Himitsu Violets

ugh. i really like this, which sucks, because i had to spray it 3x more than i usually would to get even close to a little bit of projection, and i am the opposite of a beast mode oversprayer, so that should tell you something. i just can barely smell it unless i put my arm up close to my nose, and that's a shame for a scent so lovely, but especially for a scent so damn pricey. anyway, of course i was going to like it, violets and heliotrope are my favourite florals and they are front and center here, and the leather is more of a moccasin suede rather than a new car leather, making it soft and not at all nauseating. the violets are impressively lasting, and they are the exact kind of violet that i love, edible-sweet and powdery. the heliotrope radiates a warm floral glow, and there's an almost minty undercurrent to the entire composition that keeps it from becoming cloying. it reminds me of someone's well-loved suede purse, with a spilled tin of violet pastilles, a pack of mint chewing gum, and lingering floral perfume. elegant, but not trying too hard. all of this in miniature, of course, like handwriting so tiny you have to squint to read it. it gives my other leathery violet favourite (deadly nightshade by alkemia, now tragically discontinued) a serious run for its money, although they are very different in mood, but i just don't know if i could justify the price point given the performance. but the more i smell it the more i fall in love... oh no.

This perfume is a real treasure in perfumery. Himitsu in japanese means secret, but I feel like "Memory" would be a slightly better name for this gorgeous bottle. It evokes memories from your best days and teleportes to deep caves of nostalgia. Somehow it is also achieving that without sad feeling that normally comes with looking back at our past. It is warm and powdery, moist and sweet, leathery and refreshing.. Its just everything but still mostly gentle and subtle. I personally can smell: -soda (cold Coca-Cola) -violets (sweet but not too sweet) -leather (adds warmth after I would say 1h) -sweet powder (creamy and cottony) I would say this scent is for women, although the leathery notes could make some men want to buy it. Its a scent that is perfectly balanced. Sweet but not too sweet. Warm but fresh. The longevity is there for few hours if you gonna spray it few times. If you gonna spray it one time- it will dissapear pretty fast since it is a skin scent (u will smell it delicatly on your skin). I would reccomend spraying it few times since I see some comments that are dissapointed by longevity- just spray a bit more and its gonna last you few hours. Very pretty botle. Romantic, soft and nostalgic. My new favourite <3 Edit: Still my favourite but the lasting power is nonexistent T-T

If Santal 33 is the downtown extrovert, Himitsu is the uptown introvert. Wistful, worldly, just back from a writer’s residency abroad. And while you may balk at the comparison to S33, I think both fragrances cultivate that clear, bone-blond woods scent I associate with luxury furniture stores and Arch Digest-worthy artists’ lofts. I swear they pump something cousin to Himitsu into the W Hotel. However, compared to S33, there’s more chapters to this elixir. This is an all-season pleaser, both nocturnal and diurnal. You could go straight from board meetings to violet hour cocktails with this blend. In Himitsu, refined, earthen notes like leather and suede are offset by candied violets and sassafras cola. If there’s any evocation of Japan, I’m also getting white peach gummies, like the gumdrops from Kasugai. It’s a Hermes satchel magpie-d full of sweets. Maybe that’s the secret to Himitsu. Mental Snapshot: You’re nestled in the buttery leather of a first-class recliner on the shinkansen, orchid stormclouds blotting the dusk. You’re travelling on business. And the business is a complete and total lack of responsibilities. You’re nursing a packet of gummy lychee. You’re the most celebrated poet of the century, but none will crack your pseudonym. Tl;dr: c-suite sweet-tooth 👜🪻

Oh DR, you’ve done it again. This is just exquisite. After a series of disastrous recent blind buys I was not expecting such a gem. But this is really special! I don’t understand the people saying they cannot detect violet, because one little spray and there was a full on blast of sweet, parma violet sugaryness to my nose! But then immediately comes a lovely almost menthol aniseed note that cools everything down. Exactly like one of those violette French pastilles with the little aniseed inside. After which there’s a lovely, suede leather bottom note that matures the perfume and makes it feel so much more sophisticated and grown up. It’s sweet and tender and comforting and motherly, but also a little fragile and sad. This makes me think of 1980s Russia, walking to the Bolshoi ballet in the snow, hand in hand with mom. Your mother sporting stylish Princess Di short hair and a long warm black fur coat, she gives you a violet candy from her leather purse, the cold Moscow night wind blowing her musky feminine perfume in your face now and then, reminding you of her warm comforting presence among the bitter cold.

