Shota Imanaga × SHOLAYERED

First of all, this store is overwhelmingly spacious for a perfume shop. And the ceiling is very high. The challenge was how to fill this open space. After much thought, I came up with the idea of having a giant tree growing here, and that's what this is. It's made using the same method as the Big Thunder Mountain ride.

So, do you come up with all the ideas for these creations, Mr. Ishizaka? Or do you work with an idea team?

I come up with everything myself, alone.

Wow!

(Holding a 1945 series bottle) Do you also design the shape of these perfume bottles?

As I explored and experimented with what kind of things would allow me to express my own style, I thought it would be better to incorporate Japanese elements. The stacked stone forms often seen at Japanese shrines and riverbeds served as one of my inspirations. However, perfumes also need a cute aspect that's immediately appealing, so I tried to add that cuteness. As I kept looking at this form, it gradually started to resemble a macaron. I thought it would be interesting to take the form from the stones and the variations from the macarons, and that's how I created it.

The empty containers can even be used as interior decorations, right?

Yes, perfume is art. And here's our latest series, the Crystal Line!

I noticed it earlier and was curious about it.

It's transparent. Because of the nature of glass, when it's transparent, a lot of light comes in, making it even more brilliant, or rather, in the world of perfume, designs that are completely painted and don't allow light to pass through are actually considered unconventional. The original and ideal form of perfume is this transparency. This one is more like a true perfume.

It's cute.

This is hair milk. It smells nice, and you can use it to add nuance before styling, rather than for actual styling. This is hand serum, a multi-serum that you can use like hand cream; it's a hand beauty serum that smells good.

Actually, the scent on your hands is the one that's most conveyed to others when you exchange business cards or shake hands, so if your hands smell good, it creates a wonderfully positive first impression. If the first impression is good, people won't hesitate to get closer, making it easier to build rapport.

The style I've always proposed is "a clean-smelling first impression, followed by a sensual scent when you get closer." This creates a pleasant shift in impression between the first and second encounters. Ultimately, I believe attractive people have a good kind of gap in their impressions, so our main concept is to create that gap between the first and second impressions.

That's interesting.

We have a huge variety of perfume bottles here. Our popular service recently has been allowing customers to choose bottles from this selection and create their own custom scent, so I'd like you to experience that over there.

I'd love to try it!

There are 37 different fragrance ingredients here. In the world of perfume, the first scent you smell is the top note, then the middle note, and finally the base note. We combine these to create a fragrance. This is the top, this is the middle, and this is the base. For example, this is Darjeeling, the scent of black tea; such tea elements can also bring a sense of calm. This one is green tea.

Oh!

It has a slightly lingering impression. In a different category, this is amber. The origin of amber is called ambergris, which is sperm whale excrement! Sperm whales eat a lot with their mouths open, but they can't digest squid or hard beaks. These form calculi in their bodies over time, and that's amber!

Does such a scent exist?!

Surprising, right?!

I thought it would smell more like the sea.

Amber truly has a soft sweetness and a sense of warmth to it.

Maybe I should crystallize some squid in my stomach, haha. Wow, it smells so good!

It's like a calculus for humans, isn't it? A state where an indigestible stone has formed. And then there's vetiver, which is a spicy herbal scent that many Westerners enjoy.

I like woody scents. I use woody scents by spraying them in the bathroom when I take a bath. They spread throughout the tub and it feels really good.

After talking with Shota again this time, I still think his humble attitude is wonderful, so I thought citrus would be a good scent to express that... If I blend lemon acid, bergamot, and a few others...

Do you also combine multiple top notes?

Yes, it's good to mix several types for each of the top, middle, and base notes. How about this? It might sting a bit at first from the alcohol, but please try it.

Oh, I like it!

Doesn't it feel a little humble? (laughs)

A humble scent! (laughs) Indeed, this feeling is like a new employee saying "Good morning!" I'd also like to mix in a mature scent.

And then... Darjeeling for a calming effect. With lemon and bergamot, Darjeeling makes it lemon tea!

Indeed!

The tricky part is that if it's too calming, Shota's innocent playfulness...

Indeed, I want some playfulness too! In the end, it's all about differentiation, so it's good to have something a little different.

I see. Do you like peaches?

I love peaches!

This one is strong, so just a little bit.

This might be a nice scent.

Hmm! It might be good! I can see Shota's mischievous smile.

Oh, this really smells good!

Now, with lemon acid, bergamot, white peach, Darjeeling, if we mix in that amber from before, it'll be like this.

Oh, I quite like amber! I can't believe this is the smell of squid.

You heard the origin of amber, and now you like it, right? (laughs)

I love the story and background of scents.

Add hinoki to this, and we're all set, right? Lemon acid and bergamot 2:2, white peach 1, Darjeeling 2, then amber and hinoki 1. Let's try making it with that ratio...

Do you have a formula, or rather, a combination equation in your head, Mr. Ishizaka? There are thousands, tens of thousands of combinations, so do you have a formula for combining them?

