Fragrances -Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Ophelia
edenssixthday 1/13/2006 4:18:00 PM
Ophelia is one of the first 10 or so BPAL scents I ever tried, and immediately won her way into my heart. She is a lovely scent, full of feminine florals and something else that makes it simultaneously herbal and creamy. She is a gorgeous scent that I am looking forward to wearing again in the summertime.
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Fragrances -Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Snow White
edenssixthday 1/13/2006 4:14:00 PM
Snow White is very soft and beautiful. Unfortunately, it's too white and subtle for my taste. I like florals with a little more pizzaz. I hae no idea what notes are in it, but it is very pretty, and it layers really well with some other scents. I love layering it with Midwinter's Eve as it helps round out the sharp sweetness of the Midwinter's Eve sugar plum, and the Midwinter's Eve gives Snow White a little bit of Oomph! that's it's otherwise lacking. I will finish the imp I have of it, but decided it wasn't worth purchasing a full bottle.
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Fragrances -Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Midnight
edenssixthday 1/13/2006 4:10:00 PM
Midnight is a beautiful scent. It's fairly "perfumey" in it's quality, and doesn't smell like any one particular flower or note, yet it's floral in it's complexity and beauty. It's a smooth, swirly, and sleepy scent and reminds me of my youth in New Orleans, and quiet warm evenings spent lounging in the swinging chair on the front porch, breathing in the warm Southern nighttime air and listening to my friend's dad practice his slow jazz saxaphone. This is one of my favorite scents to wear in the evenings.
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Fragrances -Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Old Venice
edenssixthday 1/13/2006 4:04:00 PM
With a description as lush and beautiful as the description for Venice and the various notes included, I thought it would be an unforgettably gorgeous scent. Unfortunately, it isn't. It's floral and powdery and pretty boring on me. There's nothing special about it at all. I'm not even going to bother trying this one in a scent locket, that's how thoroughly boring and unimpressive it is.
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Fragrances -Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Dana O'Shee
edenssixthday 1/13/2006 4:02:00 PM
Wow. I don't understand how Dana O'Shee can have so many fans. It is sickeningly sweet, and smells nothing like real almond, but has that atrocious artifical almond scent found in cheap almond pastes and amaretto liqueurs. It lasted on my skin a good long while, had a moderate level of throw, but the scent was nauseatingly cloying. Off to the swap pile it went and is thankfully long gone from my life now.
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Fragrances -Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Languor
edenssixthday 1/13/2006 3:51:00 PM
An opiate torpor, soporific, trancelike, and sublimely languid. A poet’s morphine dream, a listless journey into a gentle dream and the precipice of intoxicated madness. Paperwhite and black narcissus, three lilies, black poppy and tuberose and a hint of hypnotic opium den haze. (Gender neutral)
Despite the list of floral notes used to create Languor absolutely no florals show up on my skin. While wearing Languor, my skin smells like the inside of a New Age Spiritualist shop. The first time I wore it was one evening after very little sleep for the past three nights. I was already feeling very tired, but when I put on Languor, my entire existence slowed down and the world around me became cloudy and garbled, and my responses were slow and late -- if there was any response at all. This oil had an incredible psychosomatic effect on me (although much of it was due to the fact that I was already very, very tired). It's not a bad scent, but it's not what I'd call a pretty scent. It smells kind of incensey on me and like there may be a bit of wood in it. The opium is subtle, but the loveliest note of them all. I doubt I'll even finish this imp up, much less buy any more. Off to the swap pile it goes.
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Fragrances -Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - The Lion
edenssixthday 1/13/2006 3:38:00 PM
The dry, glorious warmth of the Savannah. A golden, spiced amber, proud, regal and ferocious. (Gender neutral)
The Lion is a pretty scent, but very subtle on me. My skin usually amps amber up so that it wafts around me all day, but for some reason, The Lion is very subtle on my skin and doesn't last very long. But while I can still note its presence, it's incredibly warm, slightly resinous, and has a hint of spice. It's pretty, and I may see if I get better luck wearing it in a scent locket, but it just doesn't show up much or last long on my skin, so unless it blows me away with its performance in the scent locket, I will be adding this to the swap pile.
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Fragrances -Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Buck Moon
edenssixthday 1/13/2006 3:34:00 PM
A Little Lunacy: This oil is only available for purchase on 22 June 2005. This Full Moon marks the time of the year when the new antlers of buck deer emerge from their foreheads, coated in soft velvet. This is a time of masculine vigor, thunder, balmy nights, glorious sunlight and hot winds. Buck Moon is an animalistic, deep scent: an amplification of one’s natural musk coupled with forest herbs, a hint of clear, warm evening air and a crystalline spark of lunar oil. (Gender neutral)
I originally tracked down a bottle of Buck Moon as a gift for my sister because it's a Lunacy blend that was released for one day only, and that day happened to be my sister's most recent birthday. Combine that with the fact that she loves musks, and well, it was a perfect gift for her. The bottle didn't arrive from the seller when I had expected it to, and as I started to worry that I wasn't going to get it on time, I decided to track down another bottle so I would have something to give to her. Well, the first bottle arrived followed shortly by the second bottle, which meant not only did my sister get a bottle, but I did, too.
