SOTD: Comme Des Garcons Leaves: Tea

Today is an extra grumpy day. I believe in the principle of scent association - that a bad experience can ruin a good scent - so on extra grumpy days I never wear anything from a bottle or even a large decant. Unless, of course, it's a bottle or large decant that I'm trying to persuade myself to declutter.

Instead, I tend to wear scents that I want to talk myself out of. If the scent survives the grumpy, then it's started to prove itself worthy of purchase consideration. If it doesn't, then that's one more bottle that I won't spend money on.

So today, it's Comme des Garcons Leaves: Tea. I have an on-and-off craving for a bottle of this, in spite of its strong resemblance to dry cleaning fluid. So we'll just see how it goes.

Review Roundup: Is here.

Image: By Peter Forster. Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: Comme des Garcons: Leaves: Tea, and Weird

This one is weird. I've discussed it before, and discussed the plastic/cleaning fluid note. On this wearing, I've concluded that that's the dominant note. To me, this fragrance would fit more comfortably in the "synthetic" family, along with Garage and Dry Clean.

I'm not sure what's behind that note. The notes - black tea, bergamot, rose petals, cedarwood, and mate - seem normal enough. But I can't tease any of them out. The notes are perfectly blended into... Weird.

Review Roundup: Is here.

Photo: By Jorge Barrios. Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: Comme des Garcons:Leaves:Tea Versus Fendi Theorema

I've had Comme des Garcons Series 1: Leaves, Tea for a while; I read good reviews of it and wanted to give it a try. So I put it on this morning.

It's more bitter than I expected. Acrid? It makes me think of strong tea that's been stewed for a while. I like my tea overstewed, so that's just fine with me.

But it also has an odd aggressive note that I'm not sure about. Some reviews have mentioned Lysol or ammonia or "antiseptic" or vinyl or Saran Wrap or rubbing alcohol and, yeah, I can see that in there.

On the other hand, just trying to analyze what that note smells like is making me warm to it. This is Comme des Garcons, after all. There's no reason to assume that something that smells like plastic or cleaning fluid is a mistake rather than a design decision.

This is one of those fragrances that teeters on that precarious edge between "dreadful" and "got to own it". I suspect I'll want to own it, but I'm not sure yet.

And I can't evaluate it any more today, because after a few hours: The Theorema package arrived! Woohoo!

So I promptly sprayed Theorema over Tea, and it became a Theorema day. In the process, I discovered that Theorema and Tea layer very nicely. The orange mixes with that medicinal/Lysol/vinyl/whatever note and turns it into a positive. The tea note sweetened with the orange becomes a good deal friendlier - Tea is not a friendly fragrance.

And, oddly, Tea makes Theorema friendlier, too - it shifts it from not quite gourmand, into gourmand. I'm not going to be layering these two all the time, but today I like it.

Review Roundup for Tea: Fragrantica and Basenotes and the catalog page at LuckyScent. And now Now Smell This!

(I usually don't include perfume sellers, but LuckyScent clearly allows negative as well as positive reviews, and there isn't enough review coverage of this one otherwise.)

(And, ohforheavenssake - this is discontinued too?! Really? I read a remark to this effect in my searching. I hope it's a mistake.)

Review Roundup for Theorema: Is here.

Edited to add to the Review Roundup.

Tea Photo: By David J. Fred. Wikimedia Commons.
Orange Photo: By Alexander Talos. Wikimedia Commons.