Most of the time, this fragrance can only be bought in Beijing—more precisely, only inside the heritage-protected courtyard house at No. 19, Wangfu Central. Le Labo has written this into the release rules for SHIU 25: available year-round exclusively at Beijing He Yuan Lab, with brief appearances in other cities only during the brand's annual City Exclusive tour. This near-stubborn scarcity is, in itself, part of the story this scent is trying to tell.
He Yuan Lab is a space restored from a traditional siheyuan (courtyard house), where Le Labo has woven wabi-sabi aesthetics into the bones of the old architecture. SHIU 25 draws its inspiration from this very place—not the shape of the courtyard itself, but the quiet stillness it invites you to pause into.
The fragrance itself is deliberately pared down. Powdery iris and frankincense float lightly on top, resting above a warm, grounded woody base—without excessive decorative twists. Le Labo positions this structure as the "quieter, more serene side" of the Ho tree—Shiu, a scent vocabulary long believed to bring balance and inner calm. The brand describes the wearing experience as walking into a secluded courtyard, where light and shadow drift across worn wooden floors—soft, resinous, and settling.
