Hanamizake

Wow!! This is great!! I love this!! HANAMI is Sakura Viewing in Japan .... Sake is pronounced ZAKE when put together. This smells like drinking sake ....an expensive one which always smells a bit fruity ....under a fully blossomed sakura tree ....could be Sakura Viewing Banquet because the first projection is pretty strong for about 30 minutes ....I see many friends, family and colleagues gathering around in groups on picnic blankets, having a great time. This is an uplifting happy scent. The longevity is 2.5 hours on my arm, then changes into skin scent for another 2 hours. Musk note is very modest, so as the price. This is a total satisfaction ....how I’ve been waiting for this kind of brand full of Japanese culture. Great as a souvenir!!

I normally don't like cherry perfumes, but this is true cherry blossom one and it's so unique. It's not just basic floral scent, but it really reminds me of Japan. I like depth of the scent and it matches with the description on the bottle: "Hanamizake - A scenery that you have once seen. A mesmerizing world with mystical colors. The power or nature. The memories are brought to life wearing nostalgia and warmth. Sometime ago, somewhere..." It really smells mystical and nostalgic. I bought two bottles :) It doesn't last long, but that's pretty understandable since it's very light scent. I don't get, why people describe it as soapy smell. It smells more like clean skin after drying out.

Really lovely. It opens up nice and sake strong, but that quickly fades into a bubbly and sweet cherry blossom. I've found it's perfect for work--- super light, fresh and airey, aquatic berries for the spring and late summer/transitioning fall. There's also something nostalgic about this, and not because I've smelled the fragrance before, but because it happens to remind me of walking through the woods with my friends (when I was in college), or crisp childhood halloweens... Not sure! All I know is that I love it! Though, I will say it doesn't last the longest... Maybe three/four hours max, but that could just be me. No matter! I'll carry her in my bag if I must

Top Notes Ginjo-ka, Pear, Apple, Raspberry, Green Note Middle Notes Cherry Blossom, Rose, Muguet Last Notes Musk, Cedarwood Hanamizake begins with a sweet burst of raspberry and pear that quickly fades within ten minutes, revealing a rich cherry blossom scent. A smoky undertone adds depth, complemented by subtle hints of sake in the background. This true cherry blossom fragrance lasts all day, and I find it much more enjoyable than typical cherry blossom body sprays.

All fragrances in this line are pretty poor performers, and are fairly linear. However they are extremely photorealistic to what they claim to portray, and this scent is no different. It smells EXACTLY like drinking sweet sake during cherry blossom. I never wear this, I just spray it to feel nostalgic about Japan.

love, love, love! opens with a BURST of deliciously sweet apple soda scent. then it comes the dry down and I see a beautiful sakura flower hiding behind the fruity sweetness, which then turns slightly smoky. It's a beautiful and unique scent. Makes me think of eating all sorts of fruit japanese candies.

This made me smile when I first smelled it. It really does smell like sake and sakura blossoms. It brings back fun memories of ohanami with my friends. Very nice! Longevity is decent for such a delicate scent. Scent: 9/10 Projection: 7.5/10 Longevity: 7/10

Very delicate, boozy, sweet and floral scent. It feels like you just drank a nice cup of Sake underneath the Hanami cherry blossom trees. It has something sensual and innocent at the same time. My favourite of all the J-scent fragrances!

Love this scent. The sake accord maybe lost on you unless you have a history with it. The sake adds a subtle booziness that goes beautifully with the cherry blossom. Very uplifting scent that has good longevity.

smells like cherry blossoms, liquor (not strong though) and a little fruity. more of a sweet candy rather than it being soapy or floral. a cute and girly scent to me, honestly in love

Musky, Soapy, Floral I lowkey do not know what cherry blossoms smell like but yes this is a very floral fragrance and is one of my favorites

In January I was in Tokyo for vacation and discovered this brand in the Tsutaya bookstore in Ginza. I took my time to try out the full collection, and a few of the bottles really impressed me. I ended up buying some bottles, among which is this Hanamizake, which was genuinely a love at first sniff. A beautiful and realistic sake scent. On the label on the bottle it mentions Ginjo-ka as one of the top notes, which simply describes the fruity fragrance of sake made with rice that has been polished. I can no doubt get such sake scent from the first sniff. The opening is boozy for sure, as well as fruity, sweet and clean. Unlike those perfumes that open with boozy notes of whisky or other strong liquor, the sake note is instead very gentle and playful. I cannot describe how realistic the sake smell is. You get the fruity scent like apple and berries, but also feel the sweet flavor in your mouth. It gets more lovely when the cherry blossom comes up. It gets creamy and slightly sour. It indeed creates such an image of having sake under sakura trees. As for its performance, it is not a loud speaker; it gets very subtle on my skin, almost like a skin scent. This can be a safe blind buy.

