suki

Brown musk; black, loamy patchouli and some cassia when I first smell it in the vial. Wet on skin it starts to warm and the brown musk morphs into valerian- rich and earthy and slightly sweet. I'm not getting any of the ozone that others have described, thankfully. The dry-down stays with the theme of earthy and rich. This is not at ALL what I was expecting and I'm *so* glad that this was included with my order- thanks Labbies! Awesome as always!!!

My little witch, my little lilt of laughter: this scent is for the sorceress you are and the sorceress you will grow to be. 7-year aged patchouli, red musk, and bourbon vanilla with sweet oudh, hazelnut, amber chypre, leather. In The Bottle: Leather, oudh and a touch of the hazelnut. This is heady, rich. Wet On Skin: The patchouli comes into the room, but not in the dominant way one might expect. In fact, so far, NONE of the powerful notes are dominating. It's really unusual! Dry Down: I cannot believe how well-blended this is already, without needing to sit and age. Normally leather can be a deal-breaker, but the other notes were all so compelling, I decided to take a chance. And I'm glad I did, because this is really quite beautiful. There's an ease between the heavier notes, like the patch and the leather, and they are balanced by the hazelnut and the musk and the vanilla. I can catch glimmers of all those elements, but they blend so seamlessly, that this is really it's own little dream. Beautiful, haunting, and perfect as we go into Autumn.

Apricot and blood orange with dragon's blood absolute, golden vanilla, chamomile, white honey, and oudh. Full disclosure- I adored the apricot-orange mix in 4 Seasons: Winter so much that I blind-bought TWO bottles of this just based on that other scent. Now I get to see if this was a genius move or a terrible idea! In The Bottle: Sweet apricot and tart blood orange, right off the bat. Wet On Skin: The orange starts to mellow as it warms on my skin, bringing the apricot right to the front of the line. The dragon's blood cuts through in the background with a slight edge of acridity, an unusual but perfect touch, considering the sweetness of the two dominant fruit notes. The white honey might be back there, too, but only by a hair. Dry Down: All of the above, but more finely tuned, less as separate entities, more an integrated phenomena. I get no vanilla or oudh, but they're not missed- this sweet, soft fruit scent is lovely as is, and I suspect that as we move further into spring, it will definitely become more and more of a go-to scent for me. In All: Low throw and just lovely, glad I got my bottles all lined up!

“Have you remembered how I do my little coin trick?” he asked Shadow with a grin. “I have not.” “If you can guess how I did it,” said Mad Sweeney, his lips purple, his blue eyes beclouded, “I’ll tell you if you get warm.” “It’s not a palm is it?” asked Shadow. “It is not.” “Is it a gadget of some kind? Something up your sleeve or elsewhere that shoots the coins up for you to catch?” “It is not that neither. More whiskey, anybody?” “I read in a book about a way of doing the miser’s dream with latex covering the palm of your hand, making a skin-colored pouch for the coins to hide behind.” “This is a sad wake for Great Sweeney who flew like a bird across all of Ireland and ate watercress in his madness: to be dead and unmourned save for a bird, a dog, and an idiot. No, it is not a pouch.” “Well, that’s pretty much it for ideas,” said Shadow. “I expect you just take them out of nowhere.” It was meant to be sarcasm, but then he saw the expression on Sweeney’s face. “You do,” he said. “You do take them from nowhere.” “Well, not exactly nowhere,” said Mad Sweeney. “But now you’re getting the idea. You take them from the hoard.” “The hoard,” said Shadow, starting to remember. “Yes.” “You just have to hold it in your mind, and it’s yours to take from. The sun’s treasure. It’s there in those moments when the world makes a rainbow. It’s there in the moment of eclipse and the moment of the storm.” And he showed Shadow how to do the thing. This time Shadow got it. Radiant amber and orange blossom, golden oudh, and saffron-threaded honey. In The Bottle: Sweet, spicy saffron and warm, thick honey. Soooooo beautiful. Wet On Skin: The amber is definitely in the mix, but the saffron is really dominating. I get no orange blossom at this stage. Dry Down: Dead. Sexy. This is a sultry, spicy, close-to-the-skin kind of scent. I will wear this on all the hot summer nights that lie ahead for ever and ever. <3

