Smut

[follis]

What a great freakin' word. BPAL LOVES TEH SMUT! Three swarthy, smutty musks sweetened with sugar and woozy with dark booze notes.

 

 

Large splash at the bottom of a sniffer bottle from 2019 and I am testing fresh. My Smut also does not have a year on it, but it has the crumpled brown paper as the label picture.

It's resiny musk, sweet, some kind of alcohol, and actually quite light despite the large splash I accidentally put on without realizing it was so large haha. 

This is not boozy at all on me. I do agree it is a bit root-beerish. I am generally not a fan of musks (I did not love snake oil but that may be due to the other ingredients) but this is quite kind to my skin, quite "natural" smelling and slightly sweet complementing it. This does not morph much and is actually really light. After an hour it's still there but as a skin close musk, slightly  resiny, slightly sweet, not over powering at all but definitely sensual.

[Lucchesa]

2019 Smut, and apparently I never reviewed my other Smut decant either, which I think is 2013.  2019 is lighter, less voluptuous, but I suspect in six years it may smell quite like my older decant.  Sweet, boozy, almost fruity musk -- one of those musks is definitely of the red persuasion, but it doesn't take over completely. Whereas the above reviewer gets root beer, I get something suggestive of rum and coke (that sounds kind of disgusting, but it's very pleasant).  However, it's not so boozy or so smutty that it can't be worn to the office, especially the 2019 version which wears very close to my skin.  I find Smut a fun, sexy, I-feel-and-smell-great blend to wear, not an I-will-bring-you-to-your-knees-and-you-will-worship-me kind of blend.  The older one is definitely deeper with more staying power but again, that may come with age.  

[starryeyes]

As others have noted, in the bottle this is almost like an uber-boozy cough medicine- but never judge a scent by its bottle smell! I have been fooled many a time, both positively and negatively. thankfully, this time was positive. I love smut as an alternative to lust.  Lust comes across as a more playful and upbeat sexy, ready to hit the fun bars at 2 am.  Smut is a sleepy sexy, on a red satin bed in your best lingerie with a bottle of booze.  The musk is very prominent with a sort of nutty undertone, makes it a very heavy scent with medium throw, so I would layer it lightly, building it up as you see fit.

[artisjok]

I have 2015 on one arm and 2012 on the other...

 

’12 has a definite cherry note going on, sweet musky cherry. Never loses the fruit, though the sugar comes more to the forefront in the drydown. 

 

’15 is pretty much straight up musk. Not particularly sweet or boozy, it’s soft and cozy. 
 

Both are skin-close once dry, ‘12 amps a bit more. Of the two, I enjoy ‘12 more since it is more complex. I don’t often want to smell fruity, though. 
Not convinced I should keep either.
 

I’ve been hankering for a good strong red musk scent, and have been finding it to be an elusive note to my nose. Almost always soft and smooth, not often a sexy vampy vibe that I crave. 

 

 

 

[fairybites]

I'm wearing the 2017 version for this review.

 

I've been dying to try Smut for a while due to its popularity and the fact that it's from Lupercalia, a collection I haven't tried anything from yet. And with the recent Weenie update, I have a few decants from Smut-o-Ween coming in soon.  So I wanted to be familiar with the original before reviewing those.

 

It starts off super sweet and slightly butterscotch on my skin? Some vanilla is peeking through and I'm also getting some of the booze and spices, but it's not overpowering the rest of the notes. I want to say there's a touch of cinnamon in this, but I could be wrong and mistaking it for a musk.

 

It is heavenly for sure and I'm glad I got the bottle instead of settling for a decant. I can see why this is one of the most popular scents! Highly recommend this if you're undecided on what to get from a Lupers update, I think this would please most people since it's not super foodie to me.

Edited November 21, 2020 by fairybites
Typo

[Kanra]

Review of 2015 version:

Smut! There are some popular scents that I just don't quite "get" why they are so adored, and others that totally live up to their hype for me. This is the latter. I'm not really getting much in the way of boozy notes on my skin (which is a bit of a shame, since I love all things boozy!) but this fragrance is so great and addictive I can't even be disappointed. It's a musky oriental that's a bit dirty and a bit sweet. It truly lives up to its name. I can see where this would easily get a lot of nighttime wear.

 

With the recent Smut based Weenie series, I've discovered that Smut works nicely with many, many things and will definitely do my own layering experiments. Sometimes you just want your fragrances to be a little more smutty!

[Estamets]

Reviewing 2015 and 2021 side by side. 
 

