What's in Byredo Tree House? The Ingredients and Fragrance Notes, Explained
Tree House is named after an actual tree house. Byredo built the scent for its Japanese launch at the specialty store Adam et Ropé Biotop in Tokyo, and the courtyard there holds a grand camphor tree with a structure built into it by Takashi Kobayashi. So the reference point is one tree, in one courtyard, with warm air and old wood around it.
That origin explains why the note list reads the way it does. Bamboo and peppery pimento sit on top. Hay, labdanum and myrrh fill the middle. Blond cedarwood, guaiac wood, sandalwood and smoky leather hold up the bottom. It is a good list, and it is the part every retailer quotes, but it answers maybe half of what you want to know before you spend money on a jar, which is why people who love the idea of Tree House often end up looking through pure beeswax candles with the woods left dry and unsweetened to see how the same idea behaves in a real room.
The notes, in the order your nose actually meets them
Byredo classes Tree House as a woody aromatic. Green, woody, spicy. That is accurate, but it flattens what is happening inside the blend.
Bamboo opens it. Bamboo in perfumery smells watery and green, closer to a snapped stem after rain than to anything sweet. It reads cool because the molecules used to build that effect are light and lift fast off a warm surface.
Peppery pimento sits right next to it. Pimento is allspice berry, and its oil carries eugenol, the same compound that makes clove sting the tongue a little. That is the prickle you get in the first minute.
Then the middle arrives, and this is where Tree House stops smelling like a green candle. Hay is dry and slightly sweet, the smell of cut grass three days after it was cut. Labdanum is a sticky resin from the rock rose shrub, and it smells leathery and warm and faintly animal. Myrrh is another resin, dry and smoky, with a bitter edge underneath.
The base is where the wood piles up. Blond cedarwood is pencil shavings. Guaiac wood is smokier, closer to a campfire that has burned down. Sandalwood is creamy and soft and rounds off the sharp edges. Smoky leather ties the whole bottom together. Reviewers who spend time with it describe the effect as woody, slightly fruity, spicy and warm, with hints of tannins, leather and tobacco.
You have probably had a version of this smell on your own clothes. You come back from a walk in October and your jacket sleeve smells like crushed green stems and wet bark for the rest of the evening. That is the smell people are chasing when they buy a woody candle, and it is hard to find without a sugary vanilla layer dumped on top. If that is what you want in your living room, our Touch Grass beeswax candle works from a similar angle: fig, black currant, galbanum, coconut, davana, cedarwood, amber, orris and tonka bean. Galbanum is the bitter green resin that gives it the just-snapped-stem bite, and the cedarwood and amber keep it dry rather than sweet. The 40-hour size is $32 and the 80-hour size is $65.
Why it smells like almost nothing when you open the jar
Here is the complaint that comes up over and over with Tree House. People sniff it cold, in the store or straight out of the box, and feel let down. Then they burn it and it makes sense.
There is a mechanism behind that. A candle only smells as strong as the molecules that can escape into the air, and heavier molecules need heat to move. Resins like labdanum and myrrh, plus dense woods like sandalwood and guaiac, are all heavy. At room temperature they barely lift off the wax at all.
Bamboo and pimento are the light ones, so those are mostly what you get from a cold jar. The rest of the composition stays put until a melt pool forms and the surface warms up. Fragrance experts who have burned it say the same thing: the candle does not smell appealing straight from the jar, and it performs notably better once lit. The dry woods are overdosed on purpose, which is what gives it character in a room without shouting.
So if the smell checks out once you burn it, the fragrance side of the question is settled. Which leaves the other half of the jar, and that is the part almost nobody looks up.
So what is actually in the jar
Two different ingredient lists circulate for the Byredo Tree House candle, and they do not agree with each other.
One published wax composition reads: cetyl alcohol, stearyl alcohol, microcrystalline wax, paraffin, fragrance. Another product description says each candle is made with high-quality vegetable wax and a pure cotton wick. Byredo's own guidance is to review the ingredient list printed on the packaging before use, because formulations can vary.
That is the honest answer to "what's in Byredo Tree House." The fragrance notes are well documented and consistent across sources. The wax is the part you have to verify on the jar in front of you, because the internet will hand you two answers and only one of them is printed on your candle.
It is worth knowing what those wax names mean, because they are not decorative. Cetyl alcohol and stearyl alcohol are fatty alcohols used to harden a wax blend and control how it sets. Microcrystalline wax is a fine-grained petroleum wax used to raise melting point and make a candle less likely to slump. Paraffin is the one people ask about most, so let me walk through where it comes from.
Where paraffin comes from, step by step
Crude oil goes into a refinery and gets separated by weight. The light fractions become fuels. The heavy residue at the bottom is thick and waxy.
That residue gets dewaxed, which produces a crude material called slack wax. Slack wax is then de-oiled, refined and bleached until it is white, odorless and solid at room temperature.
What comes out is paraffin wax. So paraffin is the leftover heavy end of crude oil, cleaned up until it looks like nothing. That is the whole story, and it is why paraffin is cheap and why it is everywhere.
Research has found that burning paraffin releases volatile organic compounds, including benzene, toluene and formaldehyde. That is real, and it is fair to care about it. It is also worth keeping in proportion: one candle in a ventilated room is a different situation from six candles burning all evening in a closed bedroom.
Beeswax takes a different route entirely. Worker bees produce it from glands on their abdomen to build comb. Beekeepers harvest the caps that get cut off during honey extraction, filter the wax, and that is it. No refining chemistry, no bleaching, no blending. Beeswax is a byproduct of honey production, and it is the oldest candle material we know of, going back to roughly 5,000 BCE.
