Zen Shiseido 2007 Eau de Parfum

Zen is a beautiful fragrance. I see it as a slightly sweet and fruity version of Coco Mademoiselle. And layered by the full patchouli note in its base. That smell directly into the opening: bitter grapefruit and fresh flower, fresh bergamot, these are blended with peach and pineapple. Nicely done.

It is a floral and airy sweetness that the base is captured by amber, cedar, white musk, incense and very elegant - for me - beautiful patchouli: rich and intense.

Intoxicating elegance in a bottle the notes are clean fresh ultra modern that reflects the chic and self assured young woman of the 21st century the notes as well as the smell are complex and this isn't your cliche run of the mill floral
fragrance are from that despite the simple
minimalistic design there are wonderful
complexities in one bottle.

A nice opening of musk that is deep and
woodsy mixes with sweet and not overwhelming note of pineapple and orange that is not cloying, the florals
in Zen are very light and don't stand out like the fruit notes but i notice
a bit of lily of the valley Hyacinth in
diluted form powdery lotus and sweet freesia, the drydown has a wet earthy
feel of patchouli after the night's rain
in the forest and finishes with a dry and mysterious note

I'm not overly thrilled with this fragrance, but I now have a hankering to test the original Zen. This fragrance tends to be a juicy fruit scent, with a heavy, somewhat earthy patchouli base.

Pineapple doesn't work as a fragrance note on my skin. Every time I spray this fragrance, I have to endure an hour of nauseating and acidic smelling pineapple wafting around me. Funnily enough, I also have a hard time wearing grapefruit. Seeing that both these notes feature quite prominently in Zen, I suppose you could say that I should never have tried it on my skin in the first place.

Putting problems with my skin chemistry aside, Shiseido's Zen reminds me of Chanel's Chance. The fruits are bright and refreshing in the opening, but seem more grounded towards the heart, especially when the floral notes start mixing with the cedar and patchouli.

I would most certainly enjoy smelling Zen on someone with the right skin chemistry. It would make a fantastic casual Summer scent. I must admit that it's quite complex and intriguing. I'm so bummed that it didn't work for me.

The lasting power is great, and the packaging looks less like a brick in real life, and more like an interesting piece of art. I recommend.

Original review written: October 2012.

A month ago I reviewed a sample of Ginza and while doing that it struck me that I did not own a Shiseido fragrance. I looked through the directory of Shiseido fragrances and discovered that I only knew Feminité du Bois, which I shall definitely want to own someday in the future. I have a miniature, and the fragrance is simply gorgeous. It was by accident, that I saw Zen for sale on the national platform I use for selling and buying. I checked and saw that it was actually rated as no. 41 in the top 100. I took the chance and bought it.
The scent starts out as a fresh and mild floral with the fruity aspect in the beginning. Especially grapefruit reaches my nose. That soon disappears and leaves the flowers to shine. I must say I was a bit confused when I saw that ‘blue rose’ is a note?! Well, to my knowledge blue roses do not exist. At least not as the representation in the photo that accompanies the note. You can meet roses, that are dark purple/bluish and in my opinion, the best ‘blue’ rose is ‘Blue Moon’, a gorgeous lavender blue rose. But true blue as in cornflower blue on the photo for the note - no. It does not exist naturally in nature, since roses lack the ability to produce delphinidin, the blue pigment found in eg. Delphinium or violets. I am not ranting here, but I must say that I am a bit curious about how a blue rose smells, since it is a listed note.
The last couple of hours, the patchouli takes over completely and Zen ends up very similar to Coco Mademoiselle. Not a bad way to end the journey. Longevity is 6-7 hours, and sillage is an arm’s length.
The bottle is really nice. Minimalistic and stringent.
Zen strikes me as very mild, delicate and interesting. I would heartily recommend it to all patchouli lovers. But you will have to wait for the Wauw!
Year 2, 88/365

I tested this at a local thrift store, where I found the near-empty bottle of Zen.

This scent is something translucent. There is a hint of coolness running through my nose as I inhale the pleasant scent of fresh flowers. Perhaps this is what the marine base smells like. Fresh, but simultaneously not too sharp, like a greenhouse with its door open for the breeze in Japanese spring.

The scent develops into a creamier one as the time goes by. The musk base soon peeks its head into the whole garden scenery.

For some reason, Zen reminds me of the “grown up” girls in my youth in the early 2000s. Layered haircuts and low-rise jeans. When she smiles, her thin eyebrows rise as her perfectly-lined eyelids shimmer, and it’s not just the pearly eyeshadows. This is not to say Zen is a dated scent; this is a reminiscent of a bright, translucent day like the tips of the girl’s dyed hair. Leans rather feminine, but sometimes it shows its tomboyish side.