kebechet

Get it outta here! As before, the less we have to move, the happier I'm going to be.

Its been a very messy month, but we may have scored finally. Our landlord at the last location went batshit, most of which I'm not at liberty to talk about, and among other things, he decides at the last minute of our lease that he wants to give over our space to his son, who wants to put on raves there. We had very little time to move, but found a good potential location that we could buy. YAY, no more moving. We find a temporary warehouse 1/3 the size, but it isn't available til about two weeks after time's up in our old place. We split the Lab into three houses and a storage space, and try our best to keep working in those conditions. The temp space opens up, and we move part of production there. The problem is that the place is almost uninhabitable... something we didn't realize until it was too late. The temperature hits between 90-105 in there every day, which will ruin the oils and everyone's temperament, to boot. In the meantime, we lose all of our part-time help, and have to let three employees go. We're suddenly on skeleton crew. 15 days into escrow on the new place, we find out that the listing was bogus, and it is rated CR [commercial restricted] which means that not only can we not manufacture there, we can't even put a retail presence there. We have to pull out of escrow. During this moving extravaganza, a hot water pipe breaks in my house, forcing us to move all the bottles that I was housing here. My floors and walls in three rooms are trashed, the house is uninhabitable, my computer and the brand new server goes down in the flood, and we lose one storage and work space. In the meantime, we were still looking for somewhere to move and are trying to hire in new people. The hiring process is clunky, as out of 14 resumes that were sent to us, only one person bothers to show for the interview. We post the job again, and are interviewing again this upcoming week. CM+ rated space is hard to come by in LA for a reasonable price, but yesterday [AT LONG LAST] we found a spot. We're not going to know til Tuesday-Wednesday if this is going to work out, but hope springs eternal, as they say. SOoOoooo... cross your fingers for us that the jinx is broken and things will be back to speed asap. I know I don't have to explain all this, but I'm nothing if not bluntly honest. Thanks to everyone for their patience. Say an agnostic's prayer for us!

We're sick of lugging this all around every time we move, so Ted posted more stuff on eBay.

Good evening, all. What a nutty spring this has been! We’re still in the process of moving the Lab, so please be patient while we settle in to the temporary dungeon. Order processing time will fall back just a wee bit, but we’re resilient, and things will be right as rain very quickly. And now, on with the update information: ++ LIMITED EDITION LITHA- Midsummer, Ukon Juhla, Alban Heruin, the Light of the Shore. This is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, marking the sun’s highest path across the sky. The Sun God and the Lord of the Forest are at the apex of their strength, and the Holy Day itself is a celebration of light’s triumph over darkness. The world around us is teeming with light and life, and on this day fertility rituals for both the land and its people are observed. Honey mead with honeysuckle, oak wood, ivy leaf, wild thyme, carnation, daisy, vervain, gum arabic, frankincense, yauhtli, and liquid copal. Litha will be available until June 1, 2006. As promised, two new scents have been added to Ars Draconis: ++ ARS DRACONIS DRAGON’S CLAW - Smooth, polished and lethally sharp: dragon’s blood resin and three sandalwoods. DRAGON’S REVERIE - Opium-laced dreams of flame, plunder, power and fury: dragon’s blood resin, poppy, amber and ylang ylang. This month, a new GC category is being introduced: the Salon. The scents found there represent olfactory impressions of pieces of visual art. Thus, no descriptive passage is being given for the scents other than an overview of the components. The artwork speaks for itself. Oils from the Salon are $23.00 per 5ml due to the cost of the ingredients, and they are not available in 10ml size. There are no imp’s ears for any of the salon scents, again due to the cost of the ingredients. ++ THE SALON BAT-WOMAN - Ratkirani, calla lily, moonflower, honeysuckle, night-blooming jasmine, French lavender, verbena, grey amber and nighttime air. AND THERE WAS A GREAT CRY IN EGYPT - Dark myrrh, white sandalwood, amber, hyssop, frankincense, honey, cypress, red musk, cardamom and saffron. CARCERI d'INVENZIONE - Redwood, red sandalwood, black pepper, blonde tobacco and frankincense. THE DEATH OF SARDANAPAL - Red wine, gurjum balsam, dark myrrh, honey, cassia, lemongrass, palmarosa, elemi, cognac and olibanum. THE ISLE OF THE DEAD - Cypress, labdanum, stargazer lily, juniper, yew, black rose, white sandalwood, benzoin and aquatic notes. LUCRETIA - Iris, black amber, sage, Kashmir wood, vanilla musk, mandarin and violet. ORPHEUS - Pale musk, green mandarin, neroli, benzoin, citrus peel, blue lavender, narcissus, stephanotis, crushed green stems, willow branch and cedar. RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH - Frankincense, hyssop, heliochrysum, ylang ylang, copal, angelica, and rose geranium. SATAN AND DEATH WITH SIN INTERVENING - Opoponax, benzoin, orange blossom, mahogany, karakarounde, white tea and vetiver. TWO MONSTERS - Oakmoss, vetiver, black musk, champaca flower, leather, patchouli, ginger, Japanese pittosporum, ambergris and white pepper. Within the next few updates, two dragons will be joining Ars Draconis in addition to Dragon’s Lair and Dragon’s Splendor: Ladon Tann’iver And also within the next few updates, we will be jaunting off to the following locales: Mag Mell Manhattan Pontarlier Port Royal Uruk In addition, a new sub-category will be added to Wanderlust: Phantom Islands. The Salon will soon exhibit: The Ancient of Days The Apparition The Beautiful Rosine Cadmus & Harmonia Death at the Ball Hesiod and the Muse The Triumph of Death She Shall Be Called Woman Witches Dancing on a Sabbath The General Catalogue will be bombarded soon… Calico Jack Catastrophe Fear Liath Mor Freyr Groupie The Jersey Devil Lykanthropos Nepthys Storm Pearl Toxin This summer, Carnaval Diabolique will slither through town. Keep an eye out for its blood-spattered banners and boneyard pinwheels in June. Chaos Theory: Strange Attractors is imminent, and we are compiling data for a few category additions to the GC.

