Shiseido, Hanatsubaki Kai Sumire, Violet, 50 ml. or 1.69 oz. Flacon, Parfum Extrait, w/ Atomiser, 1989, Tokyo, Japan ..

I cannot have a perfume shop without mentioning the amazing company named Sheiseido, and am delighted to over some of their fragrances.

Shiseido is a Japanese cosmetics and hair-care company founded in 1872. Although the company is Japanese, its name is derived from a passage in the classic Chinese text of the I Ching. A translation of the name reads, "Praise the virtues of the great Earth, which nurtures new life and brings forth new values."

Arinobu Fukuhara, a former Head Pharmacist for the Japanese Navy, founded Apothecary Shiseido in 1872. After a visit to the United States, he added a soda fountain to the pharmacy. This was the beginning of the "East meets West" concept which would serve the future cosmetics giant so well.

Arinobu's son Shinzo was the Shiseido company's first president. Shinzo studied Eastern medicine at a Japanese university, then traveled to America to study pharmacology at Columbia. A world traveler and a camera buff, he traveled to Paris in 1915, where he first encountered photography as an art, according to the Western aesthetic. Shinzo would go on to become a celebrated photographer, and his unique background, incorporating both Eastern and Western traditions, helped move Shiseido from its origins as an apothecary to the cosmetics corporation it has become today.

Shiseido was the first company to develop a softening lotion in the liquid form with which we are familiar today. Shiseido also introduced the concept of color cosmetics to Japan with its seven colors of face powder, which revolutionized the industry at a time when white face powder was the norm in Japan. By 1923, the original shop had expanded to multiple outlets, and it became a publicly-held stock company in 1927.

The company's original expansion began in Taiwan and Singapore in 1957. It crossed the pond to Hawaii in 1962, which provided entrance into the American market and led to the formation of Shiseido Cosmetics America. European expansion began in 1968, followed by New Zealand opening up Oceania in 1971.

Launched in 1989, Hanatsubaki Kai Sumire by Shiseido is a Floral fragrance for women. The fragrance features Violet, Lily of the Valley, Green Notes and Ozonic Notes.

Offered here is a never opened exquisite flacon of this delicate Japanese perfume in its gorgeous presentation box. It comes as a set in an outer presentation box which includes a special atomiser for the purse. Absolutely lovely .. quite ethereal .. Some evaporation has occurred over the years ...