My sister loves it. She thinks it's incredibly beautiful.
I don't smell it. When I open the bottle, I catch the faintest whiff of something that's a little different from the air I normally breath, but not much different. When I apply it to my skin, I may as well be applying water that has a few crushed herbs in it. It does nothing for me. If I apply it to cotton and wear it in a scent locket -- again, nothing. It's the strangest scent for me in the way it completely does not show up, and I've only found one other BPAL scent that does that to me (Numb). I'm giving it three lippies because of how much sister loves it, but if I were leaving her opinion out of this, I'd have to give it one lippie. I have a full bottle of this and have imped out two imps to a friend, but I'm guessing the rest is going in the swap pile.
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Fragrances -Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Queen Of Hearts
edenssixthday 1/13/2006 3:28:00 PM
Queen of Hearts is a gorgeous, floral and feminine scent. The cherry note is very strong on me, especially when wet, but as it dries, the lily notes dominate, and the cherry is merely a backdrop for the lilies. It has what I generally call a "round" scent -- meaning, it's incredibly smooth and symmetrical, and there are no sharp or offensive bits about it. Unfortunately, it sticks very, very close to my skin, and while my skin smells pretty when sniffed up close, I don't even know I'm wearing the fragrance unless I literally stick my wrist in my face. And even then, it disappears on me within the first hour. It disappears even more quickly when applied to my hair. Today, I am wearing Queen of Hearts in a scent locket and am having much better luck with the throw and staying power, although it's still a fairly subtle scent. But it's pretty, and for the past 7 hours I've been catching lovely wafts of cherry-drop lilies around me. If it had a touch more throw and better staying power on my skin, I would give this fragrance a full five lippies. As it is, I'm giving it four lippies, and while I don't know yet if I will or won't buy a full bottle of it, I'll definitely be purchasing another imp of this at some point in the near future.
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Fragrances -Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Fire of Love
edenssixthday 1/12/2006 12:23:00 AM
Fire of Love is a resinous, woody, smoky, incense scent. When I first applied it, it smelled simply of dirt and I didn't think I'd care for it at all; however, as it dried down, it gained a warmth and complexity that I found very intriguing and within about 15 minutes, it smelled like ... well, you know, that smell that lingers in the air post-sex. Fire of Love in its first opening stage is incredibly sexy and warm and sultry. After about an hour, however, the notes in Fire of Love shift, and a peculiar things happens: it begins to smell exactly like the bedroom closet of a cabin my family rented in the mountains when I was 9 years old. I couldn't first identify it, but at right about the one hour point, a distinctly woody, dusty, and cedar-like scent became predominant, and I suddenly began to flash back to the family trip we took to the snowy mountains 26 years ago. I shuffled through my memory, and remembered our family sitting around a table in the middle of the cabin, with a fire burning, while putting together a wooden puzzle. Yet, despite how similar the scent of Fire of Love was to that recollection, it wasn't exactly what it was reminding me of. As I shuffled through my memory banks a bit more, I recalled the memory of the first time we stepped foot in the cabin, and I ran to a room to claim it as my own, and I began to explore and opened up a closet in the room. An extra pillow and some blankets were stacked on a shelf in the closet and a few empty wire hangers hung on the bar in it. Otherwise, the most noticeable thing about the closet was the scent of dust and cedar. And that is exactly what Fire of Love smells like from the one hour point on.
It's not a scent that I would normally wear as I tend to like sweet, fruity, and floral scents, and this one is much more earthy than I normally wear. Unfortunately, the scent doesn't seem to have much throw but it does seem to last a good while. It seems to be a scent that has the potential of smelling super hot'n'sexy on a man, and I think I'm going to give my imp to husband to try out.
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Fragrances -Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Tarot- the Chariot
edenssixthday 1/11/2006 10:34:00 PM
Someone decanted me an imp of Tarot: The Chariot and when I first put it on, I thought it was a really pretty scent. Then, over the next 10-15 minutes, I kept catching whiffs of it and was blown away by how overwhelmingly gorgeous it is. It's a fruity-floral that may have a bit of champagne sparkle in it, and it's really bright and uplifting. I don't know the first thing about how the scent may or may not correspond with it's Tarot card, but based on fragrance alone, I was certain I was going to need a full-size bottle of it....
The first time I wore it, it disappeared off my skin 20 minutes into it. The second time I wore it, I wasn't as enamored by the scent, but I was blown away by the lasting power and the way I kept getting wafts of something really lovely all afternoon while I ran my errands, and was always extremely thrilled when I realized that lovely scent I kept smelling....was me! I doubt I'll wear this much because as nice as the scent is, it's just really not me. But at this point, I don't plan to swap it away, either.
