Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Scent of the Day: Ask the Nearest Hippie

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

Ask the Nearest Hippie (The Collected Poetic Works of Antonin Scalia, 2015)  

Obergefell vs Hodges

Who ever thought that intimacy and spirituality [whatever that means] were freedoms? And if intimacy is, one would think Freedom of Intimacy is abridged rather than expanded by marriage. Ask the nearest hippie.

An olfactory guide, created to assist you in locating nearby hippies: patchouli, hemp, smoky vanilla bean, and cannabis accord.

On first sniff this smells relatively unthreatening:  a bit of vanilla, a bit of green, nothing too pungent or unwashed.  Wet on my skin, it starts off foody vanilla but quickly turns toward patchouli with a spiky green note in it.  Haha, I think some of the vanilla in this has aged into gentility; it was much more vanilla when it was fresh.  It still reminds me of Banshee Beat, though. 

It dries down more explicitly smoky, with stronger green notes among the patchouli; the vanilla is still there but it's a fairly deep note, more a sort of absolute than the creamy or foody type.  Ask the Nearest Hippie smells much more hippie-ish than it did when it was fresh, and that suits me just fine.

This scents in this limited edition group debuted in the summer of 2015 as a charitable effort benefiting the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Trevor Project, and the National Center for Transgender Equality.  The scents are still live as of this writing. 

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Testing Day: Blood Moon

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

Blood Moon Full Lunar Eclipse (A Little Lunacy, September 2015) -- Impenetrable, blood-spattered, Martial red musk, fiery pomegranate and black pepper, the splintered woods of uncountable wooden arrow shafts and shields, sharp frankincense and morose myrrh, all smothering the gentler impulses of the moon.

Dead Leaves Frankincense and Copal (Pile of Leaves, Hallowe'enies 2015) -- no description given.

Le Clerc's Phoenix (Anniversaries 2015) -- Assyrian cypress and cedar with cinnamon, black cardamom, cassia, Egyptian balsam, acanthus leaves, and frankincense.

Palmyra (UNHCR benefit scent, 2015) -- Golden amber and galbanum with frankincense, myrrh, Balm of Gilead, vanilla-infused sandalwood, sand-smoothed leather, and Ceylon cinnamon.

*****

Blood Moon Full Lunar Eclipse is a very dark oil, signaling the presence of red musk.  In the vial it is all fruity red musk and resin.   Wet on my skin, it turns even more fruity.  Pomegranate is a good note for me, and this is a happy version of it.  As always, the red musk takes a while to develop.  Meanwhile, there is a sharpish note in it that I can't decide about; I think it is wood but it might be pepper.  On drydown it is still pomegranate first, then red musk a distant second with wood coming in third.  It stays that way through maturity, with not a lot of sillage but a lot of staying power.  I'm fond of red musk plus pomegranate, and this is a well-behaved example of it although I never really got the resins.


Dead Leaves Frankincense and Copal is a deep, slightly tart, resinous leaf note on first sniff.  Wet on my skin, it's a slightly sweet, young green leaf.  It dried down somewhat different:  a light, soft, slightly powdery unidentifiable resin with a leafy overtone.  At maturity it became a very light, soft, slightly sweet woodlike scent.  This one I think would make a good scent for a bath product, in a sugar scrub or an addition to a lotion or bath oil; it's a little unfocused to wear as a perfume.  Very pretty, though, and it gave me the illusion of being thirty years younger for a while there.


Le Clerc's Phoenix is mostly cinnamon/cassia at first sniff, but fresh and green rather than astringent or hurty.  There's some balsam in this that softens and rounds it.  Wet on my skin it turns more toward cassia and wood.  I expected this not to work on me because I'm not good with cassia; I was pinning my hopes to the balsam.  As it dries down the cassia softens but turns more woody, overwhelming the balsam.  Mature, it's a very soft light woody cassia.


Palmyra is dark and deep but smooth in the bottle; I get vanillic amber, something woody, and a touch of leather.  Wet on my skin, the leather bites a little bit and there is a woody/cinnamon note.  This scent could go either way on me, and it went the way I didn't want to.  At drydown the leather had turned a bit tannic and and a dark resin, perhaps the galbanum, moved to the fore.  It's more rooty, or maybe it's more gritty, than frankincense or myrrh.  The vanillic elements are mostly gone now, and so is the cinnamon.  At maturity, it becomes light leather and wood touched with smoke and cinnamon.  It almost has a tobacco tannic element to it, also.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Scent of the Day: The Ragged Wood (Lupercalia 2008)

                                                                                                                                           purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth
                                                                                                                                           written January 28, 2016


Lily of the Valley, star jasmine, benzoin, vanilla, plumeria, bergamot, Terebinth pine, juniper berry, and tea rose.