About an hour in, it’s exactly what you’d expect:

‘15 is deeper and more complex, a little more grown up. 

‘21 is juicier and brighter.

 

‘21 wants to go out for cocktails and dancing; ‘15 wants to slip into something more comfortable. 

 

’21 is louder right now as well, where ‘15 is fairly subtle, as far as how much smell I get up my nose when I sniff. 

 

2 hours in, ‘21 has dried down to a faint, barely-there juicy musk.
 

‘15 is a gorgeous earthy vanillic skin-close musk with more presence than ‘21. On a scale of 1 to HELL YES, can I make out with myself?

 

4 hours in, almost nothing is left of either. ‘21 is a tart, fruity, almost woodsy whiff. ‘15 is a faint dark/red musk.
 

After 12 hours, both smell like a swipe of sugar. My skin, but sweeter. Like if I dipped my finger in a sweet cocktail and used that as perfume. 
 

I never got a boozy note from either, just a hint of the woody aromatics of a nice barrel-aged brown drink, but any alcohol has evaporated. 

[hhelix]

2021 Smut. Warm, sweet, boozy musk, the kind that makes you go mmmmmmm. Anyone familiar with that drugstore perfume called Tabu? This is a nicer version. (Cue Smooth Operator by Sade.) Low throw, medium wear length. Sticks close to the skin so to enjoy it one has to be, well, close. 

[rawgirl75]

After a year of constant chemistry fails on all my blind bottle purchases, I am relieved that Smut 2021 is a winner.  Although I'm not new to Smut, it's been many years since I last purchased it and it's formula does vary from year to year.  My bottle of 2006 is too strong for daily wear, my 2011 is almost empty, and my beloved 2012 cherry amaretto version is too rare to use up.  (I have only decants of '07, '08, '13, etc).  I was afraid that buying this years version would be problematic as Snake Smut was one of those recent catastrophes.  Fortunately I was worried for nothing. 

 

I sniffed 2021 alongside my 2011 and both are quite similar (with 2021 obviously having that usual slightly plastic-y note of fresh Smut that goes away with age). It's still yummy fresh anyways and by next year it will be totally amazing.  (This year does not smell wine/port like some other years. No honey or brown sugar either.)

 

Super happy with my purchase.  😍

Edited August 14, 2021 by rawgirl75

[aphrodisms]

For 2021’s version - this is all boozy sugar on me. I’m not sure I really get the musks from this.

[lipstickonmyteeth92]

2015 version 

 

So excited to finally try this! 

 

In bottle: Dark musk, and oh dear. A very sugary cough syrup. (I'm sure this will morph a bit though) 

Wet on skin: Sugary musk with a very boozy undertone 

Dry on skin: Burnt sugar and booze. On the whole it's lighter than anticipated, I expected a much darker overall feel 

 

*Dry after a few hours: A very lovely burnt/caramelized sugar musk with boozy undertone scent. It's very pleasant and not as "in your face" as I was expecting, very happy to have snagged a bottle! 

[cosurmyyne]

This is a bottle from around 2019 I believe 

in the bottle it was sweet and almost headache-inducing cough syrup, not off to a great start but I tried to pay no mind to that.

Wet on my skin it smelt like old lady perfume. Sweet and cloying, slightly musky. Didn’t like it but decided to stick it out.

Dry on skin it was still the same old lady perfume, but it had gotten slightly darker. My eyes started watering and my nose started running until I decided to just give up on it and wash it off.

 

I was super excited to try this, but unfortunately I had to wash it off after about an hour. It was like stale musk sticks mixed with old lady perfume, very sweet and very feminine. It didn’t feel sensual or sexy in the slightest, just overly sweet and cloying. I had high hopes about this, I’ll have to sell it or give it away though

Edited January 24, 2022 by cosurmyyne

[JakkieTreehorn]

I’ve tried a couple of the more recent years’ Smut variations, but red musk is tricky for me and only works sometimes.  
 

Due to hormonal changes I’ve recently found past loves no longer working for me and things that in the past would be hard no’s or even scrubbers to be amazing.  This has led me to a deeper exploration of all things red musk through which I read about every Smut year and variation.  I took a chance and bought a 2012 Smut hoping it would be just right.

 

This is to die for.  I definitely get the amaretto I read about in the bottle.  In the bottle smells like deep dark amaretto and red musk.

 

Bright juicy amaretto/maraschino cherry with a dark red musk undertone while wet.

