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The Whirling Wind Lunacy tee is live! And the Blue Moon 2009 tee is also live! Whirling Wind was illustrated by Alicia Dabney, and Blue Moon's goblin party was illustrated by Jennifer Williamson! Whirling Wind will be live until December 5, 2009, and Blue Moon will be live until January 5, 2009.

HOLIDAY SHIPPING NOTICE: In order to receive your Alchemy Lab package by Christmas Eve... Internationals! Please place your order by midnight PST December 2nd. Domestics! Please place your order by midnight PST December 7th. In order to receive your Trading Post Package by Christmas Eve… Internationals! Please place your order by midnight PST December 5th. Domestics! Please place your order by midnight PST December 7th. Black Phoenix Trading Post orders that include the Whirling Wind Moon tee and/or the Blue Moon tee are not guaranteed to arrive in time for Christmas. Lunacy tees and most LE tees do not go into production until we’re done taking orders for them, and they take a few weeks to be made. Please bear in mind that we are not responsible for USPS shenanigans. We do promise that we will bust our asses to get you your orders asap. Please do not take offense at our using Christmas, specifically, as a date marker. Without further ado… Happy Yuletide, everyone! Whirling Wind is live at BPAL, as are the next scents in the Nile series! WHIRLING WIND MOON Swiftly walk o'er the western wave, Spirit of Night! Out of the misty eastern cave, Where, all the long and lone daylight, Thou wovest dreams of joy and fear, 'Which make thee terrible and dear, -- Swift be thy flight! Dreams of joy and fear: swirling dark and airy musks, mogra, plumeria, hyacinth, lily of the valley, dry white sandalwood, gardenia, pale amber, and oakmoss. SEASON OF THE EMERGENCE Month after month the gathered rains descend Drenching yon secret Aethiopian dells, And from the desert's ice-girt pinnacles Where Frost and Heat in strange embraces blend On Atlas, fields of moist snow half depend. Girt there with blasts and meteors Tempest dwells By Nile's aereal urn, with rapid spells Urging those waters to their mighty end. O'er Egypt's land of Memory floods are level And they are thine, O Nile--and well thou knowest That soul-sustaining airs and blasts of evil And fruits and poisons spring where'er thou flowest. Beware, O Man--for knowledge must to thee, Like the great flood to Egypt, ever be. During Peret the Nile’s waters retreat, leaving a lush, fertile black silt behind. This is the time of plowing and seeding: crops and herbs were planted and cultivated, and prayers and sacrifices were offered to ensure a bountiful harvest later in the year. The seeds and the seedlings as the sprout forth from the deep black silt: cucumber, flax, wheat, radishes, leeks, sesame, and beans, with thyme, frankincense, chamomile, coriander, spikenard, cumin, hyssop, and juniper. HATMEHIT The Egyptian fish goddess, orginally a deification of the Nile River, the Great Flood, and the Waters of Creation. The scent of the depths of the River, teeming with aquatic life, sanctified by holy herbs. The Blue Moon will be manifesting this December, and we will be offering two interpretations of the event this time around. First, my take on it: BLUE MOON The spirit of the full moon is capricious, intense and passionate, yet still distant, aloof and cold. Luna herself governs glamours, bewitchments and dream-work, innocent wonder, transient pleasure and delight, the Moment, impulse, mystery and veils. The Blue Moon is one of her rarest manifestations, and this scent is formulated to encapsulate her most complex and profound nature: Mugwort, for psychic sensitivity... Calea Zacatechichi, for divination through dreams... Orchid and frankincense, for complexity, wisdom and noscere... ... with a potent lunar-charged, oneirongenic blend of blue musk, exquisite woods, moonflower, Madagascan ylang ylang, Florentine iris, Greek cypress, green tea absolute, palmarosa, cucumber, Clary sage, lavender, lemon balm, and passion fruit. At the end of the month, Brian’s expression of the Blue Moon will be going live! The Whirling Wind and Blue Moon tees will be going live at Black Phoenix Trading Post tomorrow, and the next Vampire Tarot scent and card set and matching tee will be going live at BPAL and BPTP later this month! Whirling Wind Moon and all of the Iteru, Yule and Miskatonic Valley scents are $17.50 each, and Blue Moon and the Anniversary and Resurrected scents are $20 each. The anniversary and Yule scents will be live until January 2010. Blue-Moon-Beth-Style and Whirling Wind Moon will be live until December 5, 2009. Blue-Moon-Brian-Style will appear at the end of the month along with December's second full moon. The four Dark Delicacies Yule scents are live on the Dark Delicacies web site, and are available at their brick and mortar shop in Burbank, CA!

