Hanamachi

HANAMACHI opens with faint lemony bergamot, slightly powdery ylang-ylang and violet creating a translucent Image of young Maiko, an apprentice of Geisha, wearing colorful kimono ....iris and heliotrope merge, seamlessly. Rose and jasmine are modest enough to keep Japanese nuance. Woodsy note and musk pulls everything grounded the whole time never heavy, just quietly. Vanilla is mellow so, not too sweet like celebrity fragrances or gourmands. HANAMACHI is a very sensual, inoffensive, easy to wear daily fragrance. HANAMACHI by J-Scent on paper still reminds me of INTERLUDE WOMAN by Amouage ....not by wearing side by side, just on paper. The direct translation of HANAMACHI is Flower Town, reminding me of Gion in Kyoto where Geisha perform traditional dances. Although, Hanamachi is all over Japan with many faces, very important part of Japanese culture in the cities for entertainment and healing wise. J-SCENT HANAMACHI is my second favorite after SUMO WRESTLER among their collection. P.S. Layering SUMO WRESTLER over HANAMACHI is exquisite!! A bit musculin SUMO WRESTLER over young feminine HANAMACHI is sensually erotic ....sometimes on a rainy day, I layer one more J-Scent fragrance to make it a little darker. I love layering J-Scent fragrances〜❤︎

THIS is a god tier perfume in my books. Initial spray was an exact match for the Kasugai brand lychee gummies (iykyk), which might be one of the most perfect scents of all time. Literally went "OHHHH MY GOD" when I tested it on paper. On skin, I'll admit this scent took me on a bit of a harrowing journey, because from 1 minute in to about the 2 hour mark, I was getting an overwhelming amount of florals (specifically the jasmine and probably the heliotrope? maybe worsened by the peach, which I never like) that I am not particularly fond of. However, the violet at the base of the scent was soooo lovely, reminded me of a young granddaughter of the Cuban abuela classic Royal Violets, so I was able to tough it out while those stronger florals faded out. After 3 hours, it becomes a very sweet powdery scent, and then from hours 4-6 it's a delicious soft fluffy vanilla-iris scent to me. I want to say it lasted about 8 hours total before it completely faded, but wasn't really super noticeable after hour 6. Sillage was okay, I don't think anyone else is really going to smell it on you unless they are uncomfortably close to you. Doesn't matter though because the vibe of the scent is so comforting and cozy. Absolute 9/10 for me.

Sniffing this out of the bottle I thought it was just a delicate violet that I have smelled so many times before. But on the skin this is much more complex. The florals are seamlessly blended but what I get most is a transparent violet/heliotrope. The citruses add some gentle brightness, and the peach is not juicy or fruity really but adds texture, like putting your nose up to the fuzzy skin. And what makes this fragrance stand out to me is the oud note-- not skanky or overpowering but not entirely clean either-- just really soft and grounding. It's such a unique combination and adds character and dimension to the airy purple florals. The overall effect is ethereal but with a twist of mysteriousness, a geisha in a silky kimono hiding a cunning red-lipped smile behind her fan. I'm really looking forward to trying more from this brand.

Yummy Parma violets sweets <3 beautiful scent, after it sits on the skin for around 15-20mins and the middle notes start to shine, it has the scent most reminiscent of Parma violets sweets out of all of the violet perfumes I've tried yet! Full dry down you do lose a lot of the violet and it smells slightly woody, musky, and incensey. Definitely skin scent at this point but you still catch whiffs of the violet every so often- maybe I was smelling that from my clothes rather than skin?

to me, it's a smell of a vintage kimono shop in summer - old wood soaked with the smell of rose incense, peach-flavoured lipstick, expensive face powder and a bottle of cold ramune (i'm guessing the combination of ylang ylang and lemon creates that ramune accord and it makes a perfect sense to me) it's an elegant, refined smell, slightly floral, slightly dusty, but not in an unpleasant, outdated way. the longevity is slightly better here, however it's still not impressive - although i appreciate that it doesn't end up smelling like a generic laundry detergent.