The Truth About the SCENTPICK Perfume Subscription

A manufacturer once told me, “Selling perfume in small portions may be convenient, but it has no atmosphere.” Perfume has a brand universe that includes not just attention to the fragrance itself, but also bottle design and poetic text. Everyone involved in each perfume, from the perfumer to the brand and the distribution chain, takes pride in it.

CEO Takumi Kawashima (WWD, February 2021)

One of Japan’s three major online perfume services, SCENTPICK began in May 2019. What is the reality behind this pioneer, which calls itself Japan’s first fragrance subscription service? Is it a gray area, above board, or outright illegitimate? This site has investigated it in greater depth than anywhere else and considered it as objectively as possible.
Note: In 2023, SCENTPICK, Inc. changed its name to CYPHER, Inc., and the perfume subscription service ended.

▼ Compare the three subscription and decant services here ▼

▼ Details of the other services here ▼

Please note: this is neither a sponsored article nor one produced on commission.

Company Overview

At the time, I was curious about the fragrance worn by a woman I had feelings for, but I could not bring myself to ask her. To find out what perfume it was, I kept visiting department-store fragrance floors. [Passage omitted.] I realized that even with romantic feelings driving me, I could not track down the scent I was looking for.

CEO Takumi Kawashima (WWD, February 2021)

Operator: SCENTPICK, Inc.
Business activities: consulting; software planning and development
License held: cosmetics manufacturing and marketing license (license number 13C0X11623)
Established: February 2019

What is interesting here is that SCENTPICK, Inc., the operator, does not mention perfume subscriptions anywhere in its business activities.
Founder Takumi Kawashima came from the major international consultancy Boston Consulting Group. Including time at A.T. Kearney, Kawashima spent seven and a half years in management consulting and became a freelance consultant in 2018. Around that time, Kawashima became a director of AVANCE GROUP, Inc., whose business consists of consulting and software development. Its address registered with Japan’s National Tax Agency is also the same as SCENTPICK, Inc.’s, although the corporate numbers differ. This is speculation, but SCENTPICK, Inc. may be working under commission from AVANCE GROUP, Inc.

Incidentally, Kawashima attended Waseda University, like Coloria’s founder, and is roughly ten years senior.

We also obtained a cosmetics manufacturing and marketing license. The reality is that even many online cosmetics shops do not hold this license, but I wanted to obtain it to help users feel even a little more comfortable using the service. The application paperwork itself was a formality, but getting the Tokyo officials to understand the business was the difficult part. I carefully explained things starting with questions such as, “What is a subscription for decanted perfume?”

CEO Takumi Kawashima (WWD, February 2021)

The Subscription Service

What the Subscription Includes

SCENTPICK is a subscription-only service, with standard orders limited to a maximum of three different bottles. If you want to order more than that, you need to inquire via LINE. Full-size products are not currently available.

The selection consists of perfumes and room sprays. All are 5mL, and each comes in its own cylindrical box. Each fragrance you order is accompanied by a specially made card, with a fragrance description, scent pyramid and image on the back. I feel that Coloria’s paper is better quality, but the information written on SCENTPICK’s cards is considerably more thorough. The fact that the perfume comes in a cylindrical box inside a black bag that blocks light well also scores highly from a storage perspective.

You can change your chosen perfumes and number of bottles up to the 10th of each month.

Pricing

At present, we buy mostly through wholesalers and have not managed to establish direct contractual relationships with brands. Selling smaller portions of products bought at retail prices is not itself illegal, but we also take seriously manufacturers’ opinions that they would rather we did not buy their products in that way.

CEO Takumi Kawashima (WWD, February 2021)

One-bottle plan	30 sprays × 1 bottle	¥1,180 + ¥347 shipping and packing fee (before tax) = ¥1,680 (tax included)
Two-bottle plan	30 sprays × 2 bottles	¥1,180 × 2 + ¥622 shipping and packing fee (before tax) = ¥3,280 (tax included)
Three-bottle plan	30 sprays × 3 bottles	¥1,180 × 3 + ¥987 shipping and packing fee (before tax) = ¥4,980 (tax included)

The above are the base prices, with an additional amount charged mainly according to the original product’s price. SCENTPICK makes this easy to understand by designating them premium products and dividing them into three tiers.

