The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Courrèges launched the Colognes Imaginaires collection in 2020, built around a simple provocation: what would the house's signature cologne smell like in the future? The numbering system skips ahead, 2030, 2050, 2060, treating the concept like a thought experiment rather than a roadmap. 2060 Cedar Pulp sits at the far edge of that imagined timeline. Perfumer Fanny Bal worked from a single directive: cedar as the protagonist, nothing extraneous. The name says it plainly. Pulp is cedar's raw material, the tannin-rich inner bark. Less poetic than "wood," more honest about what you're actually smelling.
The note structure is unusually spare. Four materials form the entire composition. Neroli, almond, basil, cedarwood, with heliotrope and musk supporting the base. Most modern fragrances layer multiple accords for depth and complexity. This one does the opposite. Each material arrives clearly, holds its ground, and makes room for the next. That minimalism reads as contemporary even when it borrows from classical perfumery, neroli and cedar have been paired for decades. The difference is in the proportions and the restraint. The drydown stays close to skin. The powder from heliotrope softens without sweetening. It's the kind of composition that rewards attention rather than demanding it.
The evolution
Neroli opens bright and clean. Not orange blossom, not petitgrain, neroli in its most medicinal, bitter-floral form. The citrus is sharp and refreshing, almost astringent. Fifteen minutes in, the heart begins to emerge. Almond and basil arrive together. The sweet-bitter tension is immediate, almond's marzipan warmth against basil's herbal green. It's an unusual pairing, slightly savory, like crushed leaves on a warm afternoon. The cedar doesn't announce itself. It infiltrates. Gradually the aromatic dryness of cedarwood begins to frame the composition, adding structure without dominating. By hour three, cedar is the story. Dry, warm, faintly pencil-shaving, its most recognizable form. Heliotrope arrives late, adding a powdery sweetness that keeps the cedar from reading as austere. Musk holds the base with a clean animalic warmth, skin-close and intimate rather than projection-heavy. The drydown stays close. A clean shirt, an open window, cedar still faintly present the next morning.
Cultural impact
2060 Cedar Pulp has found an audience among those who want cedar without the heaviness, the projection-heavy, smoky masculine interpretations that dominated the category for years. Its restraint reads as contemporary in a market that increasingly values transparency and intimacy over sillage. It sits comfortably alongside the other Colognes Imaginaires releases, each built on the same principle: familiar materials, minimal structure, modern execution.
