porcelina

i get a blast of dark lavender, which fades to become dustier and less intensely herbal. there's a background of musk and amber. it's quite nice, like very expensive incense. there's not much throw, it just lingers on my skin, like i've been in a room burning high quality lavender incense all night long. i like it.

the apple blends this year are so fascinating to me. they all smell so different- and i mean, sure, they all have different notes, but they are all ultimately apple blends so you'd expect them to smell somewhat similar. but even the apple notes themselves are completely different and it's been really fun to sniff and compare them all.

 

the green apple here is tart and juicy with a candy-like edge. it's sweet and fruity but the sandalwood and violet leaf take it from fruity body spray to sophisticated perfume. i do like it but it fades much too quickly on my skin.

pumpkin latte is everything i wanted it to be and it makes me so happy! it's got the autumn spice of all the cider blends i've ever wanted to wear but couldn't, combined with the pumpkin i adore but without the plastickiness that so often accompanies it, and i wear coffee VERY well if i don't say so myself so the creamy-sweet coffee scent ties everything together. HOORAY

very, very similar to my favorite from last year's yules, the arabian dance. i think the main difference is that the coffee here is darker and more bitter (arabian dance always seems to have a touch of sweetness). there may be a hint of spicy carnation but i wouldn't have picked up on it if i hadn't just re-read the scent description.

pumpkin princess makes me so SAD because it is the sort of bright, fluffy, happy scent that i would so love to wear but it does not love me. the fluffy vanilla and sweet buttery pumpkin just goes flat and plasticky on my skin and is no good. even the amber, currant and honey, which should help it work on me, stay hidden. alas, i was not meant to be a pumpkin princess.

this is so... interesting. i don't really get marshmallow, or burnt sugar, or anything that i would expect. i DO get a sweet-creamy vanilla, fluffy and white, that REMINDS me of a marshmallow without actually smelling like one. at the same time there is a warm, toasty smokiness. it works.

i love garden of death- it is exactly what i wanted it to be, a truly green scent reminiscent of a garden without being sweet and floral. it's a grassy, herbal, vegetabley green- it is surprisingly alive, for a scent called "garden of death!" i don't really get the bell pepper note that other reviewers have noted (thank god, because i hate those things).

i finally get to try devil's night! yay!

 

at first it's all night air (reminds me a little of singing moon) and autumn leaves. on the skin, it starts to get smoky, with some delicious sugar and musk. it's totally unique and sooo nice, i love it! it's autumnal without being spicy or smelling like a candle, and it works wonderfully as a perfume.

if i email the lab my order after paying through paypal, should i expect confirmation? i placed my big order on sept. 12 and emailed them the details the same day, then sent a follow-up a week later and haven't gotten any kind of response. i've never had to do this before and i'm nervous about my order details being misplaced.

 

I was a bit leery of paying through Paypal for my Weenie order of doom, but I did it anyway. I then emailed a list of the scents to answers@... and got a confirmation from Bill later that day (or the next day - it was soon after though). However...I'm seeing all of these CnS's going out that were ordered after mine...and I know sometimes there's a hold up with a bottle or 5, but I really want these...and this is the longest I have had to wait for an order. Just a bit worried...emailed customer service just to check and maybe get an estimated shipping date on Saturday, and still no word. Oh well. I'm just ranting. To answer your question, I believe you should have gotten a confirmation email from customer service. You may want to email just to be on the safe side...

 

i never got a confirmation, and i've sent one or two more messages since then, with no reply. i'm honestly starting to freak out a little bit that something went wrong and they never got my order or something or i'm mailing the wrong address... i used answers@blackphoenixalchemylab.com, too.

I'm international, so Paypal is the only option, and I've never gotten a confirmation (from BPAL) when paying with Paypal--but I do get the payment confirmation email from Paypal. I just wait for a while and then the CnS comes. I wasn't aware the lab confirms Paypal orders!

 

yeah, i got the payment confirmation from paypal, but because my order was too big to fit in the comment box, i had to email the list of 5mls i wanted to the lab- so i know they got the payment, but they would have no idea what bottles to send me without the order details i sent separately.

 

 

I juuust got a CnS for my 9/8 order (US order, via PayPal). I never get confirmation emails through the Lab, just the standard PayPal "you sent a payment" email.

 

Porcelina, you've got the right address. Don't freak out yet-- I think the Weenie rush has backed up orders and communications, too. Hang in there!

 

i hope so. i've always had quick responses to my customer service questions in the past, so it's just making me anxious, having had no response for 3 weeks.

if i email the lab my order after paying through paypal, should i expect confirmation? i placed my big order on sept. 12 and emailed them the details the same day, then sent a follow-up a week later and haven't gotten any kind of response. i've never had to do this before and i'm nervous about my order details being misplaced.

 

I was a bit leery of paying through Paypal for my Weenie order of doom, but I did it anyway. I then emailed a list of the scents to answers@... and got a confirmation from Bill later that day (or the next day - it was soon after though). However...I'm seeing all of these CnS's going out that were ordered after mine...and I know sometimes there's a hold up with a bottle or 5, but I really want these...and this is the longest I have had to wait for an order. Just a bit worried...emailed customer service just to check and maybe get an estimated shipping date on Saturday, and still no word. Oh well. I'm just ranting. To answer your question, I believe you should have gotten a confirmation email from customer service. You may want to email just to be on the safe side...

