Llanval

Imp from my third order, aged abt 6+ months: Tragically, this immediately turned into a simmering, almost artificial cherry sweet version of B&BW's Cranberry Woods scent bulb. Too bad, because I quite liked the idea of this scent - but none of the spice or smoke takes up any room. The cherry-cranberry stuck around for a long time, and there were occasional hints of a rich spice but no zip from the ginger, and a no show from the smoke. I very badly want to like all these Ancient, pagan Greece themed scents (because that's my fav wheelhouse) but so far none are working in the way I'd hoped. I'm sure Lampades would be lovely on another person, because it isn't BAD. It simply becomes too close to a commercial scent on my skin. 😔

Hello everyone! Here's my question(s): Shunga stans, what is your outstanding scent from this year's collection? What's the one that stops you in your tracks, the one that made you smile or gleefully exclaim in either fear or joy when you opened it for the first time? What is the Shunga 2021 scent, for you, that transports you somewhere else entirely? I am humbly seeking the expertise of long-time Shunga fans for recs for my August/September order. I've never ever picked scents from the Shunga line before, so I'm a total clueless noob. Idk what I was doing in 2019 to miss that year's lineup, and 2020 was a mess, I genuinely don't remember why I didn't check the Shunga collection but 😤 I missed it. So 2021, right? Time to try new stuff! So after an order with two 😭 kinda disappointing blind bottle LEs, I wanted to really step outside my comfort zone. And this year I luckily had *an singular atom* of sense in my head and checked out the Shunga for 2021. And oh boy! I was intrigued by half of the lineup. A solid 10 bottles. So I divided my list up and blind bottled the ones that intrigued me the most. My order arrived Friday and I got: Under the Footwarmer Gokugetsu Cycling for Pleasure Levitating Phallic God (based purely on Tom and Galen's reactions to it, lol) *Also blind bottled Buck Moon 2021 in this order The bottles for my next order are: Ecstatic Dancing Penises Imayo Irokumi No Ito Discarded Sandal Butterfly Dancer Two I cut but might put back on the list: Shadow Pictures Kimi Ga Dai Wa I'm not a fan of heavy florals, gourmand or fruit, but I'd still love to hear what the knockout Shunga was for you guys. I don't want to have overlooked something truly magical and arresting because I'm a noob who doesn't really Know Anything. As you can see, I really love statement perfumes. LOVE THEM. But I am allergic to conventional and I'm very worried Ecstatic Dancing Penises is too much of a men's cologne. Samhain went men's cologne on me and it's the only BPAL bottle I've parted ways with yet! I love tomato leaf so much, I love smelling like a garden. I Do Not want to smell like eau du sauvage or polo, or boss. Butterfly Dancer has been described like Betsy Johnson or Victoria's Secret adjacent and that makes me SUPER nervous. I have only one imp I've tried with oud in it (Yorik) and while I love it very much, it's not a note I'm at all familiar with - pink sparkly poo!? 😥😢 Scary! (chuckles) I'm in Danger meme here! But I'm so intrigued by Tom and Galen's review and the reviews here and really want to try new stuff. But again, allergic to conventional and not a big fan of super feminine florals. How conventional is Butterfly Dancer? Am I gonna smell like a Victoria's Secret fan? 😭 I'll start reviewing soon, lol, but I'm so excited for these Shunga I'm letting them rest without opening them for a few days. I want them to recover from the heat of traveling and being stuffed into a wee metal mailbox on a 34°C July day. I'm so sorry for ALL that but I'm so intrigued by Shunga and would love to hear what long-time fans think is the best of the best!

