Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: The Blasphemare Reliquary

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

BPAL Scent of the Day:  The Blasphemare Reliquary (Carnaval Diabolique, Act V) -- Ethiopian myrrh, Damascus rose, boswellia, galbanum, and copal.

In the bottle this smells mostly like frankincense, and a particularly strong clear one at that.  Wet on my skin the clear frankincense note dominates, but other resin notes peek out from beneath it.

On drydown this is one of my favorite frankincense scents.  Boswellia is the genus for frankincense and olibanum producing trees.  This note doesn't smell like the Lab's Olibanum SN (LE, August 2013), but it does smell like the frankincense note I get from Anne Bonny, Hermes Trismegistus v. 2, Midnight Mass, and a few others.  It's clear and light, not smoky or gummy.  There's a little bit of myrrh in this scent that grounds it, but I can't make out any galbanum or copal.

The most interesting thing about The Blasphemare Reliquary is its tendency to morph in high-heat situations.  When I'm wearing it in a really hot environment, especially if I'm really sweaty, suddenly there's this gorgeous damask rose note.  But if I'm not hot and sweaty, it's mostly the amazing frankincense note.

After many hours of frankincense on a warm and sweaty day, The Blasphemare Reliquary subsided into soft vanilla.  I had never noticed the vanilla before, but it was there and it was clear.  It was more of a vanilla extract type of note, not foody, not boozy, not smoky, not floral.  Maybe vanilla absolute, because it was strong on the lower notes.

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