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Carnaval Diabolique will be pulling up stakes temporarily while it undergoes a transformation. It will be going dark on July 1, 2011; the moment of its return is still undetermined.

Hungry Ghost Moon is live at Alchemy Lab and Trading Post! HUNGRY GHOST MOON On the 14th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the Gates of Hell burst open, and ghosts pour forth from the Nine Darknesses into the sunlit world. To placate the dead, Hell Money is burned, offerings are made, and paper boats and floating lanterns are set out to give comfort and direction to wayward spirits. Though many spirits simply seek out the comforts of their former homes and the company of their loved ones, rancorous spirits also roam the streets, seeking revenge on those who have wronged them before, and after, their deaths. Offerings of sweet rice, ginger candy, sugar cane, smoky vanilla and rice wine mingle with a ghost's perfume of white sandalwood, wisteria, ho wood, ti, white grapefruit, and crystalline musk. This scent is tempered by the presence of ten herbs, woods and resins used in the purification of the spirit. Through this scent, we can release ourselves from sorrow and discontentment, unbinding our souls from the chains that shackle us to our baser needs so we may truly understand and experience compassion, empathy, and joy. Illustration by Julie Dillon! We've got a small addition to Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's RPG line: GNOME An explosive blend of effervescent golden ginger and black peppercorn with sarsaparilla, gurjum balsam, nutmeg, gear lubricant, and smoke. ... and a ginormical addition to Black Phoenix Trading Post's Atmosphere line! Hello thar, RPG Atmosphere sprays! + RPG ATMOSPHERE SPRAYS These atmosphere sprays (and the accompanying fragrance line at BPAL!) were inspired by the many years that I played pen and paper role-playing games. Each of these atmosphere sprays is inspired by a RPG location trope: Entering a musty crypt? We’ve got the scent for you! Confronting a cult of nefarious evildoers? Shoot a bit of Unspeakbly Evil Temple into the air! Your party is crawling through a wererat-infested sewer? We’ve got that comin’, too. While these scents were created to be used to enhance pen and paper RPG gameplay, they can also be used in your living space to evoke the illusion of a mist-shrouded elven forest, a gnomish workshop, an exotic bazaar, or a lich’s laboratory. The scents were created by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab for the Trading Post. These sprays are generously scented with copious amounts of Black Phoenix perfume oil and disperse beautifully. A little goes a long way. Labels printed on an Earth-friendly corn biopolymer. The Black Phoenix Partnership does not test on animals. We test on friends and family, and on the linens of friends and family! FAE FOREST Mist-shrouded woods: Siberian fir needles, white pine bark, aspen leaf, wild lily, bergamot, wood violet, thimbleberry, sun-star, golden bell, snowdrop, heartsease, and bloodroot. UNSPEAKABLY EVIL TEMPLE A profane blend of opoponax, galangal root, dried mosses, wormwood accord, sandarac, frankincense, myrrh, and black copal. EXOTIC BAZAAR Nepalese amber, white sandalwood, black peppercorn, ambrette seed, neroli, coconut sugar, cardamom pods, ginger, fennel, bitter almond, liquorice root, henna, copaiba balsam, and spikenard. And for a limited time... The cicadas have hatched, and they're swarming the Lab -- BROOD XIX Under the heat of the summer sun, a Cicada was hopping about in a large field, chirping and singing lazily. An Ant passed him by, busily heaving along, with tremendous effort, bits of corn he was taking to the nest. "Why not come and chat with me," asked the Cicada, "instead of toiling like that? The day is too lovely to spend in such a manner." "I am helping my fellow ants lay up food for the winter," squealed the Ant indignantly, "and I recommend that you do the same." "Why bother about winter?" said the Cicada; "we have got plenty of food at present. Climb this tree with me and enjoy the sun-warmed bark and the gentle swaying leaves." Turning away, the Ant went on its way and continued its work dutifully. The Cicada pitied the Ant, calling it foolish for wasting time working on such a lovely day, and went back to singing his summer songs of joy. When the winter came, the Cicada had no food and no shelter. The Cicada found itself dying of hunger, while the resourceful and hardworking ants were snug in their warm holes, full of corn and grain from their stores. Then the Cicada knew: It is best to prepare for the days of necessity. The Cicada, in myth, represents indifference and idleness, brevity and impermanence, and dissolution through pleasure: The story is that once upon a time these creatures were men-men of an age before there were any Muses; and that when the latter came into the world and music made its appearance, some of the people of those days were so thrilled with pleasure that they went on singing, and quite forgot to eat and drink until they actually died without noticing it. From them in due course sprang the race of cicadas. (John Sallis on Plato's Plaedrus) The cicadas also represent immortality and rebirth because of their emergent resurrection from the womb of the earth, and they embody transformation and self-preservation through guile because of the way they shed their golden skins. The Great Southern Brood of cicadas is now hatching. Tree sap, hay, almond blossoms, moss, hemp, corn stalks, acorn, sweet amber, and rice milk. Fair Child of Sun and Summer! we behold With eager eyes thy wings bedropp'd with gold; The purple spots that o'er thy mantle spread, The sapphire's lively blue, the ruby's red, Ten thousand various blended tints surprise, Beyond the rainbow's hues or peacock's eyes: Not Judah's king in eastern pomp array'd, Whose charms allur'd from far the Sheban maid, High on his glitt'ring throne, like you could shine (Nature's completest miniature divine): For thee the rose her balmy buds renews, And silver lilies fill their cups with dews; Flora for thee the laughing fields perfumes, For thee Pomona sheds her choicest blooms, Soft Zephyr wafts thee on his gentlest gales O'er Hackwood's sunny hill and verdant vales; For thee, gay queen of insects! do we rove From walk to walk, from beauteous grove to grove; And let the critics know, whose pedant pride And awkward jests our sprightly sport deride: That all who honours, fame, or wealth pursue, Change but the name of things--they hunt for you. -- "Verses on a Butterfly", Joseph Wharton This month, we revisit the Metamorphosis: METAMORPHOSIS Lo, the bright train their radiant wings unfold! With silver fringed, and freckled o'er with gold: On the gay bosom of some fragrant flower They, idly fluttering, live their little hour; Their life all pleasure, and their task all play, All spring their age, and sunshine all their day. - " To Mrs. P--------., With Some Drawings...", Anna Laetitia Aikin The grace, beauty, and complexity of butterflies and moths have permeated myths all over the globe. The symmetry and elegance of their form and the coquettish rhythm of their dance inspires visions of fleeting romance: The dawn is smiling on the dew that covers The tearful roses; lo, the little lovers That kiss the buds, and all the flutterings In jasmine bloom, and privet, of white wings, That go and come, and fly, and peep and hide, With muffled music, murmured far and wide. Ah, the Spring time, when we think of all the lays That dreamy lovers send to dreamy mays, Of the fond hearts within a billet bound, Of all the soft silk paper that pens wound, The messages of love that mortals write Filled with intoxication of delight, Written in April and before the May time Shredded and flown, playthings for the wind's playtime, We dream that all white butterflies above, Who seek through clouds or waters souls to love, And leave their lady mistress in despair, To flit to flowers, as kinder and more fair, Are but torn love-letters, that through the skies Flutter, and float, and change to butterflies - " The Genesis of Butterflies", Victor Hugo Though in some myths - notably, China's Butterfly Lovers, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, and Japan's tale of Takahama and Akiko - butterflies are symbols of eternal love and devotion. Most often, butterflies and moths represent change, transition, and metamorphosis. Butterflies are also seen as personifications of the soul, and symbols of mankind's desire for spiritual evolution. They are harbingers of both love and death, and some believe that errant souls manifest in this form. Moths and butterflies are, to some, symbols of blind desire and madness, perilously drawn to the splendor of light and flame. This mad desire is also portrayed, at times, as transcendence: Tell it none except the wise, for the common crowd defames: of the living I shall praise that which longs for death in flames. In the love night which created you where you create, a yearning wakes: you see, intoxicated, far away a candle burning. Darkness now no longer snares you, shadows lose their ancient force, as a new desire tears you up to higher intercourse. Now no distance checks your flight, charmed you come and you draw night till, with longing for the light, you are burnt, O butterfly. And until you have possessed dying and rebirth, you are but a sullen guest on the gloomy earth. - " Blissful Yearning", Goethe, translation by Walter Kaufmann This series, though seemingly simple, is a complex narrative in scent. It was created with the intention of illustrating the beauty of transformation and transcendence, the sweetness of romance, the joy of freedom and personal liberty, and the perpetuity of true love. Wake, butterfly - It's late, we've miles To go together. - Matsuo Basho + THE MOTHS ATLAS Mallow, oak bark, coffee bean, hinoki wood, and khus. BRAHMIN Rose otto, red ginger, caraway seed, myrrh, orange peel, mandarin leaf, black peppercorn, and vanilla orchid. IO Red musk, pomegranate, cranberry, blackberry, mango, purple sage, thyme, and angelica root. PUSSY Orange blossom honey, brown sugar, saffron, tonka absolute, and tobacco leaf. + THE BUTTERFLIES BLUE MORPHO Wild orchid, pikake, honeysuckle, calla lily, agave nectar, pink geranium, violet leaf, and white amber. GOLIATH BIRDWING White sage, lemongrass, lemon balm, dusty beige musk, and drops of anise. MOURNING CLOAK Opoponax, kumaru, cocoa butter, Mysore sandalwood, verbena, almond milk, guiac wood, beeswax, and myrrh. PURPLE SPOTTED SWALLOWTAIL Black plum, opium poppy, dusky amber, opoponax, castoreum accord, dried berries, tolu balsam, clove bud, and lime. Butterfly, moth, and cicada illustrations by Alicia Dabney! The Metamorphosis series is dedicated, as always, to my daughter. Lilith, you're growing so quickly. Every day you blossom more and more. I love you, little butterfly. You are the joy of my life, and I'm so grateful to be your mother. And in other news: A new Dark Delicacies / Black Phoenix scent is live on the Dark Delicacies web site! It is also available at their brick and mortar shop in Burbank, CA! TATTERED LACE An allegory of Victorian melancholy and madness: tea-stained bourbon vanilla, with white cognac, coconut bark, Oman frankincense, and woodmoss over opium tar-stained silk. Tattered Lace is available exclusively through Dark Delicacies. Dark Delicacies 3512 W. Magnolia Blvd. Burbank, CA 91505 888-DARKDEL http://www.darkdel.com Please extend glops of love and a warm welcome to the newest member of the BPAL family: Pretty Indulgent in Quebec, Canada! Aw yeah - BPAL is international now. Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and Pretty Indulgent present a celebration of the rich culture and history of Quebec. For your consideration: + QUEBEC: SERIES I HOCHELAGA Warm musk with soft leather, a dusting of dry wildflowers and herbs, sweetgrass, sage, shagbark hickory, and Canadian balsam. Un musc chaud avec une note de cuir souple, saupoudré de fleurs sauvages et d'herbes, de foin d'odeur, de sauge, de caryer ovale, et de baume du Canada. UNE FOLLE ENTREPRISE A mélange of silvery musk, iris, licorice root, black currant, apple blossom, patchouli root, violet, heliotrope, anise, and tonka bean. Un mélange: musc argenté, iris, racine de réglisse, cassis, fleur de pommier, racine de patchouli, violette, héliotrope, anis, et fève tonka. VILLE-MARIE An elegant blend of native and imported flowers twirled around a sophisticated vanilla-touched white musk: Madonna lily, crabapple blossom, Begonia juliana, dendrobium and phalaenopsis orchids, and five varieties of lilac. Un musc blanc sophistiqué, touché de vanille et marié à des fleurs indigènes et étrangères: lys, fleur de pommier, Bégonia, orchidées dendrobium et phalaenopsis , et cinq variétés de lilas. These scents were created by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab for Pretty Indulgent, and are sold only through the Pretty Indulgent web site. Stuff is being posted all the friggin' time on BPAL's etsy shop, Trading Post's etsy shop, and the Black Phoenix ebay thingydooder. And for the moment... that's that!