@VetchVesper Thank you so much, your detailed reviews of the green scents really helped me finalize my next order! I love green scents, and smelling like a garden - that's what brought me to bpal. Inspecting the Lantern Oil, A Karasu Tengu and Ecstatic Dancing Penises were all "late round cuts." But I loved my first Shunga order so much I'm going back for the balance of my cut list, lol. I'm still very intrigued by Imayo and Shadow Pictures but I really really prefer scents with strong throw and long wear. Since shipping to Canada is a little $$ I want my scents to be noticeable, lol. But I love everything about Shadow Pictures, especially those hay and parchment notes. Imayo is still really really something I want for my collection, it sounds very ME. I get hung up on the review comparing it to Tennis Match 2018 so much I could cry. Cuz Tennis Match 2018 is 1000% a bottle I would have bought but I didn't even know about bpal in 2018 so 😭 💔 I'll forever be haunted by that bottle, lol. I also love Under the Foortwarmer a whole lot. I'm so happy I picked it up. It's such a beautiful, atmospheric scent. I love the way it feels like sitting in a room with ho wood walls and an actual footwarmer?! Love it. I am super intrigued by Butterfly Dancer. Every review is a little different, with no unifying thread. I've read Betsy Johnson and Victoria's Secret's Pink adjacent. I've seen pink champagne jello. Khao San road in Bangkok. Just "Red". Galen called it spectral. Like what is this?? I'm looking forward to sniffing it, and maybe adding it to my collection. I'm very curious about decant circles, especially since Halloween and Yule are usually the seasons and lines I buy most of my LEs! Are decant circles limited to specific countries? I'd definitely like to participate in one for next year's Shunga, for sure. I'm just gonna go take a read through the forum's decant threads, haha Thank you so much for your reviews and suggestions, I really appreciate the specific extra info on the green scents, which still seem to be my fav kinds of scents. I'm definitely going to work on my floral bias because I'm very interested in the new releases for the Last Unicorn, which seems very floral forward but really lovely. 😅

Got this as a frimp from my most recent order, so it's brand new. While it isn't something I would ever have chosen for myself. I do like orange blossoms, ginger and patchouli, but all together? With orange blossoms leading the charge? That feels too femme for me, and I was right, but not in a "get it off my skin" way. The orange blossoms are thick and heavy but not shouty. But rather than a fresh, light orange blossom, these blossoms are dry and preserved, resting confidently atop a pool of swirling nag champa-like incense and earthy patchouli. The blossoms have an arid, creamy vibe, just ghosting along the edge of powdery. I did not get any of the spice or red heat from the ginger, so maybe that's a note that will get stronger with time....not that I'm keeping this imp, it's going in the swap pile. It's going in the swap pile because Vixen is a weirdly, deeply nostalgic scent to me. It's not sexy, lush or vampy to me. Vixen is a dozen moms I knew growing up as a kid in the late 90s and early 2000s. This is the scent-memory of many birthdays in other friend's homes, the scent-memory of getting hugs from these moms in their oversized Northern Reflections sweaters laced with this soft, heady scent on nights where parents attended at Brownie and Girl Guide meetings. The nag champa-like underpinning walks me back to my best friend's bedroom, and its a room that no longer exists. Vixen is tragically, accidentally my late 90s/early 00s childhood, so it has to go. Nostalgia is a bad, bad drug.

I really wasn't sure about this one - mainly because of the mint and tuberose. I'm not at all familiar with what a mint note does on my skin, and don't have enough experience with floral notes yet to really know which succeed on me, and which don't. But I was so intrigued by the brocade chypre, red musk (which I have never tried and didn't have in my collection), and woodsmoke I blind-bottled it anyway. In bottle: A deep rich, silken scent, sweet and a little odd, which I assume is the brocade coming out to play. Wet: Luckily, this works really well on me and I don't get the toothpaste/mint blast I was worried about. The tuberose and mint give this bottle a bright, airy sweetness and my nose doesn't clock the white mint as specifically "mint". The red musk and the woodsmoke give the brocade chypre a lightness and depth at the same time. This is a lovely, redolent gasp of thick silk, warm red musk and bright almost sparkling green sweetness that I know is mint, but is not specifically clocking in as mint. The woodsmoke really whispers when this is wet on the skin. Dry-down and Dry: For me, this is a very atmospheric scent. It feels very like a pristine, neatly ordered room nestled in a wood-walled and shoji-screened home. There is a thick silk kimono, freshly and carefully laundered on a wooden stand. Not too far away is an open shoji screen, letting in the scent of rosy green sweetness, with the distant burr of woodsmoke to ground it, turning it into something more complex than I was initially expecting. For me this is beautiful, atmospheric and lush, a very luxe scent. I very much wish this was a bolder blend, with more throw and a louder dry down. Here's to hoping age will deepen and strengthen this notes and it will become a little punchier as time passes. I stepped out of my comfort zone with this one and really ended up loving it - so much so I've put Woman as Dragon and a few other red musk blends on my to-purchase-list, lol. Super thrilled with all of my first time ever Shunga purchases!

