Rituals — Rêve de Hanami

floral composition

floral

fruity

sweet

Essence

Rêve de Hanami is a 2021 floral fruity Eau de Parfum from the Dutch lifestyle brand Rituals, part of its “Iconic Collection,” composed by Gabriela Chelariu (a Principal Perfumer at Firmenich, per available coverage’s perfumer profile). It is a cherry-blossom-themed spring scent — lychee, sour cherry blossom and pear over a light amber-patchouli-vanilla base — pitched around Japan’s Hanami (cherry-blossom-viewing) season. It should not be confused with the brand’s long-running, much cheaper “Ritual of Sakura” body/home line; reviewers who expected the familiar Sakura body-care scent in perfume form report disappointment. The defining wearers narrative for this fragrance is performance: it is widely loved for its pretty, easy profile and widely criticized for evaporating quickly, which is the central tension of any purchase decision.

This is a bright, fruity-floral spring scent rather than a realistic cherry-blossom soliflore. The opening is juicy and sweet — lychee and pear with a soft, rosy “cherry blossom” floralcy and a touch of bergamot. Several reviewers note the base asserts itself almost immediately: a “vanilla patch with delicate woods,” lightly earthy patchouli and amber giving a gentle roundness. Opinions on the patchouli split — some find it a pleasant, fresh bitterness that keeps the sweetness in check, others read the drydown as a “generic, musty, unisex patchouli-amber” that “smells nothing like cherry blossom.” A recurring complaint is a sharp, “rubbing alcohol” blast on first spray. The consensus character: happy, youthful, fruity-floral, uncomplicated — “going to uni in the autumn or spring” energy, as one reviewer memorably framed it.

Performance is the fragrance’s Achilles’ heel and the single most consistent theme in its reviews. A large contingent reports dramatic, fast fade: “a blast of alcohol, then some sweet flowers, then a bit of wood… then gone in ten minutes,” and “the weakest and shortest-lasting perfume I’ve ever seen.” One detailed review: pleasant for a couple of minutes, then “after an hour, the scent is completely gone,” noting a 15ml bottle would empty within a week at respray frequency. available coverage’s wearers longevity score sits at just qualitative. This is consistent with Rituals’ brand-wide reputation for weak longevity across its EDPs. A minority report acceptable staying power and evolution over three days of testing — but the weight of evidence is firmly on the “poor longevity” side. Sillage is soft; this is close-wearing.

Explicitly a spring/daytime scent — “THE ultimate must-have for this spring,” in the brand’s framing — and reviewers treat it as an inoffensive, go-with-anything, casual “no-brainer” for work, errands and everyday wear. Its softness and fast fade actually suit scent-sensitive environments (one reviewer noted it “got a little lost… amongst the sea of other perfumes at work”). It is not an evening, cold-weather, or projection-dependent fragrance. Practical warning from one buyer: the small travel bottles can leak in a handbag.

Named wearers comparisons include Shiseido “Ginza” (one reviewer preferred Ginza but placed Rêve de Hanami “in the same vibe”), and a strong available coverage claim that it is “extremely similar to City Glam” (Vince Camuto), differing mainly in being slightly fresher and shorter-lived. Another likened it to “narcotic Venus” as a “pale copy.” Within the cherry-blossom fruity-floral genre it sits alongside mass-market sakura scents; reviewers specifically distinguish it from Rituals’ own Ritual of Sakura body line, which some prefer.

Reception is middling — a qualitative average across 112 available coverage ratings — and cleanly bifurcated. The positive camp finds it “a beautiful eau de parfum,” compliment-getting, a daily-driver spring pleasure, and praises the bottle. The negative camp lands on two complaints repeatedly: near-nonexistent longevity (“Rituals are having a laugh with these perfumes at these prices”) and that it doesn’t smell like actual cherry blossom, reading instead as generic fruity-floral or even “old lady.” A pointed recurring meta-critique is value: “beautiful perfumes at terrible concentration.” The balanced verdict: pretty and pleasant, poor value on performance.

Sold in the Iconic Collection format as a 50ml EDP, a 15ml travel EDP, and refillable travel bottles; the brand touts 86.6% natural-origin ingredients and fully disassemblable, recyclable bottles. No documented reformulation of the juice was found. It has appeared in Rituals advent calendars and gift sets (a common way reviewers first encountered it), and sits within a broad, frequently-rotated Iconic Collection lineup rather than having dedicated flankers of its own.

Mid-tier mass retail: roughly €/£ mid-teens to low-€40s depending on size and market, sold through Rituals directly and beauty retailers (LookFantastic and similar). The 15ml travel size and advent-calendar/gift-set appearances make it easy and cheap to sample before committing — strongly advisable given the performance lottery. Because it is a current-production Rituals house scent, availability is broad and decant markets are thin (wearers members simply buy the small travel bottle).

- The name means “Dream of Hanami,” referencing Japan’s cherry-blossom-viewing tradition, and the brand’s copy leans on sakura symbolism (rebirth, purity, “spring snow”). The most persistent piece of wearers lore is the disappointment loop around Rituals’ concentration/longevity — a brand-wide grievance that Rêve de Hanami crystallizes, generating repeated half-joking accusations that Rituals “engineers” short longevity to drive repurchase. A lighter recurring anecdote is the beautiful hot-pink bottle being kept after the juice is used up or discarded.