A Paris perfume house builds a fragrance around Japanese yuzu for one department-store floor

Henri Jacques Japan opens a week-long pop-up called "La Maison Éphémère" on the first floor of Isetan Shinjuku's main building, at The Stage, from 7 to 13 October, the company said. The pop-up recreates elements of the brand's Paris boutique and centres on a personalised fragrance bar, where perfume experts consult customers on their memories, preferences and habits to build what the company calls a "fragrance wardrobe."

The centrepiece launch is "Sa Majesté Yuzu," a hesperidic-floral fragrance built around cold-pressed yuzu essence sourced from producers in Kochi Prefecture, layered with clary sage and lemon at the top, rose, black tea and lemon petitgrain in the middle, and sandalwood, musk and vanilla at the base. It goes on sale exclusively at Isetan Shinjuku from 7 October, priced at ¥236,500 for 15ml and ¥379,500 for 30ml in the brand's Les Essences line, according to Henri Jacques.

The pop-up also brings the Japan premiere of "Les Tupées Mrs. Y" and "Mr. H," a pair of limited-edition collector's bottles honouring the brand's founder, Henri Jacques Crémona, and his wife, Yvette. Isetan customers get first access through a pre-sale starting 7 October, ahead of the general release on 14 October. Henri Jacques was founded in 1975 in Paris as a custom-made haute-parfumerie house, according to the company.

At ¥236,500 to ¥379,500 for 15 to 30ml, Sa Majesté Yuzu sits well above mainstream niche perfumery, in territory usually reserved for a handful of ultra-bespoke houses that sell in Japan mainly through short department-store pop-ups rather than permanent counters. Naming a single Kochi yuzu supplier, rather than a generic "Japanese citrus" note, gives the pop-up's Japan-exclusive claim real specificity — a small maison tailoring formulation, not just marketing, to one department-store floor for one week.