hypothermya

I still haven't recieved my 8/16 oils yet (just Mabon and an imp of Empyreal Mist), but I haven't sent an e-mail quite yet. I know that they're sending out some of those this week, and I'm planning on waiting until it's very obvious that I'm not just being paranoid until I e-mail them.

Anyhow, good luck on your 10/10 deadline. I hope you have a wonderful time with it.

Um, I'm actually really curious to discover if any scents have tomato leaf in them....But not cause I like it. More like, I'm really, really allergic to tomatoes when I eat them and I'd like to avoid any perfumes with tomato leaf oil in them just in case. I haven't the slightest idea whether I'd react or not, but no need to experiment. That's all.

First Impression

Bubble gum!!! Pink, pink, pink, and not those weird tropical flavors! This is straight, old fashioned bubble gum. Ack. My mouth is watering...

Wearing It

Hey, is there cinnamon in here? It smells like cinnamon bubble gum after you've been chewing at it for *hours*, like there's the faintest traces of cinnamon left, but mainly bubble gum. But there's also a darker red scent (the bubble gum was more pink). The lollipops scent never really comes to the forefront. It is *very* sweet though. Perhaps a bit too sweet for my tastes, but perfect for someone who wants to smell like candy.

I never would have tried this on my own, just because I don't really wear super sweet scents. However, this is kinda fun. Something I could see a teenager wearing, or perhaps someone who's dressing up a school girl. Perfect for someone who's out to be young and flirtatious.

Initial Impression

Wow. This smells good. I mean, it's a bit bitter, and all... But it smells more green than I expected it to. All of the other reviews said something about old books (and while I love the old books smell, I'm not sure I want to smell like I'd been stuffed into a library for several years myself); but this smells like herbs, almost like a sunlit garden.

Wearing It

There's green tea in this. I'm sure of it. It's got that smell that Phantasm and Embalming Fluid and Old Shanghai share. And it turns to pure sunshine on my skin... Well, not pure sunshine, but that languid afternoon sunshine in a garden with a stream nearby. Like green tea and moss and...a bit of spice? Maybe clove? It's very Zen like. And the bitterness goes away when I wear it...It's almost like a second skin.

...Huh. I've kinda gotten to the point where a lot of the BPAL oils (cause I've tried a lot of them) smell good and you recognize the quality, but you stop being grabbed by so many. But this one just grabbed me. Wow. It's wonderful smelling. I think I might want to bathe in this. I'm very glad that I got this imp.

Initial Impression

Djinn with dragon's blood. Only more acrid. Smoky, red, volatile. If Beth wanted to make a "Dragon's Breath" blend, this would be it. Very bitter and unpleasant.

Wearing It

This stays really smoky, burnt, and unpleasant for the first couple of minutes. I left some on my hand while making lunch, ignoring it because I had assumed that it had developed all it would. After all, The Tower depicts a flaming structure, people leaping out -- and personally, I thought that this smelled just perfect for that. But lo and behold, I just sniffed at my hand and I smell...flowers? No really! Flowers. There's this light cherry/fire smell in the background...almost as if there were bits of burnt metal and wood and ash underneath a field of wildflowers. And there really are bits of wood notes in here. Amazing.

Once it's gone through that first sudden change, it becomes a very light perfume. I can't quite pinpoint what florals are in here (not being a very big wearer of floral perfumes), but they make up the majority of the scent right now.

Well, I can't quite get over how amazed I am at how quickly and completely this perfume shape-shifted on me. I love the way that dragon's blood and ashey perfumes smell, but I don't think that this is going to be something I wear that often (since I don't really wear florals). However, I'm not sure whether to swap it or keep it around for meditation...

ETA: I wonder if I got a different formulation than visciousviolet? The oil in my imp is a very deep red, but not at all black. It reminds me of cherry red and is a bit deeper than the red color in Blood Amber...

Yeah...I remember seeing in one of the Shiny and New updates that they were working on this, with the possibility of a card to go with it. (the gift vouchers, not the gift baskets...that made sense, right?)

Anyhow, what I've been doing currently is sending my giftee a link to their site and a choice between a six pack of imps or a 5ml bottle, and letting them decide. Once they've decided, I take care of the ordering and then...it shows up on their doorstep one day. Seems to be working well enough, for now.

Spirit

no posted description

First Impression

This smells like lilac and cinnamon. Which is a weird combination. And maybe a bit of honeysuckle. It reminds me of Chimera, but more ethereal and less...well, less sugar cookie. It's a very sweet, yet crystaline scent. At times it smells purple, other times red, and other times clear, if that makes any sense at all.

Wearing It

On my skin, this turns into a scent similar to Cancer or some other wispy watery lilac blend, but with these little shocks of cinnamon. Kinda reminds me of a little girl who has been playing with her mother's perfume, only to get her hands on a bag of cinnamon candy.