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Fragrances -Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Twenty-One
edenssixthday 1/9/2006 5:59:00 PM
A tribute to New York’s 21 Club on West 52nd, formerly the speakeasy Jack & Charlie’s Puncheon Club. This is the scent of the perfect martini.
I have never cared for Gin. I think it smells and tastes exactly like Pine Sol. As someone who enjoys all different types of vodka and liqeuer martinis, and who has not touched gin since the last time I kissed a guy I used to date who drank gin (which was five years ago), it didn't even occur to me that Twenty-One might be made to smell like a gin martini. But that's apparently what it's supposed to be, and I found it foul immediately upon opening up the imp. It smelled like I'd dunked my head in a bucket of Pine Sol. And the moment I applied it to my skin, it smelled like Pine-Sol. It's an incredibly powerful scent with tons of throw, and for as long as I wore it, I was sure people would think I would the Pine Sol Fairy because of the way I smelled. I can't speak to it's staying power, as I had to wash it off after 20-30 minutes. It was too strong and unpleasant. I won't be touching this one ever again. Into the swap pile it goes!
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Fragrances -Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Stardust
edenssixthday 1/9/2006 5:48:00 PM
When the holidays roll around, not everyone has mistletoe, caroling and cookies on their minds. This scent is a paean to celebrating hard: nights covered in glitter and dusted with cocaine, flutes of Cristal clutched in shaky hands, leather and lace, the Spiders From Mars in the background, and twisting, sweaty limbs entangled in dark corners. Hairspray and cigarette smoke is the incense in this temple to decadence, strobe and mirrors replace the devotional candles, and Bolan sings the hymns. This scent is for everyone that has every drifted off into Quaalude-induced reverie to the beat of a tribal 4-on-the-floor: the sound of Mott the Hoople, Sweet, Slade or the Dolls. This scent reflects the futurism, self-indulgence and excess of the Glitter 70’s: champagne, hyacinth, tuberose, ylang ylang and flashing white musk with jonquil, tobacco flower, white sandalwood and a pale poppy.
Wow, Stardust has come to us straight out of the '70s. Beth wasn't kidding when she wrote up the description of this one! This is an incredibly complex and well-blended scent that smells just like the perfumes that were popular in the 1970s. It reminds me of the way my mom smelled whenever she and my dad would come home late at night after being out at a party. She would come into my room, and I would wake up as she'd kiss me goodnight, and I could smell her perfume mingling with the champagne on her breath and the tobacco smoke in her hair, and she seemed so beautiful and sexy and grown-up, and I wanted to smell just like that when I grew up. Well now I can with Stardust. BPAL rarely smells "perfumey" on me, but this one does and I really like it. It has a decent level of throw, and it's staying power is up there with the best of them. I have three bottles and while I may imp some of it out, I plan to use the majority of it up. Love it!
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Fragrances -Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Snow Bunny
edenssixthday 1/9/2006 5:42:00 PM
Snow Bunny was another BPAL surprise for me. I'd read the reviews over at the Forums, and I really didn't think this scent would work on me. I generally don't wear pine/evergreen type scents as I find the scent highly unappealing and "girly perfume" -- ??? As if I'd wear something that wasn't mature and sophisticated! Well, was I in for a surprise when I tried it out. It's a gorgeous fragrance -- one of the "perfumey" scents BPAL has created. It doesn't smell in the least like Pine Sol or air freshener. It's soft and subtle and smells really, really pretty. I couldn't stop sniffing my wrist the first time I tried it. Unfortunately, Snow Bunny is very subtle on my skin and doesn't have much throw at all -- maybe somewhere in the 3" to 6" range. I prefer a fragrance that throws about 12". I am going to try Snow Bunny in my scent locket and see if I have better luck with it's throw and staying power when my skin chemistry is not getting in the way. I really like it and give it two thumbs up.
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Fragrances -Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Tarot- The Star
edenssixthday 1/9/2006 5:37:00 PM
I made the mistake of testing The Star for the first time right before I was going to bed, having not taken into consideration the reviews I'd read on it. It is not an evening blend, despite the name. It is definitely a pick-me-up morning blend that is full of light, dazzling lemon/lime/verbena fragrance, and the tiniest hint of coconut. There is also the very distinct head-clearing scent of eucalyptus (or something else menthol-y), but I read the reviews on the BPAL Foums and no one else mentions this. I should also mention that it didn't turn on my skin. I wore it in a scent locket, and the scent stayed as true on my skin as it did in the locket, although it didn't last very long on my skin. The scent has a lot of throw and a little goes a long way. It is a very clean and true citrus scent (no lemon wood polish scent here). I am not sure that I like it enough to buy a bottle since I would use it as an mood-lifting pick-me-up blend and currently, I am using Moxie for that, but who knows, when I run out of Moxie, I may very well replace it for a while with The Star.
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