Perfume Review: Zagorsk by Comme des Garcons
December 18th, 2006
Perfumes can often evoke memories, experiences, objects, locations. Zagorsk by Comme des Garcons is a location-specific scent, named after a town in Russia (presently called Sergiev Posad) that’s known for its historic Orthodox monastery and churches. It’s part of the Incense series in the Comme des Garcons fragrance line, featuring interpretations of incense scents around the world. Zagorsk is an olfactory experience of being in a Russian Orthodox church in the middle of winter – the warmth of incense inside and the chill of pines and birch trees outside.
In spite of its olfactory promise, it’s not what Zagorsk evokes in me. Perhaps it’s due to the fact I didn’t grow up going to Russian churches. While it doesn’t bring to mind a certain location, it does evoke a certain type of weather – a chilly winter day, with the sky gray and stubbornly overcast, crusty, old snow on the ground, and the wind blowing right through your bones. On a day like this you happen to be walking on a road surrounded by pine trees, taking notice of occasional smoke coming out from banyas (Russian wood-fired saunas). It’s a Saturday, the official banya day, and you’re overcome by a sudden yearning to be in one right this minute.
Zagorsk is probably the most “Russian” scent I’ve ever smelled (although, in my case, it’s also very Baltic). It features the notes of white incense, pine, pimento berries, violet, cedar, iris, hinoki wood, birch wood. Also available as a candle (that I’m dying to possess). It can be purchased from Luckyscent as well as other select stores.
Do you have any scents that evoke winter weather?
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24 Comments
1. Leopoldo | December 18th, 2006 at 4:11 am
Morning Ina!
Zagorsk evokes a sense of winter that doesn’t really relate to the winters we experience here. It’s kind of an über winter, if you will. Today is really as wintery as this part of Britain gets (unless it snows and lasts for all of, oh, 13 hours…) with frost and mist. So it has to be Iris Silver Mist I guess, layered over Demeter Dirt… it’s frosty, but the damp earthiness will come through pretty damn soon.
2. dinazad | December 18th, 2006 at 5:16 am
Guerlain Winter Delice is deep winter at its best for me: the black and white lace of snow-covered branches against the sky, highlighted by the odd ray of sunshine, icicles, snowflakes, the smell of pines (Christmas trees and wreaths and the artfully wired together bundles of twigs surrounded by larger pieces of wood – so perfect for the wood-burning stoves) and tangerines, cookies, mulled wine. Icy frost and the warmth of home combined, it feels and makes me feel wonderfully alive!
3. Elle | December 18th, 2006 at 7:29 am
To me, this scent is Russian to the core. Instant olfactory time travel back to times spent there. Love to the nth degree.
4. March | December 18th, 2006 at 7:51 am
Great post. Probably the thing that most evokes winter for me is CB Winter 1972 — the smell of playing in the snow (our amateur snow, not the professional Russian version!) Armani BdeE is my chilly winter scent as well.
5. Judith | December 18th, 2006 at 7:56 am
I want so much to love this scent–and I almost do. But the pine note in it evokes Pine-Sol for me, rather than real pines:(. The scent that best calls up winter for me is Fumerie Turque.
6. newproducts | December 18th, 2006 at 8:12 am
You’re making me lem Zagorsk. When I decided to get a decant of one of the incense scents, after much research, I decided to get Avignon. That one was too much like a church for my tastes.
Citta di Kyoto, with its cold iris and subtle, warm incense and woods, evokes winter for me.
7. Tommasina | December 18th, 2006 at 9:05 am
Well, OK, this is silly, bcs I am English (Hi Leopoldo! Where are you? Somewhere south-east, I’m guessing) – but I just discovered Andy T’s L’Air du Desert Marocain and, daft as it sounds, this is winter to me. I dunno why: maybe it’s the dried-fruit notes and sthg vaguely alcoholic: an english winter indoors by the fire with plenty of booze and nibbly things to pick at? The other odd (?) thing is that this is what Fumerie Turque started out being on me; but then it morphed into disappointing – well – “meh”ness (ducking here in case ppl start throwing things at me).
Maybe a safer scent to mention here would be Theorema, for its candied oranges (on me). And Aromatics Elixir bcs that’s what my mother used to wear in colder weather. She’s run out, though; I should get her some…
I think maybe I just have weird skin. OK, and a weird nose.
8. Marina | December 18th, 2006 at 9:18 am
Hochu domoi.
9. Leopoldo | December 18th, 2006 at 11:03 am
I agree Marina…
Hmm…
Suffolk, Tommasina – and you?
10. eaumy | December 18th, 2006 at 11:11 am
For me, Dior Bois d’Argent conjures up sparkling, crystalline cold. Liquid Winter.
11. Tommasina | December 18th, 2006 at 11:12 am
Hi Leopoldo
So you’re a sweet Suffolk Owl, eh? I actually live in North Carolina now but am originally from the (British) Midlands. No, I don’t have the accent! Spent several years in Oxford; one in London (yuk!); two in Canterbury; 4 in Dublin; now here for 7 1/2 and holding.
12. sara | December 18th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
Wonderful evocative review of Zagorsk. It really reminds me of visiting friend and family in Finland.
13. Cait | December 18th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
Great review. For me, Serge Lutens Chene is pretty effective at summoning the woodsmoke that clings to my hair and coat each time I walk the dogs around the bonfires on the icy surface of the lagoon. I have really been enjoying perfume this winter more than ever. The cold and dark sets off perfume like a thrilling ruby of scent while many of the other natural scents are muted.
14. Ina | December 18th, 2006 at 9:38 pm
Leo, you’re lucky to have winters like that! ISM and Dirt is a perfect mild winter combo.
15. Ina | December 18th, 2006 at 9:38 pm
Dinazad, *love* your description! So evocative. I’ll have to retest Winter Delice.
16. Ina | December 18th, 2006 at 9:39 pm
Elle, glad you agree.
17. Ina | December 18th, 2006 at 9:39 pm
March, BdE is very wintery, too. Haven’t smelled the CB one.
18. Ina | December 18th, 2006 at 9:40 pm
Judith, that’s too bad. I get some pine and lots of iris, actually. So it’s slightly metallic. Fumerie Turque is very much a fall scent for me. How interesting!
19. Ina | December 18th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
Newproducts, Zagorsk is my fave of the incense series. The rest are too churchy, like you said. Will have to retest Citta di Kyoto.
20. Ina | December 18th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
Tommasina, I was about to throw something at you but changed my mind.
Theorema is actually perfect for winter! As for L’Air, I suppose I’ll have to experience U.K. winters to really see the association. 
21. Ina | December 18th, 2006 at 9:44 pm
Marina, hochu domoi i hochu v banyu!
22. Ina | December 18th, 2006 at 9:44 pm
Eaumy, really? Very interesting. I’ll have to retest it.
23. Ina | December 18th, 2006 at 9:45 pm
Sara, Finland is pretty much the same as Latvia.
24. Ina | December 18th, 2006 at 9:45 pm
Cait, Chene is perfect for winter! Oh, how I love it.