The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Anne Flipo composed Hinoki & Cedarwood in 2024, joining Jo Malone London's roster of collaborating perfumers with a brief built around two of Japan's most storied building woods. Flipo has made a career of finding the precise line between clarity and comfort in green and woody compositions, and this scent sits squarely in that territory. The hinoki reference goes beyond a note. Hinoki is the cypress used to construct temples, bathhouses, and tea ceremony halls across Japan, a wood prized for its pale, almost luminous grain and a scent that reads more like atmosphere than aroma. Cedarwood, by contrast, brings density and ballast, the kind of structure that holds a temple roof up for centuries.
What separates hinoki from cedar in a composition is the scale of each material's voice. Hinoki reads bright, almost lemony at the edges, with a dry, slightly camphorated lift that recalls freshly milled lumber rather than a forest floor. Cedarwood grounds that lift in something drier and more resinous, the scent of beams seasoned over time. Put them together and you get vertical clarity meeting horizontal weight, a balance most woody fragrances resolve with either sandalwood or vetiver instead.
The evolution
The first 20 minutes belong almost entirely to hinoki. The wood has a brightness that reads almost citrus, clean and atmospheric, the scent of bathhouse planks still warm from use. A faint aromatic hum runs beneath it, fresh without being sharp, more like crushed herbs than cologne spices. There is no instant sweetness, no creaminess pulling things forward. Just pale wood and air. Around the 1-hour mark, hinoki settles into its lower register and cedarwood starts to surface. The shift is quiet rather than dramatic. The brightness softens, the structure deepens, and what started as vertical lift becomes horizontal warmth, the feeling of a room rather than a breeze. A subtle resinous note appears between them, never fully announcing itself but giving the composition its low hum. By the 4-hour mark, the cedarwood has the floor.
Cultural impact
Hinoki & Cedarwood arrived at a moment when woody-minimalist compositions were finding wider audiences, sitting comfortably alongside the growing interest in Japanese bath culture and material-focused scent design. Its restraint reads as deliberate rather than sparse, positioning the wearer as someone who values architectural clarity in their fragrance choices.
