Girl by Pharrell Williams

A rare and underappreciated fragrance that deserves more attention. I know celebrity scents often generate scepticism, and this isn’t different. It’s not for everyone, nor is it unisex by gender; it’s unisex because it’s different, distant, and label-free. I love it. The neroli opens strong, followed by an intense violet (if you don’t like it, run away) and iris over sweet sandalwood. I enjoy florals in unisex or men’s perfumes, so this is perfect. The violet here is dense and full-bodied, with a fresh green touch reminiscent of the stem or ivy. The vetiver isn’t strong on its own but enhances that vegetal side. Black pepper appears quickly, dry and sweaty, adding an intriguing touch that softens the violet invasion. The progression isn’t abrupt; the constant violet is like a kiss after a late night. The spice blends well with the warmth of the sandalwood, adding freshness and woody spices to round everything off. Smells wonderful. It doesn’t have a strong sillage, but it’s perfect (lasts about seven hours on me) because it’s never overwhelming, just present and attractive. Worth it for everyone to decide for themselves, just like in life.

One of the most baffling celebrity perfumes I’ve ever tried. Pharrell Williams teamed up with Comme des Garçons to create something non-commercial that no one understood and which was almost discontinued right at the start. Now it costs more online. Few brave souls admit they like the opening: it’s intense, narcotic, like insecticide for plants. It gives me an immediate headache. When it settles, violet and powdery woods emerge with spicy sparks. The best part is its dry-down: an elegant soapy scent, like an impeccable mature man. A layered olfactory journey worth the effort.

Pass. Smells like Walmart hair spray. Ugly, horrible, and chemical. Does it resemble Fahrenheit? 😆 There are disoriented noses on Fragrantica. It smells more feminine. I don’t see anything unisex.

Horrible… just pure and hard.

Girl is an intense and characterful fragrance. It has a potent, spicy opening of pepper and lavender that might scare you a bit if you’re a woman, but don’t worry, it calms down after half an hour and the flowers emerge, especially the violet, which with the vetiver becomes earthy rather than powdery. In the end, the cedar and sandalwood make it deeper and slightly creamy. Those women who enjoy very sweet scents and find YSL Libre or Ariana Grande’s Cloud too ‘masculine’, stay away from this, you won’t enjoy it. On the other hand, if you like the ‘tomboy’ vibe, give it a try: it has lovely nuances on a feminine skin.

Girl is a twist on the canons we assume in our daily lives. Our blind everydayness. It is the crooked line of the traditionalism imposed by ourselves in perfumery at its level. Slaves to prejudices and preconceived patterns. Its bottle is the deserved insult to our denial of the obvious. And its elixir, a slap to wake up; a kick in our wary noses that go out into the world appearing to know everything. Slaves in reality. Girl is the dream of the impossible; of incredulity made form and figure: palpable to our skin, visible to the narrowest pupil. And unexpected (yes, unexpected) to the most delicate pituitary. Brilliant, delicate, powdery, spicy, dark, mysterious, intoxicating, balsamic; it gifts us a wonderful accord of purple flowers, pepper, and creamy grey woods that turn us around. Girl is the balance of the sexes. Its equidistance. Girl is in you, man or woman, that thing you long for on your sofa when the emptiness of loneliness surrounds you. And you would want to spray it in that moment to transfigure the longing. But if you dare to do so, you will suffer the pleasant pain of desiring it even more.

I was pleasantly surprised by this bottle. The truth is I’ve never been a fan of celebrity perfumes, but I recently discovered Britney Spears’ and loved them, so I decided to give this a chance for the star made by Comme des Garçons and its olfactory notes. The scent is quite spicy and powdery, with a woody touch. I think it’s perfect for everyday wear and reminds me of one of the legendary Comme des Garçons scents, though I can’t recall which one. Scent: 9. Longevity: 8. Sillage: 7. Value for money: 9. Versatility: 9. Overall: 8.

I’m dying of envy reading the comments, but on my skin I smell nothing. Just a very faint, spicy violet if I press my nose right into my arm, and that lasts about 20 minutes. A friend owns it and can’t smell it either. Could it be a specific molecule that affects me? I bought the batch from an online retailer with guarantees, but there’s no way to check the production date anywhere.

“In sleep he sang to me…” GIRL is a Pharrell Williams album, eclectic and successful. It seems the name isn’t about femininity, but a creative collaboration between Comme Des Garçons and the star. Nothing to do with that commercial mess; this fragrance is something else. The bottle is ridiculous and the name absurd, looking like a failed marketing campaign. Perhaps it should just be called ‘The Phantom of the Opera by Comme Des Garçons’. The Phantom appears wrapped in white pepper, heating up the bitter citrus of neroli, which here has a touch of overripe fruit, very original and attractive. It’s an unusual scent due to that fruity degradation and spicy heat. It has a potent oriental woody note, with leathery nuances. Leather isn’t listed on the notes, but I detect it clearly. That blend of fruity spice and leather gives it substance. Imagine the Phantom at a black organ under a vault, playing chords that seem like incense-drenched and funereal violets, with baroque and profuse vetiver and coffin cedar. A macabre and lustful incense sprouting from twisted candelabras. The scent has the sensuality of the dark, the nocturnal, and the hidden thing lurking in the darkness, ready to steal your spirit in a moment of ecstasy.

First and foremost, despite its name, I think Girl is 100% masculine, not even unisex. The best part is the opening: a violet in the line of Narciso Rodríguez or Fahrenheit, perhaps less threatening, with softer, rounder, and kinder edges. It’s attractive, cosmopolitan, and mysterious. Unfortunately, the dry-down comes quickly and most of the floral nuances are lost. It leaves a solid woody base with a good charge of pepper that lasts many hours. It reminds me quite a bit of the Chanel Bleu perfume version at this stage. I think it’s perfectly constructed, with good components (CdG doesn’t usually fail), has personality, and acceptable presence. It has style, without a doubt. What doesn’t convince me is the dry-down, which is much flatter, conventional, and boring than the spectacular opening.

It seems to me that in physical stores it had very little distribution, Django. I suspect it didn’t sell well and will be one of those fragrances that won’t be commercialised again, so if anyone wants to try it, do it now. I wouldn’t say Girl is undervalued, given that it wasn’t even valued due to the little noise of its launch. It’s a pity… how many people are looking for the definitive soapy woody scent that brings back the memory of their childhood of older, good, and kind men, with that smell of expensive shaving foam, and here it is, in our noses, condemned to die. Girl is a jewel with excellent sillage and longevity, a modern fragrance with its sights set on the classics, when masculinity in scents was limited to four ingredients and hadn’t yet ventured into the game of genders. And yet it is terribly modern. I think it’s one of the few perfumes I would recommend blindly to lovers of woods.

After many months of searching, I managed to buy it in Madrid and the truth is it has become one of my favourites of recent times. It’s a very different and long-lasting unisex. You use it and someone on the street always asks what perfume it is… that’s cool, isn’t it? 🙂 The truth is that what describes it most is its longevity: so long-lasting that the clothes keep the scent. You use it to go out to dinner and hours later it’s still intact. You get home and you’re still perfectly perfumed. It’s soft but at the same time very rarely intense.