Is It Illegal? Is It Genuine?

Below, I will give my thoughts based on what I know.

a. Selling Branded Products

Essentially, SCENTPICK divides manufacturers’ products into smaller portions and resells them. This sale or resale is not itself illegal. That is because the Antimonopoly Act prevents manufacturers from stopping it. The only action a manufacturer can take against resale is a claim of trademark infringement (there are other kinds of rights infringement as well, but broadly speaking), yet SCENTPICK uses illustrations for all its product images.

However, it uses brand logos when introducing the brands it carries, so it may have to accept an objection from a brand on trademark-infringement grounds there.

Therefore, selling the brands’ perfumes is not a gray area, but that does not mean permission has been obtained, nor does it guarantee that the products are from authorized channels. This is the important point.

b. Selling Smaller Portions

Selling perfume in smaller portions is actually illegal unless you hold a particular authorization: a cosmetics manufacturing and marketing license. SCENTPICK holds this, which is why it can transfer perfume into other containers in advance, store it and sell it.

Decanting perfume is deemed “cosmetics manufacturing” under Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Act and therefore requires government permission (although selling measured quantities is a different matter).

However, having this permission does not guarantee that the perfume is stored correctly, nor does it guarantee that its scent has not deteriorated.

c. Genuine or Counterfeit?

The manufacturers whose products SCENTPICK handles generally have authorized distributors in Japan or headquarters in Japan, so the likelihood of sourcing counterfeits is low.

If there is a brand that is not sold through authorized channels in Japan, parallel imports could be counterfeit, while personal imports could be illegal. SCENTPICK does carry such a brand: Creed. Bluebell Japan, formerly Creed’s authorized distributor in Japan, stopped carrying it in May 2019. It is currently handled by Aqua Bouquet, a company that sources overseas brands through parallel imports. From this, I have inferred three possibilities. (SCENTPICK carries three Creed fragrances.)

① If SCENTPICK sells products it bought from overseas websites as personal imports, that is illegal. → Very unlikely.
② It stockpiled products before authorized distribution ended in May 2019 and is selling those. In that case, however good the storage, you should be prepared for some change in the scent. → Fairly possible.
③ It buys from a shop such as Aqua Bouquet that handles parallel imports and resells the products. Parallel imports have also become more tightly controlled, so the likelihood of counterfeits is very low, but storage is the issue: the overseas wholesaler or other supplier may store the products poorly. → Quite possible.

I suspect it is probably ② or ③, but because there is no fully authorized distributor, I cannot recommend this option to anyone who insists on products from authorized channels. (Though if I say that, subscriptions themselves are out.)

SCENTPICK also disclosed in a WWD interview that it had not established direct contracts with manufacturers and was buying through wholesalers (WWD, February 2021).

Marketing Methods

We are not pursuing a bigger selection for its own sake. That would become a “rat race.”

When people hear “strategy,” they tend to think about “how to fight” or “how to compete,” but that is not what it really means. I think strategy is about how to avoid the fight, or “win without fighting.” Competing on price or selection is difficult. We want to become a service people choose for a different kind of value.

CEO Takumi Kawashima (WWD, February 2021)

We do not enclose flyers with our products or send promotional emails. These seemingly irrational actions are all about preserving the world we want to convey to our customers.

CEO Takumi Kawashima (CXLab, April 2020)

SCENTPICK’s marketing is quite different from Coloria’s, even if not its complete opposite. Coloria focuses on mass marketing, makes heavy use of influencers, produces photogenic images and original articles, and quickly grows its market share, whereas SCENTPICK keeps influencers and advertising to a minimum and wins a share of a particular audience with a careful approach resembling brand building. Coloria runs determinedly ahead with youthful energy, while SCENTPICK quietly targets the market using corporate-consulting experience. It is not that one is good and the other bad; even as subscription services, they may be aiming in different directions.

a. UI and UX

It may be no exaggeration to say that SCENTPICK’s marketing strategy is concentrated here: its UI (User Interface: the points of contact with users, meaning the site’s appearance and ease of use) and UX (User Experience: users’ experience, including usability and the purchasing experience) are the best among perfume subscription providers.
The text size, fonts, white space, orderly appearance and intuitively usable site structure show thoughtful attention appropriate to a service with few equivalents.