Black Phoenix Trading Post’s Lotus Moon tee is live! Aum Shri Ganeshaya Namah! Hail Ganesha, Destroyer of Obstacles! Om Gam Ganapataye Namah! Artwork honoring the Lord of Good Fortune created by the jewel in our lotus, Jennifer Williamson. Gold shimmer ink on black tee. Lotus Moon The Lotus Moon tee will be live until Monday, May 15th, and this Lunacy tee, because of the gold shimmer ink, is slightly higher in price: $17.00 US for the crew neck. $22.00 US for the v-neck babydoll. New to the BPTP General Catalogue: At last! -- The second in a series of tees that commemorate Black Phoenix's Limited Edition perfumes. This is our 13 tee, designed by our own lucky charm, Ms. Jennifer Williamson. Detail includes every token of good and ill fortune, flaming orange ink on black tee. Thirteen - - - One last thing… A small reminder: all lockets are SOLD OUT with the exception of Monas Hieroglyphica. We’ll post as soon as we know when we’ll have more.

I’ve said this before, but circumstances are arising that are making me realize I need to say it again. Please do not reconfigure and resell our oils. It is a violation of our company policy, and for many, many reasons that I do not have the energy to go into again, I can’t allow it. You can make sprays, lotions, bath bombs, soaps, etc for personal use and gifts. But PLEASE do not resell them. In addition, it has recently been brought to my attention that some items are being resold on eBay that are not BPAL / BPTP / TAL products, but in the auction, it is STRONGLY implied that they are items that are manufactured or condoned by the BPAL family. This is suffocatingly uncool. Please show respect for our company and, if possible, for me. Professional resellers are not condoned by BPAL. At this time, there is NO company or individual that is authorized to resell BPAL items with the intent to profit from the sales. As I have stated a million times in the past, we have no problem with swaps, decant circles or auctions. If you don’t love your imps or bottles, we think its wonderful that they go to someone that will. However, I consider professional reselling to be a slap both to me and to our company, and also a slap to the community. Thank you for understanding.

As most of you know, the Lab is currently in the middle of a series of moves. Its going to be a shubbly month, and though its business as usual… the usual is under a little bit of duress. We’re hauling the Lab to three locations within the next three months while we finalize escrow and the subsequent construction on our permanent location. Will call is on hiatus until further notice, but the rest of the operation is as normal as we ever get. On May Day, the Monster Baits, Beltane, and EBM will come down – in the evening… apologies for being unable to give a specific time – and the planned update will not go live until we are established in our temporary location. Estimated date: May 22nd / 23rd. As soon as things settle down, I’ll be able to cough up a finalized date. Bountiful Beltane, people. Take an extra whirl around the Maypole for me.