I actually had the good fortune of testing this at Seattle Will Call a number of months ago and was incredibly distraught to discover it had not yet been released. first of all, my hair is quite long- halfway down my back- and has been severely color-treated and bleached within an inch of it's life. and I'm racially mixed, so my hair texture is rough and wiry in places and uneven in density. In short: it takes a LOT to make any lasting impression for the good of my hair. but the BPTP did it! Argan oil loves my hair something fierce, and the hair gloss has it in spades. So the base was awesome- it made my hair shiny and definitely softer without making it stringy or greasy. But of course, what has made me dream of this gloss for months on end is the scent. It was like a mix of Coconut Skin Trip body lotion and sweet, fresh gardenias. Just gorgeous and subtly floral and very, very summer-y. And the scent stayed in my hair well into the following day, driving me slowly insane with it's perfect and unattainable beauty. So, you know, my delight in seeing this gloss finally, finally get officially released was HUGE. If it didn't have such a specific shelf life, I'd be stocking up on multiple bottles of this elixir. Yes, it's THAT good. :wub:

[No additional description provided.] Note: I find the bathoils to serve me better when I wear them in my hair and on my skin as a moisturizer. This review reflects my applying this oil directly to my skin. While this was not the only sugar and apple combination to come out of this year's NY Comic Con scents, this may in fact be my favorite. The apple comes across more subtly, likely owing to the richer base for the bath oil than a perfume oil, but it's really, really working here. It almost reads as apple *blossom* but not floral in any way. The sugar is soft and sensual and almost adds a very slight lemon note to the mix. The result is something bordering on sexy if not downright baudy. This is the New York of my adolescence- sweet with a dirty edge. And the oil makes my skin ridiculously soft. I am desperately in love.

On January 7th, I announced that I was preggers to the forum, and pregnancy scents like Irrelevant and Disturbing Surreal Crawdad Dream soon followed. While I was giving birth to Lilith, Brian pulled the trigger on her two birth scents Lady Lilith and Lilith Victoria so they could come to life just as she was entering the world. This began our annual tradition of commemorating each year that we spend with Lilith with a scented scrapbook. We love you, Lilith. More than you can possibly know. The Shunga debuted for the first time, including Dream of the Fisherman's Wife, Men Ringing Bell With Penises, and Glowing Vulva at Ryogoku Bridge. This year also marked the first time that Frederic inspired by Gilbert & Sullivan began appearing every February 29th, and hes been our Leap Year guest ever since! At the December Lunacy event, we began the first of our annual toy drives. In 2008, Black Phoenix Trading Post hosted the Miskatonic Valley Junior Baseball Associations Spring Training Teds vision of little league in Lovecraft Country which ushered in a decade of our ridiculous Lovecraft-meets-Norman Rockwell serials and rotating exhibits in Arkhams Pickman Gallery. I don't have words for how much I love working on our campy Miskatonic Valley scents; how else could I experience a life filled with pancake breakfast summoning circles, demonic art openings, pre-pubescent softball-loving fish people, suave cultist tailors, and goat-headed burlesque dancers? Lilith's beloved lavender coated with sugar crystals, crawdad-bright grapefruit, and a pop of iridescent, loathsome Mi-Go musk. In The Bottle: Sugared lavender. Like TKO's daytime sibling! Wet On Skin: Same, but with the slightest edge of juicy, tart grapefruit. But only slight! Dry Down: Same. This scent stays true from first sniff to dry-down. It reminds me of Lilith's Hair Gloss and also Daybreak, from this year's batch of Lilith scents. As such, I am happy to have it! If you're a fan of those others, or if you're looking for a daytime equivalent to TKO that won't put you to sleep in the middle of the day, this scent is for you!

Vanilla silk, patchouli leaf, sweet benzoin, and smoked honey. This was one of the ones I was MOST excited about. Let's see if my premonition holds true! In The Bottle: Sweet without being cloying and, yes, I detect that silk note that was in Black Silk. And it's just as lovely and hard to pin down as before. Wet On Skin: The benzoin is showing up now that it's got a surface to bloom on. The vanilla silk is holding steady. It's *really* hard to describe- something like if you put vanilla musk in a steamer and then steamed your delicate underwear with it. THAT'S what it would smell like. Dry Down: The smoked honey and patch combo has, strangely, made this go a bit powdery on me. I don't mind, because I can tell that when this scent has had a chance to warm up and age a little, that it's all going to meld and blend a LOT more.