And, maybe my nose and mind are playing games on me, but the more this mellows out the more I want to say that I smell jasmine. Eh. There's just this lingering resemblance to Old New Orleans, and a floral undertone that has more body than the lilac does.

I have to say that I was expecting something a bit more wispy and less tangible smelling, but this suits me just fine. It's unfortunate that it smells so strongly of cinamon, since my boyfriend abhors that scent. I adore Chimera, and I'm already having trouble finding times to wear that scent... So I guess I'll probably swap this one in order to find a scent I can wear more often.

(I recently aquired this 5ml in a swap from lorajc, and since I was unable to find any description from the Lab's website, and no mention of it in the Up and Coming previews, I'm assuming that this is an LE or a blend from their Twilight Alchemy Lab oils.... But since it says "Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab" on the label, I'm just posting this review in the LE section. If the mods feel that this is in the wrong place, please move it.)

Initial Impression

Dark. Darker than King of Spades, in any case. It's got... Well, the sweet pear blossom, I think, is popping out at me on the top of this mix, and the plum and blackberry are all adding a definite fruity-ness to this blend... But the notes that really make a background for this are dark, dark, dark... It's like this deep amber, and myrhh (why can I never spell that right the first time?) and slightly spicy resiny smell. Very serious smelling for a fruity blend.

Wearing It

Okay, this darkens up a ton on my skin! The oil is pretty thick (reminiscent of the viscosity of Scherezade), and stains my skin ever so slightly... And suddenly it's all wood and myrhh, with the slightest undercurrents of fruit. Honestly, the most prominent sweet note I can smell is the pear blossom (is it just me, or do all of the fruit blossoms have a very similar smell to them?)...and even that's very faint against the woods and myrhh.

Now, as a disclaimer, I know that my skin eats up amber and blackberry, and no matter how much I apply of either they just seem to disappear. So I suspect that this blend isn't smelling quite like it's supposed to on me. But what I'm getting is similar to Intrique and Blue Moon, except that instead of the gritty foodyness of Intrique, we've got smoother wood notes (not at all the heavy wood notes of Dragon's Heart) and instead of the light floral feeling of Blue Moon, it's got the charged mystical feeling and the slightly sweet/fruityness all swirled through darkness.

First Impression

How weird. Half of me is singing out, "Pina Colada!!!" and the other half is wondering, "Plum wood?" Unlike some other masculine blends, this doesn't smell overly masculine (Oberon, for example, half knocks me over before mellowing into a gorgeous masculine blend on my boyfriend...This however smells slightly masculine in the way that a hard mixed alcoholic fruit drink would. You'd be tempted to call it girly until you saw how much booze got thrown in. Not that it smells boozy...)

Wearing It

Okee. The plum is the strongest, but it isn't just plum, you know? It's plum that's been soaked in coconut and vanilla and blackberry syrup. And just as I'm afraid it's *way* too sweet for me, the wood notes come on out to play. Oh, and of course the white musk. My skin has a special relationship with white musk (part of the reason I got this) and makes anything with white musk smell buttery and warm and sexy without overpowering the rest of the blend; and here's it's just the lightest touch of it. This is a blend that makes me want to go to an island and have a good drink and a bit of an orgy. Very yummy.

The more this sits on my skin, the more light it gets. Right now it's mostly white musk, with the scent of coconut milk (not sweentened at all) and a woody vetiver smell. Just lovely. Masculine, but not too masculine for me to wear. Mmmm.

I was worried I wouldn't like this one, for various reasons. I was wrong. This is great, and wonderful and I'm going to cherish every last drop. And if it smells good on my boyfriend, I may cry because I don't think I ordered enough for the both of us.

Old London and Blood Rose are great rose scents. Unfortunately, I can only vouch for how they smell out of the bottle (my skin does weird things with rose scents, like drowning out *any* other scents in the blend).

Ravenous. I was really surprised at how super sweet it was, and then, looking back at the reviews, I saw that I wasn't the only one it turned out so sweet on. Smelled like candied vanilla.

Lolita is also a great super sweet one.

Bordello is like candy, if you're into almonds and plums.

Snow White does have some vanilla in it...it's mainly sweet and crisp and a bit minty, and fruity. If you can get a hold of some, I commend you. It's a lovely scent.

And...the others I haven't tried. Anyhow, good luck on your order.

Just to put a heads up for those considering carrier oils, you should probably try the carrier oil on your skin before using it to dilute your BPAL oil. A while ago I got some scents that were diluted in apricot kernel oil, and for some reason or another my skin and my boyfriend's skin both really pick up that somewhat nutty scent. It made O smell like Cheerios on my boyfriend (think honey and nuts), and gave Snow White something of a slightly nutty fragrance (still smells great, but I suspect that the purer version would smell better).

