Mono No Aware

Opens with a delicious blast of realistic matcha powder It dries into something reminding me more of matcha latte, as if it was some lactonic or white chocolate notes included Or maybe like the kitkat matcha bar As it's drying further it acquires subtle spicy nuances along with cherry blossom Then it becomes powdery cherry blossom on a base of musk and something that gives it aromatic, almost minty qualities I wish the matcha in this one was more long lasting

At first this is pudding bread, but luckily not too sweet, I would almost say, green pudding bread if such a thing existed, or pudding bread in the park in spring. Then I smell wood and incense and lightly some cherry blossom. This scent reminds me of something, I don't know what, very melancholic.

My skin chemistry and mix of cedar plus matcha notes are giving me a fresh baked bread scent. Such an interesting transformation.

smells like a unique, complex, savoury, salty gourmand

Very light and airy. At least on me. At first it was just stale bread. But it later developed nicely. Soft woods with a hint of cherry blossom. Leans a tad feminine but certainly wearable. Actually all fragrances are wearable if you like them. Who cares if others don't. Alas, not something I will seek out. Enjoyed the sample.

Started with a strong powdery matcha , then the cherry blossom and wood started to appear and made it sweet , the matcha is still there but not as strong like it was in the beginning. 8/10 good for the autumn and spring

beautifully nutty and savoury. i detect no sweetness. smells bready in the way a dry wafer does. the cherry blossom becomes more pronounced with wear 🥜🍵🌸

Wow, the first spray felt almost a bit smoky😅 But then settled into a really realistic powdery matcha scent. With embery cedar flints🔥

“Empathy for Things” opens with a grainy, bakery-adjacent, nutty-lactonic hit; like you’re vigorously simmering hazelnut milk until it starts to foam and thicken. It takes me a few seconds to even register “matcha” (and I suspect it’s more of a constructed/imaginary accord than a true-to-life note). The matcha impression is lightly fresh, vegetal, and earthy; but the nutty facet still dominates. If there’s a tiny “cute” floral whisper in the opening, it disappears almost immediately. I wouldn’t call it a pink-floral scent, but there’s something fleetingly floral in there. And then... the fragrance just goes poof. It evaporates. Its presence and absence are almost the same; what lingers in the air feels stronger than what remains on my skin. It’s as if the composition has no spine; like the base notes are missing entirely. Odd. Tag(s): nutty-lactonic, grainy, bakery-like, matcha accord, weak

For the first 3 seconds, it opens like teo cabanel je ne sais quoi and it transitions to something bitter, red ginseng soap. Japanese cedar has a camphoraceous, almost medicinal edge. As the perfume develops, that edge becomes sharper, more antiseptic, more herbal shampoo.

Smells like sweet matcha tea. Gormand with nutty, lactonic, bakery opening. Not my pair of shoes.

Mono no aware means to have "pity for things", more specificaly to have pity and empathy for old, dilapidated and ruined things. It is finding the beauty in the ineffable, in a wilting flower, a dilapidated building or rotting wood. Fitting, since this perfume smells like rotting wood and wilting flowers to me. It smells like decay itself. I am really dissapointed because this smells nothing like the notes described in it. There is no matcha to smell and whatever flower is wilting in it, it's definetly not cherry blossom. And I have tried other matcha fragnances like Matcha soft serve and Milk&Matcha and loved them. So of you want a true matcha (like opening a box of matcha when making your matcha latte and taking a deep breath of the smell) i suggest these instead. It was almost a blind buy for me, from the name to the notes, it looked like it was made for me, specifically. I'm so happy i held back and ordered a sample. Definetly sample this one before buying.

hate it, literally if i could erase this from my memory i would. no matcha no musk no cherry blossom, all i got was smoke. horrible

I’m not getting any gourmand in this, agree with other reviewers that there is absolutely zero sweetness. Something is very resinous/smoky, I assume the Japanese cedarwood? Almost like a heavy incense. Maybe it’s just my skin chemistry. Matcha and cherry blossom are hardly detectable and very fleeting. I love the idea of this fragrance, but it just doesn’t work for me. Sometimes I get the rice-y nuttiness that reminds me of Je Ne Sais Quoi, but I mostly just get that smoky woody incense smell. Edit 9/8/25 - I've revisited this after a few months. I am not getting any of the resinous/smoky smell I got before. I smell the matcha now and I now understand the comparisons to Je Ne Sais Quoi much better - it definitely has a nutty, rice-y, savoriness. I can also smell the sweet, airy, floral cherry blossom note. Not sure if this is maceration or my perception just changing overtime, but I am pleasantly surprised at what I smell now. This fragrance went from like a 2/10 to a 8.5/10.

Mono No Aware is impressive in its ability to capture the powdery, nutty, unsweetened, earthy nuances of matcha. While it's not a 100% accurate depiction of the ingredient (and honestly, why are we striving for that anyways?), I think it succeeds on many levels. There is a lightly savory skew to the top notes, but it makes way for a lactonic creaminess that blends nicely with a dry cedar base. In fact, the dry down vaguely reminds me of Diptyque Tam Dao EDT. This is a super fleeting scent with virtually no lasting power, if that's a dealbreaker for you. Flash in the pan piece of fragrance art that's worthy of sampling for sure!

It reminds me of taking a cold shower after a day at the beach: the half-empty light-scented bottle of shampoo you brought from home and the sunlight from the small window. It's early afternoon: no traffic noise and no business to do. After the strong initial matcha burst dissipates, there happens the magic of cherry blossom: a scent still to bloom, almost there but still in the making, a fragile possibility of a smell, a hint of what could be. Woody notes make their presence known but don't interrupt, sweetness is sugar-free. It's a rare encounter of Zen notes, tender and contemplative in the way a cold summer shower is.

I did not get the gourmand/sweet/airy/fresh that everyone is talking about here. It was so intense from beginning til the end; and almost nauseating. Strong nutty and salty; that is all. It is not for me but i had to give it to Baruti once again for their longevity and sillage. I had to scrub my wrist like crazy to get rid of the scent. I still have my sample and tempted to give it another try but I will probably do it when the weather is getting colder.

this scent makes my chest ache, it’s so nostalgic for something i can’t place - gourmand popcorn, safe wool jumper, stale tea. the perfume of all perfumes, for me at least.

No idea what people are saying. Noses really are subjective. Smells so much like matcha. Literally like walking into a matcha shop in Japan.