Scent Four: Yoyogi

First impressions- oh my..... This was pure love at first dab. Despite the fragrance only being composed of 4 notes (cypress, chamomile, wormwood and grass), this is complex and a shape shifting fragrance upon first application. Sometimes I get a sweet caramel note, sometimes I get more green lush hay and fir. Somehow it all works together. I get an immediate visual of sitting alone in a tall, dark, forest filled with old and beautiful trees. It’s summer and the heat and humidity makes the tree bark and leaves radiate their scent while the grass and flowers below hum and slowly release their own sweet aroma. It’s peaceful, tranquil and somehow still slightly powerful and romantic. After a few hours - stays fairly green and citrus until it simmers down to a skin scent. Sillage and longevity - pretty good as well. I wouldn’t call it beastly but it definitely possesses some projection and decent sillage (I keep getting little hints of it from my neck and from behind the ears) The longevity is decent; at least 3 hours on the skin before it totally becomes non-existent. Would I buy a bottle - hell yes and I just may soon. This is a green scent that checks a box for me that I didn’t know I wanted/needed. It's different from the other green fragrances I have with the minimal composition of notes but still has a complex execution to it. Three words to describe this scent - serene, romantic, nature

On the nozzle of the bottle it smells sharp and almost screeches. On first contact with the skin it’s the same due to the sharp Cyprus. After 15 minutes or so it settles in to a calm, peaceful, and zen like scent. The cut grass on a dewy morning presents itself, while the chamomile also comes to life. The description is perfect. It’s like walking to work on an early summers morning, it’s slightly crisp and the lawns in the park are gettin mowed. The cut grass scent is sharp. Then at lunch you go back to the park, the weather is a bit warmer and a little humid, and the gentle scent of the cut grass pleasantly remains. It finishes gently. Projects well enough for a couple of hours. Needs a respray on the skin. Tends to stay well on clothes. Absolutely in love with this one. I’ve gone from Byredo De Los Santos to this.

It is early spring in central Tokyo. There is no way you will go on a jog, so you take a hung-over-laden morning stroll. You decide not to go to Meiji Shrine but instead walk around Yoyogi park. The shrine would have been too holy. You don't remember everything that happened last night, but you know you had a good time. The smell on your shirt has the residue of American Spirits––yellows. You had forgotten how good a cigarette is after being slightly tipsy. You inhale the freshly cut grass air, and as you exhale, you get a text from an old flame who was at the party saying, "it was nice to see u last nite." You grin. That's Yoyogi––nostalgically opaque and aspirational.

Wow. A wonderful, sparkling, crystalline green. The best wormwood ever, with a light chamomile aftertaste. Yoyogi is one of my all-time favorite clean unisex greens. Up there with Bamboo Harmony and Un Jardin en Mediterranee. Maybe even better. Sometimes you just want to smell like chlorophyll and fresh, bitter herbs...and that means Yoyogi.

My god, how beautiful this is! A pine forest in winter. Cold. Airy. Smoky. I am surprised to see there is no incense in this one, but I guess it is the cypress that makes it so smoky? Intermittent wafts of something floral, ethereal floating on top. Gorgeous. Longevity is good - I can still smell it the day after spraying.