So I'm a bit paranoid about diluting my oils in carrier oils (just cause of the Cheerios experience). It's a good idea and a great way to make a fragrance go further, but check with your skin chemistry first.

Initial Impression

Bitter. I smell the pith of the grapefruit, and the sourness of lemongrass. It's actually past citrusy goodness and into that harsh, bitter sourness that makes citrus so hard to deal with. Still, I like it.

Wearing It

This is quite good. About a couple of minutes into wearing it, it looses the harshness, and breathes its way into a buttery, warm, citrus embrace. It reminds me a bit of breakfast, simply because it smells like warm buttery bread from far off, and the tang of grapefruit (my father used to eat them for breakfast), and a little bit of springtime (must be the lemon grass and the lemon verbena).

It's very faint on my skin, and so its a very slight scent, one that you catch wisps of but can never smell directly without hunting around with your nose. It reminds me a bit of Baobhan Sidhe, but not as sweet...Instead of the sweet apples blossoms that B.S. has, this has a buttery musk behind it. And it is a bit like Zephyr also, but again, not as sweet. While Zephyr has some florals and that very lovely bit of vanilla underneath it, this is pure citrus warmth, with not a bit of apology, nor the attempt to cover it up.

Lasting Power

Eh. Not so good. The citrus lasts a bit longer than most, but it's still pretty short lived.

I like this. I've been trying as many citrus/white musk blends as possible, and Phobos was the last on the list. Of all of them, I think I prefer Embalming Fluid and White Chapel... But I'd say that Phobos is a close third. I definitely prefer Phobos to Zephyr, and to Kuang Shi.

Huh. I guess (from looking it up online) that the notes in Monyette are:

Tahitian gardenia, French Muguet du bois, Nag Champa

So....gardenia, lily, and nag champa....

The first scent that comes to mind is Sacred Whore of Babylon. It's a gardenia scent, but it's also spicy... Which sounds very similar to the notes which Monyette has.

Next, I'd say Pele, because it shares the muguet note... and has that same tahitian/tropical feel that seems to be in Monyette.

I'd also recommend Scherezade, because everytime I wear it out I inevitably get a comment that it smells like Nag Champa. It perhaps won't be as floral as you like, but it's worth trying.

Also, maybe Desdemona? It's got sweet pea, carnation, and water lily, so it's straight florals... But carnation always lends spiciness to a blend, so this might be the floral w/ spice that works out for you.

Also, maybe Hakkotsu or Spectre because they've got lily but also because they've got a wood note in there to calm down the floral a bit...

Anywho, I hope that helps.

Actually, to pay via. PayPal, you don't even use the check out bit on the website. You want to log into your PayPal account and choose the "send money" option. The e-mail address you want to send money to is: paypal@blackphoenixalchemylab.com.

You then fill in how much you're sending, what type of purchase this is (I believe the option you want to choose is "goods"), and then type out what you're purchasing in the comments field. Here's an example of an order I placed last month:

1 5ml of Queen of Spades

1 5ml of King of Spades

1 5ml of Whitechapel

1 6 pack of imps:

The Tower

Tarot: The Hermit

Three Jacks

Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo

Black Cat

The Lampades

3 5ml @ 12.50

1 6 pack of imps @ 16.00

Shipping @ 8.50

Total = $62.00

Thanks so much!

Hehehe...I'm almost a bit embarassed posting that example, cause of how much I spent with that order! I also typically include a note up front or at the end of the order which gives them the shipping address, my contact info in case there's any problems, and a little note thanking them and telling them how much I love them. (yes, I'm an obsessed groupie.)

This I stole from their site describing how to calculate shipping internationally:

1 item = 1 5ml

1 item = 1 10 ml

1 item = 1 set of imps (6 imps)

If it's 4 items or less, these are the flat rates:

$7 Canada

$9 most of Western Europe

$10 to Australia

If it's 5 items or more = 2 dollars extra to each flat rate.

If 10 items or more, $4 dollars extra to each flat rate.

For example:

3x5mls + 3 set of imps = 6 items = $9 dollars to Canada, $11 to UK, $12 to Australia

Another example:

5x5mls + 6 sets of imps = 11 items = $ 11 to Canada, $13 to UK, $14 to Australia

I've ordered via PayPal like this several times and I've never had a problem with it. Every time I've ordered, I've gotten an e-mailed receipt from PayPal and a confirmation e-mail from the Lab.

Anyhow, hope that helps.

Although I'm in the US, I know that several of the folks that post on this forum are able to get their orders shipped to the UK. I suspect that in order to get the order posted to the UK, that you'll need to pay via PayPal or a money order.

First Impression

Tart, tart, tart. Yummy. (I actually put this down to go get myself a glass of cranberry juice before I realized that we didn't have any left. Put cranberry juice on shopping list, and went back to sniffing at the imp.) Just the slightest undertone of spice and flowers.