I'm wearing this scent today In honor of its re-release in the 2016 Lupers as well as Yeats' yahrzeit which is today.

At first sniff, this scent is cool and dark green, more a smooth evergreen than anything else although florals are definitely present.  It's more juniper than terebinth, but not by much.  Wet on my skin, it's evergreen-aquatic with floral sweetness beneath.  As it dries down the vanilla warms it up a bit and the florals begin to develop.  They're not very easy to distinguish save for the lily of the valley, which goes a little soapy.  It reminds me of The Illustrated Woman at this phase, although without the more robust tobacco and patchouli of that scent. 

Although I always expect this one to turn tropical when I'm reading the notes, it never really does.  At maturity it's a very soft floral, more plumeria than anything else, blended with a breath of vanilla.  (The vanilla used to be more prominent than it is now; aging has muted it a bit.)  The soapy evergreen impression is relegated to the background.  Overall it is complex, slightly aquatic, and dim, with one of the most wearable plumeria notes I've found in the catalogue.

The longer this one stays on my skin, the more fond of it I am despite the way it fades.  For me it succeeds in capturing the emotion behind the Yeats poem that inspires it.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Testing Day: Anniversary Phoenices!

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

Aelian's Phoenix (Anniversaries 2015) --  Golden amber and patchouli with fiery peppercorn, cocoa, white cedar, neroli, vanilla pod, and frankincense.

Claudian's Phoenix (Anniversaries 2015) --  red patchouli, sweet frankincense, and the figs and pomegranates of the seven mouths of the dark Nile.

Clement I's Phoenix (Anniversaries 2015) -- A sepulchre of frankincense and caramelized myrrh.

Statius' Phoenix (Anniversaries 2015) -- Pomegranate root, honey, white cedar, and frankincense.

*****
Aelian's Phoenix reminds me very much of Gelt at first sniff, with the same cocoa and golden amber yet much more complete and nuanced.  Wet on my skin I get mostly golden amber (which smells vanillic) with some cocoa and neroli.  It is complex, sweet-ish, full but not rich.  On drydown it's a classic BPAL vanilla-resin scent, more amber than frankincense but with some of both.  The vanilla is noticeable, but the cocoa isn't.  (My skin kills chocolate scents pretty quickly.)  The neroli is just barely present, and there's just enough patchouli to hold it all together.  But at maturity it's all vanillic golden amber, warm and foody with little of the previous complexity.


Claudian's Phoenix is a very rich and well-blended patchouli, frankincense, and pomegranate.  I cold-bought this bottle since it's so full of notes I love.  But like most red patchouli scents, it takes a while to develop properly.  Wet the patchouli note goes a little sharp, and the fig note comes up to thicken and soften the pomegranate.  On drydown it's mostly a patchouli scent but it seems to have gone off in an unexpected herbal direction rather than the fruity one I anticipated.  At maturity it's patchouli and pomegranate, another in the long line of fruity-patchouli scents I love so much; this one is less fruity and more resinous than some, and still with that unexpected herbal overtone.  I am happy with my purchase and will love wearing this new phoenix.


Clement I's Phoenix has a particularly delicious frankincense note similar to the one I love in Hermes Trismegistus, Anne Bonny, and The Blasphemare Reliquary.  Wet on my skin the caramelized myrrh develops; it smells thickish but not dark or heavy, adding depth to the resin blend.  On drydown it is a warm, cosy, and slightly sweet myrrh-frankincense blend.  It matures slowly, without much change, as is typical for myrrh scents on me.  If I didn't have Sunbird and a couple of other delicious myrrh-forward scents already to hand, I'd very likely buy this one in quantity because it is  lovely:  less sharp and clear than Priala, less robust than Minotaur, not as sweet as Sunbird, softer and warmer than some of the GC myrrh scents I love.