Whipped vanilla cream and white sandalwood with a touch of lotus root. In The Bottle: Cream and dusty wood- like a sweeter, gentler version of Glowing Vulva Wet On Skin: Okay, the GV part doesn't last, but that's okay, because this is great on it's own- now it's that glorious sandalwood note from Tombstone, with the sweet cream note from Love's Philosophy. This is...awesome. Dry Down: A beautiful, warm creamy-woodsy fragrance. Lovely for daytime use, as it's not too imposing, and it's definitely a skin scent, that stays close. But I can also seeing it be a little sexy on some people. *Definitely* glad to have a bottle!

The bird perished in the flames; but from the red egg in the nest there fluttered aloft a new one-the one solitary Phoenix bird. The fable tells that he dwells in Arabia, and that every hundred years, he burns himself to death in his nest; but each time a new Phoenix, the only one in the world, rises up from the red egg. Crimson eggshell musk, myrrh, Chinese cassia, and coffee absolute. Full disclosure: Myrrh almost always goes horribly wrong on me. But I adore the other notes so much that I was willing to take a chance. Hopefully all will go well! In The Bottle: This has the sweet, incense-y smell I recall of headships my mom used to go to when I was a small child. I think the red eggshell musk and the cassia are largely responsible Wet On Skin: That eggshell musk is cray-zeeeee. I was expecting the kind of red musk, but lighter, that is present in Smut, but this is entirely different. It's still "red" and musky, for sure, but it's got an almost fruity thing going on with it. It does, strangely, remind me of eggshells, in terms of a thinness and a fragility. I'd like to see it in other scents in the future, for sure! Dry Down: A small amount of the powder aspect of the myrrh is coming through, but it seems to be held in check by the musk, which for me personally is a big relief! Sadly, I get no coffee and no cassia, and I was really looking forward to those. The musk has morphed slightly and is somehow reminiscent of violets (just a little! Not in the soapy way, more in the rough candy way) In All: This is different than I expected but better than my secret fears, too! I like it and suspect it will improve with age.

So, I love Snake Oil, especially the well-aged variety, and Dragon's Milk is my forever-lover-number-one-jam (I have multiple backup bottles, mmmkay?) so I *knew* that this scent was one I had to have. And it does NOT disappoint. I agree with the first reviewer's assessment that this is like Dragon's Milk 's older sibling. It's sexy and tougher and that patchouli makes it more intense. But the honey is there to keep it all in balance and makes it wearable right now (unlike original SO for me) while also offering the promise of just how glorious this is going to become with some well-timed aging. As I originally proclaimed, I got two bottles, one to age, and one to slather immediately, and I stand by that decision- but I might take a little more care in present-day slather because I KNOW this is going to be *phenomenal* later.

I am really feeling this Lace! Sometimes I have to delay wearing the Laces in particular, but everything is coming together nicely with this one right out of the box! In the bottle and wet on skin, the grass and green sap notes are most prevalent, with the vanilla of the spun-sugar lace bringing some sweetness to balance it. But once warmed on the skin and dried down, the scent becomes more complex, mixing elements of herbal-green with the sweet of the sugar and the slight bitterness of the cognac. The notes seem a little disjointed to each other, even as they flow, but the flow is making it work somehow. My experience of the green sap note is primarily in Strawberry Moon blends, so I gather than the sap will stay sharp and sticky as it ages, with the sweeter notes shifting around it. I'm looking forward to see how this scent changes as the months grow warmer!