Just wanted to clarify... in addition to new GC scents, yes, this spring / summer will herald a new Carnaval series, and a new Chaos Theory... CT III: Strange Attractors. =)

The BPTP comp is up and running, and Dragon Moon tees are being printed. Ted lost some emails in the crash, so if you sent an email and haven't received a reply in the last 48 hours, please resend. The same goes for eBay sales, since those go to Ted's comp. We've got one person who's order we can't ship since we don't have an addy, so if you're that person, please contact Ted! Some of you guys know this already, but the Lab is moving. I fuckin' hate moving. There may be a small period of time where we're in limbo -- circumstances far beyond our control -- but we're still going to be answering emails, processing orders, and shipping out. We just may end up a little slower for a week or two. The Dragon Moon tees will probably be at the printer's for another week, but you can bet your buns that Ted will send them out as soon as he has them in hand. And that's all the news for now.

Common sense warning: Please do NOT use Baptismal oil /on/ your baby's skin, hair, or widdle toesy-woesies. Don't put the oil on the baby's clothes, blankie or anything else that they may come into contact with. Don't feed the oil to your baby. Babies are sensitive little critters, and though Baptismal oil is very mild, any oil may be too harsh for a baby. Please use common sense and caution.

This may come out a little weird, as I seem to be feverish. Right. Like I’m any weirder when I’m sick than I am normally. The first thing I need to do is give thanks… A huge thank you to the C12 Committee for their hospitality, their support, and for putting together such an amazing event. Another huge thanks to everyone that came out to Convergence. It was an unbelievable pleasure to meet everyone, and it means so much to me that you guys took the time to come out to the vending area and chat with us! A humongous thank you to Brian and Forest for being there with me behind the circus tent at C12 and to all the guys that manned the fort back in LA while we were gone. Onto some not-so-wonderful news… Black Phoenix Trading Post is still in the middle of a small communication burr. Ted’s hard drive is completely fried, and despite the most strenuous of efforts, the data that it contained it unrecoverable. We’re in the process of rebuilding a computer for him, but that will take a little time, and in all likelihood he won’t be able to answer emails consistently or download orders for a few more days. And onto some better news… Now that we’re back, there is a small update to Twilight Alchemy Lab’s line: + LOVE, LUST & BEAUTY BLESSING OF ISIS Use this blend to reignite passion and ardor in couples whose feelings for one another have waned through time and familiarity. BLINDING GLORY OF LOVE A potent and passionately exciting love oil. Rub onto your hands before meeting a potential mate. Brings out sexual desire as well as romantic inclinations in those you encounter. Use with caution as this blend brings out amorous reactions without discretion. CALIPH’S BELOVED Stimulates your own sexual energy and incites intense feelings of passion and desire. DIXIE LOVE PERFUME A powerful old Voodoo love oil. It increases your sex appeal tenfold, inspires romance, and draws others to you. + JOY & INSPIRATION GODFIRE An oil just for men. Increases strength and virility, infusing you with the power of the Primary Masculine Principle. HAND OF HERMES Develops concentration and creativity, and amplifies communication skills. LIONHEART Grants you immense amounts of courage and drive. Useful to help you recover from intense depression and ennui. Brings on a positive outlook, renews hope, and replenishes positive energy. Fills your spirit with the courage and nobility of a lion, warmed by the life-giving joy of its solar aspects. MANTLE OF VENUS Brings immense success in love and money. + CROSSING, BINDING & CONTROLLING BLACK RAGE A fiery, passionate cursing blend. Use as a focal point for your hatred and animosity. + PROSPERITY, SUCCESS & GOOD FORUNTE BRASS BALLS Wear to increase courage, especially with regard to social situations. Calms the nerves, instills confidence, and brings your natural charisma to the surface. HAITIAN GAMBLER Use to reverse even the worst streak of bad luck. Use in ritual, or to anoint mojo bags, gaming implements, and/or your hands and feet before gambling. KING SOLOMON’S Used to bring out King Solomon's virtues in your personality. Grants wealth and power, and the benevolent wisdom necessary to utilize it to your benefit and the benefit of others. + PURIFICATION, PROTECTION & UNCROSSING AEGIS A venerable, complex formula used for protection, guidance, and peace of mind. FLYING DEVIL A traditional Voodoo recipe: a fast-acting, efficient uncrossing oil. JINX REMOVING Use on the night of the new moon to banish the baneful effects of negativity directed at us on a daily basis: e.g., dirty looks, rude gestures, smarmy remarks. Banishes the residue of everyday F*ck Yous. Use in the bath, on self, and to dress white candles. OBEAH A highly respected Afro-Caribbean blend used for blessing and banishing. PEACE Soothes frazzled nerves, brings serenity to the heart and tranquility to the home. + UTILITY BLENDS ANOINTING A purifying and empowering highly-charged neutral blend that can be used alone, or used in conjunct with other oils for personal, ritual or tool consecration and blessing. ATTUNING Makes you more sensitive to the emotional, spiritual and non-corporeal presences in an area. Attunes you to the vibratory qualities of a place or object. Particularly effective in developing psychometry. CATALYST Inspires you to begin new projects and gives you the impetus to see them to completion. Enhances creativity, drive, and determination. CRUCIBLE OF COURAGE Imbues you with enormous amounts of courage. Use this blend when you feel weak, scared, or intimidated. Helps you find the strength to confront dangerous or frightening situations. HEALING Use in rituals to help speed recovery from injury and illness and to maintain, celebrate and give thanks for good health. MEDITATION Dot gently onto your temples and third eye prior to meditation. Helps clear the mind and calm the spirit. Can also be used as a candle dressing or diffuser scent. MNEMOSYNE Enhances memory and concentration and opens up your conscious mind to the collective unconscious history of the world. Can be used to aid in remembering past lives. + RITES OF PASSAGE BAPTISMAL BILDUNGSROMAN FUNEREAL HANDFASTING INITIATION And that’s all for the moment!