Statius' Phoenix smells of slightly foody honey and pomegranate until it hits my skin, at which point a splendid but perplexing fruity cherry note develops.  The base seems buttery like the pleasant type of orris (not the bitter rooty aspect nor the high blue floral one that gives me instant headaches).  There is something just a bit astringent and mouth-watering in it that keeps it from cloying.  That impression is sustained on drydown, kind of reminding me of Chokecherry Honey which, oddly, smelled of red currant on me.  This could easily be classified as a red currant/honey scent.  It doesn't change much at maturity; the floral aspect of the honey ripens a bit, is all.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Testing Day: Hallowe'enies II!

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

Dead Leaves Bourbon Vanilla and Myrrh (Pile of Leaves, Hallowe'enies 2015):  no further description given

Dead Leaves Red Musk and Neroli (Pile of Leaves, Hallowe'enies 2015):  no further description given

The Magic Circle (Hecate's Inheritance, Pickman Gallery, Hallowe'enies 2015): Vanilla-infused frankincense and clary sage with 7-year aged patchouli, jasmine sambac, honey myrtle, and oudh.

The Witches' Rout (the Carcass) (Hecate's Inheritance, Pickman Gallery, Hallowe'enies 2015):  White sandalwood, opoponax, shriveled black plum, and vetiver.

*****

Dead Leaves Bourbon Vanilla and Myrrh is all leaves on first sniff, with maybe just a touch of vanilla.  Wet on my skin I get the leaf note, neither dry nor juicy, with more of a fixative beneath it than usual; there's almost no vanilla impression.  On drydown there's more myrrh here than leaf or vanilla.  It's not sweet like the Sunbird myrrh note, but it's not dry or sharp or dark.  It's more like the myrrhs used in the churchy scents like Midnight Mass and Penitence.  At maturity it's a full, rich myrrh note with some dry leaf on the side.  As a myrrh lover, I think this is fantastic, but leaf scent lovers might want to look elsewhere for a more true leaf scent.

Dead Leaves Red Musk and Neroli is juicy leaves on first sniff, with a touch of tart nonspecific citrus.  Wet on my skin the neroli note develops first and the red musk wakes up.  Red musk tends to take a while to develop fully, but by the time it's dried down this one is definitely a red musk scent.  Fully mature, it's restrained red musk with just a touch of floral and some dead leaves.  It's light, good-tempered, and happy; I liked it enough to get a bottle of it.

The Magic Circle smells like vanilla and jasmine sambac over a resin-patchouli base, until I put it on.  Wet on my skin it went slightly foody, as if tonka were involved.  On drydown it was light and slightly foody, a vanilla frankincense scent with a touch of jasmine sambac.  After a couple of hours, though, the oudh had stepped in and turned tannic on me.  The light vanilla and jasmine were still there, but the herb and wood components took over the scent and pushed it in directions that didn't work for my chemistry.  Someone who's good with oudh might like it, though; the vanilla jasmine was tasteful, never too girly or strident.

The Witches' Rout (the Carcass) smelled great in the vial, all sweet-dark caramelized vetiver and opoponax with just a touch of fruitiness.  Wet on my skin, it was quite dark; the opoponax (which I think is the darkest of all the resins) and caramelized vetiver seemed to intensify one another's darknesses.  Mature, it was never smoky nor quite as dark as Haitian Vetiver SN, and it's got a slightly fermented vibe about it the way opoponax often does.  It's way darker than Minotaur or Schwarzer Mond.  Even the slight fruity impression was very, very dark, like the concentration of a dried fruit.  The poor white sandalwood must have been hiding under a rock, though, because I never got a bit of it.  For a vetiver or opoponax lover, this is really a standout scent, but it is not for the delicate.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: Testing Day: Hallowe'enies I!

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

Satan Starting from the Touch of Ithuriel's Spear (Sympathy for the Devil, Pickman Gallery, Hallowe'enies 2015):  Golden amber, carnation, blackcurrant, aged black patchouli, red musk, and vetiver.

Second Spring (Hallowe'enies 2015):  An accolade: drifting leaves tinted in the bold reds of pomegranate and currant, the golds of amber and honey, russet myrrh, a touch of cypress-green, and crisp patchouli-brown.

Sweet William's Ghost  (Hallowe'enies 2015):  A scent of unendurable grief and longing: pale orris root and honeyed white lily chilled by wild carrot and cognac, pulled into a winding sheet of white jasmine, tobacco flower, tuberose, and patchouli.

