Kodama 木霊

There is a lot to unpack in Kodama. "A close-wearing silk robe, attenuated for your own personal enjoyment, and for the haunting trail that your lover will associate with you, and you alone" means that we should smell the complexities of a person, all of the thoughts, hopes, memories, desires, pains, and the love that makes someone them. Kodama succeeds at achieving this, but just like getting to know a person you cannot have a single encounter with Kodama and learn all there is to know about it; time, patience, talking and listening, and courtship are going to be needed. At the moment of my third and final draft of this review I had been wearing Kodama for more than a week straight and I was only just starting to understand it. There are two reasons for this: one, the oud is exceptional and very multi-faceted; significant amounts of time could be spent on this material alone. Two, there are so many other materials in Kodama and they interact with each other in inseparable ways, overlapping each other in huge swaths, that truly picking them out to hear their unique voices is particularly tricky. One of the timbres is green. Geranium with its earthy, minty, citrus qualities gives edges to the surprisingly quiet green qualities of tuberose. A significant amount of overlap is noticed with evergreen leaves (cypress and fir, supposedly), that are really only recognizable through the slight resinous note. One of the timbres is white. It is not just the green notes of the tuberose that are surprisingly quiet, the whole of the tuberose is surprisingly quiet as well, but you are able to pull something fleshy, heady, and rosey in Kodama. However, picking this apart from the creamy white floral notes of orange blossom is a difficult task. If it weren't for the whispering, silky orange note, the sweet and creamy white floral notes could have just as easily been assumed to be fully the tuberose. One of the timbres is brown. Sweet, earthy, mouthwatering vanilla and tonka are inseparable, truly. Sandalwood and cedar are here as well in supporting roles. Ambrette's sweet, oily, musky profile is a powerful accent to the oud. The oud is driving this timbre, and driving this perfume. This not your typical medicinal, skanky and fecal barnyard oud. It is shockingly quiet and nuanced, "haunting" from the brand description is a great word for this oud, like smelling a second skin or a spirit presence. The wood notes are equally oily, resinous, aromatic, and earthy, and the floral notes are deep and lush, almost rose like, with the whole of the wood facet smelling similar to something like labdanum. There are musky, leathery, and animalic notes to it that are sweet and skin like, significantly overlapping with the ambrette. Lovely stuff. Unfortunately, I don't think many people are going to care for Kodama. I think many will find it too complicated and confusing, and others still won't appreciate (or be able to smell) its many nuances and will have a simple "meh" reaction, while others will be out to buy an "oud" perfume and then moan about Kodama's lack of beast mode longevity and lack of beast mode offensiveness. This is a perfume for connoisseurs it seems, but even I'm unsure of that; connoisseurs of the floral amber genre, most likely (I think). See? Even I'm a touch lost - still so, after more than a week with it. But, none of these potential criticisms are the faults of Kodama or Reinthal, in my opinion, if valid at all. I truly think Kodama is one of those rare perfumes that requires more processing power than the vast majority of human noses and brains are capable of. In short, it smells great and it is highly thought provoking. Though I'm not one for the "signature scent" mandate, this would fit the bill for a signature: you could wear it the rest of your life, and still may never fully come to understand it.

New formulation* From the beginning, you are met with the sweet, floral-citrusiness of the murraya blossom. Supporting this is the green-woody hum of her woods “chord” that lasts through the entire experience. A soft geranium appears and then orange blossom, which continues with the floral-citrusiness. The orange blossom sticks around for quite a while and just continues to get slightly sweeter as the warm tonka bean and Mysore set in. The beautiful Vietnamese Oud begins to show itself, but is a bit more reserved and blended-in than the Oud in Black Spruce. An earthy nuttiness accents the Oudiness with the addition of Ambrette seed. This Oudy earthiness and the green woody accord finish out the very long wear. One of my very top favorites from TRNP

A very nice fragrance that fits the Japanese aesthetic well. Citrusy and green in the opening. A high pitched citrus flower leads the opening stages that goes from slightly bitter to pleasantly sweet. Somewhere in the middle there is a watery nuance. Some Di Ser, a natural Japanese house, fragrances have this same quality. It could be the geranium responsible for this but not sure. Oud links the mid to the drydown where a woody tonka leads the way and clings to my skin forever. I think it leans towards cypress in woodiness overall, as that can have an almost lemony nuance to it, with the slightly smoky facet of oud. There is a decent amount of sandalwood detectable too that smells of high quality. Though supposedly subtle and delicate I actually think it's decently powerful. Pretty good sillage from 4 sprays and lasts over 12 hours. Very happy that I added this one to the collection.

Opening of Kodama has a dynamic great tree atmosphere. It become a scent which is more amber strengthened and is grounded to mother earth. The scent begins with spicy cedarwood and warm amber. Cypress adds a little cool mood to the natural sweet orange blossom and the smart geranium, and eventually it turns into a fluffy oriental natural floral. It's not heavy but is stable and soft. While rustic, it's elegant. It's the long-lasting and the dry-down is beautiful. I can recommend Kodama to a person who is pressed for time. If a person wears it and close eyes, she/he will be relax soon. Earthy and woody oriental floral. Gentle scent.

The Oud is very prominent in this but florals just manage to tame down the sharpness just a tad. The oud is king in this fragrance. One of the best spring perfumes I have ever smelled. Reminds me of a spring garden at a park or public estate while the sun is out but starting to go dark. It’s not the strongest fragrance but it’s definitely there as I find this fragrance comes and goes as it pleases. It will completely disappear and come back with a vengeance through the life of the perfume. Last about (on and off) on my skin for about 8 hours. Shame about the price of this now as with is the nature of natural perfumes ingredients don’t become available anymore. Try this out.