supreme_c0rt

Trees opens with the beloved ho wood from Foot Warmer blended with a sheer oak, giving an impression of gently toasted sandalwood. The black pepper, despite being described as burnt, is neither obtrusive nor all that spicy, in fact I barely register it. Tobacco leaf really makes this sing, with the same ephemeral intensity of Vision of a Courtesan. White oud acts as an adhesive and amplifier more than an actual presence on its own, so if you have issues with oud generally (as I do) I would not stress about it here. I could not tell you what costus smells like, but I get a vaguely white-floral something-or-other that might be it. The woodiness is very gentle, buttery, and mostly on the wet phase; as it dries the whole baby blends into some real top-tier Coco Chanel vibes. There are a lot of similarities to Faster, Kittycat -- they don't smell the same but I had a similar "whoa this smells expensive AF" response to it. This has the complexity of the best of the Shunga line, and it is definitely hard to describe, but this feels ** special ** in the same way that Vision did, and I wouldn't sleep on it if you are into any of the listed notes. Just lovely.

The imp has been resting for a couple months now so it feels safe to retest. Wet: A&D diaper ointment and red hots 😓 Dry: Thicc sex. Qandisa and Snake Oil's love child, but with a pending paternity test for Satyr and Bloodlust. Very spicy, very musky, day-old sex, smeared lipstick, spilled Fireball on the carpet. It feels *VERY BPAL* in the traditional sense, like the kind of hip swaying, va-va-voom scent profile that gets people hooked on this house. I would not be able to tell you that jasmine is in this. The cinnamon bomb is real though.

Big metallic bite up front with that lacquer note, like hot tinfoil and yuzu. Backed by a flood of warm, flushed sensual skin musk and leather, giving Like the Very Gods vibes but stronger and more forward. It smells like sweating through yuzu body butter on a hot summer day. Humid, intimate, skin-but-better. I like it much better once that lacquer note wears off.

If Baby's First Ballista, Bookcase Passage, and Two Westerners had a sweet, gentle, chill AF baby it would smell like this. There's a toothy salty-sweetness emerging from the vanilla-oak-mushroom that reads earthy-gourmand, allllmost foody but not quite there. The lacquer note gains strength over time, and pulls me out of the enjoyment a bit for the same reasons it does in other blends -- goes a little too clean, tidy, floor wax (?) for my liking. This is still really nice though.

If you snagged the Honeysuckle and Wisteria duet, you will recognize the wisteria note from that. This is a complex, breezy, light purple floral that has a floaty quality on the waft like the sweet promise of spring, but on deep inhale reveals layers of dusky-purple velvet (there's a soft toothsome quality to it), and a skin-musk base. If that's red musk, it's more delicate than any I've encountered from the lab. This is so well blended that no single note dominates, however the lilac and wisteria are certainly at the forefront. It's much lighter than I was expecting, and I'm almost getting an ozone/watery/yuzu/citrus blossom element to it that I cannot identify but lifts the whole thing up into a lighter strata. This is a lilac bush after a rain, or touched with early-morning dew. I don't tend to reach for these types of florals often but I'm still enjoying this decant. If you've been following BPAL for long enough to experience several luper seasons, this is a classic Shunga. Complex, dimensional, wistful, sophisticated and elegant. Much like the duet, it's springtime in a bottle.

I was hoping for more of the other earthy notes, but the mahogany and tobacco are stealing the show here. This has quite a lot of similarities to the Vengeance Eternal Hellboy hair gloss that came out a few years ago ("Rage-red musk, razor-sharp tobacco leaf, black oak leaf, dried blackcurrant, and a smoky burst of patchouli"), so if you were a fan of that you'll probably feel right at home here. I recall thinking that was the sharpest tobacco leaf note I'd ever encountered, and here it is again. On me this is quite sharp and masculine.

Cucumber, melon, and lettuce leaf shine and sparkle on top, and they are grounded by this absolutely gorgeous earthy green musk that almost reads as a garden basil/light patchouli. I was so curious how the onion and sesame would play out here; it's an umami-adjacent richness that reads as neither sesame nor onion but does give it a pop of something different that I am here for. I agree with doomsday_disco that this is a very sophisticated, artisan grown-up cucumber melon. I adore it and want to wear it through spring and summer. Throw is surprisingly punchy for such delicate notes. I agree there's a watery vibe to it (like fresh spring water, not like shower gel). There's almost something floral to it too, like just the palest white spring rose or tulip that wafts gently in the spring air when there's still the crispness of winter hanging on the breeze. Lovely.