Witches' Kitchen (Hecate's Inheritance, Pickman Gallery, Hallowe'enies 2015): Belladonna accord, sprigs of rue, crushed hyssop, white sage, beeswax, mandrake leaf, bay rum, black honey, hemp, and myrrh.

*****
Satan Starting from the Touch of Ithuriel's Spear is splendid spicy carnation at first sniff, over a well-blended patchouli background. As it dries, the patchouli, musk, and vetiver come up to give a wicked impression without smouldering.  On full drydown it is still a carnation scent (which means smoky on my skin, but others will have better luck); the blackcurrant and red musk work together to give this a a full, dark-fruit feel over a chewy patchouli-resin base.  This scent is old school BPAL blended with more experienced nuance.  If I were even a smidgen better with carnation notes I would hoard the hell out of this one.  And I'm still tempted despite the tendency of the carnation to go to smoke on me.

Second Spring smells like it's going to be a great autumnal take on the fruity-patchouli blend.  It's tart-sweet and patchouli in the bottle; wet, the resin and dried leaf notes appear.  But something weird happened on drydown:  the scent suddenly went very woody, like one of my least good wood notes (probably oak) amping on me.  It's pretty hard to kill a fruity-patchouli scent on my skin, so I'm baffled by this.  But the wood note (could it be the patchouli?) took over the scent and clung to me for many hours.  I was so sure this was going to be my favorite 'Weenie, but alas!  Not to be.

Sweet William's Ghost is very funereal in the bottle; it reads shimmering white and floral without being a lily scent.  Wet on my skin, the tobacco note spikes as expected, but it's a light note so it doesn't overwhelm the scent.  The cognac is the secondary note, and then the unspecified florals.  It dries down very well blended indeed; I can make out patchouli and orris (usually uncooperative, but beautiful in this instance), but everything else is a mystery.  It is dry, white, and mournful.  After a few hours it becomes a very gorgeous soft orris note, buttery rather than powdery, and without that hurty blue-white aura that orris often has for me.  I will definitely be getting a bottle of this.

Witches' Kitchen smells of beeswax, bay rum, and hemp.  On my skin it's suddenly a basket full of greenery, some of it bitter.  A menthol-ish note holds it together over a warm sweet beeswax/bay rum prickliness beneath.  As it dries down it comes even closer to being the scent I dreamed it would be; although I never really get any more of that round hemp note I was expecting, and the myrrh is so mellow as to be unnoticeable.  At maturity, the combination of honey and herbal notes manages to be full and sweet without ever being powdery or foody.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: Zenobia

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

Scent of the Day:  Zenobia (Warrior Queens Inquisition 2009) --  Orris, clove, costus storax, patchouli, hyssop, frankincense, balsam, and saffron.

The first sniff of this is light clovey wood.  There's a touch of menthol, probably from the patchouli.  It smells a little dusty to me too, which I think is the costus although it might be the orris.

Wet on my skin, it's immediately richer and more resinous.  Although orris doesn't like me, it's cooperative in this scent.  As it dries down Zenobia becomes mostly cloves and frankincense over a base of patchouli.  It matures away from the cloves and patchouli, becoming more a frankincense and balsam scent, although it retains a touch of spiciness.

This is a comforting, close to the skin scent.  I was craving frankincense and cloves, and this scent filled the bill nicely.  Sometimes I like to wear this one to bed on cold nights because it makes me feel so warm and cosy.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: Samhain 2010

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

Scent of the Day:  Samhain (Hallowe'enies 2010) -- Truly the scent of autumn itself -- damp woods, fir needle, and black patchouli with the gentlest touches of warm pumpkin, clove, nutmeg, allspice, sweet red apple and mullein.

I stayed away from the annual Hallowe'enies offering of Samhain for years because of the pumpkin.  Once I finally took a chance and tried it, this signature BPAL scent became one of my darlings.

At first sniff it's evergreens, a dry grass, patchouli, and a bit of apple.  Wet on my skin the evergreen spikes but then subsides to blend with the patchouli.  It does smell a bit damp, but not mouldy nor ever quite aquatic or earthy.  There's a powdery note that might be all I ever get of pumpkin. 

