Hanami (2009)
by Ayala Moriel

This is an intriguing scent. Attention vanilla fans (female and male) -- this is something you want to check out! I am not a vanilla fan, so this scent can only take me so far. However, I can recognize the marvelous artistry here.
The scent was part of a poetry project, in which perfumers were given the task to create a scent to evoke the vivid imagery of Ezra Pound's minimalist poem "In a Station of the Metro"
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

Ayala categorizes this as a "wet woody-floral" and it is exactly that.
It opens with haunting and piercing floral notes, and very woody vanilla. So far the scent is powerful but not particularly sweet. It is very woody, yet it has a translucent, sheer quality. Grassy vetiver adds to the mix. Gradually the tuberose and attar become more prominent, and these add an exotic, other-worldly quality. The dry down gets much more sweet, and the vanilla reappears.
Vanilla isn't my particular sort of note. However, I give this a good rating due to the care and creativity here. I'm sure that vanilla fans will love this!