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The following BPTP products, protos, and previews will be available at the Black Phoenix Trunk Show at Dark Delicacies on Sunday, November 29th, from 12-3pm: PROTOTYPE BATH OILS AND ROOM SPRAYS $25 each Revenge Room Spray Lola Montez Bath Oil Grace Elliot Bath Oil Champagne Bath Oil RETIRED BATH AND ATMOSPHERE SPRAYS $25 each Lupanar Room Spray Glacies Bath Oil Jingu Bath Oil Zenobia Bath Oil Tomoe Gozen Bath Oil Hua Mulan Bath Oil RETIRED PERFUME OILS $20 each Boadicea Perfume Jingu Perfume Zenobia Perfume Hua Mulan Perfume Ysabel Perfume PREVIEWS: PILLBOXES $25 each Courtesan Pillboxes (Four courtesans to choose from!) PREVIEWS: THE DISTRICT / MOLLY CRABAPPLE ROOM SPRAYS Proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity: New Orleans! $30 each Gertrude Dix’s Pete Lala’s Café Mahogany Hall GC Shot Glasses $15 each Clocket $70 each Triple Dagger Locket $70 each Snow, Glass, Apples Locket $75 each Brimstone Pendant $35 each Triple Dagger Pendant $35 each Bat-Woman Card Case $45 each Triple Dagger Card Case $45 each Salome Card Case $45 each Dressed Thus Card Case $45 each Leather Wrist Cuff $35 each Where and when is this happening? Dark Delicacies 4213 W. Burbank Burbank, CA 91505 U.S.A. Sunday, November 29 12pm - 3pm 1-888-DARKDEL 1-818-556-6660 darkdel *at* darkdel *.* com On December 3rd, Dark Delicacies will be celebrating their 15th anniversary! 30% off most items (sale & consignment items not included) in the store… and CAKE! Bring in a new toy valued at $10 or more and get 40% off a single item that day. =) The four new BPAL Dark Delicacies scents are live now on the DD web site! http://bit.ly/A640O

On Sunday, November 29th, Dark Delicacies will be hosting Black Phoenix’s last trunk show of 2009. We will be bringing back some scents we still have stock of from previous 2009 shows, plus some bottles that we tapped for this event. In addition, there are four new Dark Delicacies scents that will be debuting at the event! - - - Upon being discharged from his restful stay at Arkham Sanitarium, Del Howison and his wife, Sue, the former archivist and curator of the Cabot Museum in Beacon Hill, opened up a bookstore in Arkham specializing in hard-to-find grimoires, occult treatises, and mystical antiquities. They also cater to the lighter interests of the Valley’s cultists, and carry a vast selection of macabre books, DVDs, and ceremonial memorabilia. Every Saturday at midnight, Sue hosts Tiny Terror Story Time -- including interactive ritual indoctrination for tots AND milk and cookies! Each week features the songs, stories, and rites of a different Outer God or Great Old One! Fifteen years later, they have twelve stores across the Miskatonic Valley, and one in sunny Burbank, CA! STORY TIME AT DARK DELICACIES Heavy oak shelving, cracked leather bindings, incense-soaked parchment, ancient inks, baneful aromatic herbs, and crumbs of spilled sugar-glazed lemon butter cookies that have been accidentally dragged from the kiddie section of the store. SUE’S GREAT OLD PUPPET SHOW Sue’s adorable Cthulhu hand puppets and whirling Nyarlathotep marionettes help kids learn about ancient and terrible extraterrestrial beings! A wacky way to introduce your little ones to forbidden blood-chilling rites! Hot cocoa, tiny marshmallows, white glue, stick-on googly eyes, and felt! In 2000, Del Howison opened the Nameless City Drive-In theatre in Arkham, and eventually expanded to Innsmouth, Dunwich, and Kingsport. While Del focuses on blockbuster horror hits in his theatres, he also shows documentaries of local interest, and hosts the Dylath-Leen Film Festival which showcases the work of both prominent and