It matures into warm, slightly sugary, spicy dark green magnificence.  The patchouli and the fir work really well together on my skin.  I think the sugary impression comes from the evergreen, because I've noticed it in Hemlock and some of the other intensely evergreen scents.  The curl of hot mulled cider running through it never turns the scent toward foody.

Something about this scent always makes me feel warm, nostalgic, and happy.

NB: Sadly, the 2010 version of Samhain is gone, but you can order the 2015 version here.

Iulia, L’Artiste du Diable

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

artwork by Julie Dillon for Black Phoenix

Scent of the Day:  Iulia, l'Artiste du Diable (Carnaval Diabolique 2015) --White tea, sugar cane, orange blossom, rockrose, lemon balm, white mint, and honey.

I fell for this new scent at the Bay Area Lunacy event at the end of August.  It's re-engineered from the previous Artiste du Diable scent ("Gennivre") which was named for a previous CD label illustrator.  (The current version is named for Julie Dillon.)  I've never tried Gennivre, so I don't know how this compares to the previous version.

On first sniff it's tea, honey, mint, and a beautiful floral.  Normally I don't like orange blossom, but if that's what this is, then I may have to change my mind.  Wet on my skin, it's everything I love about Embalming Fluid -- the tea, the herbal lemon, the perkiness - plus a really beautiful floral.  If the Lab description didn't say otherwise, I'd think this was white ginger lily instead of orange blossom.

As it matures I get more floral and honey.  But the lemon gets deeper and a bit more sugary, more like preserved lemon peel.  It keeps the floral from collapsing in an excess of indoles.  The result is a happy, sweet, but not too pungent floral with lemony-mint underpinnings.  This is probably the best orange blossom has ever smelled on my skin chemistry.

It's hard to reproduce the original testing ground for this scent -- a warm crowded shop, humid with many bodies -- but the scent still loves me in the relatively cool, dry, airy environs of my house.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: Eisheth Zenunim

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

BPAL Scent of the Day:  Eisheth Zenunim (Carnaval Diabolique IV, Ladies of the Grindhouse) -- Honey, ambergris, neroli, white peach, patchouli, and cocoa absolute.

Sometimes I wake up smelling the perfume I want to wear that day.  Today is such a day.  It's time for my favorite "I can't believe these notes work together on me!" perfume, Eisheth Zenunim.

In the bottle this one is salty, aquatic, and floral.  The neroli is deep and rich, not high and sharp like some of those orange blossom notes.  I can tell this has aged since I bought it in 2008, because the bottle used to smell more like peach and chocolate.

Wet on my skin the peach shows up to pair with the floral.  The salty aquatic note is still there; that'd be the ambergris.  The honey is very restrained, hard to make out apart from the neroli.  The dark chocolate is just a whisper of its former self; when the bottle was new the chocolate was a lot stronger.  It used to be a lot like a salty peach bonbon!  However, even though the balance has changed I still love this one.

As it matures there's this period when it suddenly goes very light, and I always worry that my bottle's gone off.  But then the full scent develops, and wow!  Is it worth the wait!

This is a fruity-patchouli scent, that much is certain  The white peach, which sometimes has a tendency to be sugary, is not so in this iteration.  The honey is sweet, but it's also restrained and clean, not foody or powdery or floral.  The neroli fine-tunes the peach and honey into something really beautiful, with a goldy-orange feel against the background of herbal (not rooty) patchouli.  The little fillips of cocoa and ambergris shape the scent, keeping it in check with their surprising presence.

The Lab's scents from the Carnaval Diabolique period represent some of the finest patchouli-oriented work in the entire catalogue.  This quirky, WTF scent (peach ambergris?  honey patchouli?  chocolate neroli?) is a one of a kind, and I adore it.  I look forward to Eisheth Zenunim's re-release as the Carnaval Diabolique returns from the dead.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: Delphi

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

BPAL Scent of the Day:  Delphi (Wanderlust, discontinued 2014) -- The smoke of Sacred Incense of Apollo twined through laurel branches, bay, and honey wine.

I've been watching movies about ancient Greek mythology lately, which made me want to wear this one again.  In the bottle Delphi is sharp and a little boozy, like very un-sweet mead and an indefinite herbal note.