If you order two bottles of any Dark Delicacies BPAL blends off of the Dark Delicacies web site you will get a random BPAL bottle for free! * Valid today only! *

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and Pretty Indulgent present a celebration of the rich culture and history of Quebec. For your consideration: + QUEBEC: SERIES I HOCHELAGA Warm musk with soft leather, a dusting of dry wildflowers and herbs, sweetgrass, sage, shagbark hickory, and Canadian balsam. Un musc chaud avec une note de cuir souple, saupoudré de fleurs sauvages et d’herbes, de foin d'odeur, de sauge, de caryer ovale, et de baume du Canada. UNE FOLLE ENTREPRISE A mélange of silvery musk, iris, licorice root, black currant, apple blossom, patchouli root, violet, heliotrope, anise, and tonka bean. Un mélange: musc argenté, iris, racine de réglisse, cassis, fleur de pommier, racine de patchouli, violette, héliotrope, anis, et fève tonka. VILLE-MARIE An elegant blend of native and imported flowers twirled around a sophisticated vanilla-touched white musk: Madonna lily, crabapple blossom, Begonia juliana, dendrobium and phalaenopsis orchids, and five varieties of lilac. Un musc blanc sophistiqué, touché de vanille et marié à des fleurs indigènes et étrangères: lys, fleur de pommier, Bégonia, orchidées dendrobium et phalaenopsis , et cinq variétés de lilas. These scents were created by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab for Pretty Indulgent, and are sold only through the Pretty Indulgent web site. - - - ABOUT PRETTY INDULGENT I've worked more than ten years in retail, and in the beauty industry. I created Pretty Indulgent because I've been a fan of the brands featured here for a long time, and wanted to bring them all together under one roof - a little virtual boutique of all the things I find beautiful and fabulous and unique. These are the things I constantly rave to friends about, and I thought - why not rave to a whole web full of people? And better yet, give them the option of snagging all these goodies in one go? The idea really took shape when I considered the fact that this was something I could offer my fellow Canadians, when we more often than not have our shopping experience constrained by expensive rates, customs fees and the general inconvenience of some brands not offering shipping to Canada. I'm an inveterate shopper by nature, and a lover of indie brands by experience. I don't scoff at Big Names, but I've gravitated over time to the work created by artisans and entrepreneurs. In a retail landscape dominated by homogenous abundance, finding that unique vision and passionate creativity is all the more exciting. For Pretty Indulgent I wanted to pull together an interesting mix - some things you'll recognize more easily, while some will be more niche. What I've also tried to do is select items and brands that are reasonably priced, especially considering that many of them are hand-made. - Maggie Stepien

Happy Friday the 13th! We’ve taken a slightly different angle on the traditional BPAL 13: this 13 is all about getting lucky! 13 13 is significant, whether you consider it lucky, unlucky or just plain odd. Many believe it to be unfortunate... ... because there were 13 present at the Last Supper. ... Loki crashed a party of 12 at Valhalla, which ended in Baldur's death. ... Oinomaos killed 13 of Hippodamia's suitors before Pelops finally, in his own shady way, defeated the jealous king. ... In ancient Rome, Hecate's witches gathered in groups of 12, the Goddess herself being the 13th in the coven. Concern over the number thirteen echoes back beyond the Christian era. Line 13 was omitted form the Code of Hammurabi. The shivers over Friday the 13th also have some interesting origins: ... Christ was allegedly crucified on Friday the 13th. ... On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrests of Jaques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and sixty of his senior knights. ... In British custom, hangings were held on Fridays, and there were 13 steps on the gallows leading to the noose. To combat the superstition, Robert Ingersoll and the Thirteen Club held thirteen-men dinners during the 19th Century. Successful? Hardly. The number still invokes trepidation to this day. A recent whimsical little serial killer study showed that the following murderers all have names that total thirteen letters: Theodore Bundy Jeffrey Dahmer Albert De Salvo John Wayne Gacy And, with a little stretch of the imagination, you can also fit 'Jack the Ripper' and 'Charles Manson' into that equation. More current-era paranoia: modern schoolchildren stop their memorization of the multiplication tables at 12. There were 13 Plutonium slugs in the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. Apollo 13 wasn't exactly the most successful space mission. All of these are things that modern triskaidekaphobes point to when justifying their fears. For some, 13 is an extremely fortuitous and auspicious number... ... In Jewish tradition, God has 13 Attributes of Mercy. Also, there were 13 tribes of Israel, 13 principles of Jewish faith, and 13 is considered the age of maturity. ... The ancient Egyptians believed that there were 12 stages of spiritual achievement in this lifetime, and a 13th beyond death. ... The word for thirteen, in Chinese, sounds much like the word which means “must be alive” . Thirteen, whether you love it or loathe it, is a pretty cool number all around. ... In some theories of relativity, there are 13 dimensions. ... It is a prime number, lucky number, star number, Wilson Prime, and Fibonacci number. ... There are 13 Archimedean solids. AND... ... There were 13 original colonies when the United States were founded. Says a lot about the US, doesn't it? A base of rich cacao absolute and honey with thirteen lust-inspiring oils: patchouli, vanilla absolute, rose otto, red sandalwood, devil’s bit, caraway, cardamom, cubeb, carrot seed, ginseng, yohimbe, saffron, and grains of paradise. Moon of Horses is also live on BPAL and BPTP! MOON OF HORSES One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. Grape vines, cinnamon, frankincense, olive leaf, red wine, saffron, stacte, galbanum, costus root, smoke, and brimstone. Charmingly apocalyptic artwork by Julie Dillon! The bees in Rappaccini’s Apiary have been busy this month: Chokecherry Honey and Redoul Honey. This month, we’re proud to present what amounts to a Twilight Alchemy Lab Limited Edition blend. Created on May 11, 2011 to encapsulate the conjunction of Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter, this liquid talisman unites the energies of the two Benefics with Mercury, resulting in an oil of movement, adaptability, expansion, optimism, creativity, confidence, attraction, and inspiration. It holds the qualities of positive fearlessness, expansive courage, and helps to bolster the spirit so barriers that we have erected for ourselves in the past can finally be overcome. Through this liquid talisman, your possibilities are limitless, and reality is yours to create. 283 bottles were created. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. The Black Phoenix Trading Post RPG line of atmosphere sprays will be live later this month!

