Cherry Blossom Festival by Sarah Grangier at www.fineartamerica.com

 

One of my favorite places to spend the first week of April is walking around the Tidal Basin in Washington DC. What makes it special to me is that is the time of year when the cherry trees that surround the tidal basin are covered in delicate cherry blossoms and are one of the most beautiful harbingers of spring. As you walk around the water the 100 trees still remaining from the 3,000 trees gifted to the US from Japan in 1912 are covered in delicate pink flowers. As the breeze blows the blossoms drift around you like a blizzard of beauty. As much as the visual is appealing it is also the scents of spring that surround you. There is the freshness of the spring air, the very slightly floral character of the cherry blossoms, magnified by their abundance, paired with the woodiness of the trees. It is one of those magical moments only nature provides. Now Jo Malone and in-house perfumer have captured the fragrant experience of this transient moment in their latest release Sakura Cherry Blossom.

 

 

In her tenure as in-house perfumer for Jo Malone, Mme Nagel, with the Cologne Intense Collection and English Pear & Freesia, worked with bold notes that felt like she was taking Jo Malone in a new direction. The Tea Collection felt like a return to the lighter brighter territory more familiar to fans of Jo Malone. Even so the Tea Collection displayed some nuances that display the skill of Mme Nagel in finding complexity within the light. Sakura Cherry Blossom takes that principle and really exemplifies that aesthetic to near perfection. In the press materials Mme Nagel explains it this way:

“Sakura Cherry Blossom is one of the most poetic flowers translated into a delicate fragrance, the scent is feminine, elegant, fragile.”

Her ability to capture the transitory delicacy of the moment of the cherry trees in full blossom is why she is such a talented perfumer.

 

 

Bergamot and mandarin add the fresh spring breeze to the opening. These notes float like a kite on the wind. That wind then brings the cherry blossoms eddying around your head. Mme Nagel uses rose and mimosa to create some depth and to help delineate the cherry blossom. Those two floral notes are used to add the necessary longevity to Sakura Cherry Blossom, without them the heart of this would last as long as a natural cherry blossom does. With them the heart feels appropriately weighted and balanced. Sakura Cherry Blossom ends with a sun warmed wood matched with a sheer musk allowing Mme Nagel to extend the lightness right through to the end.

 

 

Sakura Cherry Blossom has average longevity and slightly above average sillage.

It is always a conundrum that we respond to power on display in our favorite fragrances. It is only when confronted with a composition which intentionally chooses to speak in the softest of voices that we remember that there is also artistry in that approach as well. Mme Nagel has captured a transitional magic moment of spring by daring to speak in a whisper. Lean close you will want to hear and smell this.

Disclosure: This review was based on a preview bottle supplied by Jo Malone.

–Mark Behnke, Managing Editor

Editor's Note: I had the pleasure of testing  Sakura Blossom and I am reminded of this famous haiku

Shining spring day
Falling cherry blossoms with my calm mind
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .~ Kino Tomonari