No!

No!?

I don't, but it's more of a feeling, or rather, I'm not sure if it's a formula... Scents are invisible, so I believe if you can visualize the image of what happens when you mix them, it will result in a good scent.

For example, with lemon, bergamot, and white peach, it's easy to conceptualize and visualize the mixed state, isn't it? Since it's invisible, I think when it's easy to visualize, it turns out to be a good scent.

Isn't it great!

I'd like it to be a little more calming at the end.

Do you want more amber?

I might really like amber! I even like it on its own. I also have a preconceived notion about amber, and I really like it.

By the way, the more you learn about the world of fragrances, the more mysterious and interesting it becomes—musk! Do you know what musk is?

I've heard of white musk, but...

Musk is something obtained from the musk deer, specifically from a gland near its anus, to put it simply.

A deer's anus!?

Something from the gland just inside the anus... some kind of residue from the secretory gland is musk. So, real musk smells incredibly bad, and what we smell as perfume is something that has been made easier to smell.

Is musk a physical substance, or is it a zone?

I only have a rough understanding of the biological aspects, but it's like a kind of fluid or secretory gland in humans, and that's musk.

What I always find interesting is how ancient humans ever thought to make that into a scent. The same goes for amber that we discussed earlier. When I think about why people back then tried to make these animal-derived fragrances into scents, I just feel like humanity is incredible!

By the way, for the scent we just created, would you prefer it to be a bit fresher?

I'd like it to be fresh, with a little calming finish. Fresh at first, and then it becomes...

Then let's just mix amber, lemon acid, and bergamot, simply.

Which ones did you mix in the middle this time?

I added peach in the middle, and then hinoki.

Interesting.

I think it's become quite a bit simpler than the previous scent.

Indeed, the more complex scent... ah, now that I smell this again, I can tell the difference a bit.

There's still peach in this one, after all.

I can sense fewer elements. Yes, I can smell the refreshing lemon.

Isn't it lacking something? This level of freshness... If we could add another citrus top note, neroli would be good. Neroli is the orange blossom. If we add neroli to this...

I like this one.

I really love neroli too.

I really like neroli.

It also has elegance.

It smells like natural wood. Oh, this is good.

So, the top notes would be neroli, lemon, acid, bergamot. It's also an option to skip the middle notes, but what do you think?

I'd like a bit of a "sashi" (accent) in the middle.

Freesia has this kind of nice scent.

Freesia smells good.

This one is cherry blossom. Cherry blossom is a bit like confectionery.

Ah, indeed!

Jasmine.

Maybe too much...

It might be freesia.

Freesia. Indeed, it fits the previous flow, doesn't it? If we add a little freesia to the three top notes from before...

This is fun. It's my first time having a perfume bottle made.

Oh, this smells amazing! This is perfect, isn't it?

This is good.

This one is good, right?

I like this!

So, one of Shota's scents for this year will be this blended fragrance. For Shota, who loves amber, the other one will be just amber. How does that sound?

Just amber!?

It's recommended to have two so you can switch them up depending on your mood. You can use amber alone, or, for example, to create that clean first impression, you could apply the fresh scent we just made to your hands, and then spray amber on your body before putting on your shirt. The amber scent will subtly emerge when someone gets close, creating that sensual impression. So, it might be good to create two bottles!

Amber is great! Amber, whether it's perfume or not, has just the right amount of scent, like after a bath. This is wonderful.

We'll make these two types and give them to you. We'll make a label for "Only Amber" for the 15ml bottle, and two 30ml bottles with caps.

First, we'll make a small 15ml one, and then for the other one, choose your favorite bottle and cap of this size. This one is blue!

Oh!

Is it different?

This is cute!

Do you like blue?

I like blue.

Okay, so we'll make this size too; this size you're holding is easy to carry around. So, let's make two types: this one and that one. We can engrave something on the label, do you want to put anything?

Huh?

You can put today's date, your name, or various other things on the label that goes on the bottle.

What should I put? Just "Shota" in Roman letters!

There are many companies that make perfumes, so how do you differentiate yourselves?

One thing is the quality of the raw materials. Fragrance ingredients are priced per kilo, and for mass-produced detergents and fabric softeners, it's a few hundred yen per kilo. We aim to use ingredients that are at least ¥20,000 per kilo or higher. People in this industry would be shocked by our cost of goods (laughs).

So you differentiate yourselves purely by scent, then!

Exactly, that's one thing! The other is the design and overall balance when releasing a product.

Speaking of which, you sprayed it about 20 times earlier!

But I really think that's the best way to do it. Just a faint scent is too weak. That era is over. Not too heavy, not too light. A scent that smells good no matter how you perceive it, and for that, you need to spray light fragrances like ours many times. Since we made two perfumes today, maybe we can make more in the future, and once we have enough, we can release a "Shota Imanaga Collection"! There might have been Japanese baseball players who released perfumes before, but no one has released a collection.

It turned out great today. Thank you very much!

Thank you very much. I learned a lot!