 

i never got a confirmation, and i've sent one or two more messages since then, with no reply. i'm honestly starting to freak out a little bit that something went wrong and they never got my order or something or i'm mailing the wrong address... i used answers@blackphoenixalchemylab.com, too.

if i email the lab my order after paying through paypal, should i expect confirmation? i placed my big order on sept. 12 and emailed them the details the same day, then sent a follow-up a week later and haven't gotten any kind of response. i've never had to do this before and i'm nervous about my order details being misplaced.

edit: wrong place!

my first thought: it smells like pink plastic, all right!

 

then: aaah, there's something sharply, gooily sweet. it's almost like amoxicillin.

 

finally: a fluffy-soft marshmallow scent with the wonderful dandelion i love so much. it sits close to the skin, and is slightly creamy, slightly sweet, and slightly green. the vanilla is rather flat on me, as most are () but i actually do like this as a fun perfume.

celeste is very musky (a powdery sort of white musk, though not as sharp) with delicious vanilla notes. it's soft, just slightly sweetened fluffy vanilla cotton. it's very dry. i do like it, but i honestly can't decide if i would wear it or not!

egg moon was a surprise hit for me when i got to try it at c2e2 last year! it was a very last minute purchase- i was just about to leave the bpal booth (*sniffle*) when i decided to give it a try. it's a rich, chewy cinnamon/cassia scent. not a foodie cinnamon cookie, but a burning hot spice note against a backdrop of sweet resins. it burns my nose if i sniff too closely, but this is delicious.

monarch is disappointingly flat on my skin. i don't get a lot of amber- just a faint, ginger citrus scent, very orange, that fades quickly. it leaves behind a nice pumpkin note, but not much else.

ooookay gothabilly, you are just RIDICULOUS. the oil itself feels smooth and thick, just like the rich, sweet, sticky scent of deep vanilla, smooth egyptian musk and dark, sweet, boozy cherries.

the cherries do their weird almond-like thing for a while, but that eventually seems to calm down and yumm. i love you gothabilly.

there's a certain creaminess i get from this after a while that reminds me of another favorite, the anti-saloon league!

rose is not a note that works on me at all but here it plays nice and doesn't bother me at all. this is a very sweet, ethereal, feminine scent. i totally agree with werekitten, who got a lavender-like vibe from the blue musk; it's quite nice. it's maybe the tiniest bit powdery as it dries, but the flowers and fruit stays nice and fresh. sugar moon used to be in heavy rotation for me but i left it alone for a while; now i think it will come back! it smells even better in combination with my 'lavender sugar' moisturizer.

lots of sweet purple wine grape here, with resins and smoke. kind of old-fashioned catholic churchy- the wine, the incense? i usually don't do well with wine notes but there's something here that just works on me. i love the rich, wine and incense feel i get from it- and not just sticks of incense or blobs of resin but actual, smoky burning incense. ahhh.

it is just plain alarming how quickly i've been plowing through my single, solitary bottle of banned in boston, especially considering that i haven't even reviewed it yet! it's a beautiful, dark, sticky scent with dark, sweet fruits and resins and old leather. i know leather isn't listed as a note, but i swear there's leather in there somewhere. it's wonderful!

 

it reminds me a bit of VILF, now that i think about it.

i love this one! it's a dark, sweet creamy fig with a touch of pine and hint of spice. it smells just right for the holidays without being all christmas candle-y. it's a lovely, smooth, sweet scent and i can't stop sniffing myself now.

when first applied, there's something in here that smells like almond. as it dries, the honey starts to remind me quite strongly of O, a personal favorite. the tobacco & honey are lovely, but i don't get any quince or mandarin. unfortunately, cognac is a bad note on me and i end up with a sort of stale plastic scent underneath it all. this dries down to a very blah scent.

in the bottle, harvest moon is sharp and pungent and deeply fruity (the plum and grapes combined with apple). i can already tell that this has aged pretty well- i intensely disliked it when i first tried it on last year, but it's much better now! on my skin, there's spice and the lab's familiar dried leaves note, with some juicy apple and dark purple fruit- and all in a haze of delicious smoke. it definitely invokes autumn! it's like a fruitier samhain as it dries.

 

the smoke gets a little funny towards the end and at points it goes a bit "generic fall candle" on me and it's quite a strong blend. i don't think i'll be wearing this very much at all, but i can see it as a room scent.

damp wood, dead leaves and resin. there's a lot of black musk, too, which can sometimes get kind of powdery but stays strong alongside the woodsy notes.

 

it's sharp, not at all sweet, and sort of wild. it reminds me of another scent i own that i can't quite pinpoint. i like it, but i don't know if i need it in my collection. hm.

LOTS of pine here- it smells like a dark, cool pine forest surrounded by the blackest night. the pine here is very green and fresh, like crushed pine needles. there's a delicious undercurrent of wild musk- it reminds me a little of wolf moon, but more resinous, somehow?

 

as it dries down, it's mostly a soft, smooth musk with hints of pine and herbs. it's not nearly as intense as i feared it might be. i really like it, but it gets kind of faint after just a few minutes.

 

i might have to test this alongside wolf moon 2007 (which i have two bottles of) to better appreciate the differences.