A shy scent, a wallflower, lightly sweet like the softest sprinkling of confectioners' sugar. The suede is quiet in the background, slyly idiosyncratic, like rolling your eyes when no one's watching. Honestly so pretty, but in a way that evades convention. It's difficult to really describe this in a way that does it justice. I get powdery violets and a whisper of a dried-apricot-like sweetness, suede that's soft from loving wear, the muguet and heliotrope rounding it all out. There aren't any hard edges here. I love the imagery of secrecy in the marketing on this one. I think it's the perfect concept.

Himitsu Violets smells as if a candied violet accord was created from a 1:1 blend of iris and lilac. Perfectly blended, multifaceted, masterfully balanced. A supreme illustration of heliotrope. Floral forward. Realistic, honeyed florals. A hint reminiscent of Queen Anne’s Lace before it turns indolic. Delicacy counterbalanced by an ambery, gently musky, subtle suede backbone. Soft, warm, fresh, lightly powdery, slightly creamy, faintly tart, a tickle of spice. Gorgeous and addictive. Romantic with an edge. Serene, enchanting, and easy-wearing.

Oh my god heavenly! Like crushing a violet candy to powder between your teeth. Like wearing a soft, soft sophisticated suede jacket, or borrowing your mom's purse. Cool, elegant neutrals, a brush of femininity. A dawn fragrance & dusk fragrance Update: my mom said this smells like "a box of fresh bandaids" lol Update #2: after a second claim of "antiseptic" smell, I'll confess I can detect a note of doctor's office; I hate going to the doctor but I still love this perfume. A utopian doctor's office, if anything

Himitsu Violets is like you are on your way to the ballet, and you open up your suede purse to pull out a tin of violet pastilles to freshen your breath before you enter the theatre. I don't notice any lily-of-the-valley or saffron, but all of the other notes are present. A relatively simple fragrance but so nicely done. I love how it's not too green or ozonic like so many other violet perfumes. Update: Bought a full bottle 1.5 years later. Couldn't forget it. Two sprays last all day on me with soft sillage.

This is for sure a candied Violet fragrance with suede in the background but for me it also has a bit of a Coca Cola vibe as well. During the dry down the violet stays prominent and there is an almost smokey note that appears. There’s such a light effervescence about this fragrance that makes me happy every time I smell it. I’d say if I had to that this is unisex but leans a bit feminine, as a male I’ll still happily wear it.

Soft and dry. Sugary. Something I’d gravitate towards at bedtime but it's so clean and sweet I'd wear it during the day too. There’s something faintly artificial smelling about it (parma violets spring to mind) but it doesn’t bother me. Kind of like being given a really good hug by someone you feel ambivalent towards. The more I wear it the more I love it. Pairs well with: Ooo - Karen O

Eating gummy bears in a suede jacket. I think this is a masterpiece. The soft and clean violets, something round and bouncy, almost fruity if you lean into it, and slightly medicinal saffron giving it an unexpected edge. It has enough dimension to make it interesting while still feeling like pure & simple joy.

smells like: crushed violet pastilles, a sprig of mint, a suede leather purse (in no other shade but brown/plum) filled with gum wrappers, lychee flavored konnyaku jelly, peelerz gummy peaches, 'franny' by mad planets, and watching 'blue velvet' (1986) by david lynch in a dark, quiet room.