Hanamizake opens with an interesting and bold alcohol flower accord, that after a few minutes transitions to a tangy red fruit shampoo. In my head, this composition evokes two types of people: an artsy / stylish woman in her twenties and a cute teen girl. This scent definitely reads very feminine and lasts about 5 hours on my skin. I like it, but will not buy as it’s too far from what I usually wear. To put it differently: this fragrance may me called “Hanamizake”, but felt a bit like underage drinking to me (in a fun way though). Had it stayed as bold as in the opening and had it possibly incorporated more of a salty-elegantly subtle cherry blossom note instead of going all fruity, it would have been closer to what I imagined. Therefore, while I would not recommend this to anyone who is looking for a challenging or even natural cherry blossom scent, I definitely think it has an audience: under 30, uncomplicated, looking for a twist while staying in a safe zone. For not even ¥5000.- I think this is perfectly sufficient. TD;DR: A cherry blossom red berry pop tart with a boozey start

This is about what I expected. In the opening, I get the sake note and its pretty realistic. Best way I can describe it is cough syrup but it goes away quite fast. Shortly after, you get the florals. Whether its cherry blossom only is up for debate cause I can pick up some other florals plus the musk which give it a soapy floral character. Kinda reminds me of Quelques Fleurs. As it dries down further and losses the other flowers, the cherry blossom scent that I know of does start to come out a bit. When you smell actual cherry blossom, it's not just sweet. It has a roughness to it which kinda reminds me of cloves. This doesn't have that but for a cherry blossom scent, its probably as good as it gets. Even Dior Sakura couldn't capture the scent of a cherry blossom as well as this. Longevity is on the medium to good side for me but projection is on the lighter side. I expected that from a Japanese perfume company tho cause they don't like things that are too strong and its fine for a light spring time scent anyway. Overall, I like it and I might have to get it for my collection.

Hanamizake opens sweet and chalky, with a fizzy incense layered over a fruity undercurrent. A nondescript, but rather pleasant floral tops the experience. Beyond the opening few minutes you're left with a surprisingly refined fruity floral. 'Fruity floral' generally brings to mind shrill, semi-aquatic, sugar bombs of the late nineties for me, but here the bone dry incense steers this in a completely different direction. The end result is really very nice. Dry, slightly powdered florals, sake-inspired fruity accents, and a heavy, sweet incense, unlit and pungent, rounding out the base. The musk here is quiet, and very well balanced, reading as neither soapy-laundry, or barnyard, instead bringing a grounding and human element to the composition. Hanamizake is a genuinely unisex take on the bloated fruity floral genre. Perhaps a touch on the sweet side for me, and not the greatest longevity, but at this price point reapplication is not a problem. Different, without straying into the bizarre, enjoy on breezy spring days, with a cup of dry sake in hand.

The opening is marvellous - sparkling and boozy sake, makes my cheeks ache with how closely you can almost taste it and how badly I want a cup. The cherry blossom note is strong but it's a sweet, sakura flavour, as you would find it in food, so almost a gourmand version - sakura mikado sticks, sakura mochi, pale pink sweets. After the sake note disappears (too quickly, I wish it didn't, it's the best bit) you are left with a soft, Polly Pocket smell. It's incredibly nostalgic, brightly coloured plastic dolls, stickers, scented toys. If I leave the house wearing something fun and silly, I want to have this on, because the soft dry-down makes me feel like a cartoon character (a good thing). It smells like pink if pink had a smell.

This is a very interesting fragrance as it actually smells of sake (Ginjo)... The initial odour is a mix of sake, with hints of pear, banana, red currants, after which a floral accord of natural light powdery rose with blossoms. The base is a very light dusting of wood and musk. I would say the fragrance profile for Hanamizake is a upside down triangle where the top not is very dominant, the sake note lingers throughout the body. This fragrance would last around 2hrs on skin, and around 5hrs on smelling strips / paper. A 50ml EdP costs 3,780JPY (incl. tax), it is a very interesting creation, and it is a culture experience. An absolute bargain!

An unusual take on cherry blossom that opens with a sake note combined with cherry blossom, then the floral remains but with an incense twist that keeps the floral note from turning sweet during the dry down. It’s a floral scent with a dry quality. Japanese perfume style: as noted by others, Hanamizake is light and disappears around 90 minutes. But the price point is good, and I find that during the warmer months I like scents that dissipate so that I can switch mid day to another perfume. Overall I like Hanamizake.

In the Sawtelle district of Los Angeles, you can buy a Cherry Blossom soda and Hokkaido Sweet Cream Bun for less than ten dollars and eat them under the shade of a Jacaranda tree while fizzy J-Pop music bounces out on the wind from the Manga shop nearby. Life feels warm, pink, bubbly and incredibly sweet in this moment. It may not exactly be Harajuku, but it's pretty good if you enjoy the feeling of happiness, bottled, with just a slight boozy taste of Japan.

Upon first spray I was hit with an incredibly strong (and rather unpleasant scent) but within a few minutes it dries down to a sharp but sweet scent which I find myself enjoying thoroughly. It's sillage is rather intimate but this is common among Japanese scents. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys floral scents. I have never personally smelt sake before but there's a boozy undertone present in the perfume which adds a remarkable layer of depth.