Oh, looks like Buck Moon 2021 is my first bpal heartbreaker. 😱💀 In the bottle: This is not what the scent description lists. Nope no sir, why does this smell like cereal, like cream of wheat? Baked goods?? Noooooooooo. Wet: There is NOTHING of the scent description in this bottle or on my skin. No forest herbs, pine pitch, smoky birch tar, cedar berries, juniper, or amber moss. For sure there's no crystalline lunar oil. This is an armful of baby. You've fed the baby cream of wheat, or some other baby cereal grain mush, and they've puked that and some soured milk, all over you. This is an unpleasant, faintly rancid splort of baked goods, cream of wheat or some sort of cereal grain, and baby powder. The forest left home for cigarettes, and is never coming back. I'm so bummed. So so so bummed out by this blend. I wish I'd waited for the forum's reviews. I sure as s**t will in the future. There's just no way no waaaaay this matches the description. I was so hyped to try this, I kicked a Shunga scent out of this order, for this bottle. I'm heartbroken. Nay, devastated! Weeping dramatically on my fainting couch like a neurotic Victorian lady, here. 😞 I used the last of my Yorick to make this Go Away. At least the bottle is cute.

@Teamama thank you so much for the recs, I am super intrigued by the Peach Vulva bottle not even gonna lie. I'm scared of fruit because I'm not in love with smelling like cobbler or candy, but there are so many (30+) reviews just !!!!!!!!!!!!!! about how juicy and close to the stone the smell is, which no lie, makes me swoon. All the gushing about the peach perfection at BPAL is making me really really want to try a peach scent. I was genuinely looking at Wisdom, Justice, Moderation to pick up, before I'd even looked at the Shunga 2021 line so.... Now I'm going to have to choose, lol. @rivetted I read your full write up and definitely changed my mind on Imayo Irokumi No Ito, lol. I really am looking for stand-out scents and "fancy grass" isn't high on my priority list, especially as it sounds like a skin-close, low throw scent. I'd much rather roll the dice on something more unique. Now, I'm switching it for Ripping Water in a Stone Basin. I had this one initially as a purchase but several reviews said it turned into men's deodorant or arctic blast, which ew no thank you, but I love juniper berries and mountain pine scents (fav being Theoi Nomioi). So the pine scent over the grass scent is likely a better bet. BUT!!! I scrolled your swap list/wishlist and would be very happy to potentially trade away some bottles. I will be picking up Rippling Water in this August order, which I see is on your duplicate bottle list. If it goes men's cologne/arctic blast on me, I would be very happy to trade for Imayo Irokumi No Ito. If that does not work, I am picking up Altarpiece No.1 - Group X in my September or October order and if this scent does not work on me or I am not thrilled with it, I would again be happy to trade this bottle as well. Any scent that has reviews tending towards "this went cologne on me" are always scents that I seem to consistently end up not enjoying/full on hating. If either of these bottles go cologne on me, I am more than happy to swap. Genuinely I have no idea what I'm doing, ahaha - I haven't even put up a list of my own stuff, as I'm only *just* starting to be a more frequent collector. I don't understand decant circles or swaps, so if I've missed an etiquette step, sorry! Thank you both for sharing your experiences with Shunga 2021, I really really appreciate the in-depth suggestions, they've been super helpful in adjusting my orders (and expectations, lol) and planning for future orders!!!