Beautiful violet on first spray but the suede over powers for a few minutes once settled it’s a lovely powdered suede with a hint of violet. Love but not sure I Love it enough for a full bottle

a soft, mournful, and beautiful scent. candied violets with soft powdery florals to add depth. makes me want to curl under my comforter and let melancholy take hold

This was an immediate love with the realistic violet and soft leather notes. This is going on my to-buy list.

Very grateful to have worn this through my first trip to Japan this past year, love you.

Interesting, unique, and well conceived...a great daytime fragrance which is unisex

Forget Tears, Himitsu Violets is the one that truly smells like melancholy

I have learned I only enjoy Leather/Suede when it is with Violet.......

This is really pretty and well-made, although sweetish powder/doll-head violet-heliotropes like this aren't wearable for me. I've tried to figure out why, and I'm begining think that (for me) these kinds of 'trad fem' cute/nostalgic/vintage smells only work if deliberately, performatively queered/subverted by the wearer, either by some aspect of the wearer's identity (not necessarily sexual/gender), or by some other performative coding indicating a deliberately chosen/transcended ironic gap between wearer and scent. Alternatively, romantic pastel-toned 'girly girls/boys/...' might be able to embrace the trad feminine codes of such a perfume without irony. I don't feel able to do either of these things, and since candied-violet-heliotrope for me smells of inherited feminine norms that so many of us are obliged to work all our lives, most of the time failing, to instantiate, on my skin the genre just reads as mawkish. It's not even age-related - I remember feeling this way about a similarly pretty-floral, albeit non-violet, perfume (Givenchy Fleur d'Interdit) in my late teens. I'd really like to smell Himitsu on interesting others, though, so do test! A useful comparator is Universal Flowering's Heliotrope Milkbath, which I also struggle to wear, although it's slightly weirder than Himitsu due to its funky drydown - if pushed to choose, I'd go for HM. Another close relative of Himitsu, Violette Fumee, also nostalgic (Grey Flannel was a deliberate point of reference I think) and playdough-ish, by cutting out the sweetness and veering unisex somehow makes violet happily wearable for me. In the wider sweet-doll perfume arena, I like Celeste's exaggerated brightness and artificiality, which do some of the ironising work for me. In the drydown Himitsu fades towards featherlight yet plush suede, and is lovely. A note on presentation: I haven't seen the bottle in real life, but the colour of the cap is just perfect for the scent.

Over the years I have grown fond of powdery violets, but this is really something else. It is powdery, clean, and a prominent violet and heliotrope powdery floral that gives a slight soapy vibe to the initial spritz. It is light and mellow, but at the same time it is dark and sultry thanks to the suede. I tend to find suede notes a bit difficult and masculine leaning but in this fragrance is feels masterfully blended and exciting. On the skin it delivers pretty similar to the paper strip, but there is a slight kick of something spicy in the base. I am not sure whether that is the suede that has warmed up on my skin, or if it is the tolu balsam that gives a resinous effect. I am saddened by my inability to pick up on the lily-of-the-valley, I am not sure if that is because it is too anonymous in the composition or if it is blended too well in with the soapy-ness from the heliotrope. But when that initial drydown comes and the scent has settled down on my skin, everything is perfectly blended and the scent has evolved into something really pretty and sophisticated. Something that can fit every occasion, season and event. It is also very much unisex. In some whiffs it may lean feminine because of the flowers, but when you smell that warm suede it leans more towards the masculine spectrum. Other than that, it stays pretty linear throughout the wear. The violet gets slightly juicier, and the powder dies down, but unfortunately, I still do not get any lily-of-the-valley. It ends up as a light musky suede, and I am here for it! (P.S. During one of my test-wears I coincidentally tested this on the same arm that I had put on ‘Blanche Bête’ by Liquides Imaginaires, and that was a heavenly combo!)