The Weeping Moon update is live at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and Black Phoenix Trading Post! WEEPING BRANCHES MOON The moon glimmers like bright snow, and plum blossoms appear like reflected stars Ah! The golden mirror of the moon passes overhead as fragrance from the jade chamber fills the garden Graceful, arching branches, heavy with plum and apricot blossoms, sweet ichigo, and a bouquet of peony, anemone, honeysuckle, spider lily, and hydrangea against a backdrop of luminescent, gently glowing lunar oils. So much thanks to Julie Dillon for illustrating Weeping Branches Moon! Weeping Branches Moon will be live on both sites until April 19, 2011. Also live: a scent created to benefit the CBLDF's ongoing fight to protect First Amendment rights - COHEN V. CALIFORNIA In April of 1968, Paul Robert Cohen was arrested for wearing a jacket emblazoned with "Fuck the Draft" inside a Los Angeles County Courthouse. He was convicted of violating California Penal Code § 415, prohibiting "maliciously and willfully disturb[ing] the peace or quiet of any neighborhood or person [by] offensive conduct," and was sentenced to thirty days imprisonment. The California Court of Appeal upheld the conviction, and the California Supreme Court denied review: On April 26, 1968, the defendant was observed in the Los Angeles County Courthouse in the corridor outside of division 20 of the municipal court wearing a jacket bearing the words 'Fuck the Draft' which were plainly visible. There were women and children present in the corridor. The defendant was arrested. The defendant testified that he wore the jacket knowing that the words were on the jacket as a means of informing the public of the depth of his feelings against the Vietnam War and the draft. In affirming the conviction, California's Court of Appeal held that offensive conduct translates to "behavior which has a tendency to provoke others to acts of violence or to in turn disturb the peace," and that "it was certainly reasonably foreseeable that such conduct might cause others to rise up to commit a violent act against the person of the defendant or attempt to forcibly remove his jacket." However, the US Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari, and the case went off to the highest court in the land. In essence, the Supreme Court had to decide whether or not Cohen's unseemly speech was punishable or protected under the auspices of the First Amendment. The Court held, by a vote of 5–4, that "Absent a more particularized and compelling reason for its actions, the State may not, consistently with the First and Fourteenth Amendments, make the simple public display of this single four-letter expletive a criminal offense." Cohen, by way of his "Fuck the Draft" jacket, was not tossing out "fighting words," and was not provoking violence through his sartorial display. The Court denied the State the broad power to censor its citizens in the name of creating a clean, civil society through the censorship of public discourse: "[T]he issue flushed by this case stands out in bold relief. It is whether California can excise, as 'offensive conduct,' one particular scurrilous epithet from the public discourse, either upon the theory . . . that its use is inherently likely to cause violent reaction or upon a more general assertion that the States, acting as guardians of public morality, may properly remove this offensive word from the public vocabulary." The whole of Justice John Marshall Harlan II's closing arguments were eloquent and compelling, but there is one phrase that strikes to the core of what I feel is the essence of the First Amendment: "For, while the particular four-letter word being litigated here is perhaps more distasteful than most others of its genre, it is nevertheless true that one man's vulgarity is another's lyric." One man's vulgarity is another's lyric: black tea, apricot, honey, saffron, apple blossom, tolu balsam, ginger grass, white ginger root, and vetiver. Cohen V CA is a charitable, not-for-profit venture: proceeds from every single bottle go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which works to preserve and protect the First Amendment rights of the comics community. Beanworld art on the Cohen v. CA label courtesy of Larry Marder. Used with permission. Thank you so much, Larry! Also new this month! - The RPG Series is live! ++ THE RPG SERIES "You all meet at an inn…" Pen and paper role-playing games have been a tremendous influence in my life since my formative years. My parents bought me the magenta D&D boxed set back in 1982, along with the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual. My lifelong passion for fantasy, science fiction, war games, and mythology was well-channeled through RPGs, and I credit playing D&D with helping me sustain my imagination and sense of wonder through adulthood. I played with one particular group through the bulk of my late teens and early 20s, and this series - along with the atmosphere tools that Black Phoenix Trading Post will be introducing - was inspired, specifically, by the time that we spent campaigning together. Our group was somewhat prop-driven in our gaming: we felt that setting a mood was conducive to our style of gameplay. Little things like changes in lighting, minor sound effects, and music made a world of difference, and we found that utilizing miniatures, model railroad scenery, and other tools in order to physically illustrate strategies and provide visual cues was tremendously useful. How much more immersive would it have been if we'd been able to smell the crypt we were crawling through? Or the stench of steel and blood that permeates a warrior's cloak? What do the wizard's spell components smell like? What does winter in the desert smell like? Or spring in a druid's sanctuary? Pen and paper role playing games are, to me, dynamic stories that are propelled by the active participation of many individuals. You can't have a strong storyline without creating characters of some depth. When you create a character, you generally have their personalities, priorities, and history in mind, along with a clear vision of what your character looks and sounds like. But how does she smell? What does the world around her smell like? In most pen and paper fantasy RPGs, three of the primary attributes that you must choose for your character are race, class, and alignment. Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's RPG scent series was designed to emulate the character creation process, and are meant to be layered in order to create a character concept. In short: you layer your class, race, and the two fragrances that compose your alignment to construct your character scent. RPGs in all their myriad forms - CRPGs, MMOs, and old school pen and paper - have brought me immeasurable joy. This is my homage. This series is dedicated to my first DMs - my parents - for laughing off the nutter-perpetuated AD&D Satan Scare of the 80's. Thanks for taking the time to play with your little girl. I miss you, and I love you. This series was illustrated by Julie Dillon! + RACES In gaming terms, choosing your character's race means you will select which sentient species you would like to belong to. DWARF Iron filings and chips of stone, Styrian Golding hops, and soot-covered leather. ELF Pale golden musk, honeycomb, amber, parma violet, hawthorne bark, aspen leaf, forest lily, life everlasting, white moss, and a hint of wild berry. HALF-ELF White sandalwood, beeswax, white tea leaf, oud, and a hint of sophisticated urban musk. HALFLING Porridge, kukui nuts, and pastry crumbs. ORC Field grey courgette musk, roughly cured leather, and vetiver. + CLASSES Class refers to your character's choice of adventuring profession. CLERIC Rose amber, frankincense, myrrh, champaca flower, Peru balsam, cistus, palisander, cananga, hyssop, and narcissus absolute. FIGHTER Leather, musk, blood, and steel. MAGE All mystique and thrumming power: gurjum balsam, Sumatran dragon's blood resin, olibanum, galangal, oleo gum resin, and frankincense. PALADIN Immaculate white musk, sweet frankincense, bourbon vanilla, white leather, and shining armor. RANGER Untamed wilderness: buckskin accord with Terebinth pine, Russian birch, black ironwood, elder bark, hay, armoise, juniper, patchouli, galangal root, Spanish moss, and cabreuva. ROGUE Soft, well-worn black leather, hemp, and rosin. + ALIGNMENT Alignment refers to your character's ethics: which way does his or her moral compass point? There are two aspects to alignment: law vs. chaos, and good vs. evil. Does your character respect authority and venerate tradition? She's likely Lawful. Does she value personal freedom above all else? Chaotic. Does your character give alms to the poor and protect the innocent? He's Good. Is your character of a mercenary bend, willing and eager to step on others to get ahead? Evil. A character that is Neutral (or any combination of Neutral) either finds perfect balance in their worldview, or is apathetic towards the constraints of either good and evil or law and chaos. A lawful neutral character values the letter of the law above any concern for good or evil, and the chaotic neutral character is, generally, driven completely by a desire for absolute freedom. Sometimes they're just nuts. NEUTRAL A flawless skin musk. LAWFUL Rigid oak, blue chamomile, rhubarb, and fig leaf. CHAOTIC A whirling mélange of multicolored musks with wasabi, rooibos, heliotrope, and mastic. GOOD Shimmering celestial musk with vanilla, white honey, acacia, and sugar cane. EVIL Smouldering opium tar, tobacco absolute, green tea, black plum, kush, ambergris accord, ambrette seed, and costus root. Gamers! Please take a moment and join our RPG discussion on the Gazette! This month, Black Phoenix Trading Post is introducing Snow, Glass, Apples soap! She said nothing. Her eyes were black as coal, black as her hair; her lips were redder than blood. She looked up at me and smiled. Her teeth seemed sharp, even then, in the lamplight. "What are you doing away from your room?" "I'm hungry," she said, like any child. It was winter, when fresh food is a dream of warmth and sunlight; but I had strings of whole apples, cored and dried, hanging from the beams of my chamber, and I pulled an apple down for her. "Here." Autumn is the time of drying, of preserving, a time of picking apples, of rendering the goose fat. Winter is the time of hunger, of snow, and of death; and it is the time of the midwinter feast, when we rub the goose-fat into the skin of a whole pig, stuffed with that autumn's apples, then we roast it or spit it, and we prepare to feast upon the crackling. She took the dried apple from me and began to chew it with her sharp yellow teeth. "Is it good?" She nodded. I had always been scared of the little princess, but at that moment I warmed to her and, with my fingers, gently, I stroked her cheek. She looked at me and smiled -- she smiled but rarely -- then she sank her teeth into the base of my thumb, the Mound of Venus, and she drew blood. I began to shriek, from pain and from surprise; but she looked at me and I fell silent. Black Phoenix Trading Post is thrilled to present a handcrafted soap inspired by Neil Gaiman's acclaimed short story, Snow, Glass, Apples. The soap was created by the fiercely talented master soaper Brooke Stant, and the label, designed by Kira Butler, includes one of Julie Dillon’s haunting illustrations from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's chapbook of the tale. The soaps are scented with Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s 2008 Limited Edition scent, Snow, Glass Apples. In Neil's words, 'It smells like green apples and like sex and vampires, all at the same time. (Actually, it smells like sexy vampire apples.)' Snow, Glass, Apples will be available as long as supplies last. These gloriously luxuriant soaps were created with the finest skin-nurturing ingredients. They are made by hand, from scratch, by Villainess, and are generously scented with Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfume. Each bar is at least 3.5oz (without any water weight), and are cut 1" thick from a 3" square block of soap. The faces of the bars are smooth and bear unique, undulating, surrealistically beautiful swirls and marbles - rivulets of blood swirling though snow - and the sides are textured and raw, exhibiting the complex landscape of unsculpted handmade soap. As always, no animals were harmed during the creation of this soap, and all products were tested on friends and family. This is a charitable, not-for-profit venture: proceeds from every single set go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which works to preserve and protect the First Amendment rights of the comics community. A million thanks and all our love to Neil, and to Charles Brownstein and his staff at the CBLDF! In other news, @EmpressPixie set up a great feed that you can subscribe to on twitter (@bpaletsyupdates) that'll keep you posted whenever the BPAL or BPTP etsy sites are updated! We are grieved to announce that the Atomic Luau Lounge will be disappearing when next month's lunacy comes down. Any orders placed before the pull date will be honored. And that's that!

Voilà!

Black Phoenix Trading Post now has its own Facebook page! Huzzah for new ways to post your Headless Torso pics! Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's facebook page is here. Thanks for visiting!

Nobody is slamming anyones willingness to help. We have a very important policy in place that prohibits us from answering customer service inquiries in any format other than email. In order to answer peoples questions efficiently and correctly, we need to be able to access the customer information pertinent to the inquiry and we have to be able to contain all previous communications with that customer in one place. Most often, most of the Labbies, myself included, go onto Facebook, Twitter, and bpal.org from home in our free time. The BPAL staff dont have remote access to order information, production queue info, or previously sent emails if were not actually at the Lab, so we cant help much anyway when were not physically there. While many of us also work from home, the only one of us that answers CS questions from home is Ted. Even though he is able to access order information from home, answering inquiries that are spread out over multiple channels still poses the problem of not being able to retain or easily access message and conversation history. Bill, who is the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Customer Service Angel, doesnt manage our Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace, and he doesnt come onto the forum often. Hes simply not going to see any inquiries that are posted in these places, and things will get even more muddled if Kathy and I are forwarding c/ps of pms or Twitter and Facebook posts to him as a third party. Basically, if people send us inquiries through multiple channels, they get lost in the shuffle, and we are left with no record of the messages. It makes things a lot more complicated for both us and the customer. If you have sent us an email, at BPAL, BPTP, or TAL, and have not received a reply, please resend the email. Please keep in mind that our customer service hours are generally 10am 6pm (Pacific), Monday through Friday. When there is trouble with one of our customer service email addresses (like the one were having with TAL at the moment), we post notices for specific alternatives. This information can be found in our announcements here on bpal.org, on the Gazette, and on our Facebook page. Its not that were trying to be difficult with regards to communication: we just need to keep all of our communications in one place. Thank you guys so much for understanding!

