Inouï (1976)
by Shiseido

This is a beauty. I'm not sure it is a remarkable beauty however. It is cheerful and friendly (perhaps the lemon in the opening?) light floral green. I can not detect pine or juniper or anything sharp. To my mind it seems like several "nice" things all in perfect balance..none shoving forward in dominance. If I had to select a leader, or a profile, I'd say "freesia". There is an impression on green peach skin there too - very fleeting. It lingers demurely (as other reviewers have noted). I am thinking it might be too youthful and polite to make it compelling for me...but I cannot deny its beauty.

20th May, 2010. (Last Edited: 26th January, 2011.)

Very VERY beautiful fragrance. I very clearly get the lemony citrus in the top notes. These do not linger and this frag very quickly transitions into the heart. Almost immediately, a strong burst of white flowers comes to the forefront. The jasmin in this fragrance is amazing. It's definitely mixed with other florals here. I'm guessing it is the freesia and the jasmin together that is dominating the heart. I can't put enough emphasis on how beautiful this smells. Most certainly a feminine fragrance. This is the smell of a confident, assertive but carefree woman with an aura of soft sensuality. The heart lasts for about 10 minutes, I'd say, and it transitions into the base over the course of about 5-10 minutes afterward. The musky woods step in slowly and shake hands with the florals and begin to stand just in front of them. The florals are still there, but the scent as a whole takes on a much less ethereal feel and becomes more grounded, but not in a heavy way. There is definitely a bitterness to the woods here. I guess this is the first time I'm smelling civet. Haha, wow, this is great. This smells sort of like a mix between an unripened fruit and a rotten one.

The base is now firmly established. I am most definitely getting the animalic vibe here. Fleeting thoughts of sexual arousal dancing with a sort of bitterness or sourness. Amazing! This smells a little like sex. I don't know why, but it reminds me of "encounters" when I was a teenager and the lingering scents afterward. Sorry... just being honest. I've never experienced a perfume that has done this before. I'm sort of awestruck. After about 15 more minutes, the civet/musk accord steps to the side to reveal what was hiding behind it: the myrrh! The myrrh is plainly there now with the civet/musk influence getting less and less. It's possible that I am smelling oakmoss and cedarwood as well, but they are in the background here.

I am truly impressed with this fragrance and its blatantly exotic and beautiful smell. I still have almost 1/2 of a 1ml glass vial for another test run some other time. Two thumbs way up.

9th April, 2010.

I absolutly LOVED that perfume. It's hard to believe that such a great smelling perfume was discontinued. I miss it and wish it would be produced again. I'd be first in line to buy the perfume!

20th December, 2008.

BEST parfum ever made.
discontinued, but pure genius.
Beautiful, sexy, sophisticated, like tones upon tones of velvet rapture.
Rip.

17th January, 2008.

How can a fragrance be both pungent and subtle? By being Inoui -- which in French means "unprecedented." That tags this fragrance well. It opens with a crisp, even acrid pronouncement, and potentially scares away the timid. But stick around, because the soft subtle base is both demure and provocative. If this fragrance weren't so masterfully composed, I'd say it was trying to accomplish too much -- but actually it achieves everything it sets out to do. It drily informs and then softly insinuates. Complex, not sweet, but nevertheless able to induce a sigh of longing and pleasure.

Unfortunately the original fragrance is getting hard to find (as well as ridiculously expensive in some places), and sources differ in their freshness. Best to obtain samples, and compare the scent. Your nose will notice the difference between the slightly soured version of Inoui that has degraded, and the soft subtlety of the perfume which has been stored well. It's very much worth the hunt -- and you *can* locate relative bargains. Be patient and alert!

31st January, 2007.