Alright, friends and neighbors: the "Gone Fishin'" sign is up, and Brian, Forest and I are officially poof as of 10am PST tomorrow. I hope with all my heart that all of you guys that are attending C12 stop by the vending area to say hello. Sara and Anthony will be manning the fort along with the rest of the Lab Rats, and Teddy will still be working his butt off on Trading Post, though his internet and, specifically, email access is severely limited. And now, I'd like to interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to thank the following people: Kambriel @ Kambriel Carrie @ Dollflesh & Annette @ Gallery Serpentine These are three of the most talented designers I have ever known, and I am one hell of a lucky woman to have the pleasure of owning a few of their pieces. Be good while we're gone, and don't let anything interesting happen without me!

The BPTP Dragon Moon tee is live. All praises to Macha and Puddin! http://www.blackphoenixtradingpost.com

Fright Night Our beloved Mick [that's Ignis to y'all on the forums!] helps promote this asskicking monthly event. All Los Angeles horror fans must attend. Every 2nd Friday they screen a double feature of some of the most ghastly horror flicks that the 50's and 60's had to offer. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL! -- Bands, booze and ever so much more. Its a ghoulie's wet dream. $10 CIA 11334 Burbank Blvd North Hollywood, CA 8:30 - 2am 18+ / 21 with ID for bar funtime For more info, please check the site!

In observance of the holiday season, and out of respect for the many traditions and faiths found amongst our clients, Dragon Moon, the Carnaval Noir pit stop, Neptune and Pluto will be available on the site until April 20th. The number of Carnaval Noir oils for purchase at Will Call and C12 will, unfortunately, have to be limited to 20, and we can only sell one bottle per scent per customer. Online orders are under no bottle limit. Black Phoenix Trading Post’s update will run from April 11th til April 20th. For other details, you're going to have to hit up the Shiny & New page.

I'll be honest. Every time someone orders through the site, we get charged 9% on the total, including the cost of shipping. If you order through PayPal, we're charged around 3%. It may not seem like a lot, but the truth is, we charge very little over what it costs to make the oils, so every little bit helps. =/

Psst! Hey!

I've finally got a new computer. 'Bout freakin' time, huh? It'll take me a few days to get back on top of emails and PM's, so please be patient with me!

As you guys know, we're going to be vending at Convergence 12 in New Orleans. The next Lunacy falls while we're out of town, but the Lab will still be open for will call. The Loon will go up as scheduled, and in preparation for this summers visit to a new Black Phoenix carny show, we will have a limited quantity of Carnaval Noir perfumes from last summer's run of that series. The oils will be at w/c, online during the Lunacy, and will be avail at our booth in NOLA. We are very, very happy to announce that we're sponsoring Erzulie's Tea Party @ C12. =) As always, more info will be posted as it becomes finalized.

