened the 85 € bottle at home, the scent was minimum. I went back to the shop, exchanged for anew one. Again, the tester was 20 times more powerful. Finally, a third bottle seemed to smell a little bit like the tester. What a pity!
a13pl – :
Metal, sand, clay…. Lovely notes…
I bet I could love this fragrance… If it smelled something ! O.O
On my skin, it smells almost nothing, a very light note, a beautiful one although, but … waw. That’s the lighter perfume I ever smelled, pity ! 🙁
Shira Legace – :
I’m basically a fan of well crafted scents with high quality ingredients that makes you feel they are all natural. This one is a scent deliberately made of ‘inorganic odors’ and to my surprise I liked it. I feel this is a nice smelling, polished and modern scent.
It’s really hard for me detect the notes and I have no idea about the notes that are mentioned in the description above. I just detect a fresh clean part and a burning part which are put together very well.
It stays on my skin for a long time, but does not have projection at all. In fact this is a scent for you yourself to enjoy! It stays very close to skin and even if others can detect it they won’t think you are wearing a perfume. It gives the impression that you just washed your skin with a nice thing.
FrolliMolli – :
At first it smells of pure ozone. If you’ve ever lived in a very cold climate and gone outside in the morning with your nose burning, you know what I mean.
The ozonic quality continues through the fragrance, but when it settles there’s a mineral quality to it. Almost salty.
It’s different, but not hard to like. It simply smells fresh & clean in a unique way.
dimokkka24 – :
I paid $5 for a tester of this, and it was a complete piece of crap.
The idea was FASCINATING to me! Reading the notes made me want to drop $125 on a big bottle of this IMMEDIATELY. I was so excited to rip the tester vial out of the envelop and drench myself with it!
And that, I did….it was exactly how I imagined it, but so much more disappointing. It last right about FIVE minutes on me.
This is more of an art piece than a usable fragrance. If you’re loaded enough to buy a bottle, go right ahead. It’s great for a collection…but don’t anticipate ANYONE noticing it, not even yourself.
“This is a fragrance for a personality, inordinate and daring” = WHAT A JOKE. This perfume is the exact opposite. It has no personality, and it’s about as daring as a freshly printed copy from a copier machine.
serge77tt – :
Every time I smell Odeur 53 it reminds of the smell of dried packed figs in Saran Wrap. Ive also smelled an abtract vegetal celery accord. In all the many times I’ve tried this perfume I’ve only smelled a metallic note once and that was while walking in Los Angeles while there were smoggy cars driving by—was that metallic note from the cars or was that the perfume? Or was that my brain saying there was a metal smell because I saw metal cars go by?
This perfume feels very fresh and light in a most avant garde way. A must try.
vesnushka – :
This starts out harshly chemical to me. It doesn’t smell like anything in nature, nor like anything that I would actually want to smell at all. I get ozone and something that smells like it is trying to be metallic, but missing something vital. Fake metal. Electric? Somewhat. Somehow this stuff manages to smell sweet, too, in a thoroughly chemical way.
After only a few minutes, though, it has changed completely for me. It smells like skin, except slightly muskier, slightly saltier, and electric, like I rubbed my hand across the TV.
It’s very interesting. I’m not sure whether or not I like this.
Edit: Tried it again, couldn’t stand it. Oh well!
ido – :
Cold metal! Very clean and “neutral”.
jacoolx – :
This scent isn’t as ‘ridiculous’ as the notes might suggest.
I find that it has quite a consistent smell, with not much difference between the top notes and its base. Everyone seems to find a different way of describing this smell, but to me it smells mostly like a combination of palm hearts and ozone (the smell you get of newly photocopied paper, after a lightning strike, or put your nose right in front of a regular CRT television).
For the most part though, it doesn’t really smell like a composition of scents as its 53 notes might imply, but once applied takes on a rather singular scent all its own. After wearing it for a month, I would recognize this scent in an instant. It’s one that really must by tried to know if you like it or not. And like I said, although it definitely isn’t like other perfumes, it’s not such an unusual fragrance, and many perfume aficionados might very well enjoy it.
