888 by Comme des Garçons.

Perfumist: Antonie Lie.

Notes of safraline, coriander, pepper, curcuma, geranium and amber.

Antonie quoted: "We started with the concept that we wanted to find if gold has an odour and we looked for an olfactive expression. I looked at a number of different materials and decided very quickly on Safraline because of its very specific character".

Safraline is a molecular derivative of saffron created by Swiss perfume house Givaudan.
The perfume is inspired by the initial question of knowing whether gold has a smell and then the idea of finding an olfactory equivalent of it....
I have to admit that the blend of safraline and curcuma gives a feminine twist of the whole perfume, but it's enough pleasant to be wore by a man.

I was a little worried about this new launch, specially after the huge deception on the luxe range. The idea based on the recreation of how could gold smell like, made me wonder for a little while, and I had flashing images in my mind of a tacky, terrible, overly power scent. Well; what a great surprise. The perfume is superb.
The bottle is very appealing and exhudes luxury itself; it's a shinny gold version of the original pebble-like design of the company.
It's based in the saffron, curcuma, pepper and amber in an arid strange way.
To my nose, 888, opens light and zesty with pepper note, melting with a fiery , grant slap of playful coriander. I can detect the synthetic saffron straight away, flying around the whole formula, showing off its own presence. The top notes have a funny bubbly, effervescent side.
The initial sniff , to my nose, is kind of feminine, but it doesn't bother me at all. It could be definitely a Guerilla 2 old brother,as they have similar character, but as it's settling down, the perfume get a nice gorgeous soul.
The safraline share path with hints of nice metallic geranium leaves that melts with the curcuma brings a vague hint of metallic sour mustard like odour...
The fragrance keeps heady and confortable while the drydown introduces the amber that add a warm twist to the whole formula.

The drydown is dry and bitter.

I realy like this scent, as much of the other Comme des garçons line, simply beacuse I'm a big fan of the company.
I probably have to try twice to get used of the arid, acrid aura that float around you when you wear it.
It decants a little to the feminine side, but who cares really?.
The long lasting is acceptable. 4/5 hours in my skin.
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