Unfortunately, tobacco and cognac sometimes do terrible things in combination with my skin chemistry and this appears to be one of those times. The tobacco comes across as sharp, the cognac as cloying and the two amp with ridiculous throw (seriously, I put on a drop from the lid and I can smell is , wafting toward me, at two feet away. ) I know that Lace scents in particular sometimes need additional time to settle and age before turing into something wearable for me, so I'll sit on this for a few months and see what pans out by the Summer Solstice. Hopefully the Solstices will come into alignment by then

In the bottle and when first applied, the three primary notes are all in the mix, with the distinct aspect of the bubblegum obvious. Once it warmed and dried down, however, the bubblegum aspect vanished and the remaining two have become a delicate confection of vanilla fudge. It's light and a bit sweet, but not heavy or sugary as I had been expecting. Instead of being child-like and more suitable for kids (as the occasional candy-ish BPAL is), this is really just a lovely daytime scent as we move more completely into the growing warmth of spring. Glad to get a bottle, happy to see hoe this ages!

In 2007, I married the great love of my life. Teddy and I had dated since 1998, and it seemed that, at last, it was time for me to make an honest man out of him. I had loved Ted since the first moment I smelled him (truth!), and the night that we married was one of the most wonderful nights of my life. At the Lunacy event before the wedding, I was able to celebrate with my .org and local BPAL family, and I cried like a loon. It is a privilege to be part of this family the one that BPAL has gifted to me. It is one of the great joys and honors of my life to have the opportunity to interpret Neil Gaimans stories through scent, and on January 31st of 2007, our first Neil Gaiman scent series debuted: American Gods. Neils body of work has been a tremendous influence in my life, and in a sea of authors whose stories have moved and shaped me, his words have been some of the most impactful. I admire his kindness and compassion, his wisdom and eloquence, and the tremendous amount of work he has done for the CBLDF and the UN Refugee Agency. His stories have helped shape my worldview and my dreams, and I will always be grateful. In 2007, we created the first of many scents in collaboration with our family at Dark Delicacies: the eponymous Dark Delicacies scent. It was soon followed by a series of eerie Lace-inspired perfumes, a scent series dedicated to horror film genres, a celebration of B-movie horror, and a scent series celebrating great duets of horror. In June of 2007, we ran the first of our clothing drives benefitting Los Angeles womens and childrens shelters. This Phoenix is a combination of the Snake Oil and Dorian that Teddy and I wore at our wedding, the red wine we bled into and shared during the ceremony, a drop of lucky honey mead, and the heart of Snow Glass Apples lacquered over pale salt-splashed wood, with a hint of the green walnut I could never get quite right. (Im sorry, Neil! Im still trying!) In The Bottle: A bit of crisp apple with a rind of sea salt. Wet On Skin: Same, with a slight hint of wood in the background. Dry Down: An apple peel on a piece of driftwood that's washed ashore, lightly sprayed with an afterthought of Dorian. Despite this description, I should note that this scent is surprisingly light and delicate, and has NO traces of water or ozone notes- this is strictly dried, salt-crusted drift wood I'm talking about here. The longer I wear it, the more the apple fades, leaving this incredibly delicate take on Dorian worn whilst walking on a sand bank. In other words: swoon-worthy.

Black tea, bergamot, red patchouli, peru balsam, and bourbon vanilla. In The Bottle: I get a sharp sliver of bergamot with a hint of the peru balsam- though the peru is also more sharp than I would normally expect. Wet On Skin: The tea note blooms spectacularly on my skin pretty much on contact. It's a really lovely, unmistakable lemon-y black tea. Dry Down: All black tea (with a hint of the bergamot citrus) all the time. In All: A light, close-to-the skin sort of scent. Although I'm slightly disappointed (and frankly confused) that the patchouli, balsam and vanilla have all chosen to simply not show up on my skin, I am really excited about having a straight-up tea scent. This is definitely the same tea note from Time's Infliction and my sadness with that scent was that I just wanted the tea. Now that Furo is in my life, I can have my tea and my Infliction too

A heart beating with anxiety and longing: rose musk, benzoin, and red sandalwood. In The Bottle: The reaction I got just from sniffing the bottle is a visceral stab to the heart, a rose of holidays passed, worn by my grandmother and her sisters in a by-gone era. Not "old lady" perfume, but rather the stuff that women of a different era favored considerably. Wet On Skin: It's weird, there's no myrrh listed in the notes, but the rose comes across as powdery, just as if myrrh were in the mix. Very perplexing! Dry Down: The musk is mellowing upon dry down, and a sweet, creamy aspect has emerged, reminding me of cold cream from the 40's. In All: a sweet and lovely rose scent. Not sure it's for me, but floral lovers will be very, very happy!