It’s quite likeable, and to tell the truth I actually love it.
fomyk – :
This is the best of the synthetic genre, as far as I’m concerned.
Abstraction is what modern perfume has been trying to reach all through the 20th century, trying to escape the conventionalism of the period.
Odeur 53 is like a cubist piece of art. Abstraction is the main word here.
It contains 53 different inert or inorganic notes as : freshness of oxygen, flash of metal, fire energy, washing drying in the wind, the mineral intensity of carbon, sand Dunes, nail polish, cellulosic smell, pure air of the high mountains, ultimate fusion, burnt rubber, flaming rock, and much more…
My own nose could guess that more than 60% of the formula is comprised of hedione, a chemical molecule that represents a radiant jasmine odour in a dusty way. The rest is an absolutely amazing recreation of an electric feeling in the air, heavy and charged like just after a thunderstorm. I can even smell the electricity on it.
The IFF describes it as “a perfume that evokes images, creating your own air around you,” and “a memory of a smell'”, a olfatory deja vú.
I couldn’t agree more with this synopsis. There is no air freshener here, nor detergents or laundry cleaning powder.
It’s the capture of natural ozone odour. Hard to explain without the bottle in front of you; impossible, in fact.
Odeur 53 starts ozonic but grey, but not heavy, light and airy, and there’s not enough complexity yet to bring reminiscences of anything like a real flower, but something like the hint of jasmine floats through the airy, as a transparent blend.
About the rest of the notes, I cannot detect even a hint of the cellulosic or fire energy, but there’s a definite metallic accord, light one, and also a touch of linen drying in the sun.
The nail polish is, maybe, evident in the alcohol-heavy opening but it doesn’t last more than 2 seconds.
Later, there is a vague hint of something such as lemon tang.The fragance turns more dusty now, even electric. I can visualize now, images of thunderstorms and heated pavement of cities, drying off after the heavy rain; maybe carbon accord here is getting obvious, but still heady remains the clean, transparent ozone dominating note.
It is so incredibly easy to wear, at any occasion.
The silage and projection are the best I’ve been experienced.
A highly recommended scent.
ZmeY – :
Smells as ice-cream, an old refrigerator and cold mineral water:-) Not long lasting.
ilya21_62 – :
It smells like…the male body. Kind of hard to explain this one…like sweat with a definitive trace of male pheromones, dirt under nails, and something about it faintly reminds me of cigarettes. Musk. I guess wear it if you want to feel like you’re being held by a man 24/7(or if you are a man)
epippinnalf – :
My first thought was “ooooooh spring air” but I changed that pretty quickly-at first I got clean, air dryed wash then something liek melted snow-then it just smelled synthetic and WEIRD-sort of made me nauseous-very disagreeable vibe to this.
Nibassilm – :
Goes on like a pack of chemistry, which it’s supposed to, I guess. Reminds powerfully of the bindery: Ink, paper, chemicals and car exhaust. Then clean, like laundry detergent, but still chemistry. Not bad. Ends as a faint perfume scent, like the cheap synthetics smell like. Still not bad, and slightly floral, but again, much like the artificial scent you get from laundry detergent
srakopuzzz – :
I used to love it when reading reviews. But after trying Odeur 53, I wanted to vomit because of its over strong in a disgusting way. It is not something special or daring. It’s just disgusting. At least, CdG parfume has one thing that I can’t stand 😛
SIVERGIN – :
My first experience with CdG Odeur 53 was when I was in sensory overload from my one-on-one session with Laurice Rhame of Bond No.9. I had spend 30 minutes smelling different Bond No.9 Fragrances so, my olfactory was still trying to normalize when I came across Odeur 53.
My impression was it was too floral. It could have been the Odeur 53 or it could have been some of the Bond No.9 Union Square on my clothing(this was the fragrances that was perminating throughout Saks Fifth Ave).
I always believed one must give a scent three different tries before coming to a conclusion. I will make sure I have not tested any other fragrance before re-trying Odeur 53.