Wet on my skin, there's an immediate spike of fruit and floral.  The fruit seems bitter-tart, like bayberries.  The floral is nectareous, possibly a very floral honey.  There's also that woody-smoky note that often indicates bay rum.  As it ages, the fruity note turns more leaflike, still bitter green and tart but much more dry.  There's quite a lot of sillage.

It takes a while to mature completely.  The sillage reduces, the honey note takes over and turns a little musky.  After a while the smoke and green notes diminish and it's all light musky honey.  I suspect there's some ambrette seed in this.

I had the bad (or good, depending on how you look at it) luck to fall in love with this just after it was discontinued.  I wrote the Lab desperately and asked if they had any bottles of it left that they could sell me.  Fortunately for me the answer was "yes."  Another moment of love for the Lab's customer service!

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: The Phantom Calliope (Carnaval Diabolique, Act I)

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

BPAL Scent of the Day: The Phantom Calliope (Carnaval Diabolique, Act I): Ghostly, glowing, sweet and dark: black cherry, patchouli, cassis, cardamom and verbena.

This bottle is very well aged; I think it dates to 2008.  In the bottle it smells of cherry-almond with a little cardamom.

Wet on my skin it's all dark cherry and cassis, a more woody and less foody version of cinnamon.  The almond impression goes away almost immediately.  The bright candyish sweetness of the fruit subsides as it matures, making room for the delicate herbal lemon and cardamom notes.  At first the lemon verbena goes metallic on me, as it often does, but then it calms down into a soft, slightly tart backup note.  Overall it becomes a cherry and spice scent with herbal overtones.

After about an hour, the patchouli comes out; it is the high menthol type rather than the earthy woody type, and it is very restrained.  The patchouli and black cherry blend down into a scent only very slightly dominated by the fruit.  The cinnamon and cardamom can still be made out individually, but taken together it's like some exotic dark chutney.  In this form it's very stable on me and lasts for many hours.

I had forgotten how much I love the fruity-patchouli vibe of this one.  I'm so glad the Carnaval is back in town!

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: Mme. Moriarty, Misfortune Teller (Carnival Diabolique, Act II)

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

BPAL Scent of the Day:   Mme. Moriarty, Misfortune Teller (Carnival Diabolique, Act II):  Red musk, vanilla bean, pomegranate, patchouli leaf and wild plum.

Judging from the number of reviews left for it at bpal.org, this is presumably the most popular scent in the Carnaval Diabolique line.  I certainly know a lot of people who are really passionate about it -- and I'm one of them.

In the bottle La Madame smells like tart fruit and very light patchouli.  On my skin it turns smoky-pungent right away.  There is definitely some overlap in ingredients between this and Snake Oil, presumably in the strong vanilla-musk axis around which the rest of the scent is built.  But there's concentrated dark fruit as well, and just enough patchouli to let you know it's there.  This is a very rich, enticing scent.

As it matures the concentrated dark fruit notes continue to entice; they're smoky-syrupy without being sugary.  The vanilla-musk continues to develop much like Snake Oil, while the patchouli slowly becomes more noticeable.

The resurrected version of La Madame that's currently live at the Lab website lists "black currant" as an ingredient.  I wouldn't be surprised to discover that it's exactly the same scent as the original version; rich black currant could easily be part of what I'm noticing in the dark fruit notes.  But it's not the jammy dark currant of, say, Crumpet Rebellion or The Knave of Hearts.  It's closer to the black currant note in Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse or Lunar Eclipse 2013, more like a dried fruit or a concentrated juice syrup than something with sugar in it.

At any rate, this is an arresting scent that always makes me feel mysterious and special when I wear it.  The two times I bought it from the Lab, the Tarot cards that came with it proved to be highly relevant to my life, which just makes the scent that much more fun.  I look forward to my forthcoming bottle of La Madame Resurrected and the Tarot card that comes with it, to see what the future holds for this beloved scent.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: Blauer Mond

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

BPAL Scent of the Day:  Blauer Mond (Brian's Interpretation 2012):  sea buckthorn berry, terebinth pine, frankincense, hyssop, white sage, Neptune's night-blooming jasmine, cucumber, lavender, ambergris accord, and violet leaf.

Every blue moon, the Lab releases a scent to celebrate the occasion.  Of all the Blue Moons they've put out, this one is my favorite.  In the bottle it's gently aquatic, a touch salty, with some bitter herbal overtones.  It smells cool and insubstantial.

