SCENT OF YORK.: Yoko Yamafuji’s Journey and the Craft of Translating Sensations into Fragrance

My approach to composing fragrance is close to music.
Yoko Yamafuji — Founder and Perfumer of SCENT OF YORK.

SCENT OF YORK. is a brand through which Yoko Yamafuji translates the sensations that feel good in everyday life into fragrance. Music, books, the smell of the wind, the color of the sky, a meal: Yamafuji combines plant-derived fragrance materials while following an image that emerges first. That work began with a bottle of sandalwood essential oil picked up on the way home from a trading company.

Born in 2021, the brand carries forward not only finished fragrances but also Yamafuji’s way of choosing. Accepting changes in the character of materials. Trying a collaboration that turns fragrance into chocolate. Adding a new container so that regular users do not have to wait so long. Work that began with sensation leads to the concrete forms of products.

Key Facts
The Founder and the Origins of the Brand
The Brand’s Approach
References

Key Facts

Brand launch: September 28, 2021, with the release of its first fragrance, FETISH
Founder and perfumer: Yoko Yamafuji
Base and background: Tokyo; grew out of YORK.’s activities proposing ways of living around the theme of “what feels good”
Official website: SCENT OF YORK.

The Founder and the Origins of the Brand

An Encounter with Sandalwood Essential Oil on the Way Home from a Trading Company

While working at a trading company, Yamafuji stopped at Neal’s Yard Remedies on the way home and picked up an aromatic oil of sandalwood (in Japanese). Yamafuji chose it not after deep deliberation but simply because the scent seemed pleasant. From there, Yamafuji encountered naturally derived products and became increasingly interested in producers’ ideas and the stories behind their products.

Yamafuji worked at the trading company during the week and in a Neal’s Yard store on weekends. After living this seven-day working week, Yamafuji left the trading company and became a full-time employee at Neal’s Yard. Yamafuji subsequently spent eight years in management. Handling essential oils daily and getting to know the character of each plant provided the foundation for Yamafuji’s later fragrance composition.

Creating a Shop beyond the Natural-Product Category, and a Salon in Minami-Aoyama

Although Yamafuji liked the fragrances and textures of the products, Yamafuji felt that their appeal was reaching only people already interested in natural products. On becoming independent and taking on the direction and operation of an organic select shop, Yamafuji aimed to create a place where people choosing clothes and interiors could first enjoy the products themselves.

Rather than putting the word “organic” first, Yamafuji’s criteria were whether wearing something lifted the spirits and whether placing it in a space felt pleasant. Yamafuji wanted to trust personal sensibility in the work instead of adopting a fixed professional label.

I have my preferences, but I do not cling to them.
Yoko Yamafuji

Rather than setting boundaries in advance around what was Japanese-made or organic, Yamafuji gravitated toward what felt pleasing. This was Yamafuji’s way of choosing things. In 2015, Yamafuji opened HEIGHTS, an appointment-only salon in Minami-Aoyama. Sitting at the same table as the customers over tea, Yamafuji proposed products suited to each individual.

From Fragrances Made for Clients to the Brand’s Launch in 2021

When Yamafuji made fragrances for clients at the salon, they were delighted. This became Yamafuji’s entry into fragrance composition, and requests gradually increased. Through YORK.’s activities, Yamafuji has also created scents for brands’ product planning, facilities and exhibition spaces, and stage productions.

Yamafuji had long wanted to make perfume from plant-derived fragrance materials. On September 28, 2021, the first fragrance, FETISH, was born, marking the launch of SCENT OF YORK. Centered on ambrette, a plant-derived fragrance material reminiscent of musk, it gave form to Yamafuji’s work of expressing personal sensations through scent, along with the brand’s name.

MOCHA followed, taking coffee and tobacco—things enjoyed for pleasure—as its fragrant subjects. On February 1, 2022, Yamafuji announced the third fragrance, S’MORE, themed around chocolate. The things Yamafuji finds pleasing extend beyond flowers and woods to eating and other pleasures.