Worm Moon is live at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and Black Phoenix Trading Post! Gloriously ghoulish artwork by Julie Dillon! WORM MOON Do not smirk as a hearse goes by, For you may be the next to die. They wrap you up in a big white sheet And throw you down six feet deep. They put you in a big black box, And cover you up with dirt and rocks. All goes well for a week or two, Then things start changing; all is new. The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, The worms play pinochle on your snout. A big green worm with rolling eyes, Crawls in your stomach and out your eyes. Til your blood turns mossy green And oozes out like Devonshire cream. Worm Moon marks the season of rains, when the worms scuttle forth, aerating the earth with their movements and enriching the soil by digesting waste in organic material, which creates organic fertilizer. This is a melding of Victorian Grotesquery and springtime fecundity: mold-crusted dirt, decomposing organic matter, coffin wood, drooping funeral flowers, congealed blood, gloomy lunar oils, and cuckoo flower with something moist lurking underneath. This month, we are introducing a Limited Edition series inspired by the vivid beauty of Yoshitoshi's imagery: Holding Back the Night. These Limited Edition scents were initially intended to be the introduction to a full Yoshitoshi Salon series at BPAL, and was slated for Summer of 2011. Because of recent events in Japan, we have pulled this series forward. Proceeds from these five scents benefit Doctors Without Borders. The Path of Dreams Atmosphere spray at Black Phoenix Trading Post, inspired by Ono No Komachi, also benefits Doctors Without Borders. In addition, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab will be donating proceeds from all March sales of their Shanghai and Kyoto perfumes to the American Red Cross. Black Phoenix Trading Post will be doing the same for all March sales of Shanghai bath oil and Glowing Vulva bath oil. This is a Limited Edition series that will run from 17 March 2011 until 19 May 2011. No imp's ears are available for this series. + HOLDING BACK THE NIGHT: SCENTS BENFITTING JAPAN RELIEF KUSUNOKI TAMONMARU MASATSURA SURPRISING A FOX GHOST Deep blue musk, olibanum, passion flower, galbanum, immortelle, and sweet myrrh. LORD TEISHIN WITH A DEMON BEHIND A SCREEN Blood red musk, Spanish mandarin, candied red fruits, Chinese geranium, red pepper, and effervescent tangerine pulp. II NO HAYATA KILLS THE NUE AT THE IMPERIAL PALACE Brown musk, antiqued amber, black pepper, tolu balsam, and West Indian Bay. MINAMOTO NO YORIMITSU CUTS AT THE EARTH SPIDER Toasted sandalwood, tobacco flower, teakwood, castoreum accord, bourbon vanilla, and patchouli. ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE COURTESAN JIGOKUDAYU Silken coconut, angelica, soft golden incense, tiare, carnation, and Asian pear. + THE PATH OF DREAMS: BPTP ATMOSPHERE SPRAY THE PATH OF DREAMS Although I come to you constantly over the roads of dreams, those nights of love are not worth one waking touch of you. Wisteria, ti, peach tree leaf, osmanthus, hinoki wood, bergamot, night-blooming jasmine, and ume blossoms. Also new this month: the next installation of our Last Unicorn series! THE HARPY CALANEO The unicorn began to walk toward the harpy's cage. Schmendrick the Magician, tiny and pale, kept opening and closing his mouth at her, and she knew what he was shrieking, though she could not hear him. "She will kill you, she will kill you! Run, you fool, while she's still a prisoner! She will kill you if you set her free!" But the unicorn walked on, following the light of her horn, until she stood before Celaeno, the Dark One. For an instant the icy wings hung silent in the air, like clouds, and the harpy's old yellow eyes sank into the unicorn's heart and drew her close. "I will kill you if you set me free," the eyes said. "Set me free." The unicorn lowered her head until her horn touched the lock of the harpy's cage. The door did not swing open, and the iron bars did not thaw into starlight. But the harpy lifted her wings, and the four sides of the cage fell slowly away and down, like the petals of some great flower waking at night. And out of the wreckage the harpy bloomed, terrible and free, screaming, her hair swinging like a sword. The moon withered and fled. The unicorn heard herself cry out, not in terror but in wonder, "Oh, you are like me!" She reared joyously to meet the harpy's stoop, and her horn leaped up into the wicked wind. The harpy struck once, missed, and swung away, her wings clanging and her breath warm and stinking. She burned overhead, and the unicorn saw herself reflected on the harpy's bronze breast and felt the monster shining from her own body. So they circled one another like a double star, and under the shrunken sky there was nothing real but the two of them. The harpy laughed with delight, and her eyes turned the color of honey. The unicorn knew that she was going to strike again. Clanging metal, smouldering hatred, and terror: vetiver, myrrh, patchouli, tolu balsam, black clove, bergamot, orange flower, and horseradish. ELLI'S SONG "Most shows," said Rukh after a time, "would end here, for what could they possibly present after a genuine unicorn? But Mommy Fortuna's Midnight Carnival holds one more mystery yet - a demon more destructive than the dragon, more monstrous than the manticore, more hideous than the harpy, and certainly more universal than the unicorn." He waved his hand toward the last wagon and the black hangings began to wriggle open, though there was no one pulling them. "Behold her!" Rukh cried. "Behold the last, the Very End! Behold Elli!" Inside the cage, it was darker than the evening, and cold stirred behind the bars like a live thing. Something moved in the cold, and the unicorn saw Elli - an old, bony, ragged woman who crouched in the cage rocking and warming herself before a fire that was not there. She looked so frail that the weight of the darkness should have crushed her, and so helpless and alone that the watchers should have rushed forward in pity to free her. Instead, they began to back silently away, for all the world as though Elli were stalking them. But she was not even looking at them. She sat in the dark and creaked a song to herself in a voice that sounded like a saw going through a tree, and like a tree getting ready to fall. What is plucked will grow again, What is slain lives on, What is stolen will remain - What is gone is gone. "She doesn't look like much, does she?" Rukh asked. "But no hero can stand before her, no god can wrestle her down, no magic can keep her out - or in, for she's no prisoner of ours. Even while we exhibit her here, she is walking among you, touching and taking. For Elli is Old Age." The cold of the cage reached out to the unicorn, and wherever it touched her she grew lame and feeble. She felt herself withering, loosening, felt her beauty leaving her with her breath. Ugliness swung from her mane, dragged down her head, stripped her tail, gaunted her body, ate up her coat, and ravaged her mind with remembrance of what she had once been. Somewhere nearby, the harpy made her low, eager sound, but the unicorn would gladly have huddled in the shadow of her bronze wings to hide from this last demon. Elli's song sawed away at her heart. What is sea-born dies on land, Soft is trod upon. What is given burns the hand - What is gone is gone. The horrors of entropy, death, and decay: desiccated black mosses, vetiver, olibanum, patchouli, and ashes. CAPTAIN CULLY "I'm merry twenty-four hours a day, Dick Fancy," Cully said coldly. "That is a fact." A cocky light musk with leather, tonka, a dusting of dry woods, and a splash of porter. MAGIC, DO AS YOU WILL Cully smiled impatiently, and Jack Jingly dozed, but it startled the magician to see the disappointment in Molly Grue's restless eyes. Sudden anger made him laugh. He dropped seven spinning balls that had been glowing brighter and brighter as he juggled them (on a good evening, he could make them catch fire), let go all his hated skills, and closed his eyes. "Do as you will," he whispered to the magic. "Do as you will." It sighed through him, beginning somewhere secret - in his shoulderblade, perhaps, or in the marrow of his shinbone. His heart filled and tautened like a sail, and something moved more surely in his body than he ever had. It spoke with his voice, commanding. Weak with power, he sank to his knees and waited to be Schmendrick again. I wonder what I did. I did something. He opened his eyes. Most of the outlaws were chuckling and tapping their temples, glad of the chance to mock him. Captain Cully had risen, anxious to pronounce that part of the entertainment ended. Then Molly Grue cried out in a soft, shaking voice, and all turned to see what she saw. The ecstasy of magic and the power of transformation: frankincense, guggul gum, onycha accord, styrax, and deep purple fruits. THE AMOROUS TREE "Gently, gently," he counseled himself. "No man with the power to summon Robin Hood - indeed, to create him - can be bound for long. A word, a wish, and this tree must be an acorn on a branch again, this rope be green in a marsh." But he knew before he called on it that whatever had visited him for a moment was gone again, leaving only an ache where it had been. He felt like an abandoned chrysalis. "Do as you will," he said softly. Captain Cully roused at his voice, and sang the fourteenth stanza. "There are fifty swords without the house, and fifty more within, And I do fear me, captain, they are like to do us in." "Ha' done, ha' done," says Captain Cully, "and never fear again, For they may be a hundred swords, but we are seven men." "I hope you get slaughtered," the magician told him, but Cully was asleep again. Schmendrick attempted a few simple spells for escaping, but he could not use his hands, and he had no more heart for tricks. What happened instead was that the tree fell in love with him and began to murmur fondly of the joy to be found in the eternal embrace of a red oak. "Always, always," it sighed, "faithfulness beyond any man's deserving. I will keep the color of your eyes when no other in the world remembers your name. There is no immortality but a tree's love." "I'm engaged," Schmendrick excused himself. "To a western larch. Since childhood. Marriage by contract, no choice in the matter. Hopeless. Our story is never to be." A gust of fury shook the oak, as though a storm were coming to it alone. "Galls and fireblight on her!" it whispered savagely. "Damned softwood, cursed conifer, deceitful evergreen, she'll never have you! We will perish together, and all trees shall treasure our tragedy!" Along his length Schmendrick could feel the tree heaving like a heart, and he feared that it might actually split in two with rage. The ropes were growing steadily tighter around him, and the night was beginning to turn red and yellow. He tried to explain to the oak that love was generous precisely because it could never be immortal, and then he tried to yell for Captain Cully, but he could only make a small, creaking sound, like a tree. She means well, he thought, and gave himself up for loved. A tree in love: misty, rose-flecked leaves, warm bark, and shuddering branches. SCHMENDRICK Wonder and love and great sorrow shook Schmendrick the Magician then, and came together inside him, and filled him, filled him until he felt himself brimming and flowing with something that was none of these. He did not believe it, but it came to him anyway, as it had touched him twice before and left him more barren than he had been. This time, there was too much of it for him to hold: it spilled through his skin, sprang from his fingers and toes, welled up equally in his eyes and his hair and the hollows of his shoulders. There was too much to hold, too much ever to use; and still he found himself weeping with the pain of his impossible greed. He thought, or said, or sang, I did not know that I was so empty, to be so full. A scent of unexplored potential: sweet, raw tobacco leaves, chamomile, clary sage, Mysore sandalwood, sultana raisins, and caramel. MOLLY GRUE Molly said something strange then, for a woman who never slept a night through without waking many times to see if the unicorn was still there, and whose dreams were all of golden bridles and gentle young thieves. "It's the princesses who have no time," she said. "The sky spins and drags everything along with it, princesses and magicians and poor Cully and all, but you stand still. You never see anything just once. I wish you could be a princess for a little while, or a flower, or a duck. Something that can't wait." She sang a verse of a doleful, limping song, halting after each line as she tried to recall the next. Who has choices need not choose. We must, who have none. We can love but what we lose - What is gone is gone. Schmendrick peered over the unicorn's back into Molly's territory. "Where did you hear that song?" he demanded. It was the first he had spoken to her since the dawn when she joined the journey. Molly shook her head. "I don't remember. I've known it a long time." The land had grown leaner day by day as they traveled on, and the faces of the folk they met had grown bitter with the brown grass; but to the unicorn's eyes Molly was becoming a softer country, full of pools and caves, where old flowers came burning out of the ground. Under the dirt and indifference, she appeared only thirty-seven or thirty-eight years old - no older than Schmendrick, surely, despite the magician's birthdayless face. Her rough hair bloomed, her skin quickened, and her voice was nearly as gentle to all things as it was when she spoke to the unicorn. The eyes would never be joyous, any more than they could ever turn green or blue, but they too had wakened in the earth. She walked eagerly into King Haggard's realm on bare, blistered feet, and she sang often. An angry little beetle with her own kitchen beauty: fig, sesame, hazelnut, and cooking spices softened by rice flower. UNICORN HORN: PACK OF SERIES II IMP'S EARS Imp's ears are not sold individually for this series. They must be purchased in a set. This set contains 7 imps for $38.50US, and contains samples of: The Harpy Calaneo Elli's Song Captain Cully Magic, Do As You Will The Amorous Tree Schmendrick Molly Grue Not-so-awesome news -- We grieve: Silk Road is being discontinued, effective immediately. Outstanding orders will be filled, but we cannot accept new orders for this scent. VERY awesome news -- Coming soon!

