Two kilos of yuzu oil take roughly 300 kilos of grated peel. That yield, about 0.67 per cent, is why yuzu costs far more than lemon, and why you rarely get the real thing in a bottle.
Yuzu is Citrus junos, a knobbly Japanese citrus that sits somewhere between grapefruit, mandarin and lime, tart with a floral, green edge. The oil is cold-pressed from the peel, the same way lemon oil is. The catch is that the fruit is grown almost entirely in Japan, and that supply cannot feed a global launch. So many big fragrances use a yuzu reconstruction, a citrus accord tuned to smell like the fruit, in place of the pricey natural.
Which is worth knowing before you pay a premium for it. A yuzu note is often clever chemistry doing an impression of Japan, not a bottle of pressed Japanese peel. That is normal and legal, and a well-built yuzu accord can smell sharper and hold longer than the fragile natural would.
On skin it reads as a cold, clean citrus, brighter and less sweet than orange, with a faint bitterness that stops it turning into lemonade. It is a top note, so it flashes early and fades fast, which is why it usually sits over woods that carry the scent on. If you like it, look for it in Japanese-styled colognes and summer aquatics, and expect it to play well with ginger and green, shiso-like notes that sharpen its bite.
The most famous example is L'Eau d'Issey Pour Homme. Its opening is a blast of yuzu over a watery calone and cedar, and the brand still describes it as an encounter of yuzu citrus, wood and spice. Fragrantica lists yuzu first in the top notes.
That cold yuzu opening lives in our Aqua Pure, our take on L'Eau d'Issey Pour Homme, a UK-made spray. Browse the Issey Miyake collection for the rest of the fresh, aquatic range.
