Comme des Garçons — 8 88
Essence
Comme des Garcons 8 88, universally shortened to “888,” is the house’s 2008 conceptual attempt to bottle the smell of gold. Composed by Antoine Lie around Givaudan’s saffron-derivative aromachemical Safraleine, it launched theatrically with a one-week run at a CdG guerrilla store in London’s Burlington Arcade before its wider release, housed in the signature smooth-pebble bottle done in gold. The concept is, by near-universal agreement, more interesting as marketing than as olfactory reality: almost nobody smells “gold,” but plenty smell a bright, spicy-saffron-and-amber unisex composition with a metallic shimmer and a soapy, faintly powdery drydown.
Scent Profile
The opening is the highlight everyone agrees on: a bright, almost effervescent rush of bergamot and citrus, peppery pepperwood and coriander over a dominant synthetic saffron. The critic Robin at Now Smell This described it as starting “bright and spicy,” “more sheer than rich,” with “a jagged, almost rough feel in the early stages.” Papyrus and turmeric add a dry, slightly bitter, mustard-tinged greenness that several wearers single out. The heart is where the polarizing quality lives: a metallic geranium-leaf note braided through the saffron, which many read as cold, aldehydic, or even like a high-end shampoo. This soapy-metallic facet is the single most-debated thing about the scent. The drydown is the redemption for some, as the jagged edges give way to a smooth, almost velvety finish of pale woody amber-musk; after an hour the saffron-coriander blend turns creamy and just slightly sweet, savory but not foody. After the sharp opening, the wear is relatively linear. The incense listed in the pyramid rarely reads as churchy, and some wearers insist they catch vetiver late even though it is not a listed note. The signature is bright synthetic saffron over a cool, metallic, soapy-powdery amber.
Performance
Performance is moderate rather than powerful: good but not huge longevity, with modest, close-to-the-skin sillage. Wearers report roughly five to six hours on skin with a quiet trail that turns rather close after the first hour, while noting it lasts notably longer on clothing. It is a polite projector that people notice at conversational distance rather than across a room. Because the opening is sharp and the heart can read soapy-metallic, modest application lets the creamier drydown do the work.
Wearing Context
The cool, bright, soapy-saffron character makes 888 unusually versatile across seasons, leaning more transitional and warm-weather-friendly than most ambers thanks to its sheerness and clean metallic facet. Many describe it as office-appropriate and truly versatile, and one frames it as the ideal “I don’t want to smell like perfume but want to smell curiously pleasant” scent. It is genuinely unisex, though the metallic-floral-powder lean leads a meaningful subset of wearers to read it as skewing feminine. It is best as a daytime, smart-casual, year-round wear rather than a seductive evening scent.
Comparisons & DNA
- L’Artisan Parfumeur Safran Troublant is the most-cited saffron sibling; 888 is the drier, sharper, less cozy of the two, lacking the round, comforting feeling of the L’Artisan.
- CdG 2 and the Incense Series’ Kyoto share the “mosquito-repellent” metallic facet that reads almost as a house signature, but 888 is sweeter, more floral on top and lighter in the base than those darker incense compositions.
- Paco Rabanne 1 Million invites comparison purely as another gold-bottle “gold” concept, against which 888 is the subtler, weirder, far less crowd-pleasing option.
- L’Artisan Maitresse is occasionally invoked for a soft synthetic quality the two share.
Reception
888 is one of CdG’s more sharply polarized scents, with opinion split between “underrated quirky beauty” and “expensive mediocrity.” Devoted fans call it a top-five all-time scent and a personal signature; detractors are brutal and specific, likening it to baby powder, a high-end shampoo, and worse. The two consistent fault lines are the synthetic saffron, luminous and warm to fans but harshly amplified to critics, and the metallic-soapy-powder facet, chic and clean to some and cheap to others. Luca Turin was unenthused, praising its “marvelously juicy bergamot top note” while dismissing the rest as a mundane spiced amber and using 888 to argue the house was “peddling redundancy and mediocrity at a premium.” Given that polarization and its discontinued, premium secondary-market pricing, it is a sample-first fragrance rather than a blind buy.
Versions & Reformulation
888 is a single composition with no widely documented reformulation; the real complication is availability rather than formula. It was discontinued, so the market is now samples, decants and secondhand full bottles. Sources differ on the launch year, with 2007 reflecting the guerrilla-store preview and 2008 marking the general release that most references cite. Originally an in-house CdG product, it was later associated with Puig as marketer.
Acquisition Notes
Being discontinued, pricing is secondary-market and decant-driven. It historically retailed around $120 for the 100 ml EDP in 1.7 oz and 3.4 oz sizes; today full bottles command collector premiums, and a decant or sample is the realistic entry point for most. Because it is a niche-cult discontinued release rather than a mass blockbuster, outright counterfeiting is less of a concern than scarcity, price inflation, and the age and condition of old stock, since the bright top note is the first thing to degrade.
Notable Facts & Lore
- The name draws on Chinese numerology: 8 sounds like the word for prosperity and is considered the luckiest number, feeding the “gold equals wealth equals luck” symbolism.
- Perfumer Antoine Lie set out to find whether gold has an odour and “decided very quickly on Safraline because of its very specific character.”
- The launch ran for a single week at the Burlington Arcade guerrilla store before wider release, a classic CdG avant-garde move.
- Lie is also the nose behind Etat Libre d’Orange’s notorious Secretions Magnifiques, which contextualizes 888’s willingness to challenge.
- The enduring irony is that a perfume conceived as the smell of gold reads to most people as saffron, soap and clean skin.