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab will be donating proceeds from all March sales of their Shanghai and Kyoto perfumes to the American Red Cross. Black Phoenix Trading Post will be doing the same for all March sales of Shanghai bath oil and Glowing Vulva bath oil. Text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Love, hope, and wishes for safety to everyone imperiled by the earthquake.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs etsy site is now back from hiatus! -- http://www.etsy.com/shop/alchemylab Aaaaaaaaand… Black Phoenix Trading Post now has its own etsy site! -- http://www.etsy.com/shop/bptradingpost Please check in on our etsy sites for trunk show and Lunacy tee overstock, as well as limited run items and some general catalogue stuffz! We'll be adding as much as possible, time permitting!

Updated 17 February 2011: Lemon-Scented Sticky Bats have flown into the Lab! Inspired by Neil Gaiman's Blog! What's a lemon-scented sticky bat? Well... LEMON-SCENTED STICKY BAT ...last week Maddy woke me up early in the morning. "Daddy," she said, "There's a bat on the kitchen window." "Grumphle," I said and went back to sleep. Soon, she woke me up again. "I did a drawing of the bat on the kitchen window," she said, and showed me her drawing. For a five year old she's a very good artist. It was a schematic of the kitchen windows, showing a bat on one of the windows. "Very nice dear," I said. Then I went back to sleep. When I went downstairs... We have, instead of dangling fly papers, transparent strips of gluey clear plastic, about six inches long and an inch high, stuck to the windows on the ground floor. When they accumulate enough flies, you peel them off the window and throw them away. There was a bat stuck to one. He was facing out into the room. "I think he's dead," said my assistant Lorraine. I peeled the plastic off the window. The bat hissed at me. "Nope," I said. "He's fine. Just stuck." The question then became, how does one get a bat (skin and fur) off a fly-strip. Luckily, I bethought me of the Bram Stoker award. After the door had fallen off (see earler in this topic) I had bought some citrus solvent to take the old glue to reglue the door on. So I dripped citrus solvent onto the grumpy bat, edging him off the plastic with a twig, until a lemon-scented sticky bat crawled onto a newspaper. Which I put on the top of a high woodpile, and watched the bat crawl into the logs. With any luck he was as right as rain the following night... Sticky-sweet iced lemon sugar! This is a charitable, not-for-profit venture: proceeds from every single bottle go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which works to preserve and protect the First Amendment rights of the comics community. Label artwork by Alicia Dabney! Sugar Moon is live at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and Black Phoenix Trading Post! SUGAR MOON 2011 No way to see him on this moonless night --- I lie awake longing, burning, breasts racing fire, heart in flames. Sugar cane, black currant, violet musk, black orchid, gardenia, plum nectar, carrot seed, teak, strawberry, and dusky rose. The artwork for the tee was illustrated by Sarah Coleman. Both the babydoll and the crew are made from organic cotton, and the tee is a soft off-white color. Also new at the Lab and the 'Post: The next installment from Neil Gaiman's 15 Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot: the Lovers. The scent is available at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, and the tee is available at Black Phoenix Trading Post. This is one of the most disturbing scents that we have created to date, and is not for the faint of heart. Romantically ghoulish artwork by the inimitable Madame Talbot. Also new! ANATHESTERIA Anthesteria, one of the four central feasts of Dionysus, is held for three days during the month of Anthesterion-- the time of blooming. It is a celebration of the birth of spring, expressed symbolically though the ceremonial opening of the pithoi containing the previous year's vintage. A time of joy and drunkenness, it is both a celebration of earth's renewal and springtime's bright passions and a festival of the dead. During the three nights of Anthesteria, the ghosts of our ancestors roam the streets. This commemoration of death and rebirth, passion and springtime was one of the few, precious moments when all were equal in the Hellenic world; during Anthesteria, man, woman, and child, free man and slave, human and spirit were all unified under the auspices of Nature's great cycle. Dénthis wine and Bibline grape, with honey and a touch of thyme and oregano. The bath oil is available at Black Phoenix Trading Post, and the scent is available at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand also at Black Phoenix Trading Post: RED LANTERN ATMOSPHERE SPRAY A tribute to the opium den cum bawdyhouses of Shanghai in the 1930's. Golden amber, blonde tobacco, Sudanese black coconut, rich caramel, black currant, white opium and delphinium laced with a sensual blend of Asian spice. GLOWING VULVA BATH OIL Cream accord, amber, teak, and lotus blossom. SPANKED REVISITED PERFUME OIL Whip leather, cardamom, patchouli, and bourbon. The labels for Red Lantern, Glowing Vulva, and Spanked are all very naughty and contain explicit depictions of sexual acts and nudity. By purchasing any of these, you a are stating that you are eighteen years of age, or older, and that you are choosing to purchase products whose labels feature adult content. The Courtesans series is live at Black Phoenix Trading Post! Every action we take, everything we do, is either a victory or defeat in the struggle to become what we want to be. Dazzling in their wit, charm, and beauty, courtesans have danced on the edge of society for centuries. They served as companions, lovers, and confidantes of fearsomely powerful men, and as such, courtesans have helped shape the world, sometimes surreptitiously commanding nations with the force of their charisma and the power of bodies Born into eras when women were worth little more than their dowries or the fecundity of their wombs, these were self-made women who defied the constraints of their time. Though they could never be considered paragons of purity or propriety, these women were poets, authors, and power brokers who dared to embrace the unconventional while taking control of their own lives, and are truly worthy of admiration. Each set comes with a 5ml bottle of the Courtesans' perfume, a 12oz bottle of the Courtesans' bath salts, an imp/condom case with the Courtesans' image emblazoned upon it, and an imp of Éclat: a vivacious blend of green tea, osmanthus, pomelo flower, white musk, and verbena. All of the items, with the exception of Éclat, are available individually. Éclat is only available with the set, and is not for purchase on its own. Our wet bath salts are nutrient-dense, and are blended with an exquisite mixture of healthy oils: Himalayan pink salt, Dead Sea salt, Breton sea salt, refined rice bran oil, fractionated coconut oil, shea oil, rosehip seed oil, dendritic salt, evening primrose, Vitamin E, and Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfume. They are packaged in an elegant velveteen pouch. Illustration on the pouches designed by Alicia Dabney. The cases are handmade, and have been crafted out of stainless steel. They fit seven imps side-by-side or two condoms within them. And last, but not least: NEW SOCKS at the 'Post! Many thanks to the wonderful people at Sock Dreams. It is always a pleasure working with you! A million, trillion thanks to Kathy Flynn, Alicia Dabney, Sarah Coleman, and Ali Butterfass. You are my angels, and I love you.