up-and-coming Miskatonic Valley filmmakers. As a public service, Del provides shuttle transportation to Arkham Sanitarium at the conclusion of each film festival. Classic comedies are shown at the Nameless City Drive-In on the first Monday of every month! Abbot and Costello vs. the Lurking Ineffable Horror from the Depths of Space and Time is always a hit! Due to increased Mi-Go activity in recent months, convertibles and Minis are gently discouraged at the drive-in. THE NAMELESS CITY DRIVE-IN THEATRE Chrome bumpers gleaming in cold, exhaust-fume laden night air. Soggy foliage and crushed grass dotted with popcorn that has been crushed under rubber tires. Leather seats moist with skin musk and the sweat of groping hands fumbling under ceremonial robes. THE SNACK HUT Hot popcorn covered in a glowing golden liquid substance, fried things, and artificially flavored cherry frozen carbonated beverages, extra-loaded with high-fructose corn syrup. During this year’s Miskatonic Valley Yuletide Faire, Sue will be running the kid’s crafts booth, and Del will be showing holiday cinematic favorites throughout the season, including “It’s a Gibbering, Seething Life”, “All I Want For Yuletide is Bleating Madness”, and “’Twas the Night Before the Profane Horror Manifested”! (The oils are devoid of felt, googly eyes, high fructose corn syrup, artificial cherry flavoring, glue, and tentacles. Don’t be silly!) - - - The following oils are this trunk show’s new offerings: Absinthe v5 Absinthe v7 AF18 AF22 AF24 AF25 B.B2 B.B3 Black Orchid v3 BOBN1 BRA11 BTCS BTLS1 BTMEM BTOD1 BTOD2 BTPQ BTPU1 BTPU2 BTSB Dirty v3 Dorian v3 Dragon Pecker v2 Grand Guignol v4 HARLOT V2 Hel v6 HR1 HR2 Mason & Jenkins Port Jelly 2 MVJHL Bake Sale v3 Nepthys v2 Nepthys v4 NGAGL5 NGG023 NVF02 NVF10 NVL1 NVMA1 NVP1 NVP2 NVPR4 O v5 O v6 Playing With Dangerous Toys v2 Poisoned Apple v2 Poisoned Apple v3 PP416 PPH81 PSX54 Soothing System 1 XCDL13 XCDW5 YAR7 Zombie Apocalypse 4 The following oils from previous trunk shows will be brought back: A Bachelor's Dog A Bold Bluff Albedo Android V2 Aphrodite V7 Blue Phoenix Capela dos Ossos V5 CD023 Dorian V2 Gossamer Hellion V2 Hermes Trimegistus V2 Holly King Ice Queen Jingo Kogo V6 Lamia V3 Lust V7 MB: Underbed Medb V4 NYE in Dogville 2007 Oak King Orange Phoenix Osiris v4 Pediophobia V1 Pink Phoenix PO13 Purple Phoenix PX117 Red Phoenix Riding the Goat Scurvy Sekhmet V5 Set V3 Sitting up w/a Sick Friend Smut 2007 St. Lucia Strawberry Moon Tetramorph v2 TKO V3 Vishpala Please note: this list is subject to change. Very, very subject to change. Scents may be added as time permits, or deleted if circumstances dictate. If we can swing it, Trading Post will be bringing room spray and bath oil protos. List forthcoming. Each bottle of BPAL oil is $20. No preorders will be accepted for the perfumes and room sprays at the Cobwebs event. Bottles will be sold on a first-come basis, and there is a limit of three bottles per person until 30 minutes before the end of the event, at which point, the limit is lifted. The Vintage scents will, as always, be sportin’ a new label that was created for this event. You will not be getting the original label used for this scent. Where and when is this happening? Dark Delicacies 4213 W. Burbank Burbank, CA 91505 U.S.A. Sunday, November 29 12pm - 3pm 1-888-DARKDEL 1-818-556-6660 darkdel *at* darkdel *.* com On December 3rd, Dark Delicacies will be celebrating their 15th anniversary! 30% off most items (sale & consignment items not included) in the store… and CAKE! Bring in a new toy valued at $10 or more and get 40% off a single item that day. =)

The 'aught nine Naughty & Nice Inquisition is live at Black Phoenix Trading Post!

