The Body Shop — Japanese Cherry Blossom Strawberry Kiss
Essence
Strawberry Kiss is a 2017 fruity-floral flanker of The Body Shop’s long-running Japanese Cherry Blossom, slotted into the brand’s Voyage collection. Despite the name foregrounding cherry blossom, it is functionally a strawberry fruity-floral with a pink floral backdrop, the cherry blossom serving more as a marketing anchor than a perceptible accord. It is the definition of an affordable mall-counter starter scent: cheerful, linear, candied and frankly synthetic. Now discontinued and quietly rebranded by the house as Blissful Strawberry, it has acquired mild scarcity value.
Scent Profile
The opening is a big, juicy-tangy strawberry, bright and almost jammy, with a squeeze of orange and only a whisper of the titular cherry blossom. The strawberry is the entire story: wearers describe it as a synthetic strawberry bomb, with comparisons to strawberry lip balm and a chemical or hair-dye edge.
As it settles, the pink peony, rose and jasmine of the heart provide a soft floral cushion, keeping the composition pinkish and floral rather than gourmand. The base notes — caramel, vanilla, white musk, amber and sandalwood — never assert themselves as a dessert accord; they read as a faint sweet-musky warmth beneath the fruit.
Linearity is high. What you smell at ten minutes is essentially what you smell at hour three, just quieter: juicy strawberry over powdery pink florals throughout.
Performance
Performance is modest, as expected from an inexpensive EDT. The most detailed account reports more than six hours on clothing and around four hours on skin before it becomes a skin scent, with moderate sillage; other estimates run lower, in the one-to-three-hour range on skin. The consistent advice is to spray on clothing for longevity. As a light fruity-floral it is best in warm weather, where its brightness reads as refreshing rather than cloying — in close quarters the synthetic strawberry can build to feel suffocating. The matching body lotion and butter were the intended layering vehicle to extend wear.
Wearing Context
Spring and summer, daytime, casual. This is a brunch, shopping, gym and everyday scent, repeatedly characterized as bubblegum-chic and girly, and suited to a teenager or a younger wearer’s first serious perfume. Its social perception skews firmly youthful and feminine. It is not an office-signature, date-night, or cold-weather fragrance, having neither the projection nor the gravity for those roles.
Comparisons & DNA
The most direct comparison is The Body Shop’s own original Japanese Cherry Blossom from 2007, though the consensus is that the two do not actually smell alike. A side-by-side wearer concluded that Strawberry Kiss is all juicy strawberry, rich and bright, with no real similarity to the cherry blossom original, which leaned instead on persimmon, apple, osmanthus, magnolia and hinoki. Within the broader market it sits in the same affordable synthetic-strawberry lane as other youth-targeted fruity body-care scents rather than alongside fine fragrance, and it has no meaningful niche analog.
Reception
Wearer sentiment is mixed-to-mildly-positive, polarized around the strawberry note. Detractors find it synthetic and one-dimensional, with the lip-balm, chemical and hair-dye criticisms recurring, and several noting it becomes cloying over time. Fans find it fun and nostalgic, calling it strawberry jelly or strawberry champagne and praising its cheerful brightness. Beyond the synthetic quality, the recurring criticism is weak longevity. As a blind buy it is low-risk given the price and a safe pick for anyone wanting a loud, sweet strawberry, but those expecting a delicate cherry-blossom floral will be disappointed.
Versions & Reformulation
It was sold primarily as a 50 ml Eau de Toilette spray, with a body-care collection and a separate, lower-concentration 100 ml Fragrance Mist. The house later retired the Strawberry Kiss name and carried the scent over into its Blissful Strawberry line, describing it on its own product pages as still the same scent under a fresh look — so the juice is understood to continue as a rebrand rather than a true reformulation.
Acquisition Notes
This was always a budget-tier product, with original retail for the comparable EDT and mist line around £14. Since discontinuation, sealed bottles turn up on the resale market at prices that can exceed original retail due to scarcity. Counterfeiting is not a meaningful concern at this price point; the bigger risk is age, since a 2017-era fruity EDT may have turned if poorly stored. For the current juice, the Blissful Strawberry rebrand is the authentic continuation through The Body Shop directly.
Notable Facts & Lore
- It belongs to the Voyage collection, conceived in 2012 as an olfactory-travel concept and given its faceted half-sphere bottle redesign in 2015.
- The cherry blossom of the name is largely a marketing anchor; in wear the composition is driven almost entirely by strawberry.
- The EDT is dated 2017, while a separate Fragrance Mist sub-entry is listed as 2018, likely reflecting the mist’s later release.
- The scent was rebranded as Blissful Strawberry rather than discontinued outright, with the house stating the juice is unchanged.
- The Body Shop’s UK arm entered administration in February 2024, background turmoil that postdates this release’s quiet rebrand.