Their scent, not yours.

Pluviophile is a green eau de parfum drawn from an afternoon of rain over the lake at Shinjuku Gyoen in Tokyo. Green leaves, rain and rhubarb open it; violet leaf, ylang-ylang and bluebell follow; musk, anise and clove lie beneath. A trace of geosmin, a compound made by bacteria in soil, adds the smell of wet earth. On the skin it keeps the order of a shower: the rain first, the flowers next, the shelter last.

“Pluviophile is for those who seek peace in the tranquility of rain.”

Rei Nguyen, in the Journal, 2023.

Hajime means “the first time” in Japanese, and Eau de Hajime was the first fragrance Rei Nguyen made. It is a chypre floral: petitgrain, pear and bergamot open onto rose, sambac jasmine and narcissus, over patchouli, labdanum resin, oakmoss and amber. It does not reach for attention. It opens fresh, turns to flowers, and settles warm.

Nostalgic March comes from an old Hanoi custom: peeled sugarcane laid among pomelo blossoms until it took their scent, then eaten in the afternoon with tea. Pomelo blossom, sugarcane and raspberry open it; magnolia, rice tea and lily of the valley follow; sandalwood, orris, musk and vetiver remain. It is sweet the way honeyed tea is sweet, not the way vanilla or caramel is. The chapter tells the morning, the afternoon and the night of that March day.

The two were made as a pair from Conan Doyle’s stories. 221B is the light, drawn from Sherlock Holmes: clean, polished leather softened by rose and osmanthus, over birch tar and tobacco. The birch tar here is not smoky; it leaves a faint haze over the leather. Shadow Éclat is the shadow, drawn from James Moriarty: a soft suede leather among geranium, rose, iris and osmanthus, with immortelle and black pepper beneath. Shadow Éclat was first shown in December 2024, at Rei’s exhibition Letters from 221B Baker Street: Scents of Shadow. Each is sold on its own. Their shared chapter is Duality.

Béton chaud is French for “hot concrete”. Béton Chaud comes from childhood summers in the early 2000s: children sitting inside concrete pipes on an empty lot, the walls warm from the sun, watching kites overhead. Peach, orange and pink grapefruit open dry rather than fresh; cumin, caramel and Damask rose form the middle; cinnamon, star anise, frankincense, cardamom and vanilla stay on the skin. No colourant is added: the amber in the glass comes from the raw materials.