Happy birthday, BPAL! Holy shit: we're seven years old! The past seven years have been some of the best years of my life, and I owe much of that to the family that has grown around Black Phoenix. Thank you to my brother and partner, Brian, who spearheads Production, and without whom Black Phoenix would not exist. I love you! Thank you to my husband, Teddy o'the Trading Post. Your love and support keeps me afloat, and you inspire me like no other. I love you! Thank you, Kathy, my right hand woman. You keep me sane, and you find my head for me when its not screwed on properly, and truly, I don't know what I'd do without you. I love you! Thank you, Jacquelynn, our general manager, whose gentle Virgo whip cracking ensures that the wheels of our strange machine run smoothly. I love you! Thank you to Bill, the patron saint of customer service. Your beautiful heart shines through your emails. I love you! Thank you to our production staff, who form the backbone of this company. You enable us to share our creations with the world, and I am eternally grateful. I love you! Thank you to the mods and administrators of bpal.org for being the best friends anyone could ask for. You take on a difficult, often thankless, job with love and dedication beyond the call of duty. Thank you for being my proofreaders, my sanity check, and my foundation. You are amazing women, and I love you! Thank you to Sue and Del at Dark Delicacies for giving BPAL a home away from home, for always being there for us, and for being wonderful grandparents to the Little Demoness. I love you! (And so does Lilith!) Thank you to the artists that work with us, Jennifer Williamson, Alicia Dabney, Julie Dillon, Madame Talbot, Quique Alcatena, Jennifer Rodgers, and Sarah Coleman, for bringing our scents to life! I love you! Thank you to Lisa and the crew at Whole Foods in Roswell, GA for giving their all to Dirty South will call! You are amazing people, and I love you! Thank you to the Mütter Museum, Le Pink, Whole Foods, Urban Outfitters, Wildilocks, and Healthy Living for giving our products a home in your stores! Thank you to the bloggers, journalists, magazines, and other media outlets that have shown interest in Black Phoenix, and have taken the time to do writeups on our shops! Thank you for your time and energy; it means the world to us! Thank you to Neil Gaiman for affecting me like no other author, for being such a supportive friend, and for allowing me the pleasure of interpreting your beautiful, witty, soul-moving stories through scent. I love you! Thank you to Amanda Palmer, Terry Pratchett, Terry Moore, Mike and Christine Mignola, George Perez, Peter David, Molly Crabapple, Mark Waid, Ross Ritchie, Jill Thompson, Brian Pulido, and Gris Grimly for giving us such all such joy through the beauty of your art, and for giving Black Phoenix the opportunity to interpret your work. Thank you to the kind people at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Hero Initiative. You help those who cannot help themselves, and you are an inspiration to us all. Thank you to all our clients. Thank you for being there for us, and for each other, throughout all these years. Thank you for sharing our happiness and holding our hands through times of grief, loss, and transition. Thank you for celebrating pivotal points in our lives with us… the challenges of our rites of passage and difficult times of change… beautiful moments… weddings and births… and comforting us in times of sorrow. Thank you for wit, your kind hearts, and your friendship. Without the amazing, beautiful people we have met through and because of Black Phoenix, this would all be ashes. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share all that I love, all that I fear, and all I desire with all of you. I love you! Now, before I start weeping like a loon, let's get on with the new stuffs… The BPAL 7th Anniversary scents are live! ++ THE ALCHEMICAL PHOENIXES GOLD PHOENIX La Lumiere sortant des Tenebres. The noblest of the alchemical metals, representing the splendor of the Sun. It is the essence of pure consciousness and represents the divine, creative force present in all spirit and all matter. It is the symbol of the goal of perfection, and is capable of radiating all the colors of dawn and dusk while still retaining its unblemished purity. Three ambers representing common gold, astral gold, and elementary gold, with verbena, angelica, and heliotrope that has been purified by frankincense and Gum Arabic. SILVER PHOENIX Lustrous, pliable, delicate, and malleable, silver is as mysterious and radiant as the moon. Silver requires darkness in order to react, and receives light passively. Opalescent orris