First things first! Pop open the champagne Will Call has come to New England! New England Will Call Healthy Living Market (inside the Learning Center) 222 Dorset Street, South Burlington, VT, 05403 They will be hosting will call on Sunday, January 23rd, from 4 to 8pm. Welcome to the family, Courtney and crew! We love you guys! Kung Hei Fat Choi! Happy New Year, one and all! It's the year of the Metal Rabbit! METAL RABBIT A new year's blessing! Peony, China's national flower, with bamboo for flexibility, plum blossom for perseverance, courage, and hope, tangerine for wealth, orange for happiness, lychee for household peace, pine resin for constancy, golden kumquat and quince for prosperity, narcissus and King mandarin for good fortune, cypress for longevity, and peach fruit and hemp to represent the fourth phase of Wu Xing, with a splash of blazing red of dragon's blood... to help you scare away the rampaging Nian. Love is in the air at Black Phoenix, and to celebrate both Lupercalia /and/ our favorite Hallmark Holiday, we present a selection of seasonal scents, lecherous and lovely. Heartbreak, fascination, lust, loss, and licentiousness: we've got it all. As always, our offerings during this Season of Schtupping contain adult material, and by clicking through to view the images and purchase our Lupercalia products, you are admitting that you are a dirty bird who is 18 or older, and that you are permitted by law to view suggestive imagery. Blessed Lupercalia, everyone! The Season of Schtupping is here! ++ LUPERCALIA THE ARBOR He seems to be a god, that man Facing you, who leans to be close, Smiles, and, alert and glad, listens To your mellow voice And quickens in love at your laughter That stings my breasts, jolts my heart If I dare the shock of a glance. I cannot speak, My tongue sticks to my dry mouth, Thin fire spreads beneath my skin, My eyes cannot see and my aching ears Roar in their labyrinths. Chill sweat glides down my back, I shake, I turn greener than grass. I am neither living nor dead and cry From the narrow between. (Sappho, translation by Guy Davenport) Shuddering, thundering, passionate: red musk, East African red patchouli, tonka bean, white gardenia, black narcissus, champaca flower, Roman chamomile, and massoia bark. DOLCE STIL NUOVO 2011 Love always finds shelter in the gentle heart. Dolce Stil Nuovo is a 13th & 14th century Florentine literary style that celebrates love and womanhood through heartfelt, delicate, and melodious sonnets, ballate, and canzones. This is fin'amor, Courtly Love, in its most moving form, and the emotions that these words express reflect love that both spiritual and idealized. Within this literary movement, earthly love reaches for the Divine. Who is she coming, whom all gaze upon, Who makes the air tremulous with light, And at whose side is Love himself? that none Dare speak, but each man's sighs are infinite. Ah me! how she looks round from left to right, Let Love discourse: I may not speak thereon. Lady she seems of such high benison As makes all others graceless in men's sight. The honor which is hers cannot be said; To whom are subject all things virtuous, While all things beauteous own her deity. Ne'er was the mind of man so nobly led Nor yet was such redemption granted us That we should ever know her perfectly. Our interpretation of Dolce Stil Nuovo is a blend of rose otto, carnation, vanilla flower, lavender and jasmine with the clarity of crystalline white musk and the warmth of golden amber. KHAJURAHO 2011 The fabled Khajuraho temples of India are shrines of love in all its myriad forms. They are a celebration of love itself - transcendental, spiritual and erotic. This is a rejection of sorrow, spiritual ennui and despair. The sexual motifs that adorn the temples, and the temples themselves, are monuments to ecstasy and to passion, and through that, they are also monuments to spiritual fulfillment. It is believed that the realization of moksha by dedicating oneself to adhyatma and dharma can be attained only by first experiencing sexual satisfaction. In the midst of the drudgery and struggle that we sometimes endure during the course of our Earthly lives, it is vitally important that we remember the joy found in kama, and that in kama we can achieve transformation of the body and soul. This is a blissful, euphoric blend based on an ancient Indian love potion: honey, date palm, tuberose, davana blossom, amber, white sandalwood, vanilla bean, Damask rose, and champaca flower. LUPERCI 2010 Piss off, Saint Valentine! Lupercalia is an ancient Roman celebration, held on February 15th, that kicked in the advent of Spring with a very, very festive purification, fertility and sexuality ritual. The ritual began near the cave of Lupercal on the Palatine, an area sacred to Faunus, as well as Ruminia, Romulus and Remus. During Lupercalia, Vestal Virgins first made offerings of sacred cakes to the fig tree under which the she-wolf suckled the Sacred Twins. A dog and two goats were then offered in sacrifice to Faunus. The blood of the sacrifice was smeared onto two naked patrician youths, who were assisted by the Virgins, and the blood was wiped clean with sacred wool dipped in milk. The youths donned the skins of the sacrificial goats, wielding whips made from the goat skins, and then led the priests and the Virgins around the pomarium, and around the base hills of Rome. This was a ceremony of great happiness and merriment, and was of particular interest to young women: being touched by the goat-whips young men that led the procession ensured their fertility in the coming year. It is believed that, after the initial rite, male participants would draw the name of an available maiden, with whom he spent the rest of the night. This scent is for the Luperci, the Chosen of Faunus, the Brothers of the Wolf: raw, down and dirty patchouli, Gurjam balsam, and essence of Sampson Root sweetened with the heightened sexuality of beeswax, virile juniper, oakmoss, ambrette seed over honey and East African musk. NIGHT'S PAVILION 2011 I worship you like night's pavilion, O vase of sadness, o great silent one, And love you more since you escape from me, And since you seem, my night's sublimity, To mock me and increase the leagues that lie Between my arms and blue immensity. I move to attack, beseige, assail, Like eager worms after a funeral. I even love, o beast implacable, The coldness which makes you more beautiful. Not the desperation, desolation and anguish of unrequited love, but the distant, chill and pitiless scent of the object of that doomed desire. White musk, osmanthus, Nile lily and frankincense. OLISBOS 2011 As for old flames and lovers-they're none left. And since Milesians went against us, I've not seen a decent eight-fingered dildo. Yes, it's just leather, but it helps us out. The ancient Greeks sure weren't shy about taking care of business. The port city of Miletus was once famed throughout the Mediterranean as a source of excellent stone, wood, and padded leather dildos. This scent is the celebration of an age-old pastime: polished wood, well-loved leather, and olive oil. PARLEMENT OF FOULES 2011 For the Valentine's Day purists. For this was on seynt Volantynys day Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his mate. Medieval romance and courtly love. White rose and soft resins. RED LANTERN 2011 A tribute to the opium den cum bawdyhouses of Shanghai in the 1930's. Golden amber, blonde tobacco, Sudanese black coconut, rich caramel, black currant, white opium and delphinium laced with a sensual blend of Asian spice. SMUT 2011 After all these years, BPAL is smuttier than ever. Three swarthy, smutty musks sweetened with sugar and woozy with dark booze notes. TEARS, IDLE TEARS Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Tears from the depth of some divine despair Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy Autumn-fields, And thinking of the days that are no more. Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail, That brings our friends up from the underworld, Sad as the last which reddens over one That sinks with all we love below the verge; So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more. Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds To dying ears, when unto dying eyes The casement slowly grows a glimmering square; So sad, so strange, the days that are no more. Dear as remembered kisses after death, And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned On lips that are for others; deep as love, Deep as first love, and wild with all regret; O Death in Life, the days that are no more! (Lord Alfred Tennyson) A bittersweet aquatic lifted by white rose, olibanum, amber, orris root, davana, and oude. TIME DOES NOT BRING RELIEF Time does not bring relief; you all have lied Who told me time would ease me of my pain! I miss him in the weeping of the rain; I want him at the shrinking of the tide; The old snows melt from every mountain-side, And last year's leaves are smoke in every lane; But last year's bitter loving must remain Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide. There are a hundred places where I fear To go - so with his memory they brim. And entering with relief some quiet place Where never fell his foot or shone his face I say, 'There is no memory of him here!' And so stand stricken, so remembering him. (Edna St Vincent Millay) Remembrance: Parma violet and leather accord with beeswax, Egyptian musk, orange blossom, white tea, lavender, myrrh, and copal. VALENTINE OF ROME 2011 Many legends surround St. Valentine, and history has yet to show, conclusively, which ones are true and which are fiction. One tale claims that Valentine was a 3rd century Christian priest. When Emperor Claudius II declared that his soldiers were never to marry - the emperor believed that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and children - Valentine continued to perform wedding ceremonies in secret. When the emperor learned of Valentine's disobedience, he imprisoned the priest. The emperor chose to interrogate the priest himself, and despite his fury at his orders being flagrantly disobeyed, he was impressed with the priest's intelligence, wisdom, and passion. He attempted to convert the priest to the Roman faith, and was furious when he failed. While incarcerated, Valentine fell in love with his jailor's blind daughter. Through God's grace and the power of Valentine's pure and true love for this woman, he was able to cure her blindness with a touch. Before he was beaten and beheaded, he sent her a letter expressing his feelings for her, signed 'From Your Valentine'. Ecclesiastical incense, Roman flora, and the fruits of martyrdom: cypress, olive blossom, frankincense, myrrh, and blood accord. WOMB FURIE 2011 In the middle of the flanks of women lies the womb, a female viscus, closely resembling an animal; for it is moved of itself hither and thither in the flanks, also upwards in a direct line to below the cartilage of the thorax and also obliquely to the right or to the left, either to the liver or spleen; and it likewise is subject to falling downwards, and, in a word, it is altogether erratic. It delights, also, in fragrant smells, and advances towards them; and it has an aversion to fetid smells, and flees from them; and on the whole the womb is like an animal within an animal.