Revelling in the cherry blossom season is surely one of the greatest joys of Spring, and Shay & Blue have bottled that blossoming euphoria with their stunning English Cherry Blossom scent. Let’s dive head-first into the unique appeal of cherry blossom as a fragrance note, and discover what makes Shay & Blue’s Cherry Blossom so beautiful…
Generally blooming from March to April (earlier, if temperatures are warmer – and if the tender blossoms haven’t been hit by rain and hail storms *shakes angry fists at the recent U.K. weather*), the beautiful cherry blossom – also known as sakura – is a welcome harbringer of Spring, and has become an iconic feature of Japan’s tourist industry, with visitors flocking to see the stunning canopies of pink blooms in all their splendour. There’s even a cherry blossom forecast map for tourists who want to visit many differing locations during their stay, which is a guide to seeing the blossoms at their peak of perfection.
The soft, sweet, powderiness of blossoms from the flowering Prunus – so prized in Japan – are turning up in many more fragrances, with a new found love of the delicate yet characterful Spring scent of cherry blossom across the generations. It’s floral, yes, but not the heady/exotic type that many floral-haters shun. It’s pretty, yes, but there’s a graceful beauty that feels chic yet relaxed about a cherry blossom’s smell.
According to the Time Out article on cherry blossom season in Japan, there is still time (just!) to see and the latest blooming of the blossoms, ‘The northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido will be the last to see cherry blossoms. For Sapporo, the start of the sakura season will begin on May 1, with full bloom predicted to hit around May 4.’ For those of us who’ve missed seeing and smelling the cherry blossom in situ, or who want to celebrate the blossoming throughout Spring, adding an ethereal veil of softly charming fresh-airiness is definitely a seasonal must for us right now, and there’s a fragrance that’s bottled the bliss of cherry blossom that we’re finding ourselves turning to on repeat…
Shay & Blue English Cherry Blossom so perfectly captures the happiness we feel when first glimpsing the pink flowers clustered en-masse, but they’ve intensified the blossom-y notes with the fruit of the cherry tree, too, so it’s like wearing a sped-up film of the tree from blossom to fruit, encompassing all the highlights and bottling them so we can experience the joy whenever we spritz. Sparkling bergamot adds shafts of light, like the flowers being kissed by early morning sunshine, a gentle glow that surrounds dew-drop flecked blossoms like a halo. The cherry blossom scent itself – delicate, powdery, the epitome of a pale blush pink colour – segues to the succulent fruitiness of black cherries, before drifting to the mellow, grounding scent of the cherry wood. So, wearing English Cherry Blossom, you get the entire tree, not only a fleeting sniff of the pretty blossoms.
Shay & Blue English Cherry Blossom £65 for 100ml eau de parfum
Written by Suzy Nightingale