Composing from an Image, as with Music

Rather than learning the rules of composition at a perfumery school, Yamafuji came to know the character of essential oils through daily contact with them. When making a fragrance, Yamafuji follows an image that appears first, as though giving form to a melody. Understanding the nature of plants, Yamafuji aims for fragrances that speak to the senses.

DARLING was inspired by a line from a poem by Pierre de Ronsard inviting a beloved to see the roses. It carries a message of seizing the present, conscious that time passes and does not return. With rose as its keynote, Yamafuji avoided allowing that scent alone to dominate, creating a composition of 15 essential oils.

Instead of confining a material to a single name, Yamafuji relates it to sensations drawn from literature, images, and meals. This way of composing also explains why, even when a flower is the subject, reproducing that flower is not the sole aim.

Adding Sprays to Keep Fragrances Available to Regular Users

In 2024, around the time of the brand’s third anniversary, spray bottles were added. Each original bottle required labor-intensive work, so customers sometimes had to wait six months or more after it sold out. Keeping the original form as the signature design, the brand created another format to get its fragrances to the people who used them regularly.

The Brand’s Approach

Enjoying Variations in Natural Fragrance Materials as Vintages

SCENT OF YORK. selects natural fragrance materials obtained from plants and makes its scents in small editions. Even plants from the same place smell different according to the conditions in which they grew. The brand therefore hopes people will enjoy the changing expression of a fragrance from one year to the next, even within the same design, much as they enjoy wine vintages.

Yamafuji chooses natural fragrance materials because their scents feel resonant with Yamafuji’s sensibility. This does not mean Yamafuji rejects all synthetic fragrance materials. It is a creative choice to accept the variability of materials and compose with those gathered at that particular time. The DARLING spray is also made in small batches of 100 bottles, with natural fragrance materials selected for each production run.

From S’MORE to Chocolate: A Collaboration with Yusuke Kabuki

A s’more is a confection of toasted marshmallow and chocolate sandwiched between crackers, and its name also carries the suggestion of “some more.” Yamafuji translated that feeling of wanting a little more into fragrance. For S’MORE in 2022, Yamafuji used fragrance materials extracted from vanilla and cacao using wheat-derived alcohol, moving from a citrus opening toward the sweetness of tonka bean and benzoin.

The recipient of this fragrance was Yusuke Kabuki, who runs the coffee and chocolate shop Kabuki. Kabuki created a chocolate inspired by S’MORE and bearing the same name.

I coated marshmallow infused with vanilla fragrance in bitter, richly aromatic chocolate.
Yusuke Kabuki

Combining the delicate melt of marshmallow with the richness of chocolate, the confection was offered in a limited release alongside the perfume. Food becomes fragrance, and that fragrance becomes food again in another maker’s hands. The collaboration moves back and forth between the sensibilities of the two creators. The S’MORE name and the idea centered on chocolate and vanilla continued into the 2023 Edition.

LOLITA: Layering Innocence and Deep Sweetness

LOLITA, announced in October 2025, is a work that turns toward the innocence within oneself. Around the delicate scent of jasmine sambac, it layers the brightness of lime and mandarin with the deep sweetness of labdanum and tonka bean.

Placing a sweet-tart opening and a lingering impression of depth in the same work creates an image in which innocence and maturity overlap. The sensation Yamafuji starts with is not fixed in a single mood, but reveals different expressions as the fragrance unfolds.

Container Design: Preserving the Reagent-Bottle Form while Adding Sprays

The early fragrances were housed in reagent bottles from India. Clear glass and a stopper were combined with a logo designed by MIC*ITAYA. The form brings together the appearance of an everyday bottle and the graphic work of a visual artist.

The original DARLING format combines a light-protective bottle containing the perfume with a perfume bottle, atomizer, and funnel for transferring the contents. LOLITA in 2025 was also announced in a format transferred from a light-protective bottle into a perfume bottle. This original format remains even after the introduction of sprays. Time spent enjoying the bottle’s form and time spent waiting for a fragrance to arrive: the expansion of the design to consider both reflects Yamafuji’s experience of engaging with the people who use the products.