Chrysanthemum incense and red carnation. In The Bottle: Whoa, hello chrysanthemum incense! Carnation, of course, lending its special, sweet spiciness to the mix! Wet On Skin: The incense is definitely front and center. It reminds me quite a bit of the champa incense note, actually, even as it retains a hint of the mum-vibe. (also I accidentally got a little in my mouth when I was sniffing my finger. Don't eat it!!!) Dry Down: A light incense, but still a stronger note just the same. The spice of the carnation is here, but precious little else of the sweet flower remains. I am hoping this will come around with some aging, but regardless, it's a great addition to any incense lover's collection. At worst, I will later with some of the Spanish Carnation SN when I want more of that red beauty in the mix!

Jean Veber Pumpkin cream, honey, vanilla sugar, and smoked vanilla bean. In The Bottle: sweet, creamy vanilla and scratchy vanilla bean, with a breath of pumpkin. Yum! Wet On Skin: the pumpkin comes out a bit more and the honey with it, warming the scent up a bit. Dry Down: A beautiful, light pumpkin ice cream! In All: low throw, a sweet, gentle scent. Not too foodie. Perfect for daytime wear throughout the fall. Total keeper!

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? During this distinctly ill-omened time, we’ve constructed a scent comprised of thirteen comforting, soothing notes, including three chocolates, coffee husk, molasses, smoked sugar cane, rum absolute, almond, cozy cardamom, black sage, coconut meat, red benzoin, and bourbon vanilla pod. In The Bottle: A spiced Mexican chocolate plus coffee and molasses. This is off to an EXCELLENT start! Wet On Skin: The bourbon vanilla comes out, mixing with the chocolate, to create a decadent, very adult version of a black-and-white milkshake, sans the dairy. Mmmmmmmmm. Dry Down: The chocolate becomes more of the soft and dusky semi-sweet variety that I've come to worship in Cacao Pod. In fact, now that it's dried, I'd say this is a close cousin of Cacao Pod, but with hints of dry, dark vanilla and coffee in the background. In All: I frequently get 13 scents and frequently wind up trading them away because inevitably something turns on my skin. But this one is n absolute keeper. PERFECT dry cocoa scent!

Red musk, vanilla bean, pomegranate, black currant, patchouli leaf and wild plum. Full disclosure: I was definitely one of the people voting for this scent in this vehicle, so already, I'm anticipating greatness! It's been a long while since I've experienced a "fresh" batch of Mme. Moriarty, my current perfume bottle is from the original release, so it's very, very well-aged. There's a "sharpness" to it fresh, just as there is with Snake Oil. Some scents just need a little time to ruminate! That said, all the important elements are here in spades, and as usual, Puddin' -bless 'im- poured in the perfume with a heavy hand indeed. All of which is to say, a little goes a long way! Even fresh, it's the same yummy scent we've all grown to pledge eternal love for, in a great format- I know that the small amount I spray in my hare today will continue to offer me little wiffs of scent for several days to come- and I couldn't be happier about it!

Late at night, as you walk through a dark and creepy cemetery, all is quiet except for the giggling of two kids: one is eight and one is fifty-eight. They are standing in the middle of the tombstones; the bigger kid is spinning the little kid around by her arms. They spin and spin and then fall down laughing. What could be more fun than falling down on people’s graves? Dorian and lavender mist, crushed grass, cypress leaf, and a drop of clove. In The Bottle: I get a faint whiff of mint, and a subtle note of fresh cut grass. It's all very light, even in the bottle. Wet On Skin: The lavender in this "mist" form has something vaguely lemony about it. It reminds me overall more of Alice than Dorian. That said, they feel in a similar niche, a soft and lovely gender-neutral scent. Dry Down: THERE'S the Dorian! He's definitely there, though obviously mixed with other things. The clove is also out now, but softly, in the background. Considering the notes, this fragrance has a very low throw and is overall very soft, like a whisper of Dorian whilst drinking a bit of black lemony tea on a warm day in a field of grass. So much more than I anticipated, so glad I got a bottle!