Wet on my skin, the night-blooming jasmine and lavender are most noticeable.  Night-blooming jasmine has an earthier impression than regular jasmine, with fewer indolic overtones.  There's some evergreen in the background, cucumber in the middle, and the white sage and frankincense bond into a smooth, slightly tingly base.  With its aquatic and jasmine overtones, this scent reminds me of walking by moonlight in Berkeley.

It dries down quickly into a soft aquatic-tinged resin scent.  The jasmine has lightened considerably and the herbs have blended with the terebinth evergreen note into a mysterious bitter green ensemble.  Supported by cucumber and ambergris over a frankincense base, it's shadowy yet verdant.

Because of the frankincense, this one hangs around on my skin for a while longer than I'd expect from an herb-based scent.  As it matures, the floral lightens into inconsequence.  This is like nothing else in the catalogue that I've tried, save perhaps Velvet Cthulhu.  It's definitely a once in a blue moon kind of scent.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: Ded Moroz

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

BPAL Scent of the Day:   Ded Moroz (Yules 2009):  Light, darkness, kindness, and malice: golden amber, white amber, redwood, teak, bois du rose, sage, tree moss, and snow.

It's going to be a really hot day today, so I reached for one of my very best hot-weather scents.  Awe and mystique surrounded Ded Moroz six or seven years ago.  For a lot of years, there had been only one known bottle of prototype, which was resold on eBay for around $800.  But happily it finally came out as a Limited Edition so we could all partake of the mystique.

In the bottle, my now well-aged Ded Moroz smells like leaves -- not the sappy green leaves of a Hallowe'enies scent, but more mature and with a decided wood note along with the leaves.

Fresh on my skin there's almost a fennel note to this, a greenish licorice-type note.  Overall it is light and almost minty, definitely evergreen but not thick or pitchy.  There's some light balsamic wood and a breath of sage too.  Strangely, the golden amber is not to be noticed, but the white amber is.  White amber is also cool and greenish in impression, so it really works well with the herbal and evergreen notes here.

As it dries down there's some of the snow note.  Usually I don't do well with the snow note, but there's just enough of it here to make itself known, like a dusting atop a hemlock tree, barely weighting the branches.  I still don't get any golden amber, but the white amber provides some lovely resinous top notes to what may be the best evergreen scent in the catalogue.  It is complex, balsamy, restrained, refreshing, and very cool.

As it ages the greener, more herbal overtones of Ded Moroz fade down into the general balsam-amber base, without ever quite relinquishing their cool qualities.  I never get any hint of the heavy teak note, but the redwood one smells a lot like Muir Forest to me.

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.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: Pluto

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

BPAL Scent of the Day:  Pluto (Celestials 2004) -- no description given.

The Lab released an early line of scents devoted to astrological takes on the planets.  They haven't been available for a long time.  I like testing early Lab scents because I enjoy seeing the changes in an artist's development over time; accordingly, I have kept my eyes open for those early blends.  From time to time the Lab finds a really old bottle in their 
oubliette
dungeon storeroom and puts it on their Etsy site.  That's how I got ahold of a bottle of Pluto just in time for the culmination of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto. 

In the bottle this is mostly a light tart resin with maybe a fillip of patchouli.  Wet on my skin there's a sudden rush of patchouli and a menthol impression that might be wood or might just be the red patchouli note.  Ethereal high notes of lavender and something citrusy, perhaps lemon verbena, mingled with a definite dragon's blood note, the stemmy rather than the floral kind.

This one took a long time to dry down and get stable.  For a while it was amping an extremely high floral I never did identify, but that eventually went away.  That menthol impression blended down smoothly into something light, citrusy, herbal, and indistinct.  At maturity Pluto is clearly a resin scent built around opoponax; after about two hours the opoponax went from the dry, tannic, woody version of itself to the expansive, warm, sweet but still very dark version of itself.  That's the note I love in Schwarzer Mond, Minotaur (as "bisabol myrrh"), Earth Phoenix, and Event Horizon, so I am happy to encounter it here.

Hello, Pluto!  Nice to meet you!

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: For Each Ecstatic Instant (Lupercalia 2015)

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

BPAL For Each Ecstatic Instant (Lupercalia 2015) -- velvet-red roses and sensual aged patchouli with night-blooming jasmine, caramelized bourbon vanilla, labdanum, black amber, and oudh.

