Shisseido 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 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...
Shisseido 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 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.
Today, Shiseido offers products under approximately 18 different brands throughout the world. Among them are the Shiseido skin care line, NARS cosmetics, Joico hair care products, and perfumes produced under the Shiseido label, through division Beaute Prestige International and under the Serge Lutens label.
Zen was the first fragrance offered by Shiseido. The company produces it today in two formulas: the original Zen, featuring the packaging from 1965 and a similar formula, and a new version of Zen introduced in 2007. A men's Zen was introduced in 2009. Shiseido's former employee, Serge Lutens, a make-up artist and designer for the company, introduced classics Nombre Noir and Feminite du Bois under the Shiseido names. Serge Lutens is now an independent line producing fragrances under the Shiseido umbrella. Shiseido's Beaute Prestige International division produces fragrances for a number of prominent designers such as Issey Miyake, Jean Paul Gaultier and Narciso Rodriguez.
Designer Shiseido has 51 perfumes in our fragrance base. Shiseido is an old perfume house. The earliest edition was created in 1954 and the newest is from 2016. Shiseido fragrances were made in collaboration with perfumers Jean-Louis Sieuzac, Dominique Preyssas, Claudette Belnavis, Pierre Bourdon, Christopher Sheldrake, Serge Lutens, Jean-Yves Leroy, Jacques Cavallier, Maurice Roucel, Aurelien Guichard, Marie Salamagne, Nathalie Lorson, Michel Almairac and Francoise Caron.
Angelique
1991 for women
Auslese
1978 for men
Basala
1993 for men
Bravas
1993 for women and men
Camelia Superieur
1997 for women
Chant Du Coeur
1993 for women
Dignita
1998 for women
Energizing Fragrance
1999 for women
Feminite du Bois
1992 for women
Fleur Excellente
1998 for women
Ginza
1975 for women
Hanatsubaki Kai Sumire
1989 for women
Inoui
1976 for women
Koto
1967 for women
Maquillage Dramatic Mood Potion
2015 for women
Memoire
1982 for women
Murasaki
1980 for women
Myth of Saso
From decade: 1980 for women
Nombre Noir
1982 for women
Relaxing Fragrance
1997 for women
Rosarium
2012 for women
Rose Royale
2006 for women
Saso
1987 for women
Tactics
1978 for men
Tentatrice
for women
Vocalise
1997 for women
We're
1994 for women
We're for Men
1996 for men
White Rose Natural
1954 for women
1976
Suzuro
1976 for women
Cle de Peau Beaute
Rose Synactif
2013 for women
Ever Bloom
Ever Bloom
2015 for women
Ever Bloom Eau de Toilette
2016 for women
Ever Bloom Extrait Absolu
2016 for women
Zen
Zen
2000 for women
Zen
2007 for women
Zen Concentrated
2009 for women
Zen Eau de Parfum
2010 for women
Zen for Men
2009 for men
Zen for Men Sun
2013 for men
Zen for Men White Heat Edition
2011 for men
Zen Gold
2008 for women
Zen Gold Elixir
2013 for women
Zen Moon Essence
2014 for women
Zen Original
1964 for women
Zen Secret Bloom
2012 for women
Zen Summer
2009 for women
Zen Sun
2013 for women
Zen Sun 2014
2014 for women
Zen Sun for Men 2014
2014 for men
Zen White Heat Edition
2011 for women
More about Shiseido Perfumes and Colognes