# Comme des Garçons — Rouge > Rouge (2020) is a conceptual incense-wood fragrance built around the most improbable headline note in recent mainstream perfumery: beetroot. It is classic CdG method - take a familiar idea, here the c ## Essence Rouge (2020) is a conceptual incense-wood fragrance built around the most improbable headline note in recent mainstream perfumery: beetroot. It is classic CdG method - take a familiar idea, here the color red and its associations of fire, blood and passion, and subvert it through an unexpected material - but unlike many of the brand's more academic experiments, Rouge delivers a genuinely wearable, beautiful perfume rather than a thought experiment. Critics widely judged it the most exciting thing CdG had done in years. ## Scent Profile The trick at the center is that beetroot in perfumery is an illusion: there is no real beet material, and the effect is conjured by earthy notes (usually patchouli) meeting carrot ionones to produce a muddy, sweet, rooty redness. On skin Rouge opens bright and zingy, with pink peppercorn and Indonesian ginger spiking up before the beetroot accord blooms - earthy, rooty, semi-sweet, bitter and unashamedly red, bleeding its color into everything around it. Geranium adds a green, minty, faintly metallic leafiness that bridges toward the base. The most striking move is the pivot. Around four hours in, what was bright, fresh, tart and vegetal turns smoky, resinous, leathery and almost tar-like, with the mineral facet of the beetroot acting as the hinge between a fresh top and a dark base. The drydown settles into sticky incense, an earthy woody-patchouli character, and labdanum and cistus resin - memorably described as the smell of smoky clothes the morning after a party. It is genuinely polarizing. A vocal minority gets a phantom pine-cleaner or seasonal air-freshener effect from the beet-mint-ginger combination, where most read the same accord as a sophisticated wet-earth incense. Either way, almost nothing else on the market smells like it. ## Performance Performance is a standout, which is notable for a house whose fragrances are infamous for evaporating. Rouge is widely reported as a long, strong wear: estimates range from a respectable eight hours to well beyond twenty, often with the incense drydown lasting into the next day. Projection is modest and considerate - loud enough to enjoy without shouting. A little goes a long way, and longevity is a genuine selling point rather than the usual CdG caveat. ## Wearing Context Rouge is a fall and cool-weather scent; its petrichor, wet-earth quality makes it feel autumnal and even outdoorsy, and several wearers note it shines outside, where the muddy facet reads as fresh earth rather than literal mud. It is perfectly unisex and reads as sophisticated, a little strange, and quietly confident rather than crowd-pleasing. Many treat it as signature-scent material precisely because nothing else in their wardrobe resembles it. ## Comparisons & DNA Rouge belongs to CdG's own incense lineage, sitting near Kyoto, Avignon and Jaisalmer but reading sweeter and warmer, with amber predominating over their drier smoke. It is most often paired with 2019's Copper for the way both shift shades as they develop. It also reads as the successful execution of the root-vegetable idea CdG first tried in Clash Radish Vetiver, which never rose above an intriguing concept. Blackpepper is the most-cited earlier high-water mark critics measure it against. The shared DNA across these is resinous incense-wood, with Rouge adding the distinctive vegetal-earthy twist. ## Reception Reception among critics was strongly positive, with the usual CdG split among casual buyers. Persolaise was effusive, calling the beetroot one of the most genuine and enjoyable olfactory surprises of the year; The Candy Perfume Boy named it flatly the best thing he had smelled all year; and Colognoisseur praised it as a shade-shifting fall choice. The dissent comes from wearers who hit the clean, air-freshener facet and find it weirdly antiseptic on their skin. The axis of disagreement mirrors every conceptual CdG release: those who value the house's willingness to be strange adore it, while those wanting conventional prettiness bounce off. At standard niche pricing for a strong performer, value is rarely the complaint. ## Versions & Reformulation Rouge is a 2020 release still in production, with no reformulation history of note. It launched exclusively at Dover Street Market before a wider rollout in 2021, presented in a glossy translucent deep-red bottle as a 100 ml eau de parfum. Christian Astuguevieille, CdG Parfums' longtime creative director, conceived it, with Nathalie Gracia-Cetto credited as the executing perfumer; production sits with Puig, which handles CdG's fragrances. ## Acquisition Notes Rouge is readily available from CdG Parfums and established niche stockists in a single 100 ml eau de parfum, at the brand's standard niche price tier. Because it performs strongly, a little goes a long way, making a sample or decant a sensible first step given how polarizing the opening can be - reviewers stress giving it the four-hour pivot before judging. There is no real authentication minefield; buying from the brand or a reputable niche retailer is enough. ## Notable Facts & Lore - The official copy frames Rouge as an encounter between religious fervor and earthen reality, a ceremonial clash of contrasts. - The launch visuals, directed by photographer Jordan Hemingway, followed a latex-clad model amid silk, flames and blood. - Creative director Christian Astuguevieille has said he added beetroot more as a game, confident that at CdG everything is possible and that the house was happy for him to break the mold. - Beetroot is an illusion in perfumery, built from earthy materials and carrot ionones rather than any actual beet extract. - Rouge joined a small wave of red and beet-themed launches around 2020 but is the one critics single out for making beet find its place in perfumery.