Stung By the Cock Tree in Hell

[Seajewel]

Hinoki wood, dark green moss, ti leaf, patchouli, mushroom, red oud, mahogany, spiky red pepper, and tobacco leaf. 

[marared]

This one is really interesting and I'm not sure what to make out of it at first. This is very dark and foresty. There's something very slightly camphoric - not much but on a deep inhale it tickles the top of my nose. The hinoki and mahogany are dominant but it's not a clean wood smell, it's very ... fuzzy, textured, like you rolled an old log out of its resting place, that's the combined effort of the rest of the notes. I think it's probably the oud giving it the darkness - and it is NOT stanky! - and the moss/patch/tobacco/mushroom carrying it the rest of the way.

 

This is what an Ent would smell like.

 

The hinoki is what makes this so interesting, I think. I've loved other blends in the past with this note, and it really conveys the "ancient" sense behind this.

[starbrow]

Salty woods, hi hinoki. Right off the bat, saltwater-logged and a mushroom backed by a strong oakmoss. This wants to veer cologne, until the other notes pull it into a place that works surprisingly well on my skin, when the resins of oud and mahogany and tobacco, deep and smooth, start to have a chance to shine. I enjoy how those play with the sprinkle of mushroom for a while.

 

This is one of the "cleaner" mushrooms and ouds around, so if you're worried about dirt/funk/poop, don't be!! I expected the red pepper to be spikier, but it's actually pretty chill. All the other notes play out pretty much as you'd expect them to, as a deeply layered roll through the forest floor.

 

A very unfortunate nose-burny late stage, so I definitely won't be picking up any more of this, with how nose-stabby it is at the beginning and end. But I can see this one working really well for others who enjoy hinoki and oakmoss more than I do.

[LavenderCoffee]

This is entirely more pleasant and subtle than the name implies! I wish it had a bit more throw, but I can't stop smelling myself. I really like the mushroom in this, more than the honey pot mushroom blend this year. The pepper does provide a nose tickle, but nothing aggressive. This is very well blended, imo, I can pick out most of the notes if I'm looking for them, but it forms a cohesive scent: a warm fuzzy earthy wood blend, with a bit of salt and spice. The color impression I get is reddish brown.

[torischroeder9]

I bought this for the title alone. If the scent works, that's just a bonus.

 

In the decant: Something creamy and buttery and utterly unexpected, grounded by something that could be patchouli or moss or even oud. And then ti leaf.

 

On my skin:

 

Wet, it's ti leaf and some of the other notes -- maybe tobacco leaf, maybe red pepper -- combining to give a milder sensation of... almost menthol. And still that creamy, buttery note, just once -- but it is fleeting. As it dries, I get more of the hinoki wood and moss, though tinged with some ti leaf as well, giving it a... it's not a sharpness, but it is a high note.

 

Given more time to develop, I get more of the moss and patchouli. The hinoki doesn't disappear, but it does hang back, as does the ti leaf. I'm not getting discernible red pepper or tobacco leaf. The mushroom could be anywhere.

 

Eventually, the ti leaf does fade, and I'm left with a woodsy, mossy scent. I like it, but it's probably not a distinct enough iteration of this for me to want to bottle it.

[supreme_c0rt]

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.

[Poenari]

I don't recall why I ordered a decant of this, but I am so glad that I did! Typically I pass on Shungas... They only rarely have been "me" scents, so I have probably only tried a handful over the years. This one is delightful!

 

First of all, the hinoki wood - hello there! This note is one I really like. It is a high note to me, goes up my nose and amazingly not in a sinus headache inducing way! This note puts me in mind of the note I love in We Wear The Mask... All this time I assumed it was the carrot seed in that one. Could it actually be one of the main "dry woods" mentioned there? Because it is so specific to my nose, and that's the only other scent I have that has that similarity. 

 

On drydown, that stays present, but the rest of the notes don't stand out individually to me. I love how blended they are, and the sum is greater than the parts. I am really enjoying this decant. Long lasting and decent throw, too! 

[Threemoons]

Ok, been wearing this 3 days in a row during a heat wave, so I think I am really getting to know this!  Love it.  I was a bit afraid of the oudh, but my fear was unfounded.  In the bottle: Toasted wood and...sweet roasted peanuts/popcorn?  WEIRD.  On, wet:  The red pepper jumps to the front of the line VERY quickly, along with a very "fuzzy" iteration of the Lab's mushroom note.  Long gradual drydown; the rest of the notes sort of smooth together to make this kind of "Northwestern temperate forest" musky woodsy sort of thing.  The oudh behaves itself very well here, and actually for once stays in the background and plays nice on me--as I have noted before, on me, oudh plays out as either "ME TOTAL SEX GODDESS" or "ugh, who forgot to clean the cat box for our 17 cats after a week?" The fact that it doesn't jump off of my skin one way or another is remarkable; if you are woods and oudh-curious, this one is for you!

[pommelo]

Wow, what a puncher!!! This hit me with a blast of green and red and screams man all over.

The woods have a very sharp green, almost minty quality, but also the mahogany is quite prominent, giving the whole thing a dark vampiric vibe. Then the red pepper and red oudh just gives it an extra kick. The oudh goes on toilet poop on the first sniff, but it tames down pretty quick. 
This is extremely manly on me, almost unbearably so. I covered it up with my jacket and came back to it again after an hour, and the drydown is slightly better, but still absolutely not for me. I normally love woods and oud notes but this one was just. much too much. 

[DiesMali]

In the bottle: A somewhat nondescript haze of mentholic evergreen and musky moss. 

 

Wet on my skin: This is actually fairly quiet as it goes on, but then blooms into this warm, dark, earthy, spicy haze after a minute or two on the skin. 

 

Dry: This is definitely what most people would consider to be a masculine scent. There's a green spice from that mentholic-piney wood and ti leaf and a red spice from the mahogany and red pepper, and underneath that is this gorgeous, almost tea-like earthiness. Almost like black tea leaves and tobacco mulched into rich, dark soil. The mahogany in this is the same rich, dark mahogany from A Hailstorm of Knitting Needles, and there's almost a salty quality to the hinoki, which is a new wood to my nose. After it's been on for 30+ minutes, everything is settled down into the skin and now it's a smooth, very well-blended "masculine earthy woods" scent, with mahogany, oud, and tobacco being the most easily discernible notes. Overall, it's in the territory of very high-end mens' cologne, like the kind I'd smell on opera singer friends at the opera-night afterparties where they schmooze with the wealthy opera patrons, which isn't something I personally mind at all. There isn't a whole lot of throw, and this would be a good scent for a "classy" event where you want to smell good enough to be memorable when you squeeze past someone, but not enough for it to linger in your wake. Like...a fancy opera afterparty. 

[zankoku_zen]

Dark forest fougere. This smells like a forest, and also like a high end men's cologne. Medium throw and wear length.