Imp, aged two years: Rich, dark potting soil and a suggestion of sweet floral (guessing the angel's trumpet). A prickly spice that isn't spice and a hint of strange depths. Wet: Blast of potting soil and thick clots of undisturbed parchment dust. The potting soil is neither warm nor cold, and is a true dead ringer for just the smell of dirt. Freshly turned dirt. There's a prickly quality to this stage, sharp and acerbic but not unpleasant. This is the smell of a dark, cloister-like library; there's a candle on an ancient wooden desk and a large, weathered tome open, spine cracked and flaking with dust. Drydown and Dry stages: Still dirt, rich and redolent, but now it is softer, father away. It's a little lighter and more airy, but still that crystal clear and really well developed dirt scent. I do understand the mouldering description because decay haunts this scent. But not the decay of flesh, just the decay of time, of form. There's a thread of old cloth here, just the hint of crumbling. The scent goes from a rich earthy loamy true to dirt scent to a wafting, prickly dusty earth scent. The florals nearly disappear on my skin, and aren't prominent enough to do anything other than lift the scent out of that decay-like suggestion lurking in the background. I wish the dry paper note was a little stronger. I really like Yorik, much more after a year+ of aging. When I first tested it, it was a blast of prickly dust and dirt. I will definitely be picking up a bottle at some point in the future. I love the smell of dirt and bpal has such a diversity of dirt notes, this is a great addition for anyone looking to smell like Shakespeare's ghost scribbling away in a gentle, dusty darkness.

I stepped out of my comfort zone on this one, as I've never tried to wear a licorice note, and I blind-bottle it - so haha I am super relieved that it is genuinely incredible! In bottle: a dark, echoing space, deep and strange. Grit, ash, wood and spectral spice - but like the lining of an ancient wooded trunk rather than a forest. Wet: Rough, very rough initial blast of wood and acrid vetiver. Ashy and strange, twisting between two diametrically opposed poles, one being the scent of a memory-laden leather jacket, left in that ancient wood trunk - for me it evokes early fall nights where you stood around a roaring fire, woolen sweater and leather jacket absorbing the night and the scents just to throw it back at you in the morning - and I'm not kidding, the scent of sun-blasted inner tube. Like being hauled around the back of a speed boat in an inner tube on a fresh water lake. My nose is lying to me, I know it's not rubber inner tube, but it sure likes bully me into thinking it is. Must be the vetiver/opoponax from what I'm reading above. And I don't hate it. This is a very evocative scent, and I can see why so many did not like this at all. Thankfully it works for me and takes me strange places (which I enjoy). The dry-down stage lasts a long time and plays between these two extremes for me for several hours. Dry: a beautiful, beautiful close-to-the-skin scent. A dark and inviting scent, one you want to press your nose to, but shot through with airy gasps of these ghostly suggestions of vetiver, tea and lemon, and the soft burr of wool?! But none of the notes are, for me, individually distinguishable, which is too bad because I very much wanted to see what my skin did with licorice. Lovely yet foreboding. Soft, yet sharp. Comforting and warm, yet braced by darkness. If anything, I wish this bottle was louder, with more throw, with a bigger presence once dry. This should roll off you like thunderclouds, rather than cling like smoke, but that's just me. Really, a genius expression of the artwork. This is a dark and dire levitating phallic god: bizarre, beguiling and yet deeply enjoyable.

frimp, aged approx one year: a quiet honey scent, bright enough to smother any smoke or beeswax. To me, it has just a kiss of strangeness, a fuzz that isn't entirely due to the honey. Wet: Nothing but sweet soft honey, soft as breath and just as gentle. There's nothing bold or assertive about this scent - this wafts like a bouquet of snuffed beeswax candles, the sort you patiently hand-dipped as a kid while your Brownie leaders remind you to pay attention to the staff at the pioneer lodge teaching you how to make them. Gentle, sweet, and uncomplicated. I get no smoke from this in the dry down. Dry: Sadly, this is a ghostly scent once dried. On me, it vanishes in a puff of waxy honey sweetness. I get no smoke note, but the scent is a soft, rounded thing. A curling up kind of scent. A memory. And for the vibe of the label and the perfume, that's a lovely expression of what the lights of all men's lives really are, no? A puff of smoke, and a memory. Also just the weirdest edge of baby powder adjacent softness invades the honey/beeswax and that makes me As time goes, the scent drifts and returns at odd moments, still soft and full of memories, but it lacks the complexity I personally look for in a scent. Because of the baby powder adjacent skin chemistry issue, this won't be a full bottle for me. No doubt this is beautiful, soft and transporting on the right skin.