Kenzo
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The blackcurrant and rhubarb combination hits immediately with an almost-tart snap, catching you off-guard against the gentle mandarin. It feels more fruit-forward than floral in these opening moments, with a brightness that borders on aldehydic freshness—nothing soft here.
As the fruit mellows, the florals—peony, jasmine, and lily of the valley—emerge with surprising restraint and definition. A brewing tea note surfaces quietly beneath, adding unexpected earthiness and tannin. The sweetness builds gradually, grounded by this herbal-woody element rather than allowed to become sugary.
By the final hours, vanilla and musk attempt to anchor what remains, though longevity issues mean the scent is barely perceptible. What lingers is a faint powdery sweetness with that persistent tea-like dryness, more memory than presence.
Flower Tag Kenzo arrives as a deceptively gentle affair—a fragrance that whispers rather than announces itself. Olivier Cresp has constructed something genuinely unusual here: a floral that refuses to play by the rules of its category. Rather than the expected powdery sweetness, the opening marries sharp blackcurrant with an almost tart rhubarb note that feels uncomfortably bright against the softer mandarin. It's this tension between fruit-forward tartness and delicate florality that defines the scent's character—a restless, slightly awkward beauty that appeals to those who find traditional femininity too predictable.
The heart reveals a trinity of classical florals: peony, jasmine, and lily of the valley, though these emerge not as a creamy, indolic mass but as individual impressions, almost like a pressed flower arrangement. The peony reads quietly powdery, the jasmine remains green rather than heady, and the lily of the valley provides a whisper of aldehydic freshness. Beneath this floral architecture, a peculiar brewed-tea accord surfaces—not bergamot-derived tea, but something darker, more tannin-forward, lending an unexpected herbaceous gravity to what might otherwise dissolve into mere sweetness.
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3.8/5 (151)