Hana Hiraku

What a beautiful perfume! I have been obsessed with Japanese aesthetics for years and have searched for a perfume artist from Japan for ages. There are not many, however during my research one artist stood out: Osawa Satori. I initially came across a review for Hana Hiraku on a Japanese blog. I settled for Satori in my mind as this perfume was more catered to the scents I prefer, however due to backorder of the item in the States I purchased Hana Hiraku instead. Hana means 'flower' in Japanese, and Hiraku means 'open'. It can translate to mean 'open flower' or 'blooming flower'. This perfume starts off with a creamy melon ball, and progresses gently to a floral magnolia. I smell the umami of the soybean and it lays close to the skin. The melon remains present throughout, intermingled with the magnolia. I do get a light incense drydown that adds spice to this beautiful creature. I believe it to be the sandalwood and cedar. This has moderate longevity on my skin, however it remains close and soft in sillage: catering to the Japanese aesthetic of being non-offensive and caring about the effects it might have on others. In my culture, sadly it has become a take all and give none approach to life. This scent reminds me to care about others and to radiate a soft and peaceful presence. It remains for quite awhile and I can still catch whiffs of it throughout the day, but it never becomes beastly. It remains present: a flower standing alone, only caught in bloom by the lucky passerby. I cannot wait to try Satori and recommend Hana Hiraku to any who wish to venture into Japanese perfume. I will treasure until the last drop.

I've been searching for a photorealistic honeydew melon scent for a while. Not necessarily in the sense of the fruit, but in the flavor you see in Japanese snacks and candies. This smells the way artificial melon tastes. It's one of my absolute favorite scents. If Hana Hiraku was easier to get than Angel Nova, I'd definitely wear this as my signature. At almost 200 a bottle though, I think this is too niche to blind buy, and it's too expensive for me to readily invest in. It's candy-like at first which can be hard to bear for people who don't like the smell, then there's more of a milky melon scent, with a floral/woody ending. I've tried a few different melon perfumes. Not all of them have gelled well with my nose, I can bet there are a ton of people who don't like this specific brand of honeydew scent, but if you're a huge fan of melona ice cream or melon pan you will love this.

Satori Hana Hiraku (2016) - melon umami - Beyond #satoriosawa ‘s knack for creating these beautiful and airy accords, she also develops them with such a unique and joyful perspective that makes her creations a delight to wear. This perfume is one of them. Honeydew melon freshly cut - sweet & ripe, mixed with smoky Incense and a floral accord - bitter, cut-grass, powdery with a human skin facet. As it dries down, I get notes that I am shocked to smell on my skin, as I associate it with Japanese food! These accords are soy sauce and miso - both powerful agents of Umami and first time for me to witness in perfumery. Lay your fears aside as you won’t smell like yakitori, but it lends a beautiful rounded smoky saltiness that creates juxtaposition with the sweeter elements. It was love at first sniff and I recommend anyone visiting Japan to get a hold off a sample to sniff.

Haven’t ever smelled anything like it. I’m always on the hunt for weird stuff, this one knocked my socks off!! Top note is loud blast of ozone and melon hard candy, then it leans more into Melon pan, + those mochi cubes covered in soybean powder, and some miso umami. It’s not totally photorealistic which is why it’s great - It’s really wet and juicy, and it's got that boggy vomity white floral stank. Makes me think of a swampy shaded pond. So there's lots going on. Fascinating and addictive contrast between squeaky-cute artificiality and a muddy, algae-covered rock you'd dig up from the bottom of that shaded pond. Grounded by that soy nuttiness. Idk how they pulled it off but it works beautifully.

This is my first Janapese perfume that I own, and I think as far as the scent goes, the scent is niche quality, a milky melon that feels a bit dirty, a bit indolic. However the silage and longevity is somehow lacking, just like any other perfume from Japan. I tried a couple of perfumes from Satori, but they suffer from the same low-silage and weak-longevity. I think it's more about Japanese culture , that a perfume could not be intrusive. I expected more actually...

Such a delicate “humid” perfume. I can’t wait to own this. If the entire world around me smelled like this I would be very happy. A hazy fruity and musky woody oriental, I’ve never smelled anything like it. Since I can not describe the smell: it reminds me of a quiet pond after a humid summer days rain. It evokes the feeling of zen inside me. I really love it. Try it if you love an aquatic oriental with added fruits and incense.

