The "Join the Club" fragrances by Xerjoff are a series that aim to represent certain clubs or places with various thematic directions. With Shunkoin comes a scent that is supposed to reflect the atmosphere of the Japanese Shunkoin Temple.
This temple stands for spirituality and Zen. Associated with it is also the reverence for nature, tranquility, meditation, harmony, and… of course, how could it be otherwise… tea ceremonies, which admittedly caught my attention the most :D
Since the Japanese have the characteristic of striving for perfection in everything they do, this naturally applies to tea ceremonies as well. While we here would prepare tea for ourselves (and our) guests "quickly and easily," this would be an absolute horror for the Japanese. One must adhere to certain rules during the ritual, both in the preparation of the tea and in receiving guests, topics of conversation, the manner in which it is drunk… and and and… of course, it’s not as if one would do all this alone (that would certainly be easier :D), but with guests, it becomes a proper ceremony, and when one has the opportunity, one goes to real tea houses to try to relax a bit from everyday life, while still paying attention to certain rules. Just boiling water quickly and pouring it over tea leaves is simply not done there, and one wouldn’t even prepare tea like that for their enemy :D
Anyway, all of this sounds incredibly interesting, and I also assume that I might smell tea in this fragrance… otherwise, I would be more than disappointed… *sigh*
The Scent:
Great, I smell coffee!!!!
He he he, no, of course not! Although I do quite like the scent of coffee, just to mention that :D
So, at the beginning, I smell a lot of vanilla and associated powdery notes. In addition, I smell incense, which seems to be a component of many temples. But that is also a lovely and calming scent note! In the background, there are soft woods, probably sandalwood.
A very light, sweet chocolatey note seems to emerge, but I assume this comes from the combination of vanilla, wood, and possibly sweet flowers.
Tea… hmm…. to be honest, I hardly smell tea. The creamy background scents might make it seem like matcha tea, but something like black or green tea is not detectable. Well, that’s not so bad, as the fragrance smells quite good anyway, even if it might disappoint one or two people… A little later, I also smell milky-powdery notes alongside the creamy scents.
Much later, starting from the base, the fragrance mainly smells creamy-sweet. One can best smell the vanilla as well as the resinous notes and still a faint, milky matcha note (that was clear,… I’ve been complaining for eons about milk in tea, and then I have to smell milky tea :D But with matcha, that’s okay; milk in black tea is the real evil!! :DD). Yes, Shunkoin is a successful fragrance!
The Sillage and Longevity:
The sillage is quite strong, and the fragrance is already fairly room-filling with just a few sprays.
The longevity is quite long, so it can be smelled from morning to evening. Therefore, I don’t need to specify hours here; it lasts long, long, long :D
The Bottle:
The dark blue bottle is angular and rises trapezoidally. On the front, you can see the "Join the Club" logo, which consists of the initials of the lettering and is embedded in the glass. Additionally, the fragrance name is also visible, touchable in gold. The upper part of the bottle is gilded and leads to the spray head, and the golden cap has the shape of almost all Xerjoff fragrances and resembles the ancient Red Crown of Lower Egypt.
So,… I must admit that I had imagined the fragrance a bit differently. Well, actually, I had imagined it completely differently. I expected resinous notes, yes, that’s something that belongs to a temple and is always part of it. But I honestly didn’t expect vanilla and milky notes. Well, the milky note is probably matcha, and thus actually tea, but when it comes to tea, I thought I would smell conventional tea here, something like black tea, or green tea, or white tea, or red tea, or… oh, you know what I mean :D
Now my text might sound a bit negative regarding the fragrance, so I want to mention that this is not the intention. Because the fragrance actually smells great, especially if you like vanilla and soft, resinous, and creamy notes. After all, a fragrance doesn’t have to be bad just because you had something completely different in mind!
Anyway, the fragrance, despite its soft notes, has quite a strong presence and lasts a long time, making it a fall and especially a winter fragrance for me, which one might want to apply in lesser doses during the day if, for example, one doesn’t want to envelop an entire floor in a large cloud of scent :D
But it is definitely worth recommending, at least to give it a try.
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