# Comme des Garçons — Comme des Garcons Series 6 Synthetic: Tar

> Tar is Comme des Garcons at its most industrial: hot asphalt, bitumen, exhaust, burnt rubber, styrax, opoponax, and smoky leather turned into an Eau de Toilette. It is an anti-perfume that still finds

## Essence
Tar is Comme des Garcons at its most industrial: hot asphalt, bitumen, exhaust, burnt rubber, styrax, opoponax, and smoky leather turned into an Eau de Toilette. It is an anti-perfume that still finds a wearable resinous drydown.
## Scent Profile
The opening is direct: gasoline-soaked asphalt, warm tar, burnt rubber, and phenolic plastic. A brief vinyl or PVC flash can appear first, but the main image is sun-heated pavement and industrial smoke. Bergamot gives only a quick lift before resin and bitumen take over.
The heart stays close to the concept. Tar is linear by design, but the materials change texture: up close it can feel warmer and more comfortable, while in the air it reads as dried paint, smoke, and petrochemical haze. Opoponax and styrax soften the asphalt with resinous sweetness.
The drydown is the surprise. Beneath the industrial surface, Tar becomes a dry smoky wood fragrance, with earthy, salty, vetiver-like facets and a smooth styrax base. Too much can become cloying or headache-inducing, so restraint is essential.
## Performance
Tar is strong and long-lasting. Projection can be potent, especially early, though some wearers find it closer than its theme suggests. Heat amplifies the asphalt sweetness. One or two sprays are enough for most situations, particularly with original bottles that dispense generously.
## Wearing Context
This is a statement fragrance for adventurous wearers. It suits rainy days, art spaces, warehouse nights, urban moods, and private wrist-sniffing more than offices or crowded polite settings. It is unisex, but different facets can push different directions: powder, smoke, leather, rubber, and cigarettes all change the reading.
## Comparisons & DNA
Garage is the closest sibling, but Garage is more workshop, fuel, and new-car interior, while Tar is hotter, smokier, and more asphalt-resin. Odeur 71 is the internal reference for synthetic strangeness and overlapping industrial abstraction.
Bulgari Black and Santa Maria Novella Nostalgia are useful external anchors for rubber, smoke, and auto-interior associations. A*Men is less direct: its tar facet is birch-like and woody, while this one is synthetic, urban, and bituminous.
## Reception
Tar is a cult object. Admirers praise its uniqueness, its realism, and the way the styrax drydown makes an abrasive idea strangely smooth. Critics find it toxic, headache-prone, or too conceptual to function as personal scent.
The main split is not quality but willingness: whether smelling like asphalt and industrial smoke feels thrilling or absurd. It is respected even by many who would not wear it, but it is absolutely sample-first.
## Versions & Reformulation
Tar launched in 2004 as part of Series 6 Synthetic in 75 ml Eau de Toilette form. It later returned in the 2017 Olfactory Library with updated packaging. Reports suggest the reissue is close in composition but somewhat closer to skin; some original-bottle owners prefer the vintage tar effect.
## Acquisition Notes
Original bottles are collectible and scarce. The reissue can also be hard to locate. Decants are the sensible entry point because over-application and personal tolerance matter so much. For bottles, provenance and storage condition are more important than broad counterfeit concern.
## Notable Facts & Lore
- Series 6 Synthetic pushed the house's anti-perfume idea to an industrial extreme.
- Tar was the hot asphalt and bitumen entry among the five Synthetics.
- Nathalie Feisthauer is credited as perfumer.
- The original pouch-bottle presentation looked deliberately disposable and industrial.
- The house's launch copy imagined a scorching speedway and Roman asphalt winning over the wearer.