Initially I did not care for this but I found the soybean paste (miso) and the soy sauce addictive. Very unique scent.

Creamy, buttery, odd, addictive. One of the best scents ever. Run, don’t walk.

The melon opening here is really special—velvety, sweet, a little milky in combination with the tuberose. In fact, it bears a strong resemblance to the cantaloupe-flavored Jelly Belly, even bringing a bit of that waxiness. While I think that suggests its less of a natural melon than a melon with “natural flavors,” its simulacrum is working. The official notes mention miso and shoyu in the base. Those savory, umami notes are present under the sweet fruity florals, but they’re subtle. Personally, I’d like a bit more of them. Satori’s perfumes wear *so* lightly that they are almost undetectable to me. Not that they’ve disappeared or fizzled away, they’re still there, just so soft and quiet. Call it Japanese aesthetics if you want, but as a loud American, I could use a little more oomph. That said, its restraint makes it wearable, never loud or cloying. It’s a really nice fragrance, but it doesn’t quite fit my style.

Hana Hiraku is about as far afield to my typical choice in fragrances as I could imagine. I tend to enjoy Oud beasts that make their territory in ways that last for many hours if not days. Hana Hiraku is subtle, perhaps even too ephemeral for most. It is largely a skin scent right after the opening blast of melon settles down. If you ever want a true melon smell outside of the thing itself look no further than this fragrance. But the fragrance does have many other notes that whisper softly from your skin. There are many florals and then some hints of more typical fragrances such beeswax and Bergamot. Soybean is listed as a note but I cannot detect it. This fragrance can be a metonymic signifier for the Japanese tradition of beautiful brushstrokes. Roland Barthes had his empire of signs, I have ths fragrance to invoke a world I want to know more about. Effervescent, life-affirming, charming.

I so wish the drydown were as good as the opening. It's not a bad drydown, just a completely different scent by the end. The open is the most photorealistic melon candy/dessert. I think of those little melon hard candies that come in green wrappers, or melon-flavored mochi, it's MAGICAL. The drydown however is a pleasant-enough but not memorable woody smell with a subtle floral nuance and a little piercing. Like cedar, sandalwood, magnolia, and cherry chapstick.

Normally, I love Japanese perfumes, however this was pure stench on my skin. Honestly, I can’t believe a sophisticated Japanese woman would enjoy wearing this as most have a taste for what is elegant, pretty and subtle. Hana Hiraku is none of those things. It is dirty, fecal and barnyard mixed with horse trough water and grain rotting. That sounds harsh, but I had to scrub it off.

Too much melon for me- melon and other aquatics can make me queasy. I was hoping that it would be more subtle, more hidden with the rest of the notes, but it hovers above everything for most of the perfume's life.I like what's underneath which is basically a white floral bouquet with a bit of powdery/leathery iris. Reminds me of a less intense version of Durga by DS & Durga.

Unfortunately, the melon scent in this makes me queasy. Whenever I detect some of the scents underneath, I love them, but the melon scent is so strong that I cannot wear this perfume. It's a shame. But I can definitely see why other people would love this scent.

The melon top note is just so wonderful, springy and smile inducing... however, tuberose is fighting for the spotlight and brings the whole creation down.

In the vial, this is a huge blast of melon, first thing. On skin, too, it’s a blast of overpowering cantaloupe, like a breakfast. True, realistic cantaloupe. Luckily, that fades down fast to a more mellow combination of milk and cantaloupe with some faint, smooth wood backing. It doesn't change much on my skin, and since I don't like cantaloupe, I ended up scrubbing it. But if you do like cantaloupe, this is a very interesting treatment and could be a fun fruity scent for summer.

It smell like those bathrooms in random gas stations along the highway. It's fragrant. It's artificial. And there's something dirty underneath. However, it's a simple layerable scent. I've had good luck layering it with Jo Malone's wood sage & sea salt, Jo Malone's lime basil & mandarin, or Dame's passion fruit orange blossom & vetiver.

-Straight-up bug spray. -Opens with weird notes. (I don't pick up honeydew notes in this.) -Middle notes are reminiscent of soy sauce. -I felt self-conscious that this scent was bothering other commuters when I sampled this it. -This gets a hard pass. Not fbw. (-)