Rituals
Rituals
77 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Pear's honeyed juiciness immediately asserts itself, with bergamot providing a pale citrus shimmer that feels almost transparent. Lychee arrives moments later, its floral-fruity character lending a delicate, slightly perfumed quality that suggests the cherry blossom's arrival before the heart even properly forms.
The cherry blossom emerges gently, its tender, slightly powdery character woven between strands of persistent lychee sweetness and the amber beginning its warming work. The fruity sweetness evolves into something almost creamy, with the floral maintaining an understated, almost tentative presence at the composition's emotional centre.
The base reveals its woody-earthy skeleton as top and heart notes fade, with patchouli introducing a subtle dustiness that plays against lingering vanilla warmth. What remains is essentially amber-tinged woods with the ghost of fruit sweetness—a distant, skin-close whisper that persists without demanding acknowledgement.
Rêve de Hanami arrives as a deliberately soft-focus interpretation of cherry blossom season—one filtered through a distinctly fruity lens that privileges pear and lychee over botanical authenticity. Rather than pursuing the powdery, almost soapy character typical of cherry blossom fragrances, this reads as a fruit-forward composition where stone fruit sweetness and the delicate musky quality of lychee prop up the floral centre, preventing it from ever becoming precious or overly feminine.
The pear and bergamot opening establishes brightness, but it's a tempered brightness—these aren't sharp citrus notes demanding attention, rather they provide a crisp scaffold upon which the sweeter elements can drape themselves. The Japanese cherry blossom heart never dominates; instead, it emerges as a tender, almost diffused presence, more suggested than declared. This is the fragrance's central conceit: a floral that's comfortable inhabiting a supporting role, content to enhance rather than command.
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3.9/5 (680)