The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Shiso is an iconic herb in Japanese cuisine, perilla frutescens, technically, but it's almost never found in fragrance. Bertrand Duchaufour had been fascinated by it for years. The smell is a strange hybrid: mint's cool, basil's green, cumin's earthy depth, and underneath it all, a metallic flash that reads almost mineral. In shi_sõ, he finally built something around it. The challenge: how do you make a herb the star of a fragrance when most people only know it from sushi?
The answer was to rebuild the structure entirely. Instead of a traditional cologne, citrus over a clean base, Duchaufour replaced the citrus with a kaleidoscope of green notes: cool spearmint, lemony verbena, raspy blackcurrant, tart rhubarb. At the center, shiso. Givaudan's Glycolierral® molecule, designed to capture the scent of crushed ivy, wraps the blend in a sweet, milky, sap-laden effect that makes the green notes feel almost luminescent. It's cologne logic, but every ingredient has been swapped out.
The evolution
The opening hits hard. Shiso's metallic flash arrives first, unmistakable, a little electric. Around it, cool mint and tart rhubarb cut bright and sharp. This phase lasts maybe twenty minutes before the green notes start to coalesce. Glycolierral® kicks in, adding that sweet, milky undertone that softens the edges. The blackcurrant moves to the foreground, raspy, fruity, a little sour. Then the ivy takes over. It gets soapy, almost vintage, like a cologne from another decade. The drydown settles into warm spice: cardamom, a hint of anise. The whole arc takes six to eight hours on most skin. The final impression is green and clean, but stranger than it started.
Cultural impact
Shi-sõ belongs to a moment in niche perfumery when molecular fragrances started gaining traction, compositions built around single compounds rather than traditional note pyramids. The 2017 launch arrived at a time when collectors were increasingly interested in fragrance as chemistry, not just craft. What makes this one stand out is its approach to the cologne genre: instead of chasing citrus, Duchaufour rebuilt the structure around green notes, creating something that reads as fresh and modern without relying on the usual playbook. The shiso itself is the statement, an ingredient most people know from food, now positioned as the main event.