My turn to try! On me this smells like vintage paperback books. If I sit and think about it, I get cracked leather and old copper coins. On the drydown a grassy moss note shows up that reminds me of cash. But first impression was used bookstore paperback. Very cool!

Oooh I like this a lot. Bright green, grassy, and alive. Dandelion and clover are forefront, and if you liked Tennis Match these are the same. Peppery, vibrant green, and indeed almost green apple-y. The soil note is barely there and reads a bit more like earthy, soft patchouli than the suffocating type of dirt (zombi, et al). There's a top note that is clear, bright, almost-kinda-floral, like tulips maybe? Below it all there's a cold note, like melted runoff snow that makes it smell like the first day of spring when everything comes back to life after a long winter. NOT the lab's snow note, but something like a chill on the wind. This is what I was hoping Sprouting Grass Moon would have been, but with zero of the strange swampy, melted-gumdrop gloopiness I got from that one. Fans of Tennis Match, Imayo, and Gaia's Blessing will probably love this.

A lovely forumite gifted me a sniffie of this, I've been waiting to try it for a long while. I suspected it would remind me a lot of Gaia's Blessing since they share a lot of notes, and it does. The same purple sage and mossy patchouli (I think I'm reading the ivy as moss) are most prominent, while the chamomile and rose follow close behind to soften the edges and give it a comforting warmth. Myrrh appears at the tail end to round it out into an incense-adjacent blend, also in the same way that Gaia's Blessing did. Gaia's Blessing felt more like fresh-dipped black forest incense and Woman feels more like a softly faded rose-pine-vanilla incense. They're in the same rack. At first there is an alcohol burn that VetchVesper describes, but I find this floats away quickly (it came back and it seems to want to stay). It's a bit like the sharpness of pine resin or pine tar, but not as immediately identifiable as either. It's not overwhelming but it's there when you get close. Not getting much elderberries; if I reach in there I can pull out a vague purple juiciness, but only if I reach. The smoky vanilla is hiding back there but I sense it is growing its courage to bloom more over time. Fully dry, it lands on a myrrh/rose/vanilla combo with a distinct sharp darkness that I am really loving. It's not leather, but something black and thorny enough to read a little bit like it. Quite nice. I really like this. Gaia's Blessing is one of my favorite BPALs and I think this is same-enough and yet different-enough to warrant a bottle. In fact I think this is how I wanted The Witch/Strega to perform on my skin. I really enjoy these atmospheric/narrative forest blends that aren't a punch in the face of pine and dirt. You get the whole experience of what this is describing without anything being too literal. It's powerful and and yet still very wearable. Beautiful, I'm thrilled I got a chance to try it out.

Gah this one is so good. Big juicy mango out of the bottle. A little delicate creaminess, barely there and nothing I would associate with rice milk. This smells like mango shampoo (nearly exactly like the conditioner bar I use) and it is so fruity fresh. Fun, bright, uncomplicated, happy. It reminds me of the 90s in a way I can't place right now. Like there was a hair product that everybody used that smells like this and it's giving me nostalgia (in a happy way). LA Looks, I think. Yeah lets go with that. Fully dry, the rice milk comes out more and is similar to other reviews of mango rice and starch. So pretty. I layered this with Orange Blossom and Driftwood, brb, teleporting directly to the beach in 1993. 😎🌴🏖️

As suspected, The Man in Black is a lot like Iago but with a black soil note (recently discovered this reads as chlorine on me). The waft is gorgeous and sexy and leather-daddy-mechanic; up close it's super strong black leather and vetiver, a bit bitter. The dry down is much nicer than I remember Iago being; the dirt note recedes, and the tobacco and resins start to soften it up. Notes of grassy hay start to peek out under the sharp leather. Fully dry, this cruises along as a growly, leathery, dark mix of black leather and resins. It reminds me of the best of both Iago and Rivet Goth, and I had been holding out for something like that. So .... success!

I smell very little else but a delicate, sheer skin musk combined with a pale creamy floral. It feels very washed out on the wet stage and I am struggling to get a read on any notes at all. There's a twangy note that flits here and there that is reading a bit funky like celery seed. Occasionally I'll get wafts of pretty, slightly fruity, flushed skin musk but this comes and goes. There's a fleshiness to it that Snake Oil has, but toned way way down. Fully dry, the orris butter comes to the front with a rich creaminess and we get a bit more volume. Still a subdued blend. Fully dry, I get the impression of a much lighter Morocco with less spice. It's an interesting blend and I do like it, just wish there was a little more oomph. If you like Morocco and want something more subtle you'd probably like this.