In the bottle this smells very deep, mostly resin and patchouli with some jasmine and a touch of vanilla.  Wet on my skin the patchouli and jasmine spike immediately.  This smells like it's going to be similar to the Sumatran Red Patchouli single note.  The oudh comes up, and there's a tiny velvety bit of rose impression too.  Overall, it's very dark, opulent, and intense.

On drydown, it's a dry and slightly powdery scent, woody at first but then more resinous, more jasmine than patchouli.  I keep wondering where the sweetness of rose and vanilla have gone!  But there is no mercy in this scent.  It is not ethereal, a picturesque ninteenth-century mourner's statue draped over the grave of former ecstasy.  This is the full awareness of loss, the forceful downside of loving completely.

I'm always delighted when I find a perfume inspired by one of my favorite poets.  It's even more delightful when I can actually wear it and find it meaningful.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: Chaos Theory VII

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

BPAL Testing Day:  Chaos Theories!

I tested four different decants of Chaos Theory VII:  Emergence in the Woods family of scents.

CT VII:  Woods #68 was very balsamy in the vial and wet on my skin.  It dried down to a greenish yet sweet frankincense and balsam.  Despite having a touch of some dark wood, it's a very light scent.  I will probably layer this with some other scents to accentuate their existing balsam/frankincense.

CT VII:  Woods #69 was all birch and some foody note in the vial.  On my skin the foody note turned darker and woodier while the birch note amped, then soured, then calmed back down.  The dark foody note turned a little spicy when it matured and reminded me a bit of sassafras -- not quite as rooty as sassafras, but with a similar vibe.  The birch stayed present the whole time but lost much of that lovely wintergreen clarity after a while.

CT VII:  Woods #80 was very masculine in the vial; I would swear it was a man's cologne.  On my skin it became a very dark wood with a fougere on top.  I couldn't quite make out the wood for a long time:  not oud, not mahogany, not rosewood, but familiar.  Finally, after it was quite mature, I realized it was oak:  a dark oaky woody fougere.  This one stayed very true for many hours on me.

CT VII:  Woods #81 smelled like bright strong lemon and stems in the vial.  Wet on my skin it was like nothing I have ever tried, a very woody yet thoroughly lemony scent.  (How could this be?  I still don't know.)  It calmed down a bit but stayed both woody and lemony.  I still don't know if it was lemongrass or not, but it was really, really lemony.  Really.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: Chaos Theory VII: Emergence, Oriental Series #149!

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

BPAL Scent of the Day:  Chaos Theory VII:  Emergence, Oriental Series #149!

It's Chaos Theory time!

The fun of a Chaos Theory is in the testing.  It's like sticking your hand into the proverbial box of chocolates; it works out better if you have resolved to enjoy yourself beforehand, no matter what.

I bought an Oriental Series bottle because I love resins which are the backbone of the so-called Oriental class of perfumes.  That already gives me a leg up on liking my Chaos Theory!

In the bottle my CT smells light and aquatic.  I'm thinking maybe ambergris.  No noticeable frankincense, olibanum, galbanum, myrrh, labdanum, benzoin, elemi, mastic, or any of the other more weird resin notes.

Wet on my skin it turns warmer than before, but still greenish aquatic.  Pretty sure this is ambergris, but I don't know what else is in there.  There's a slightly soapy impression, maybe lilyish.

As it dries down, I notice a soft light amberish base under this, a bit powdery.  I still get the ambergris note foremost, but the soapy note is less obvious now.  It's definitely bitter and greenish, this scent, a sort of herbal aquatic.  There might be a tiny smidge of galbanum in here giving that green grounding.

After three hours, it's about as mature as it's going to get.  It's still a very light scent, more amberish than anything else.  I get a vanillic cast to it, almost a caramel overtone, but it is still light.  It's not the golden amber note; it's more like an echo of the old Egyptian amber note.  The green and ambergris notes are mostly gone, but it retains the memory of green.

It's kind of funny:  the preponderance of the Chaos Theories I've bought from the Lab over the years have had that light aquatic element to them and the soapy overtone.  The soapy lily note I recognized from other blends, but I just now figured out that I've been noticing ambergris in many of my CT bottles without realizing what it was.  I guess it's lucky for me that ambergris works on me, much better than most aquatic notes.