FINCA
Founded 2017
FINCA is the perfume brand of Fortuna, a Tokyo company founded in 2011 that makes fragrance products in Japan. Its shop in Shinjuku opened in July 2017 as a perfume 'shot bar' where visitors mix scents on their skin. Today it sells about 60 FINCA eaux de toilette, all made in Japan, and staff suggest pairs to layer, a method the house calls PILE-UP.
Hours and prices change, so check with the shop before you go.
A Shinjuku perfume bar built for layering
FINCA is the perfume brand of Fortuna, a Tokyo fragrance company founded in 2011. Its shop, THE KAORI BAR FINCA, opened in Shinjuku in July 2017 and was set up like a shot bar, with bottles lined up on the shelves. Visitors pick scents and layer them on the skin to make their own blend, trying ideas on paper strips first.
Today it sells about 60 FINCA eaux de toilette, all original scents made in Japan. The house calls its method PILE-UP: wear two or more scents together and change the ratio or the place, such as wrist and ankle. Each scent also works on its own. The names read like short stories, from Nobunaga no Yume, an agarwood scent, to Osmanthus Night.
The shop is at NISSEI Shinjuku Building 1F, 6-10-1 Shinjuku, Tokyo. It is open every day, 11:00 to 19:00 on weekdays and 10:30 to 19:00 at weekends, and visits can be booked online. A 30 ml eau de toilette costs ¥3,300. Since December 2024 you can also blend two or three of 30 scents into a 50 ml mist with a staff perfumer, for ¥5,500 in 40 to 50 minutes. Try Osmanthus Night first, built around kinmokusei.
- Osmanthus NightKinmokusei, the sweet osmanthus flower, for a late night out.
- Nobunaga no YumeNamed for the warlord Oda Nobunaga's dream, a scent of fragrant wood and agarwood.
- Kaze no KatanaA sword of wind: watery notes with spice.
- Little WingWings that dream, a fresh floral scent.
- Purple RainThe clown's tears, a floral musk.
Where to buy
- THE KAORI BAR FINCA, NISSEI Shinjuku Building 1F, 6-10-1 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo (open daily, weekdays 11:00 to 19:00, weekends and holidays 10:30 to 19:00; visits can be booked ahead)