Himitsu starts on skin with a withdrawn and reserved violet, almost transparent, accompanied by a tiny tinge of soap. It feels light, clean and wispy. Not at all sugary or overly powdery. As it starts to age on the skin the violet deepens, and is now accompanied by its friend heliotrope to help pump up the purple haze. Which by the way is still fairly mild, but. You can definitely smell it as it rises in puffs around you and it is lovely and cool, and has a little fruity edge. Not sweet but chewy. Slowly a very refined and sedate white leather enters this picture. This is like a white smoke that works to infiltrate and lighten the purple tones to lavender, and after about 7 hours Himitsu has transitioned to the palest lavender imaginable and then fades away. Overall I would describe this as being a mild, unisex violet that is lovely but for the most part very subtle. It’s interesting because it’s not a fresh garden violet or a candy pastille violet, it’s something different. An urbane and minimal violet. For reference, I have Violet Volynka and I find the leather in that one to be much more dominant than it is in Himitsu.

It’s a strongly violet and powdery perfume, very elegant and clean scent but not for wearing lightly. First sniff was what a posh and attractive scent I found then and now I don’t wear this often as those notes are quite violet and suede stays on my skin which lasts a bit too long. When I want to feel myself well groomed in a proper occasion both on and off, I put this slightly on my wrists. A little cool and solid accords (not a dull floral fragrance at all, and this one is absolutely stunning) to my nose especially before starting or after the middle note. When I am not feeling I cannot wear this scent, so it works perfectly when my condition is pretty good!

This perfume is very fascinating. I agree with the person who stated they expected a citrus note based on how sweet it is. It reminds me of chewing bubblegum as a child and sniffing purple flowers in the garden at the same time. You know how some bubblegums make your mouth water? There's something in the sweetness of this that does the exact same thing to me physically but then underneath there's this super realistic purple petal smell. I find it surprisingly not powdery though. Hmm, yeah it's certainly very unique to anything else I've ever smelled. I think it's decent, but I definitely do not need a full bottle.

i like that regime des fleurs does not have a noticeable "DNA" that other perfume houses have, most of which have a strange stale vibe that usually gives me a headache. Himitsu violets is soooo perfect for the transition from winter into spring, its a cool sweet fragrance that doesnt overstay its welcome. its light and easy to wear, and since my workplace is quite small i dont have to worry about being too intrusive! i think if i smelled this on someone walking past me, id totally have to flag them down to figure out what that delicious smell is!

This scent smells like the color purple to me! I am still trying to debate if I like it or not. I feel like this is a scent you smell and you're like yup that is from a niche house. It smells very unique to me and it is hard for me to put into words. Every time I smell it I get hit with a specific scent which may be the suede and it takes a moment for my brain to wonder if I like it or not. That scent may be a little too overpowering for me to consider this full bottle worthy.

I find the note of violet beautiful and whimsical. It is beautifully realised here by Dominique Ropion. In combination with quite a strong, earthy suede note, Himitsu Violets smells unexpected, sophisticated, unusual and enchanting. There is a slightly skanky undercurrent that smells like a cumin note, which I don't see listed. I'm not sure this would be easy to wear, or garner compliments but I'm definitely intrigued! Powdery, elegant and floral yet moody.

I'd previously praised Willows' violet, but this one is also very pretty. This one is more deeply sweet and floral than their other compounds. It feels more like a candy violet (or almost little fizzy peach ring, chewy gelatin candy), and the lily of the valley is also relatively beefy. It's not my favorite in these types of accords (the lily of the valley bothers me a little bit), but it's a very pretty, simple yet elegant balmy floral.

Smells like a wet mossy forest earth. I dont get much sweetness like I'd hoped. There's a suede-like textural quality, but also feels like a damp woodland somehow. It reminds me of For Walks from Blocki, which smells like decaying autumn leaves in the best way. I quite like this scent, although it's not what I expected from the notes. Doesn't last very long on my skin but I dont mind that.

Violet candy with a touch of Coca-Cola. But it doesn’t end up as sticky-sugary as all that. Light, soapy florals brighten it up; soft, whispery suede dries it out. Comforting sweetness meets ironed-out crispness, which is appropriate given how close it sits after a while. It lasted a long time in the crook of my elbow and felt like keeping a secret (or stashing a roll of pocket candy).