FIRST: Very milky. Spiced cakes. Very foodie. Is this a secret Yule? Heavy cardamom. THEN: Curry and holiday candle DRY: Not much change. It starts to calm down and the tobacco is coming through more. Still can't shake the curry candle. This was a fail on me. Quite all right, plenty of other Shungas in the sea.

Agreed with all of the above. This is a vegetable garden aquatic. Very clean, very fresh and vibrant and green. If Irish Spring made a tomato leaf/grass cologne. That's not a slight at all, it's quite nice and the soapiness is manageable. This just smells good, and clean, and alive. "Green Man on a date" is spot-on. Tomato leaf lovers should try this!

FIRST: Veeerrry vetiver and black licorice dominant, but the tea, lemon, and wood are making this way more manageable than I expected. I like vetiver but do not like black licorice. First impressions are that I still do not like black licorice... but it is admittedly working pretty well in this blend and I am not immediately recoiling. But yes, the first cut is the deepest. THEN: Tom and Galen talked about this in the review vid, but the longer it sits the better and more wearable it gets. There's a leathery vibe without actual leather. It's a gritty, smoky, slightly bitter but bright, woodsy business that feels like a cross between a tailored black Armani suit and a mechanic. Codes very masculine, which I am here for. I am really enjoying the process of this settling into my skin, and I keep picking out more nuance as it cruises on. Not a ton of throw, but it seems to want to stick around. There's an airy brightness underneath the grittiness that is complex and captivating. If you recall Tsubi Bozu from a few lupers ago, this is in the cohort. I like this one a lot better. Zankoku mentioned a wool note, which I didn't notice before but definitely do now. That is some wool. Two Sheep and Two Goats wool, which like, where did you come from? I think this would age spectacularly, which is making me consider a bottle. If you like vetiver at all, consider trying this one.

Holy hell this is SO much better than I was ever expecting, and I was expecting a lot. The notes are full of win for me, but this exceeded all preconception. FIRST: Smoldering is a good word for what's happening here, but I think "toasted" might be better. It's a delicious, warm, toasted-cedar woodiness. A steamy, baked, luxurious warm wood smell EXACTLY like the smell of being in a sauna, minus the stranger sweat. It's just you in the sauna. The sauna is fresh and ready. I don't get any pine, this to me is very cedar. I guess that's the ho wood? It's like cedar but a buttery creamy version. I want to bathe in it. Ho wood, where you been all my life? THEN: a creamy, silky-smooth middle base like a glowing vanilla amber. An immediate hit of peppercorn, warm and spicy, just the right amount. The leather is so warm, smooth, lived-in, not harsh at all. Brown leather, like butter-soft riding gloves. The green tea is doing this thing where it’s herbal but not; it’s adding this AHMAZING green note that combines with the smoothest red musk I’ve ever smelled. Like green tea gently toasted. The red musk feels distilled and clear like it did in Awake, not shouty or aggressive. The combination is like… Extraordinarily expensive leather-cedar body butter applied by an attractive masseuse inside a steaming high-end luxury sauna with a hot mug of genmaicha waiting on the floor mat. You're doing Serious Self Care. You deserve this. It’s SO LUXE y’all. Heart eyes, for real. Upgrade is without question. If you have any love at all for woody blends, treat yo'self.

Did you miss Tennis Match from the 2018 Lupers? This is your second chance. I'm testing them side by side and they could be twins. There are a few subtle differences: Tennis Match has more of a bite from the dandelion sap. The green tea in Imayo is the same to my nose as the one used in Shanghai and is notably absent from Tennis. As they settle in, they are similar to the point that I couldn't tell you which one I applied where if I didn't already know. Fully dry, Imayo settles firmly into the green tea note and Tennis lands on a soft oakmoss, but really these are twinning hard otherwise. Needless to say, I absolutely love it and I'm glad there's a chance to essentially have a backup of Tennis Match if I want it. If you love green grassy scents, this is your jam.