① The header always shows the cutoff date, and you can jump to the page for changing your subscription at any time. (The image below is the desktop version.)

For example, the product cards enclosed with orders describe the character the fragrance evokes and suitable occasions for wearing it, and are sized to fit in a card holder. We also make small refinements such as reducing the dedicated bottle case to a size that fits into a gap in a makeup pouch.

CEO Takumi Kawashima (CXLab, April 2020)

② In the main area, you can add a product to your subscription with one touch and send a “request” for an out-of-stock item. On the left, an easy-to-understand filtering function lets you narrow the conditions with buttons, rather like searching for a home (the image shows the desktop version). The smartphone version uses responsive design, so it is not very different apart from placing the filters at the top. You can also see at a glance how many products are currently available. What is more, astonishingly, every SCENTPICK product image is a hand-drawn illustration. The same applies to the cards included with purchases.

③ The care taken also stands out on the product pages. When comparing product descriptions with competitors Coloria and Celes, SCENTPICK is a cut above. Although I have not looked at every perfume, comparing descriptions of Sauvage, which is popular in Japan as well, shows that SCENTPICK and Celes “describe perfumes using their own research and words”, whereas Coloria’s description was “almost entirely the official website’s wording.” SCENTPICK does not merely use its own words: the descriptions of its five most popular products average about 245 Japanese characters, an impressive amount, and show considerable research. (Naturally, they are not copied and pasted.)

One disappointing point is that the areas marked by arrows in the image do not function as categories. This is quite inconvenient: if you want to browse the same brand from a particular perfume, you cannot jump there. The ingredients section is also rather rough, listing so few notes that I find myself thinking, “Surely that cannot be right?” Perhaps they only consult the official website. Sauvage cannot consist of nothing but bergamot and vanilla, can it? The official description is not much better, either. Coloria and Celes also win out on fragrance families, moods and imagery. However, this may be because SCENTPICK focuses on beginners. People who know perfume will look things up themselves on Fragrantica and similar sites.

From my experience consulting on strategy for many companies, I felt that people tend to follow a particular pattern when faced with an unfamiliar service or product: first, they picture themselves using it and judge whether that moves them emotionally. Once it passes that stage, they look for reasons to persuade themselves that its price and features are rational.

CEO Takumi Kawashima (CXLab, April 2020)

b. The AI-Powered “Choose for Me” Feature

The “choose for me” feature, reportedly selected by many SCENTPICK users, predicts preferences and lifestyle from the quiz answered when registering and recommends perfumes. It appears that you can change your answers at any time from your profile.

According to Kawashima, this AI feature seems to emphasize discovering “a new version of yourself you have never encountered”, rather than simply getting closer to the scents you already like.

The algorithm that selects “choose for me” perfumes excludes business considerations such as profit margins and inventory entirely. It is modeled to choose the fragrance that best suits the customer or one we would like them to wear when meeting someone important to them.

CEO Takumi Kawashima (CXLab, April 2020)

Social Media Accounts (as of July 2022)

Perhaps because it does not engage in social media marketing, the accounts are very small and do not even seem active now. This starts to make me wonder whether the company itself is active. Has Coloria taken too much of its market share? Or is Kawashima no longer involved in operations, leaving it as a company that simply generates a certain amount of profit? The current situation is unclear. I do not see the hunger or activity that Coloria has.

Twitter
Approximately 300 followers

Instagram
Approximately 250 followers

How to Cancel

A frequently cited major problem with subscriptions these days is that it is hard to work out how to cancel them. The topic even appears in Google suggestions, showing how often people search for it.
SCENTPICK’s cancellation procedure is very clear and consumer-friendly. You can cancel your membership at any time from the profile section. There is no attempt to persuade you to stay, and you can leave immediately. Incidentally, some time after cancellation, you receive a coupon exclusively for former subscribers.

Conclusion

I have written about SCENTPICK in detail based on my own views and research into interviews, the official website, social media, job listings and other sources. I hope this helps you when considering a subscription. Both subscribing without knowing anything and deciding not to subscribe without knowing anything would be a waste, so learn more and make the judgment you think is right.