Somewhere between like and love. When first sprayed I get a sweet violet similar to a Devon violet scent and a violet candy. A tiny bit powdery. As it drys down out comes the leather-suede. Some liken violet scents to smelling a bit like gas, I get a little of that here. The longevity is pretty good.

I was a little taken aback by how sugary this was at first, but it definitely grew on me. Violets, suede, candy—a little grandma-y, but in a cool way. Literally cool, not warm. I'd definitely wear it if I had a bottle, but it might not be a go-to. Antiseptic in a way that might be polarizing.

This is NOT Violet candy. In fact I detect no candy at all. It’s not powdery either. I’d compare this most to a violet tea. There’s something green or aromatic mixed in the background. It’s nice. It’s soft. It’s understated. But a little too understated for what I’m looking for. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I very much like it but it’s quiet as a whisper. Which maybe thats what you are going for. Soft. Delicate petals. Skin scent. I really do like the scent. I want this but just a couple notches higher in intensity.

This smells very bathy to me, like something an 80's milf would wear after a long bath, mixed with an open window of greens and violets in the rain! I really like it for before bed on my pj's close to the skin.

Though I love soft florals, I rarely find a violet-dominant or heliotrope-dominant fragrance I love. This has something you just can't quite/stop smelling about it. lovely.

A darling, feminine scent. Soft and powdery sweetness, no syrup here, at the edges of soap. A transparent and crisp candy violet.

Beautiful violet smell that reminds me of choward's mints. Vintage feeling. Love the fragrance but not much lasting power on me.

Strikes me as a daytime version of Dior Fahrenheit. Great addition to my collection.

mom gave me a candy from the bottom of her purse

Marisa Berenson as Lady Lyndon (1975)

I guess if you LOVE violets you will love this very violet perfume. It's flowery but not in a mushy, grandma, Guerlain way. It's modern which means minimalist, cool, digital, spare, dietetic. It has a certain reserve about it. It emits the violets but also subtly fragrances with saffron, lily of the valley and heliotrope. These are balanced with suede, so there is a part of the notes that read powdery, musky and leathery. After the initial BLAST of VIOLETS it settles into a warm, powdery somewhat flowery fragrance. Many will either love it or hate it. For me, it was just like MEH. And the price is RIDICULOUS at $275 a bottle. I would rather take my $275 and buy a new fall wardrobe at Uniqlo.

i was unfortunately disappointed with this. I made a special trip to go try it out after seeing reviews and thinking about it for weeks — when I tested it today the only notes I was able to get were leather and wood, which combined into a bit of an “attic” smell, as my sister put it. I was almost inclined to think something had been wrong with the particular bottle but I’ve just decided to accept the disappointment. It feels like the one that got away! If I see another tester bottle though I will be trying to see if I get the more pleasant notes that almost everyone else seems to have gotten... Longevity ~6 hrs Silage 4/10

my boyfriend and i smelled this at Merz and immediately said at the exact same time "Blue Raspberry Jolly Rancher" tried it again when i got the discovery set and unfortunately the suede note pulls so strong on skin for me and i had to scrub it off

Candied violets , sticky grape candy, and a broken powder compact all ruffling around the bottom of my leather purse. I almost blind bought a bottle on sale before my sample arrived . God is teaching me patience and I'm his favorite pupil

To me the opening smells like sharp leather that’s been doused in sanitizer. It eventually dries into this maybe sugary flower. I’d like this more if the opening wasn’t so bad and the performance was decent.

This is so interesting and unique. It smells like if violets could be rock candy. I don’t really want to smell like that personally but it’s a cool scent for sure

On me goes quickly to suede/leather note. Feels more unisex than anticipated on me. A little dark academia themed.

In my heart I believe that there is a violet perfume out there for me, but this is not it.

if this didn't have that minty throughnote i would be utterly obsessed with it :/