Wearing It

This is one of the few times when I wish musk didn't have such a dominant love relationship with my skin. Most of the time, it's alright, but with Lampades and Bewitched, it just knocks the fruits out of action. The first couple of minutes I could smell cranberries (how similar to Swank it smells!) and lily and spice and musk; after about ten minutes I smell musk and lily and a small amount of spice and juicyness. (still makes me want cranberry juice, damnit.) It's delicious smelling, but I'd love to have more juicyness.

Lasting Power

The scent itself lasts for a good long while, but once again the fruit scents dissapear too quickly. Still a good scent, though...

This one reminds me a ton of Swank -- but with more of a feminine, dark, spicy quality to it. And like Swank, I enjoy it, but I'm still trying to figure out whether it's a keeper or not. Chances are I'll hang onto the imp until I've gotten thoroughly addicted. And perhaps I'll try mixing the two and seeing what comes out of that...

Oh, yeah, and the one night I got to take the prototype of The Lion for a test run, I got *great* responses from it. In fact, three very yummy great responses from it.

Quick funny story.

 

Ted's boss is male, straight and married. Ted has a habit of walking into the Lab and putting on whatever takes his fancy that day. About a month ago he picked Scherezade...

 

Ted's boss followed him around all day. ALL DAY. "What are you wearing?" "Oh my God, what is that scent?"

 

All day. Ted just kinda blew it off.

 

Finally, at the end of the day, the boss says, "That's one of Beth's perfumes. Can you bring in a bottle? I *need* my wife to wear this. And I'd appreciate if you didn't wear it in the office any more. It's giving me strange thoughts."

 

He was only half-joking.

 

HA!!!! That's *so* great!!!!

Yeah, the reason I said Scherezade when this question was posed was because every time I put on a perfume that my boyfriend likes, he always says, "Oh, that smells good! Not as good as Scherezade, but hey..." And whenever I'm trying to decide which scent to put on? Scherezade. And whenever I used to ask which big bottle to get next? Scherezade. And when I do wear it, I swear I can't keep him off of me!

Scherezade.

ETA: hypothermya always beats me to the punch! luckily, we tend to recommend the same things.

Hehehe!

Scherezade. Definitely.

Otherwise, Bewitched is a good bet. It's got a ton of musk in it, and smells delicious. Wanda, like you suggested, is another good one for the musk. Dragon's Heart is wonderfully musky and spicy and mysterious all at once. Carnivale is also good, and has more spice than Bewitched (thanks to the carnations). And, um, Haunted.

Chaos Theory, Fractal Fragrance XCI (91)

Guess Description: The scent of monsoon season -- Lemon verbena and neroli splashed with aquatic notes, with the slightest hint of anise.

First Impression

Citrus. No, not just citrus -- this is lemon verbena. For sure. It almost smells like a dead ringer for June Gloom. But there's something else in there that's throwing me off a bit...

Wearing It

Yep -- it's got lemon verbena. But it's actually lighter on my skin than June Gloom, which smells more floral than anything else. And there's this odd bit of scent coming up...the same scent that was nagging at me when I sniff at the bottle... At first I thought that maybe it was vetiver? But that's not right... I think this is anise. Must be. Just a faint licorice smell underneath the green lemon.

Not knowing what's in here is killing me! I keep reapplying little bits and sniffing at it more... There's a cleanness to this smell that keeps at me. I really think that it's got aquatic notes in here as well -- that must be what's reminding me of June Gloom...the aquatic notes, not the florals. And I suspect that there's some neroli in here (something about it that reminds me of Phantasm and Venom...).

Gah...I wish my nose wasn't so stuffy today. I guess I'll have to give this another shot to see what else I can sniff out.

First Impression

This smells like sweet, juicy dragon's blood, but lighter than any other dragon's blood blend I've tried. The amber cuts through it, and makes it seem golden almost. Like this gold red color. It kinda reminds me of Bon Vivant, but with more oomph and more spirit.

Wearing It

Drat -- my skin never did play well with amber. When I first put this on, the dragon's blood is all I can smell, but within minutes it's faded. And the amber, which on any other person should smell just beautiful, smells faint and not very noticeable. So what's left is this slight cherry spice with just the faintest touch of amber.

...I do wish that amber actually boldened up on me. On the other hand, my boyfriend's skin chemistry is brilliant with amber, so I'm going to try this one out on him and see how he likes it.

Just to throw this out there -- I've tried both Dragon's Heart and Red Moon, and the main difference is that while Red Moon is a very physically powerful scent (in mood), it's still very ethereal and magical smelling. A very strong floral. Dragon's Heart is like wood. Pure, heavy, musky, dark wood. Very heavy, sweet, and powerful. Between the two, Red Moon is the orangey/red glint of sunset and Dragon's Heart is a smoldering bit of coal. If that helps distinguish at all...