About a week ago I got slapped by a bad case of strep-turned-tonsillitis, so I'm out of the picture for a few more days. Thanks to my nurses, Ted and Brian, for keeping me from tearing out my tonsils with pliers. This has no effect on the shipping and packing of orders at the Lab. It is just a heads up for everyone that is waiting on communication from me. I'm up and on the comp working when the fever is down, but whenever it comes back up, I head to bed, so I'm a little slow on things right now. Thanks for your patience! Once the 'cillin does its job, I'll be right as rain.

Stuff is up on eBay, and a general catalogue update is coming in March. =) Happy Lupercalia, all! May your day be as lewd and lascivious as Faunus himself!

So tired and bumblefuzzled that I can barely type. I’ll edit this tomorrow to include more info on the update. The quick and dirty: Sleepy Moon, Mars and Jupiter are in LE. The Maelstrom is live. For the moment, the Chakras are camping out with the Sephiroth under the temporary heading, “Illumination”. There is a forum exclusive at this time. Poke THIS to get there. Must sleep now, or I’m likely to pass out at the shop tomorrow.

Budding Moon / Lupercalia: Brick & Mortar Ho-down We will be open for Budding Moon / Lupercalia on Monday, February 13th, from 2pm til 10pm. [The whole thing is almost verbatim from the last Will Calls.] The address is: 5523 Satsuma Ave North Hollywood, CA 91601 It may be a little hard to find. Satsuma looks like an alley, but isn’t. The building itself is a warehouse covered in gloriously strange pale blue aluminum siding. Sexy. We’re on the right side of the building. Mr. Thrifty [our mini-skeleton] will be in the window, and there’s a very obviously half-finished budding new herb garden in the front. The neighborhood cats killed the catnip. The catnip started to come back to life for about two weeks, but then one of the damn ‘nip junkie cats in the neighborhood practically dug it up from the roots. RIP, catnip plant. While you’re in the area, you may want to hit up three other shops on our street. There are two wonderful architectural salvage places and a great stained glass shop. The primary problem that we may have this week [and forever afterwards] is parking. There are four spaces in front of BPAL. Ok, now onto the Plan: Unfortunately, our wretched credit card system is still unprepared for retail in-store sales. At the moment, the damned thing won’t even let me log in. Anyway, all in-house sales on Saturday will have to be either cash, or through PayPal. We will have a terminal set up there for people who want to use the latter. If you would like to place an order for pick-up for Holiday Moon, please do the following: Email us at willcall@blackphoenixalchemylab.com with your order. Payment may be remitted by PayPal ahead of time to willcall@blackphoenixalchemylab.com, or you can pay at Pick Up with cash or using one of our computers as a PayPal terminal. When making your payment, please omit shipping charges. You may purchase any current catalogue oils, as long as we have them in stock. The following oils will also be in stock: Budding Moon [of course] Venus The Lupercalia series As always, this is based on availability. In addition, we are getting rid of some backstock and cleaning out the warehouse, and unfortunately, we don't have the time to inventory these before the Loon. These scents are a first-come, first-served deal, cash only. Please remit all PayPal pre-payments by 1pm PST on Sunday, February 12th, so that we can get your orders together. Some t-shirt overstock from BPTP will also be on hand, but those will have to be in-store purchases, since I'm not positive which sizes and styles will be there. We will do our best to accommodate all orders of 5mls and imps, but sales will be based on availability. Imp Packs will be available, but we would prefer that, if you are going to purchase imps, you pre-order them so we can expedite the process. In all cases, its probably best to pre-order anyway, so we can make sure we have the oils allotted, or will be able to tell you beforehand if we’re out of stock. You get the gist. At this time, we cannot accept checks, money orders, or credit card payments for WC. Sara is swamped so please direct all questions to Brian at willcall [at] blackphoenixalchemylab [dot] com. We will do our best to help you out with anything that comes up.

Ok, so as you guys know, I’ve got heaps of charities that we at BPAL try to help out. Ebay is the primary way, other than LE sales themselves, that we generate funds for our projects. Tonight we were able to send out two donations to the following two organizations: Beagles and Buddies http://www.beaglesandbuddies.com/ Pit Prints Pit Bull Rescue and Rehab http://www.pitprintsrescue.com/ Once things slow down a little on his side of the Phoenix, Ted will be helping us with the eBay sales again. Thanks, as always, to everyone here who helps us to make things like this possible.

I was *THIS CLOSE* to putting out 'Trouser Snake' in the update. 0=)