Perfume Review: Shiseido Inoui

Inoui was created in 1976, followed the next year by a line of cosmetics of the same name. According to Shiseido, “unlike other Shiseido products, which were based on oriental concepts, Inoui was created based on western aesthetics” and targeted “the contemporary career woman”. Inoui has been taken off the market in the US and in Europe, and I was unable to find any information on whether it still might be available (and in production) in Japan, so if you know, please comment. Shiseido is quite right when they designate Inoui for a “career woman”. What’s more, although created in the late 1970s, the scent would suit a present-day workplace perfectly well, since it is not a high-impact, forceful scent with monster sillage. This is an exceedingly elegant blend that is simultaneously subtle and full of character. It is described as Green Fresh Balsamic and the list of notes (lemon, galbanum, peach, juniper, jasmine, pine needles, thyme, freesia, oakmoss, cedar, myrrh, civet, musk) seems to promise a rather sharp, bone-dry scent, and indeed Inoui possesses a wonderful, almost-austere, arid greenness. And yet underneath that husky, borderline bitter verdancy of galbanum, pine, cedar and oakmoss, Inoui is unexpectedly, charmingly soft. In the beginning, the softness is due to the presence of peach, which, combined with jasmine, actually makes me think of sweet, yellow roses. In the middle stage, freesia continues that delicately luscious fruity-floral theme, and the drydown features the lovely, warm and sweet myrrh note. The two motives, the cold, dry, green and the warm, peachy, soft coexist in perfect harmony and are as appealing together as a sharply chic, almost manly suit worn with a very feminine, pastel colored, silk blouse. As it is the case with many rich, warm chypres, there is something enchantingly autumnal about Inoui, and it seems to me just as suited for a leisurely stroll through a melancholy park, with the yellow and brown leaves strewn on the ground, as it is for an office. Inoui is available at 1stperfume for $499.00-999.00. Now and then it is possible to find it on eBay, sometimes for just as much, sometimes for significantly less, but never as a bargain. The images are from milky.net and allposters.com.