Honey cake with baked-on caramelized almonds, filled with buttercream. In The Bottle: I get the honey cake instantly, with the almonds adding their magic, but subtly, and the buttercream appearing as an afterthought, like I smell it as my nose comes away from the bottle. Wet On Skin: The honey mellows into a kind of honey dust- far more subtle than the honey in, say, "O". it has a presence, but doesn't overwhelm the blend. The alone becomes more of an almond *meal*, also subtle, and adding what reads almost as a coconut note- perhaps because it's caramelized? Dry Down: I. Want. To. Eat. This. The honey and almond finish merging into one gloriously subtle-sweet-skin scent. It's yummy, but sits very close to the skin, the throw is extremely low on this scent. The buttercream is a whisper behind the scenes, adding some depth, interestingly, to the proceedings. In All: a beautiful, delicate foodie scent that will no doubt age well, thanks to the honey in the mix. LOVE!!!

The dry, musty wooden scent of a crumbling cedar trunk dusted upon a gleaming swath of black Byzantine silk taffeta: opoponax and opium tar, Chinese geranium, smoky patchouli, bourbon vanilla absolute, and lustrous black and white musks. In The Bottle: On first whiff, I get a hint of the mustiness that's so prevalent in Crypt Queen. On second, deeper sniff, I'm getting a mix of the bright, sweet note that is geranium and the bourbon vanilla in equal measure. I'll admit, it's a strange pairing, but I'm intrigued... Wet On Skin: Okay, this is now blooming into something far more complex. the geranium and vanilla are both still holding their own, but now the opoponax and the white musk are in the picture making this scent, at this point, surprisingly round and soft- without becoming powdery, which is great. Dry Down: Yes, this is indeed like a length of silk. Sweet, without being cloying; resiny without being overwhelming. This scent is really something special. Even as it sit on my skin, it seems multi-faceted. Unlike some other scents I've tried where there's a high morph factor, this is almost like it depends what quarter-inch of skin I'm smelling to determine what notes I get (over by my thumb, there's more vanilla/patchouli; closer to my wrist there's more of a geranium/musk vibe happening...) In All: Medium throw, a little goes a long way. Heady, sweet and sultry: I can already tell that this is going to become *sublime* when aged for a while- and it's a fabulous addition to all the "Lace" scents right now. I may need a backup bottle...or two

Fifteen goddamn years. Were impossible to kill, and we have kept on fighting the good fight with a panoply of scents benefiting environmental, constitutional rights, and reproductive rights causes, including Lordy, Alternative Facts, Fake News, Nevertheless She Persisted, Theoi Nomioi, and Take A Knee. We released several single notes benefiting those affected by 2017s natural disasters, and introduced Spiced Rum Buttercream Coffee and Irish Coffee Buttercream, which benefit the National Center for Transgender Equality. To celebrate the premiere of Starzs American Gods TV series, we revamped and expanded Neil Gaimans American Gods perfume line with brand new scents, a range of nail lacquers, and brand new artwork by the inimitable Julie Dillon. In June of 2017, Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs Brian Constantine got hitched! The ceremony and reception were held at the Mountain View Mausoleum, and was the most beautiful wedding that I have ever seen. The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. An earthy scent, with deep, deep roots, bringing stability and security in tumultuous times: 15-year aged patchouli, bourbon vanilla, oakmoss, Himalayan cedar, tobacco leaf, birch tar, tonka bean, and leather accord. In The Bottle: I get the rich, chewy tobacco straight away, followed by the deep, earthy-dirty scent of the patchouli, with an edge of the tonic bringing up the rear, softening the other two and making the scent just slightly sweet. Wet On Skin: The tobacco is CRAZY strong. For those that are interested, this is very similar to the French Tobacco SN that came out about 5 years ago. at this stage, the tobacco is so overpowering that I'm not getting anything else. Dry Down: Upon dry down, the tobacco eases back somewhat, to my relief, and the earthy aspect of the patchouli comes back. There's even a slight smokiness that I attribute to the birch tar. Sadly, I'm not getting anything else right now, but I know that often scent with so many deep rooty notes need some time to age to become truly glorious, so I will tuck this one away and revisit in a month or two