</i> -- Aretaeus the Cappadocian Oh, that wily womb! Hippocrates and his followers considered the womb a mobile creature, causing mayhem as it writhed its way through a woman's body. Sometimes this ornery organ, due to lack of sexual activity, would create conflicts within a woman's system or would become blocked itself, causing anxiety, nervousness, water retention, and sleeplessness. With the assistance of doctors, nursemaids, hand tools, or, occasionally, self-manipulation, this vexing condition could be alleviated through hysterical paroxysms. Or, as we call it nowadays: orgasm. An itch that needs to be scratched: Snake Oil and three types of honey. We are thrilled to present another set of psychotically tantalizing confections from Arkham's finest chocolatier and the Miskatonic Valley's preeminent importer of otherworldly sweets: the Sugared She-Goat! Maddeningly addictive! This Valentine's Day, melt your lover's heart, figuratively, with a gift from the Miskatonic Valley's premiere boutique chocolatier! This season's specialty truffles are handmade by subjugated monks from Ghatanothoa's monestary at Mount Yaddith-Gho, under the watchful eye of Mother Shub's high priests. Imported to Arkham from Mu, they are distributed exclusively through the Sugared She-Goat. Iä, Shub-Niggurath, the Malefic She-Goat of Many Sugary Treats! ++ LUPERCALIA: BOX OF CHOCOLATES Dark Chocolate, Fig, and Tamarind Dark Chocolate, Lime, and Chocolate Mint Milk Chocolate, Cassia, and Bacon Milk Chocolate, Raw Ginger, and Butterscotch White Chocolate Martini White Chocolate Mango Buttercream (There is no bacon in the bacon chocolate. It's bacon accord, if you will, and contains no animal products whatsoever.) Even though I just said it, this does bear repeating. The following Lupercalia sets contain nudity, depictions of sex acts, and other not-suitable-fer-younguns stuff. By clicking on the links or purchasing these products, you are affirming that you are at least eighteen years of age and that you are permitted by law to view suggestive imagery. Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is also not responsible for any pearl-clutching reactions to the themes we present. If you are offended by nudity, schtupping, marital aids, or any other naughty business, please go no further. Viewer discretion is advised! For your pleasure, we are thrilled to present another whimsical sojourn to the bedrooms of Edo-era Japan -- Novel Ideas For Secret Amusements IV: A Shunga Exhibition. This year, we also return to Cyprus and Cythera where we do honor to the Goddess Rising Out of the Sea. And finally, we present Venustas: A tribute to William Etty and the Elegance of the Human Form. ++ LUPERCALIA: NOVEL IDEAS FOR SECRET AMUSEMENTS AN APPRAISAL OF SENSUAL PLEASURE IN THE FOUR SEASONS Wild plum, lemongrass, frankincense, honeysuckle, and teak. BIWA Tangerine, black currant, white musk, honey, and tagetes. BURNING VULVA Vanilla-infused amber, leather, beeswax, cyclamen, oakmoss, peru balsam, orange blossom, red ginger, tonka, opoponax, myrrh, and black pepper. COUPLE ENGAGED IN LOVEMAKING Honey, lemongrass, black tea, white ginger, and grains. COPULATING MICE Bergamot, clove, hazelnut, pecan, lavender, tonka, and thyme. DANCING KOI Brown musk, leather accord, toasted sandalwood, clove, labdanum, and champaca. FESTIVAL MASK Rubbed sage, ti leaf, osmanthus, immortelle, patchouli, amber, and mandarin. GODS OF INTERCOURSE Peach and peach blossom with rose geranium, red currant, pink musk, and gardenia. HARIGATA II Coconut, white amber, hazelnut, and anise. LOOSENING OF THE OBI Rice wine, white sandalwood, vanilla bean, and white musk. SPRINGTIME PLAYFULNESS Green and brown musks, coconut husk, wisteria, lemongrass, hydrangea, cranberry, woody sandalwood, and ripe squash. TEA Darjeeling tea, lemon verbena, star anise, and honeycomb. USHI Red musk, crushed tomatoes, mango, and fig. YOUNG PINE SAPLINGS Cream, clove, ginger, and honey. To Aphrodite. Ourania, illustrious, laughter-loving queen, sea-born, night-loving, of awful mien; crafty, from whom Ananke first came, producing, nightly, all-connecting dame. 'Tis thine the world with harmony to join, for all things spring from thee, O power divine. The triple Moirai are ruled by thy decree, and all productions yield alike to thee: whatever the heavens, encircling all, contain, earth fruit-producing, and the stormy main, thy sway confesses, and obeys thy nod, awful attendant of Bakkhos God. Goddess of marriage, charming to the sight, mother of the Erotes, whom banquetings delight; source of Peitho, secret, favouring queen, illustrious born, apparent and unseen; spousal Lukaina, and to men inclined, prolific, most-desired, life-giving, kind. Great sceptre-bearer of the Gods, 'tis thine mortals in necessary bands to join; and every tribe of savage monsters dire in magic chains to bind through mad desire. Come, Kyprogenes, and to my prayer incline, whether exalted in the heavens you shine, or pleased in odorous Syria to preside, or over the Aigyptian plains they care to guide, fashioned of gold; and near its sacred flood, fertile and famed, to fix they blest abode; or if rejoicing in the azure shores, near where the sea with foaming billows roars, the circling choirs of mortals thy delight, or beauteous Nymphai with eyes cerulean bright, pleased by the sandy banks renowned of old, to drive thy rapid two-yoked car of gold; or if in Kypros thy famed mother fair, where Nymphai unmarried praise thee every year, the loveliest Nymphai, who in the chorus join, Adonis pure to sing, and thee divine. Come, all-attractive, to my prayer inclined, for thee I call, with holy, reverent mind. ++ LUPERCALIA: ODE TO APHRODITE ANTHEIA The Blooming / Friend of Flowers Grandiflorum jasmine, Damask rose, ylang ylang, gardenia, sweetbriar, and apple blossom dusted by golden amber. APATOUROS Deceptive One Black fig, green tea, opoponax, ciste absolute, myrrh, carnation, nutmeg, and Brazilian vetiver. APATROPHIA She Who Expels Sinful Lusts A complex Eastern musk with orange blossom, peppermint, lime peel, spikenard, petitgrain, and white cedar. APHROGENÊS Foam Born Orris root, iris, white honey, white sandalwood, coconut, and cherry blossom. AREIA Warlike Dragon's blood resin, pimento berry, olive wood, rosemary, black cherry, persimmon, red musk, and red rose. HEKAERGÊ She Who Strikes From a Distance Red patchouli, myrrh, lemongrass, gurjum balsam, lemongrass, lavender, and honey. KATASKOPIA She Who Spies Tuberose, mandarin, jonquil, black sandalwood, green musk, styrax, hyacinth, and violet musk. KYPRIS She Who Furnishes Pregnancy Peru balsam, vanilla bean, Rainier cherry, bitter almond, golden honey, rose water, lemon peel, sugar cane, and benzoin. KYTHERIAN She Who Conceals Love-Affaris Black narcissus, purple orchid, neroli, white sandalwood, ambergris, plum musk, jonquil, thyme, oakmoss, and grapefruit. NIKÊPHOROS Bringer of Victory Black currant, patchouli, blood orange, oakmoss, galbanum, benzoin, and white mint. NYMPHIA She Who Blesses Brides White rose, apple blossom, spun sugar, mango, cucumber, freesia, coconut, and lavender. ++ LUPERCALIA: VENUSTAS FEMALE NUDE, THREE-QUARTER LENGTH, BESIDE HER LEFT AN APPLE TREE Mahogany, rosewood, and red apple. MALE NUDE, ARMS UPSTRETCHED Dark musk, linen, and red chypre. MANILUS HURLED FROM THE ROCK Frankincense, leather accord, sandalwood, Himalayan cedar, nutmeg, and violet leaf. NUDE WOMAN RECLINING Calla lily, honeysuckle, Turkish jasmine, ambrette seed, galbanum, iris, and bourbon vanilla. THE RING Antiqued amber, frankincense, patchouli, hay, oakmoss, skin musk, and white mint. STANDING FEMALE NUDE Red rose and red currant with amber, blood orange, myrrh, and golden musk. SLEEPING NYMPH AND SATYRS Wild woods, Bulgarian rose, tolu balsam, vanilla absolute, ambergris, honey, and vanilla. WRESTLERS Vetiver, guiac wood, peru of balsam, two musks, labdanum, saffron, and rum accord. Look! Up in the sky! Bony Moon is live at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and Black Phoenix Trading Post! BONY MOON 2011 In the stark darkness of February, food is so scarce that some are forced to chew bones and make marrow soup for nourishment. It is a time when we honor our ancestors with fasting, solemn ritual, and reflection on the triumphs and accomplishments of those who have passed before us. White sandalwood, dry cedar, and radiant, crisp lunar herbs. Amazing, AMAZING artwork by Julie Dillon! Julie, we are so grateful to you for sharing your immense talent with us! Buy the companion shirt here! Embalming Fluid and Snake Oil are now part of Black Phoenix Trading Post's permanent bath collection. Morocco and Shanghai bath oils have also been added! The price for Snake Oil has gone up, as several of the components of Snake oil are very precious and rare and it is extremely expensive to keep in production in this format. And, frankly… Ted uses a metric shit ton of Snake Oil in the mix. The Dark Delicacies / Black Phoenix Valentine's Day scent is live on the Dark Delicacies web site, and are also available at their brick and mortar shop in Burbank, CA! RED LACE Blood-stained sweetness. Red musk, tobacco, red sandalwood, dried pomegranate, patchouli, dusty frankincense, and raspberry clotted over blackened sugar-spun vanilla cream cotton. Red Lace is available exclusively through Dark Delicacies. Dark Delicacies 3512 W. Magnolia Blvd. Burbank, CA 91505 888-DARKDEL http://www.darkdel.com The Black Phoenix Trading Post Lupercalia update will be along shortly. We're shooting for a week from now. I hate closing this update out on a gloomy note, but I have no choice. The following scents are being discontinued, effective immediately. Cottonmouth Ether The High Priest Not to be Described I Died for Beauty Little Sparrow The Macabray Melancholia Pannychis The Unicorn Please accept my heartfelt apologies for the lack of notice; we don't have a choice. We will be able to fill outstanding orders that contain these scents, but we cannot accept new orders for them. Our first lunacy of 2011 will be the first will call to be held in four locations. ___ The west coast will call event will be held on Wednesday, January 19th from 7 to 10pm at Dark Delicacies. Dark Delicacies 3512 W. Magnolia Blvd (1 block east of Hollywood Way) Burbank, CA 91505 ___ GA Will Call will be at Whole Foods Market, aka Harrys Farmers Market, in Roswell, GA, on Sunday, January 30th from 5 to 8pm, inside Salud (which is inside the store.) Whole Foods Market 1180 Upper Hembree Road, Roswell, GA, 30076. Whole Foods accepts Visa, Master Card, Discover, American Express and cash. They will not be able to accept any preorders. Seattle Will Call will be held on Wednesday, January 19th from 7:30 to 10:30pm at Knows Perfume. knows perfume 4536 California Ave., SW Seattle, WA 98116 (206) 397-3141 And last but not least, New England Will Call will be held at Healthy Living Market on Sunday, January 23rd from 4 to 8pm, in the Learning Center. Healthy Living Market 222 Dorset Street, South Burlington, VT, 05403 Healthy Living will be accepting pre-orders. You can email Courtney at CourtneyW@healthylivingmarket.com or call her at (802) 863-2569 ex 301, by 1/12 to place your order. ___ The blends that will be available for purchase include those that went live on the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab website up to and including the Wolf Moon update. Forum only scents will not be available at Will Call. We will no longer be accepting preorders at West Coast Will Call, with the exception of orders paid with Paypal, and orders for Twilight Alchemy Lab oils. We will do our best to accommodate all orders, but sales will be based on availability. At this time, Twilight Alchemy Lab oils will only be available at Dark Delicacies via preorder. Items from Black Phoenix Trading Post will be available at Dark Delicacies, subject to stock on hand. If you have any questions, please email us at willcall@blackphoenixalchemylab.com. Where/When: West Coast Will Call at Dark Delicacies 3512 W. Magnolia Ave Burbank, CA 91505 Wednesday, January 19th, 7 to 10pm Seattle Will Call at knows perfume 4536 California Ave SW Seattle, WA 98116 Wednesday, January 19th, 7:30 to 10:30pm New England Will Call at Healthy Living Market (inside the Learning Center) 222 Dorset Street, South Burlington, VT, 05403 Sunday, January 23rd, 4 to 8pm Georgia Will Call at Whole Foods aka Harrys Farmers Market (inside Salud) 1180 Upper Hembree Road, Roswell, GA, 30076 Sunday, January 30th, 5 to 8pm Blessed Lupercalia and Happy Valentine's Day to All! We truly hope you enjoy our Lupercalia offerings as much as we enjoyed creating them!