shimmering through a blend of mallow, moonflower, wild pear, iris, starwort, juniper, and mugwort. COPPER PHOENIX Copper's lustrous, rose-tinted Venusian energy inspires creativity and assists in balancing spiritual polarities. It can be utilized as a literal mirror, and a mirror reflecting the beauty of the soul. Rose-infused dark amber, with sweet orange, honey, cardamom, patchouli, apricot, pink pepper, and red sandalwood. IRON PHOENIX Blood and fire: a magnetic metal that burns brightly and easily. Iron illustrates the metabolic process and the need to control primal, brutal urges without quelling the fire of passion. Dragon's blood and dark, dense metal, black pepper, clove, red ginger, basil, and myrrh. TIN PHOENIX A malleable, pale metal with a flexible, crystalline structure that speaks out with a thunderous voice when bent or shaken. It is representative of the breath of life and the storminess of the spirit. Pale metals, crackling ozone, hyssop, white mint, tonka, and lemongrass. QUICKSILVER PHOENIX Mercury exists in three states of matter, just as Hermes, its patron, was the one deity that could move freely through the three classical worlds. In one of the alchemical processes, nitric acid, also called aqua fortis, is combined with Mercury, which then separates into a bed of red crystals and a cloud of red vapor. This experiment symbolizes the soul's transcendence over the polarities of mercy and severity, heaven and earth, light and darkness, life and death. Mercury is capable of forming complex compounds and amalgamating with elements that normally will not bind with others. Combined with phosphor and charged with electricity, it produces light. Cinnabar and silvery liquid droplets of mastic, white sandalwood, elemi, and lavender. LEAD PHOENIX Solid, heavy, and resistant to corrosion, lead is the first and oldest of the Seven Metals. It is the metal of ammunition and tombs, radiation shields and solder. Though it represents limitations and boundaries, it also transcends them when combined with other elements to create Philosophical Mercury. A dark and lusterless scent that contains the potential for limitless spiritual radiance: tobacco absolute, hemlock, plum, cypress, styrax, olibanum, and wild lettuce. And this year's resurrected scents… ++ 2009 RESURRECTED BLENDS HOD Glory and Majesty, Kokab, God's Judgement. SPOOKY A maddeningly festive blend of warm, buttery rum, cocoa, coconut, vanilla and a jolt of peppermint. It's a sweet, decadent, slightly silly scent, reminiscent of rum-laced holiday cookies. Much is also new at Black Phoenix Trading Post! Several new claw polishes are live at the 'Post, inspired by BPAL's Bordello, Croquet, Malediction, Sed Non Satiata, and two Phoenix Steamworks-inspired colors: Smokestack and Robotic Scarab. A tee commemorating BPAL's annual Resurrection of the Smells is live! Artwork by Jennifer Williamson! And last, but not least, Neil Gaiman's Snow, Glass, Apples locket is live! Based on illustrations by Julie Dillon for the Snow, Glass, Apples chapbook produced by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. We are tying up one remaining loose end with the Inquisition, and it will be live later this week! Please mark it on your calendars: Dark Delicacies will be hosting the final Black Phoenix trunk show of 2009 on November 29, 2009 from 12pm til 3pm! Details to come!

Happy birthday, BPAL! Holy shit: we're seven years old! The past seven years have been some of the best years of my life, and I owe much of that to the family that has grown around Black Phoenix. Thank you to my brother and partner, Brian, who spearheads Production, and without whom Black Phoenix would not exist. I love you! Thank you to my husband, Teddy o'the Trading Post. Your love and support keeps me afloat, and you inspire me like no other. I love you! Thank you, Kathy, my right hand woman. You keep me sane, and you find my head for me when its not screwed on properly, and truly, I don't know what I'd do without you. I love you! Thank you, Jacquelynn, our general manager, whose gentle Virgo whip cracking ensures that the wheels of our strange machine run smoothly. I love you! Thank you to Bill, the patron saint of customer service. Your beautiful heart shines through your emails. I love you! Thank you to our production staff, who form the backbone of this company. You enable us to share our creations with the world, and I am eternally grateful. I love you! Thank you to the mods and administrators of bpal.org for being the best friends anyone could ask for. You take on a difficult, often thankless, job with love and dedication beyond the call of duty. Thank you for being my proofreaders, my sanity check, and