Mushin Japanese Incense

Oh my, what a wonderful perfume this is... I have tried 10 perfumes from Matthew and this is by far my absolute favorite. This is just masterful perfumy and a deep understanding of nuances and contrasts. Slightly bitter and smoky incense with a dark resinous oud layered with a bit of coconut and creamy sandalwood. A little bit of orris butter to give it a slightly earthy and powdery feel. This fragrance is a dream in itself and it's actually one of my favorite fragrances right now. Look at my collection and you will see that that statement means something. I will be saving money to get this one, for sure. Matthew is a very underrated perfumer and he is starting to make waves. The tsunami is coming soon. Read full reviews on my blog: musingsofafraghead.blogspot.com/

I am writing the same general review for my favorite Meleg perfumes - Civet Cat Chypre, Birch Tar and Russian Leather, Honey and Deer Musk, Madeline Peach, Oakmoss Forest Florals, and Mushin. I am very particular about perfume, and it is not often that I find something I really love. I expected to really like 1 out of the 10 samples of the sample set I received from Etsy, but there were 6! They are very special - unique, smooth, well blended, interesting, wearable, beautiful, and addictive! Nothing weird or harsh standing out, and nothing like I’ve smelled before out of the over 1000 perfumes I’ve encountered just in the last few years.

Pale incense, delicate balsamics, and a dream-soft floral accord that's tinted with the faint sweetness of stone fruit. It's exquisitely light and clean, but also unquestionably plush, even cozy. Orris root isn't actually listed on the brand's website, but there is a subtle earthiness here—as delicate and subtly grounding as using a pebble for a paper weight. It's comforting yet elusive—ambient yet intimate. Like a lonely ghost that lives in your apartment. The ghost is in love with you. When you're sad, it sits beside you and whispers nice things in your ear - gentle kindnesses you can almost hear.

A very spiritual, light floral, incense. Unique! Mushin could be my favorite from Meleg. It is classy, well balanced, safe for most occasions. Mushin does not have any musky or civet notes. So it smells clean and pure from sin. I came to Meleg looking for those vintage musk scents. Mushin changed my mind. Matthew Meleg is truly gifted. Please consider buying his samples to support his art.

I really love the smell of this perfume. Meleg lists apricot accord the top note on his website and that scent really comes through for me. If I get in really close I get the oud but I wouldn't describe this scent as particularly smoky or leathery as some do below. I get what to me smells like coconut as well. Coconut often translates into a sunscreen scent for me but not here. To me this scent is plump and warm without being too sweet. When I first sprayed my sample, I wondered if my sprayer was broken or perhaps the spray had separated because it seemed like I couldn't smell it directly off of my skin. However, throughout the day I am catching delicious whiffs of myself which assure me the scent is very much alive and well on me. Very nice scent.

The name Mushin represents a state of serene focus: calm, tranquility and mental clarity. I would say it definitely does just that, wearing this perfume is incredibly relaxing and has that ever elusive ‘zen’ feeling to it. The scent is composed primarily of an incredibly soft and smooth frankincense which is dry and airy, contrasted by the sweet fruitiness of osmanthus, apricot and peach. Gentle powdery florals and a creamy amber base finish the fragrance beautifully, leaving an gorgeously smooth and subtle sillage behind you. Personally, I feel this scent is too gentle and airy to warrant a full bottle purchase, however I cannot deny its beauty. I will very much enjoy wearing my sample on days where I need a little serenity in my life.

I think this is my favorite perfume from Meleg. Soft, buttery smooth, effortlessly clean and sophisticatedly beautiful. Transports me to a Japan, where there are Cherry Blossoms! Not too strong, just for me to enjoy. Smells like heaven!

Smells like wearing an oily black leather jacket after eating popcorn at the movies and you just applied hand lotion following your smoking a cigarette. Fifteen minutes after my initial sprays, for me at least, it turned into a slightly leather/floral scented hand lotion with smoke touches. If I had to guess I would think the wearer of this kind of scent is more reserved, sophisticated and refined. This scent lacks depth however and on my skin develops very little. I have never experienced Japanese incense but I wish this fragrance was another 20-30% darker and perhaps more masculine. I am looking forward to trying other offerings from this brand. This is worth trying if you love incense as a note

A sweet incense not austere or churchy, slightly fruity and mildly smoky. Some minor florals here and a bitterness but I'm not sure where that is coming from (kind of an anise tone to it for me, but that's not in the notes afaik). Further into the drydown this starts to get a little creamy woody. This is ok, I love incense usually but sorry to say that this doesn't excite me and it doesn't make me think of Japan at all.

so i had read some hype about this one and decided to finally give it a go. i have my girlfriend smell blind to get an objective eye towards how close/far away the scent is to the claim. she said she kind of liked and immediately said it smelled like “powdery diapers” i don’t get that but i must say this smells literally nothing like japanese incense. he claims to use a high percentage of naturals but the juice is basically clear. this smells super generic, like maybe there is a hint of frankincense and very little woody at all. i have a large collection of japanese incense and this shares 0 resemblance with any i have ever smelled. slight sandalwood, slight floral sweet aroma chemical mediocrity. i read someone say buttery popcorn which i can kind of see, it also just goes on so incredibly light. there must be no or only some tiny symbolic amount of oud here as is obvious from the transparent juice, lack of woodiness or any oud quality as well as terrible projection. usually i just don’t like something and i move on but i literally want my money back i think this is such a poor attempt at a fragrance, i see others liking it and normally i respect it’s not for me and move on but i really can’t imagine liking this on any level. poor projection boring smell moderately floral synthetic butter

Hmm, out of the ten fragrances in the Meleg sampler, this was the only disappointment. Perhaps not coincidentally, it was also the only one in which I thought I detected a modern synthetic aroma chemical (I’m guessing norlimbanol). Whatever it is, something I’m probably hypoosmotic to stuck out and ruined this one for me. (I’m hypo osmotic to loads of stuff so the miracle is that this was the only one.) This was a huge bummer because I really liked the rest of what I smelled and it reminded me of a more substantial version of my beloved Odori Iris where the spice performs like smoky incense against the fatty iris.

My review is from the bottle from the first spray you get a beautiful incense mixed with thick orris butter the oud and rose and other notes stay under the incense and orris for the life of this frangrance. I get around 10 hours on the skin with about 6 of strong projection get release

This is the third fragrance that I have from Matthew, Golden Gai is Toxic love, Birch Tar is seriously axe-wielding and Mushin is Zen-Divine! I'm the only Samurai walking around in my city, just call me Miyamoto Mushin.