Afnan Supremacy Not Only Intense Gift Set: Which Part Actually Works

The Afnan Supremacy Not Only Intense Gift Set holds three things. A 100 ml bottle, a 150 ml shower gel and a 150 ml after shave. The fragrance dates from 2021, and Imran Fazlani composed it, which is more than most houses at this level will tell you.

Afnan sells the Supremacy Not Only Intense set on a promise that matching products make a fragrance last longer. That is partly true and mostly not, and the difference is worth understanding before you pay for all three.

Afnan SUPREMACY NOT ONLY INTENSE Gift Set Fragrance Notes:

• Top Notes: Black Currant, Bergamot, Apple. 
• Middle Notes: Oakmoss, Patchouli, Lavender.
• Base Notes: Ambergris, Musk, Saffron.

Check the carton when it arrives. The concentration printed there is the only version that settles it, and you want to know before a customer asks.

Supremacy Not Only Intense Gift Set: the short version

• Scent: Supremacy Not Only Intense is fruity, mossy and woody. Blackcurrant and apple over oakmoss and patchouli.
• Contents: 100 ml bottle, 150 ml shower gel, 150 ml after shave.
• What earns its place: The bottle and the balm. The shower gel is rinsed off and contributes very little.
• Buy the set if: A gift, or if you shave daily and want the balm anyway.
• Buy the bottle if: You only want the scent. Buy the bottle alone and a plain moisturiser.

What does Supremacy Not Only Intense smell like?

Supremacy Not Only Intense runs to nine notes. Bergamot, apple and blackcurrant on top. Lavender, patchouli and oakmoss in the heart. Saffron, musk and ambergris in the base.

Wearers rank the accords fruity first, then mossy, woody and earthy. That combination is unusual at this price, because moss and earth are the parts most cheap fragrances leave out.

The opening is tart and green. Blackcurrant gives it a sour edge and apple rounds that off. Bergamot keeps the whole thing bright for the first few minutes.

Then it gets dirty in the good sense. Oakmoss and patchouli bring damp earth and lavender cuts across them. Saffron and musk underneath give Supremacy Not Only Intense a faintly animal warmth.

Oakmoss is worth a footnote of its own. It is not a moss at all but a lichen, Evernia prunastri, which grows on oak bark.

Does a matching shower gel make fragrance last longer?

Hardly at all, and the reason is simple. You rinse it off.

Whatever scent the gel carries goes down the drain with the water. What survives a towel is far too little to matter against the perfume you spray afterwards.

The gel does one useful thing, and it is subtraction rather than addition. Washing clears the competing smells already on your skin. Supremacy Not Only Intense then starts from a neutral base instead of arguing with yesterday.

That is a real benefit. It is just not the benefit the packaging implies, and any unscented soap delivers it equally well.

Which part of the Supremacy Not Only Intense set actually does something?

The balm, and for a reason that has little to do with matching. Moisturised skin holds fragrance longer than dry skin does.

Scent evaporates off the surface of your skin. Oils and emollients sitting there slow that process down. They give the volatile materials something to cling to instead of leaving immediately.

Dry skin does the opposite and releases everything fast. That is why Supremacy Not Only Intense will seem to disappear quicker in winter, when skin makes less of its own oil.

So the balm genuinely extends the wear. The uncomfortable part is that the scent inside it barely matters. An unscented moisturiser would do most of the same work.

What you are paying for with a matched set is consistency rather than performance. Both are worth something, and only one of them is what the box is selling.

Aftershave balm or aftershave splash?

They are different products and the distinction matters here. A splash is alcohol-based, tightens the skin after a razor, and stings for exactly that reason.

A balm leaves the alcohol out and puts emollients in. It soothes instead of tightening. That is the version that helps Supremacy Not Only Intense hold, because alcohol dries skin where a balm conditions it.

Retailers describe the one in this set as a balm while Afnan's own pages say only after shave. If it turns out to be a splash, the layering argument above does not apply to it.

Who should buy the set and who should buy the bottle alone?

Buy the set as a gift. Three matching pieces present far better than a single bottle, and presentation is most of what a gift does.

Buy the set for yourself if you shave daily. You need a balm anyway, and having one that matches costs you nothing extra in that case.

Buy the bottle of Supremacy Not Only Intense alone if the fragrance is all you want. A plain unscented moisturiser gives the same longevity benefit, and the gel will run out long before the perfume does.