my foundation. You are amazing women, and I love you! Thank you to Sue and Del at Dark Delicacies for giving BPAL a home away from home, for always being there for us, and for being wonderful grandparents to the Little Demoness. I love you! (And so does Lilith!) Thank you to the artists that work with us, Jennifer Williamson, Alicia Dabney, Julie Dillon, Madame Talbot, Quique Alcatena, Jennifer Rodgers, and Sarah Coleman, for bringing our scents to life! I love you! Thank you to Lisa and the crew at Whole Foods in Roswell, GA for giving their all to Dirty South will call! You are amazing people, and I love you! Thank you to the Mütter Museum, Le Pink, Whole Foods, Urban Outfitters, Wildilocks, and Healthy Living for giving our products a home in your stores! Thank you to the bloggers, journalists, magazines, and other media outlets that have shown interest in Black Phoenix, and have taken the time to do writeups on our shops! Thank you for your time and energy; it means the world to us! Thank you to Neil Gaiman for affecting me like no other author, for being such a supportive friend, and for allowing me the pleasure of interpreting your beautiful, witty, soul-moving stories through scent. I love you! Thank you to Amanda Palmer, Terry Pratchett, Terry Moore, Mike and Christine Mignola, George Perez, Peter David, Molly Crabapple, Mark Waid, Ross Ritchie, Jill Thompson, Brian Pulido, and Gris Grimly for giving us such all such joy through the beauty of your art, and for giving Black Phoenix the opportunity to interpret your work. Thank you to the kind people at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Hero Initiative. You help those who cannot help themselves, and you are an inspiration to us all. Thank you to all our clients. Thank you for being there for us, and for each other, throughout all these years. Thank you for sharing our happiness and holding our hands through times of grief, loss, and transition. Thank you for celebrating pivotal points in our lives with us… the challenges of our rites of passage and difficult times of change… beautiful moments… weddings and births… and comforting us in times of sorrow. Thank you for wit, your kind hearts, and your friendship. Without the amazing, beautiful people we have met through and because of Black Phoenix, this would all be ashes. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share all that I love, all that I fear, and all I desire with all of you. I love you! Now, before I start weeping like a loon, let's get on with the new stuffs… The BPAL 7th Anniversary scents are live! ++ THE ALCHEMICAL PHOENIXES GOLD PHOENIX La Lumiere sortant des Tenebres. The noblest of the alchemical metals, representing the splendor of the Sun. It is the essence of pure consciousness and represents the divine, creative force present in all spirit and all matter. It is the symbol of the goal of perfection, and is capable of radiating all the colors of dawn and dusk while still retaining its unblemished purity. Three ambers representing common gold, astral gold, and elementary gold, with verbena, angelica, and heliotrope that has been purified by frankincense and Gum Arabic. SILVER PHOENIX Lustrous, pliable, delicate, and malleable, silver is as mysterious and radiant as the moon. Silver requires darkness in order to react, and receives light passively. Opalescent orris shimmering through a blend of mallow, moonflower, wild pear, iris, starwort, juniper, and mugwort. COPPER PHOENIX Copper's lustrous, rose-tinted Venusian energy inspires creativity and assists in balancing spiritual polarities. It can be utilized as a literal mirror, and a mirror reflecting the beauty of the soul. Rose-infused dark amber, with sweet orange, honey, cardamom, patchouli, apricot, pink pepper, and red sandalwood. IRON PHOENIX Blood and fire: a magnetic metal that burns brightly and easily. Iron illustrates the metabolic process and the need to control primal, brutal urges without quelling the fire of passion. Dragon's blood and dark, dense metal, black pepper, clove, red ginger, basil, and myrrh. TIN PHOENIX A malleable, pale metal with a flexible, crystalline structure that speaks out with a thunderous voice when bent or shaken. It is representative of the breath of life and the storminess of the spirit. Pale metals, crackling ozone, hyssop, white mint, tonka, and lemongrass. QUICKSILVER PHOENIX Mercury exists in three states of matter, just as Hermes, its patron, was the one deity that could move freely through the three classical worlds. In one of the alchemical processes, nitric acid, also called aqua fortis, is combined with Mercury, which then separates into a bed of red crystals and a cloud of