 

On dry down it stays just sweet enough for this foodie lover without actually being foodie at all.  It reminds me a lot of my other non-foodie love, Sin.  I feel like whatever components are in the Amber used in Sin must be similar to or include red Musk.  
 

Anyways this reminds me of Sin, but deeper Musk and candied cherry instead of cinnamon.  I now have a second option when I wanna feel like a sexy, dark badass lol.  And I will cherish this bottle.

Edited April 6, 2022 by JakkieTreehorn

[dancingchair]

2022
 

This is primarily a red musk on me. Wet, I do get some boozy sugary goodness but that gives way to a strong red musk note. For whatever reason, the lab's red musk is often very jasmine-heavy on my skin and I am getting a lot of sweet, caramelized jasmine. Luckily it reads more like a sweetened jasmine tea rather than a stanky jasmine that I don't really enjoy, but it isn't quite what I was expecting. It's not very boozy to my nose, but the other notes might be getting drowned out by the red musk? I haven't tried Smut from any other years, so I can't compare to previous iterations unfortunately.

[Tamarinda]

2022 Version

 

In the Bottle: WHAM! Aggressive, boozy musk.

 

Wet: A blooming cloud of muskiness.

 

Dry: Sweet, powerful musk. No real booziness but it could be the element that anchors all the musk together, because I cannot isolate any of them.

 

I really, really love Smut. What makes me extra happy about blind-bottling this is that it reminds me of the way Snake Smut smelled on me before my skin chemistry changed. It's a bouncy kind of sexy, cute and coy. I'm tempted to get a backup so that I can go crazy smuttifying all the things.

[zipegs]

2022 version!

 

I was absolutely 100% convinced I'd hate this, but it seemed so iconic and so fun that I had to grab myself a decant just for fun. And oh boy am I glad I did!! Almost none of BPAL's red musks have worked for me, but I'm really loving this scent! It's really not pulling animalic or overly "musky" at all, honestly—there's maybe a little additional depth or groundedness to the scent, but it's mostly tangy and sweet to my nose. With wear, that sweetness tones down a bit, but it never turns overly down 'n dirty sensual musk to my nose. I'm wondering if the musk will come out more with aging? At any rate, I'll definitely be grabbing myself a bottle!

[milo]

I have two other bottles of Smut, and absolutely love it.  My 2008 has aged into a thing of loveliness, mostly a dark, musky fruit, very snake charmer ish.  This years incarnation is more on the dark musk side, barely any fruit that I can detect.  Still, it is awesome, I would dare to say a guy could pull this one off.

[starbrow]

Smut 2022!

 

This is my first Smut oil, and I am PUMPED PUMPED PUMPED. The hair glosses are beautiful, but wow the oil is ALIVE with a beautiful fruit-buzzed musk the moment it touches my skin, and I am entranced. It says hello, all sweet and coy-like, as if it is so well-behaved. But then it's snogging me up against a wall, like we're two teenagers and it's just visited Victoria's Secret and it KNOWS this is sexy, and damn I know it too, and we're all a tangle of brown musk and soft sweetness and fruity ecstasy.

 

Have you emerged? I have too. Okay, I am willing to say this was a FAIRLY BOOZY RIDE. But the brown musk cannot be denied! The buzz is the red musk, a vibrant fruity hello; the settle-in is brown and cozy and so welcoming. You want a brown fuzzy blanket? Here it is. The snuggle is all commercial, and I am unapologetically here for it.

 

Smut 2022 is so damn charming. Stop it. STOP IT. This drydown is killing me. Snake Oil, aged and snuggly. Not even kidding. Vanilla with sexy heels and goth as fuck. You wanted sex? Here's sex. You thought Snake Oil was sexy. Um, Smut? Smut. 

 

Sorry, y'all. Smut 2022 is the GOAT. Y'all just wannabe her. 

[AbbyNormal]

I recently received a bottle of 2015 Smut from a forumite and tried it today. It’s doesn’t have quite as much red musk as I had hoped, but I’m still glad that I got to try it. I’m also getting something reminiscent of rum and coke when I sniff closely, but the weird thing is that it seems to be throwing a tiny bit of masa/hominy. Luckily I think that smell is delicious, but it’s still a little unnerving to smell it coming from me. I did apply it right out of the shower so there are virtually no skin oils to grab onto the scent, so I’ll have to reapply in the morning and see what it does then. 

*edit*
ok, there’s the red musk I was looking for. It took its time showing up, but it absolutely making its presence known now. And the masa has disappeared and I’m in love!

 

Edited March 4, 2023 by AbbyNormal