Happy New Year from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab & Black Phoenix Trading Post!

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and Black Phoenix Trading Post will be closed December 24 – 26 and December 31 – January 1. Happy holidays, and may we all have a new year filled with peace, pleasure, prosperity, and good will.

Share your photos and stories of tonight’s lunar eclipse on the Black Phoenix Gazette! Please post your photos and tales in the comments, and share the experience with others in the BPAL community!

This months lunacy is WOLF MOON 2011 This pale and glittering moon hangs high over the deep snows and freezing winds of midwinter. Januarys full moon has been named the Wolf Moon by many cultures, as the nights are filled with the howls of ravenous Wolf packs, and the danger of falling prey to the animals desperate hunger is at its peak. This scent is that of unending, unquenchable hunger and feral madness. This is the dead of winter: a frozen night, chill wind, and the sharp, warm perfume of blood, fur, fang, and claw. Winter air, Terebinth pine, black spruce, long-dead maple leaves, juniper berry, dusty orris, deep amber, white sandalwood, brown musk, blue cedar, ambrette seed, benzoin, and tonka. And also WINTER SOLSTICE LUNAR ECLIPSE Thy shadow, Earth, from Pole to Central Sea, Now steals along upon the Moons meek shine In even monochrome and curving line Of imperturbable serenity. How shall I link such sun-cast symmetry With the torn troubled form I know as thine, That profile, placid as a brow divine, With continents of moil and misery? And can immense Mortality but throw So small a shade, and Heavens high human scheme Be hemmed within the coasts yon arc implies? Is such the stellar gauge of earthly show, Nation at war with nation, brains that teem, Heroes, and women fairer than the skies? On December 21st, the longest night of 2010, a total lunar eclipse will occur. There will be seventy-two minutes of glorious totality while the moon is enveloped in a cloak of luminous, blood-tinged amber. Totality will begin at 11:41 pm Black Phoenix Standard Time. If this isnt a magical night, I dont know what is. A voluptuous and brittle blend of lunar oils and white chypre shimmering with darkly glowing red musk, golden amber, black currant, patchouli, rose peppercorn, blackberry, ylang ylang, and daemonorops astride Yuletides holly berry, white pine, winter rose, and myrrh. Plus, a little something for bpal.org forum members - WILF … because vampires arent the only supernatural beings worthy of our amorous attentions. Warm fur coupled with red and black musk, vanilla bean, patchouli, champaca flower, juniper berry, chocolate peppermint, frangipani, browned sandalwood, ferntop ash resin, and massoia bark. Love and gratitude to Stephen Huang (Lycanthrope here on the forum!) for the inspiration and for blessing us with his adorable, whimsical artwork! - - The Wolf Moon tee is also live at Black Phoenix Trading Post! Woodcut-inspired artwork by Julie Dillon! - - Some recaps of recent announcements A KISS FROM KRAMPUS! Ein Kuss Von Krampus and a few other seasonally-appropriate spooky Black Phoenix Yule scents are still available on the Dark Delicacies web site! EIN KUSS VON KRAMPUS A kiss from Krampus! Willow and beechwood branches, Austrian chocolate, fresh Alpine milk, with paprika, horseradish, black pepper, juniper, mustard seed, and caraway. Goes on like candy, but morphs into a reedy, bittersweet spiced cocoa. CRIMSON CHRISTMAS Have you been bad or good? Santa has sharpened his candy canes, and hes got his eye on you! Gore-splattered snow, chimney smoke, and bloody, broken peppermint sweets. INVASION OF THE FLESH-EATING REINDEER FROM URANUS Trampled gingerbread cookies, scattered rum balls, and indestructible, rock-hard fruitcake and a gargantuan squirt of musk. Dark Delicacies will be offering 10% off of all of their in-house items during the night of BPALs December Will Call! - - * The Millers Daughter (Marchen) and VILF (Vampires Dont Sleep Alone) have been discontinued, effective immediately. Pending orders will still be filled, but we do not have enough stock to accept new orders for these scents. We are hopeful that The Millers Daughter will be able to return in early 2011. * Happy Mercury Retrograde! Twilight Alchemy Labs email is currently down. If you need to order, have a question, or have placed an order in the past few days that hasnt shipped yet, please email wickedgoddess @ blackphoenixalchemylab.com and she will take care of you over there. * Friday (December 10th) was the last day to submit domestic orders for Christmas delivery. We will get orders placed after December 10th out as quickly as possible. - - On December 21, we will have our last Will Call of 2010, and it feature the return of themed Will Calls! The theme for this Will Call is…Santa vs. Krampus. Dress up if you are feeling festive! Just in time for your holiday celebrations we will have five exclusive scents available only at the three Will Call events! * Champagne and Party Hats * Champagne and Absinthe * Champagne and Opium * Pink Champagne * Sparkling Apple Cider Champagne scents are $20 each and only available at Will Call, while supplies last. Supplies are limited and no preorders will be accepted for these items. - - All three Will Call locations will also be hosting a toy drive for Toys for Tots. Everyone who brings a toy ($10 value or higher, please) will receive a 5ml of Mitzvah Goreret Mitzvah. MITZVAH GORERET MITZVAH Kindness begets kindness. Holy hyssop, red apple, massoia bark, and pomegranate with eight different types of honey that represent the sweetness of life and new beginnings. Additionally, at West Coast Will Call only, Black Phoenix Trading Post will be hosting a soap drive for Clean the World. Bring in soap and get a small spritzer bottle of Hispaniola Extrait. HISPANIOLA Brilliant in thy grand hemisphere The marshaled host of Heaven appear, Whence evenings star, unclouded and serene, Emits afar her sparkling rays Where eer the nightly traveller strays, And on his pathway sheds her silvery sheen. Though silent when all creatures shun The fierce blaze of the mid-day sun, Myriads of insects walk abroad at night; And when cool dews from Heaven descend, The air with gladsome voices rend, And hail the star-bright beams of milder light. Bay rum, coconut, wild olive, avocado, bitterwood, sugar cane syrup, muskwood, Creolean pine, lime rind, cacao, and West Indian cedar. Black Phoenix Trading Post will also donate the cost of shipping the soaps to the Clean the World headquarters in Orlando, Florida. - - The west coast will call event will be held on Tuesday, December 21st, from 7 to 10pm at Dark Delicacies. Dark Delicacies 3512 W. Magnolia Blvd (1 block east of Hollywood Way) Burbank, CA 91505 - - GA Will Call will be at Whole Foods Market, aka Harrys Farmers Market, in Roswell, GA, on Tuesday, December 21st, from 5:30 to 8:30pm, inside Salud (which is inside the store.) Whole Foods Market is located at 1180 Upper Hembree Road, Roswell, GA, 30076. Whole Foods accepts Visa, Master Card, Discover, American Express and cash. They will not be able to accept any preorders. - - Seattle Will Call will be held on Tuesday, December 21st from 7:30 to 10:30pm at Knows Perfume. knows perfume 4536 California Ave, SW Seattle, WA 98116 (206) 397-3141 - - The blends that will be available for purchase include those that went live on the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab website up to and including the Cold Moon update. Forum only scents will not be available at Will Call. We will no longer be accepting preorders at West Coast Will Call, with the exception of orders paid with Paypal, and orders for Twilight Alchemy Lab oils. We will do our best to accommodate all orders, but sales will be based on availability. At this time, Twilight Alchemy Lab oils will only be available at Dark Delicacies via preorder. Items from Black Phoenix Trading Post will be available at Dark Delicacies, subject to stock on hand. If you have any questions, please email us at willcall @ blackphoenixalchemylab . com. - - The beginning of 2011 will see a handful of d20′s, the building blocks of the universe, tarot cards both old and new, smoke and mirrors, madness in the Salon, ancient alchemists, bewitching bath brews, a game of love and lust, a sojourn to the Miskatonic Valley, February Filth, another installation of Last Unicorn scents, and so very much more. Also in the early months of 2011 a new Will Call location! Please check the Black Phoenix Gazette often for details. Other ways of staying in touch: * Join our mailing list. * Participate in the bpal.org forum. * Follow us on Twitter. * Say hello on Facebook. - - Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and Black Phoenix Trading Post wish all of our beloved clients, friends, and loved ones a new year free from grief, care, and melancholy. Heres to 2011 bringing bright blessings and limitless light to us all.

Black Phoenix PSA: Today is the last day to submit international orders for Christmas shipping! For more info... clickie.

Ein Kuss Von Krampus, the Black Phoenix Yule blend for Dark Delicacies, is now live on the Dark Delicacies web site! EIN KUSS VON KRAMPUS A kiss from Krampus! Willow and beechwood branches, Austrian chocolate, fresh Alpine milk, with paprika, horseradish, black pepper, juniper, mustard seed, and caraway. Goes on like candy, but morphs into a reedy, bittersweet spiced cocoa.

EIN KUSS VON KRAMPUS: DARK DELICACIES EXCLUSIVE YULE 2010 A kiss from Krampus! Willow and beechwood branches, Austrian chocolate, fresh Alpine milk, with paprika, horseradish, black pepper, juniper, mustard seed, and caraway. This Kiss on like penny candy and then morphs into a reedy, bittersweet spiced cocoa.

Share your Halloween experience with us through the BPAL blog!! Post photos of jack o’lanterns, decorations, costumes, haunted houses, and parties! Recipes and poems! Traditions and customs! Adventures! Anecdotes! Tricks! Treats! Post it all in the comments field on our blog, and spread a little Halloween cheer with the BPAL community! HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYONE!

Share your top ten horror flim selections with others in the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab community! Part of our Halloween Countdown. Post your list in the blog entry's comments!

New Black Phoenix Gazette entry! Share your Halloween stories with us!

It will be business as usual at BPAL while we’re at NYCC. However, BPTP will slow down a little while we’re vending in New York. Their staff consists of two people, one of which will be with us in New York. Trading Post orders will still be going out, albeit a little slower, but Trading Post’s customer service will be on hiatus altogether. It will be impossible for Ted to effectively address any customer service questions remotely, as he won’t have access to his records or any order information. Thanks for understanding!