red vapor. This experiment symbolizes the soul's transcendence over the polarities of mercy and severity, heaven and earth, light and darkness, life and death. Mercury is capable of forming complex compounds and amalgamating with elements that normally will not bind with others. Combined with phosphor and charged with electricity, it produces light. Cinnabar and silvery liquid droplets of mastic, white sandalwood, elemi, and lavender. LEAD PHOENIX Solid, heavy, and resistant to corrosion, lead is the first and oldest of the Seven Metals. It is the metal of ammunition and tombs, radiation shields and solder. Though it represents limitations and boundaries, it also transcends them when combined with other elements to create Philosophical Mercury. A dark and lusterless scent that contains the potential for limitless spiritual radiance: tobacco absolute, hemlock, plum, cypress, styrax, olibanum, and wild lettuce. And this year's resurrected scents… ++ 2009 RESURRECTED BLENDS HOD Glory and Majesty, Kokab, God's Judgement. SPOOKY A maddeningly festive blend of warm, buttery rum, cocoa, coconut, vanilla and a jolt of peppermint. It's a sweet, decadent, slightly silly scent, reminiscent of rum-laced holiday cookies. Much is also new at Black Phoenix Trading Post! Several new claw polishes are live at the 'Post, inspired by BPAL's Bordello, Croquet, Malediction, Sed Non Satiata, and two Phoenix Steamworks-inspired colors: Smokestack and Robotic Scarab. A tee commemorating BPAL's annual Resurrection of the Smells is live! Artwork by Jennifer Williamson! And last, but not least, Neil Gaiman's Snow, Glass, Apples locket is live! Based on illustrations by Julie Dillon for the Snow, Glass, Apples chapbook produced by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. We are tying up one remaining loose end with the Inquisition, and it will be live later this week! Please mark it on your calendars: Dark Delicacies will be hosting the final Black Phoenix trunk show of 2009 on November 29, 2009 from 12pm til 3pm! Details to come!

The Yule label theme is All Krampus, All the Time. The Pink Snowballs label is also Krampus-themed; some of the Krampus'ee labels don't have red backgrounds, is all. =) Glad you guys like them! I had a lot of fun making the Krampus ones, and Julie did an amazing job with the Miskatonic Valley artwork!

Just wanted to let November WCWC attendees know that E! will be filming a segment of That Morning Show at the NoHo will call. =) Don't want anyone coming unawares!

Hey guys! I would LOVE to see everyone's Halloween costumes this year. If you don't mind showing us, please email your photos to halloween @ blackphoenixalchemylab . com, and let us know if its ok to repost them, what your forum name and / or IRL name is, what scent you're wearing, and anything else you'd like to share!

Peach Moon is ripening early at Alchemy Lab and Trading Post! Both will be live on their respective sites until November 5, 2009! PEACH MOON Smoke hangs on the stream, The peach-trees shed bright leaves in the water, Sound drifts in the evening haze Dew-covered peach blossom, white tea, moonlit musk, night-blooming jasmine, ho wood, and chrysanthemum. Artwork by our little peach pie, Alicia Dabney! Two peach-toned shimmer inks on white tee! Black Phoenix Trading Post has gone live with the next installment of Neil Gaiman's 15 Painted Cards From a Vampire Tarot: the Magician! Bring home your memories of this year's Miskatonic Valley Yuletide Faire with a stylish commemorative tee! Doubles as a cultist robe in a pinch, and machine washable, too! The Miskatonic Valley Yuletide Faire Official Event Tee Merrily macabre holiday artwork by Jolly Julie Dillon, the honorary emcee at this year's Faire! Mouldering green, sepulcheral white, malignant orange, and gnashing red inks on black tee! What else is new at Black Phoenix Trading Post? The Yule Bath Oils and Yule Atmosphere Sprays are back! - with a new addition! ++ YULE BATH OILS ICE PRINCE BATH OIL As beautiful and cold as a December storm. Crystalline musk, winter lily, bergamot, plum, and frozen pine boughs. PROSERPINA BATH OIL For thine came pale and a maiden, and sister to sorrow; but ours, Her deep hair heavily laden with odour and colour of flowers, White rose of the rose-white water, a silver splendour, a flame, Bent down unto us that besought her, and earth grew sweet with her name. The emergence of light in darkness. Frozen pomegranate and a hint of nocturnal blossoms. WINTER MAIDEN BATH OIL Ice-rimed innocence. The blush of youth, frozen for eternity. Snow-laden woods, iced blackberry and bergamot, white rose, and crystallized amber. HOLIDAY STRESS RELIEF BATH OIL