Hanae Mori No. 1 ---- A Review

And so my perfume addiction pushes on full force. The new Hanae Mori perfume is my latest addition to my collection. It was, to be quite honest, an impulse buy even though I feel that perfumes are one of those things that make for terrible impulse purchases. A perfume needs to be worn around for a bit before so it can fully develop and you can go through it's wonderful....or terrible stages.

At any rate, onto the good stuff. The perfume bottle shape is the same as the original Hanae Mori perfumes, but the juice is a delicious lilac-y purple and No. 1 is inked into the back of the bottle in a traditional Japanese calligraphy sort of way. The perfume only comes in a 3.4 fl. oz bottle and retails for $95.00. Also some of the proceeds go to a clean air and wind something or the other. Good causes = 2 thumbs up :D The sales associate at Nordstrom told me that No.2 will be blue with aquatic/marine notes. Fortunately that is not my kinda thing so YAY!

So part of me is kicking myself for impulse purchasing this perfume as it does smell veeeeeeeeeeeeeery similar to Givenchy Hot Couture. Though I did a spritz of each on opposite wrists and they don't really smell exactly the same. (The notes are indeed similar though as noted below.)

NOTE COMPARISON:

Hanae Mori No.1 - bergamot, black currant, grapefruit, mulberry leaf, blackberry, jasmine, raspberry, white musk, sandalwood, amber and vanilla.

Hot Couture -

• top note: Bermagot, Orange, Raspberry

• middle note: Magnolia, Black Pepper, Vetiver
  

• base note: Sandal, Amber, Musk

They have a similar rich juicy sweet raspberry theme in the opening. However I find the opening sweetness of Hot Couture to evolve into a sharper spicy bite whereas Hanae Mori maintains the original burst of sweetness and creaminess. Hanae Mori No.1 also opens with a similar ripe raspberry sweet scent and has a interesting citrusy zing to it. Then it mellows down into a sweet vanilla cream on me with a lingering berry sweetness. Strangely, I find this very fleeting on me, which bothers me particularly since the price is rather steep. I honestly expected it to last longer than 10 min.... Ok fine, I exaggerate...a little. Also, the sillage isn't very robust and it sticks close to the skin (on me at least). I suppose it's not bad for the summer since I really don't want something overly sweet for the heat of summer. I did notice however while I was working out, that it intensified the smell which was a pleasant surprise.

Closing Thoughts: Overall I do like this perfume as a nice, lighter alternative to Givenchy Hot Couture, but I honestly don't know if I would have bought it had it not been an silly impulse purchase.