This monster of an “anti-perfume” is simultaneously clean and dense, the olfactory interpretation of the building material. Aptly encased in a grey concrete bottle, this eau de parfum is an astonishingly diffusive blend of sandalwood, rose and spices, with a powerful smoothness that mimics the material's satisfying surface.
All about this fragrance
Vibe check
This is a fragrance for close, architectural spaces where presence matters more than volume: a room with hard surfaces, cool air and people who notice texture before sweetness. It reads as composed and forceful, with a polished edge that feels deliberate rather than decorative.
How to wear
Best in cool to mild weather, where its sandalwood and spice can project without turning heavy. One or two sprays are enough; it diffuses strongly and leaves a smooth, persistent trail, especially on fabric and in still air.
Who it’s for
For wearers who like conceptual perfumes with structure, contrast and a dry woody-floral spine. It suits those drawn to sandalwood, spice and rose oxide, and to scents that feel modern, abstract and slightly uncompromising rather than soft or pretty.
Release year
2017
The nose
Nicolas Beaulieu is known for working with modern materials and for giving classic structures a sharper, more conceptual twist. In Concrete, he takes sandalwood as the core idea and disrupts it with metallic rose oxide, spice and a deliberately abstract, polished dryness. His approach here reflects a perfumer comfortable with tension: richness against restraint, softness against abrasion, and a composition that feels engineered rather than merely blended. That makes Concrete fit naturally within Comme des Garçons’ taste for fragrances that challenge expectation while remaining surprisingly wearable.
Collaborators
Christian Astuguevieille, as creative director of Comme des Garçons Parfums, shaped the fragrance’s concept and visual language, framing it as a contrast between raw concrete and refined sandalwood, with the bottle and launch experience extending that idea into the object and the presentation.
Comme Des Garcons’s story
Comme des Garçons builds its identity on deconstruction, asymmetry and a refusal of easy beauty. Under Rei Kawakubo, the house has treated fashion and fragrance as spaces for disruption, where irregularity, abstraction and conceptual tension matter as much as polish or pleasure.
Concrete’s concept
Concrete was conceived as a study in opposites: the hardness of building material against the smoothness of sandalwood, and destruction, construction and creation held in the same frame. The grey, concrete-encased bottle makes that idea literal, while the scent itself turns the concept into a dry, diffusive, unexpectedly refined woody floral.
Extra info
The bottle is encased in real concrete, turning the packaging into part of the concept. Despite the name, the fragrance does not smell like literal concrete; its reputation comes from the idea of concrete as material, city and metaphor rather than an industrial accord.
This monster of an “anti-perfume” is simultaneously clean and dense, the olfactory interpretation of the building material. Aptly encased in a grey concrete bottle, this eau de parfum is an astonishingly diffusive blend of sandalwood, rose and spices, with a powerful smoothness that mimics the material's satisfying surface.
All about this fragrance
Vibe check
This is a fragrance for close, architectural spaces where presence matters more than volume: a room with hard surfaces, cool air and people who notice texture before sweetness. It reads as composed and forceful, with a polished edge that feels deliberate rather than decorative.
How to wear
Best in cool to mild weather, where its sandalwood and spice can project without turning heavy. One or two sprays are enough; it diffuses strongly and leaves a smooth, persistent trail, especially on fabric and in still air.
Who it’s for
For wearers who like conceptual perfumes with structure, contrast and a dry woody-floral spine. It suits those drawn to sandalwood, spice and rose oxide, and to scents that feel modern, abstract and slightly uncompromising rather than soft or pretty.
Release year
2017
The nose
Nicolas Beaulieu is known for working with modern materials and for giving classic structures a sharper, more conceptual twist. In Concrete, he takes sandalwood as the core idea and disrupts it with metallic rose oxide, spice and a deliberately abstract, polished dryness. His approach here reflects a perfumer comfortable with tension: richness against restraint, softness against abrasion, and a composition that feels engineered rather than merely blended. That makes Concrete fit naturally within Comme des Garçons’ taste for fragrances that challenge expectation while remaining surprisingly wearable.
Collaborators
Christian Astuguevieille, as creative director of Comme des Garçons Parfums, shaped the fragrance’s concept and visual language, framing it as a contrast between raw concrete and refined sandalwood, with the bottle and launch experience extending that idea into the object and the presentation.
Comme Des Garcons’s story
Comme des Garçons builds its identity on deconstruction, asymmetry and a refusal of easy beauty. Under Rei Kawakubo, the house has treated fashion and fragrance as spaces for disruption, where irregularity, abstraction and conceptual tension matter as much as polish or pleasure.
Concrete’s concept
Concrete was conceived as a study in opposites: the hardness of building material against the smoothness of sandalwood, and destruction, construction and creation held in the same frame. The grey, concrete-encased bottle makes that idea literal, while the scent itself turns the concept into a dry, diffusive, unexpectedly refined woody floral.
Extra info
The bottle is encased in real concrete, turning the packaging into part of the concept. Despite the name, the fragrance does not smell like literal concrete; its reputation comes from the idea of concrete as material, city and metaphor rather than an industrial accord.