Mint chypre with a powdery base; I want to say it's some kinda musk or a floofly oakmoss ... thing, it has kind of a sneezy quality to it. I think there's vetiver in here too. The mint stays true through all its stages (I'm even picking up lime here and there), while all the stuff under it kind of swirls around, alternating between powdery, dusty musks and sharp pointy woods and balsam. It's kind of chaotic at first and I'm struggling to decide if I like that chaos, but eventually settles down. I get the impression of leather more than a specific note. It's probably in there. Black leather if so. The waft reminds me of a kind of long-forgotten men's cologne from the past [edit: I figured it out, Jovan Skin Musk]. It has a bit of a powerhouse Brut aftershave vibe, or something you'd run across in an old-school barbershop. It's neat.

Oooh wee this is goth af 🦇 Fresh from the bottle it's a clean clove cigarette fresh out the box. BIG push of clove out front, but softened a bit by the tea. As it dries the leather pokes out a bit more but this is still very clove-and-tea forward as others have said. I will echo that I want more leather from this. I'm reminded a lot of the leather note in Leather, Indigo Incense, and Red Amber. I compared it to Dragon's Hide there and it's the same here. It's subtle. I keep reaching for more of that note but it's a bit shy. The sillage is straight lit Djarum, but up close and huffing I'm getting more of the other notes and I'm here for that. Up close it's very sexy and smoky and skin-hot, but when I pull away my nose holds the memory of clove to the amnesia of the others. I do like this and will probably hold onto the decant because this is a MOOD, but not sure I need to hunt a bottle. It's a lot of clove and my brain still wrestles with the association of Nu Skin.

Main notes I'm getting are eucalyptus, pine needles, juniper, sweetgrass. Then the lab's snow note, with a faint hint of cool water (not aquatic per se, more mineralic like river stones) and maybe a touch of moss and soil. The pine/juniper has a big menthol pop that skews a bit more medicinal than I like (I'll never not think of vaporub, even if it's prettier and more complex than that). The grass note with the snow threatens to turn gloopy and boggy like it does in Sprouting Grass Moon, but it straightens out after a while. The softness of the moss/soil is nice. It def puts me in mind if Ranger and the like, and I'm glad I got to try it.

This is another mellow, your-own-skin-but-better scents. Mostly getting a sort of brownish skin musk, just a touch leathery (very very faint leather, like a worn watch band). The mint is doing really interesting things here -- I wasn't sure how it would fit, but it's giving everything an airy, breezy lift that's working nicely. The caramel note comes out more on the dry-down; it's not really sweet or chewy like honey, much more of a homemade caramel. Like you left it on the stove just a touch too long and it's a little bit burnt. Not too sweet. The sage and tobacco leaf round out the edges. Tobacco is very much JUST the raw leaf, not the shisha or sticky French tobacco. This vibe is VERY Southwest Cowboy. Aird winds, warm dusty desert, sagebrush, and delicious warm skin. This would be a fantastic gateway BPAL for someone who doesn't want to smell like perfume. It's very gentle, but you will smell good. *edit: I am also getting a very faint whiff of celery seed from this. Hm. I think it's the sage messin around.

The mosses and green grass are most prominent out front, and the herbal notes are fresh, and somewhere along the lines of mint, basil, sage, etc. So, very green, very alive, and despite the name, not medicinal at all. I like it most at this stage. As it dries, however, the "drop" of ginger and fig push their way aggressively to the front. This makes everything shift much fruitier than I would like.* The combination reads as grape juice or perhaps plum juice. Some kind of red-purple juice... Very juicy. I would really like to smell a version without these two notes, as I think they're kind of crashing the party here and don't make sense to my nose. I will agree with a previous reviewer that this has big Herbal Essences energy, so if you like that you'll probably really like this. *Thinking about this a bit more, I think the grass note the Lab uses is also what's making this shift fruity. I've noticed this in other blends with grass, that it starts to take on a very sweet juicy quality over time. The fig isn't helping though!

Wet in the bottle, it's a very sweet vanilla/wood gourmand. Chewy, a little salty, and extra buttery, like a synthetic cookie dough. As it dries the foodie-ness gives way and the oak blooms, settling into a slightly salty vanilla-oak. There's a delicate floral quality that emerges at this stage, like vanilla orchid. Combined with the gentle salt note, it's lovely. I blind-bottled this hoping that it wouldn't be too foodie and I'm glad to report that it isn't. It's a nice entry point for someone interested in foodie notes but doesn't want to smell like a bakery.

I've been hoarding my decant of this for two years! It's sublime. I get very little of the dead leaves note in this, it's mostly moss and amber. It's all warm, woodsy, smoky, resinous deliciousness. Perfect for fall.