"I absolutely love these candles! I instantly notice the difference in the air quality, in comparison to the Bath & Body scented candles. I love Bath & Body's candles but I acknowledge that it caused a slight headache and other minor respiratory discomfort. Awesome products. Totally addicted."
Jason H.
Every MBur candle is 100% beeswax. One ingredient, no blend, no paraffin cut in to lower the cost. The fragrance oils are phthalate-free and there are no chemical dyes, which is why the wax stays that soft honey color instead of turning forest green to match a woody name.
The wick is the part nobody reads
A cotton wick is a reasonable wick. Cotton is fine. The wick to avoid is a metal-core wick, which uses a wire spine to stand up straight and can put metal particles into the air as it burns.
MBur uses wooden wicks. Wood burns as a wide flat flame instead of a single point, so it melts wax across the whole surface and pulls fragrance evenly out of the pool. It also crackles, which is the sound most people notice first.
One practical note that applies to any woody candle, Tree House included. Trim the wick to about 3 to 5 mm before each burn, and stop at 4 hours. A long wick makes a tall flame, a tall flame burns fragrance faster than it releases it, and you lose hours off the top of the candle.
How Tree House compares to the alternatives
Byredo is a Stockholm brand with minimal black packaging and unisex compositions, and Tree House is one of its more interesting scent ideas. Diptyque comes at wood from a French perfumery tradition, with a house style that leans classical and restrained. Nest New York sits lower on the shelf and builds friendlier, more crowd-pleasing blends. All three are real options and none of them are trying to be what MBur is.
Here is what I can state as fact side by side.
| MBur Candle Co | Byredo Tree House | Diptyque | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wax | 100% beeswax, single ingredient | Read the ingredient list printed on your jar; published lists differ by source | Not disclosed here |
| Wick | Wooden wick | Described as cotton in retailer copy | Not disclosed here |
| Burn time | Up to 80 hours in the largest size | Brand lists roughly 60 hours | Varies by format |
| Fragrance | Phthalate-free oils, no chemical dyes | Woody aromatic; fragrance listed on packaging | Perfumer-led, classical style |
| Scent character | Green, dry and woody in Touch Grass | Green and peppery over hay, resin, wood and leather | Restrained, often single-note focused |
| Price | $32 for 40 hours, $37 for 55 hours, $65 for 80 hours | Luxury tier | Luxury tier |
The number that decides most of this is burn hours per dollar. The 80-hour MBur size at $65 works out to about 81 cents per hour of burn time. That is the figure to hold up against any candle you are considering.
But I already own a Tree House and I like it
Then keep burning it. Trim the wick, cap it at 4 hours, open a window partway. Nobody needs to throw out a candle they enjoy.
The switch matters most for the candle you burn every day. A once-in-a-while jar for guests is a different decision from the one sitting on your nightstand five nights a week.
But beeswax candles do not throw scent as hard
That is the common assumption, and it comes from beeswax having the highest melting point of any candle wax. A higher melting point means a slower melt pool, which is exactly why the burn time runs so long.
A wooden wick solves the throw problem by melting a wider pool. Here is a customer saying it better than I can:
"Absolutely obsessed with M Bur Candle Co, my roommate and I own 6/8 of the scents! They smell up a WHOLE room during the burn & even a while after blowing them out. I won't buy other candles anymore, they're just that good."
Paige
Frequently asked questions
What are the top notes in Byredo Tree House?
Bamboo and peppery pimento. Bamboo gives the cool watery green opening and pimento, which is allspice berry, adds the pepper prickle. If that green opening is the part you like, the galbanum in Touch Grass does similar work with a bitter green resin.
What is in the heart and base?
The heart is hay, rich labdanum and myrrh. The base is blond cedarwood, guaiac wood, sandalwood and smoky leather. For a warmer, spicier take on dry wood, Sunday Reset runs eucalyptus, clove, cedar, patchouli and vanilla, with the clove giving it that dark sweet numbness on the tongue.
What is the Byredo Tree House candle made of?
Sources differ. One published wax list gives cetyl alcohol, stearyl alcohol, microcrystalline wax, paraffin and fragrance. Other copy describes vegetable wax with a cotton wick. Byredo advises checking the ingredient list printed on the packaging, so trust the jar you own over anything online. If you want to know what to look for on any label, our guide to what makes a candle non-toxic walks through it line by line.
How long does Byredo Tree House burn?
The brand lists roughly 60 hours. For comparison, the 80-hour size of any MBur candle, including Touch Grass, is $65, which lands under a dollar per hour of burn time. Beeswax has the highest melting point of any candle wax, so it burns down more slowly than softer waxes.
Why does it smell weak until I light it?
The heavy resins and woods in the base need heat to release. Cold, you mostly get the light top notes. Trim the wick to 3 to 5 mm, let a full melt pool form, and stop at 4 hours. Our candle care guide covers the first burn, which sets the tunneling pattern for the life of the candle.
What to do with all of this
Byredo Tree House is a well-built woody aromatic with a real story behind it, and the notes are documented clearly: bamboo and pimento over hay, labdanum and myrrh, on cedarwood, guaiac wood, sandalwood and leather. The wax is the part worth checking yourself, on the printed label, because the published lists disagree.
If the dry green woods are what pulled you in, read the candle care guide first so your first burn goes right, then start with Touch Grass in the 40-hour size at $32. The emotional reason: it smells like the walk, green and resinous, with no sugar layered over the top. The logical reason: $32 lets you find out whether dry woods actually work in your room before you commit to the 80-hour size. Customers keep saying the same two things, that the burn hours match what we print and that one candle fills a whole room, including Portia Darby, who wrote that her candle "burned slowly and was exactly the amount of hours the company said it would burn."
One reason to decide now: every hour you burn a candle you are unsure about is an hour you could have spent on one you know the ingredients of.
Shop the MBur pure beeswax candle collection
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