2005: Leather Phoenix

[zankoku_zen]

Our sister shop, Black Phoenix Trading Post, opened its doors on February 13, 2005! On that shiny, fateful day, Teddy opened the shop with one single item: the BPAL-branded “Established 1350AD” shirt.

Carnaval Noir, the precursor to Carnaval Diabolique, went live in 2005, along with the first 13. In 2005, we hosted our first Los Angeles Lunacy event, and Winter of 2005 brought us Black Phoenix Trading Post’s first Inquisition – Naughty or Nice. This is also the year that I did my first “love potions” class, which was basically a fireside kegger with essential oils.
We vended at our first convention, Convergence 11: San Diego, and Brian and I drank a lot of gin at our booth. Like, a lot. Lesson learned: don’t drink a shitload of gin while vending.

A spurt of 13’s omnipresent cocoa staining a Trading Post-inspired leather accord – reminiscent of tight black leather pants – and more than a splash of gin.

GIN GIN GIN GIN. This is basically if I doused myself in a bottle of gin, and after about an hour, I get a pinch of cocoa and a touch of leather. The leather gains prominence as the gin dies. But on wet, its all GIN all the time. Which I sort of enjoyed. I do not enjoy black leather. Despite its repeated attempts to love me. Great throw and wear length.

[Jenjin]

Wowza, is this ever boozy like one of those nights after WAY too many gin and tonics. The bottle sniff is really good and enticing and then on the skin it goes all hard liquor on me. It's just a little bit refreshing, and I get no black leather britches which is fine by me. I could see wearing this in the summer time but you might need a designated driver.

[bheansidhe]

My nose reads this as gin-soaked Bliss from the bottle. Gin always smells fruity-sharp to me, instead of boozy like the Lab's rum note, so it's red fruit and milk chocolate forward at first. Then black leather unrolls in the background, making the chocolate deeper and the gin sharper, occasionally peeking out on its own.

 

Certainly an unusual combination - unique in the BPAL lineup as far as I can remember. If you're a Bliss or 13 fan, this might be a winner. I'm neither, so it's off to swaps.

[torikitty]

I can smell the gin in the bottle, but on my skin it's leather and chocolate. Sweet, milk chocolate with well-worn leather. I sense the tiniest hint of bubbles (perhaps the lab's champagne note), but I'm not getting any overwhelming juniper note. Super nice! I'd recommend this for chocolate lovers, but I think leather lovers would be disappointed, unless they super amp leather.

[sprout]

Perfect chocolate martini. Leather note is missing in action. My skin noms leather so your mileage may vary.

 

This is surprisingly good.

 

Bottle or partial bottle upgrade...

[Blood onmy hands]

I was hoping for lots of leather, a little cocoa, and little to no gin, but this is the opposite of that. It's tons of gin (that kind of fizzy, kind of evergreen-ish, kind of juniper-berry-y smell) and a hint of stale, waxy chocolate with no leather. I'm not really enjoying the fizzy chocolate scent.

[VetchVesper]

The gin, leather, and chocolate come across to me as pretty well balanced. Like bheanesidhe, I get a red fruit vibe from the gin, sort of chocolate covered dried fruit. The leathee and chocolate remind me of Jolabokaflod, so maybe - this is for the Icelanders who toss out the books and grab the liquor bottles on Christmas Eve. Subdued leather, dusty chocolate, and fruity gin. Entirely pleasant.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: Chocolate and gin. Yum! The gin was super strong at first and I thought it was going to be dominant, but the chocolate is actually winning. But barely, and each time I sniff something different is coming out on top. For something called Leather Phoenix - I actually don't smell any leather.

 

 

Dry: Dry this is all about the gin. It's sweet, but I can no longer identify the chocolate. It's a really nice scent. I don't know if I would wear it, but if you want to smell like gin, this is an awesome option. Just as a side note - it lacks the effervescence of other gin blends I have tried.

[Elspethdixon]

In the imp - a smooth, cozy base of cocoa-leather (more cocoa than leather) and a pool of clean/bracing gin. Gin always smells clean and sharp to me rather than boozy, I suppose because of the combo of the juniper + the fact that no one in my family drinks it.

Wet/freshly applied - GIIIIIIN with a hint of cocoa. Bizarrely, this smells like a hot summer day by the pool to me. You know, that sharp, chemically chlorine smell (provided by the sharp/fizzy gin), combined with sun-warmed humid leather and cocoa-butter sun lotion.

Ten-twenty minutes in - This has a ton of throw, especially the gin top note, which I'm basically surrounded by a cloud of. Close to my wrist I get a hint of cocoa/leather-ish skin scent (leaning more towards cocoa than leather, which is surprising considering that my skin usually eats chocolate and amps leather to the skies), but mostly it's all cool-sharp gin. If you want to smell like a chocolate martini (light on the chocolate) being drunk poolside on a hot summer night, this is your scent. Too bad the cocoa-leather base is so overwhelmed by the gin, because it's actually really sexy.

1-2 hours in - Now that the cloud of gin fumes has faded back a little, the cocoa-leather skin scent is easier to detect, reminiscent of the cocoa-leather in Joy of My Spirit but with gin instead of pine and without the hazelnut. I would wear the snuggly warm/humid cocoa with a bit of leather base scent forever if the top note weren't a nuclear mushroom cloud of spilled gin. but I'm not completely sure if the enormous puddle of spilled gin has actually faded back at all, or if I've just gone nose-blind to it. It's actually started to give me a bit of a headache, and I'm contemplating scrubbing this off even though objectively it smells pretty good.