Relax, revive, restore. Peppermint, spearmint, geranium bourbon, lavender, clary sage, white amber, juniper berry, laurel leaf, coriander, opoponax, and mandarin. ++ YULE ATMOSPHERE SPRAYS KRAMPUSUMZÜGE Dirt-spattered rags, rusted chains, and dry switches against a backdrop of black fir and snow. SNOW WHITE A chilly, bright perfume: flurries of virgin snow, crisp winter wind and the faintest breath of night-blooming flowers. Snow White and Krampusumzüge are $25 each. Ice Prince, Proserpina, and Winter Maiden are $30 each, and Holiday Stress Relief is $40. The Yule sprays and bath oils are available until December 15, 2009. BPTP's District collaboration with Molly Crabapple will be ready to go live in a few weeks time, and the Inquisition is coming up as soon as we iron out some of the kinks! Black Phoenix Trading Post customer service will be offline from Thursday, October 28 til Tuesday, November 3. Ted will be able to resume answering your questions and flirting long-distance on the 3rd. I, personally, will be offline, too, but BPAL customer service will be available and production and shipping at both BPAL and BPTP will continue as usual. A gentle reminder: West Coast Will Call will not be on the full moon in November, as many of our will call staffers will be out of town for the holiday. WCWC has been moved to Wednesday, November 4, 7-10pm. The theme this month is Dia de los Muertos! Costumes welcome and encouraged! We will be holding a canned food drive this month, so if you bring canned food, we will give you something in return. East Coast Will Call is at Whole Foods Market, aka Harry's Farmer's Market, in Roswell, GA on November 8, from 5-8. If you have any questions, please email us at willcall@blackphoenixalchemylab.com. Please note: there is a slight delay in shipping for BPAL and BPTP orders at this time. We're experiencing the holiday crunch, but we are endeavoring to get everything you order into your hands as quickly as possible!

A very merry early Yule to all! First things first… while the Alchemy Lab update is going live now, the Trading Post update, including the Inquisition, winter seasonal offerings, the District Atmosphere Sprays, and the District tee, and the Vampire Tarot Magician tee, is slightly delayed. In the interests of staying sane, we're separating the two by a few days, but I'm planning to have the BPTP update live by the weekend. Fear not -- we'll be working our asses off getting all the Trading Post stuff ready to go! And without further adieu… the Yuletide LE's are here! ++ YULETIDE 2009 BUT MEN LOVED DARKNESS RATHER THAN LIGHT The world's light shines, shine as it will, The world will love its darkness still. I doubt though when the world's in hell, It will not love its darkness half so well. The world will love its darkness: cistus labdanum, ginger, East Indian patchouli, pimento berry, oakmoss, saffron, smoky vanilla, sage, myrrh, and bitter blove. DED MOROZ Grandfather Frost! Accompanied by his granddaughter, Snegurochka, the Snow Maiden, he bestows gifts to virtuous and hard-working people, rewarding their decency and integrity, and punishes those who are lazy, shiftless, and unkind, killing their fields with frost, cracking the trunks of their trees, and destroying their homes. The first incarnation of Father Frost was not at all benevolent. He was the personification of the darkest aspects of winter, winter's destruction incarnate. He kidnapped unruly children, and slew people capriciously by freezing them to death. Light, darkness, kindness, and malice: golden amber, white amber, redwood, teak, bois du rose, sage, tree moss, and snow. DIABLE EN BOÎTE The crickets sing, and man's o'er-labour'd sense Repairs itself by rest. Our Tarquin thus Did softly press the rushes, ere he waken'd The chastity he wounded. Cytherea, How bravely thou becomest thy bed, fresh lily, And whiter than the sheets! That I might touch! But kiss; one kiss! Rubies unparagon'd, How dearly they do't! 'Tis her breathing that Perfumes the chamber thus: the flame o' the taper Bows toward her, and would under-peep her lids, To see the enclosed lights, now canopied Under these windows, white and azure laced With blue of heaven's own tinct. But my design, To note the chamber: I will write all down: Such and such pictures; there the window; such The adornment of her bed; the arras; figures, Why, such and such; and the contents o' the story. Ah, but some natural notes about her body, Above ten thousand meaner moveables Would testify, to enrich mine inventory. O sleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her! And be her sense but as a monument, Thus in a chapel lying! Come off, come off: As slippery as the Gordian knot was hard! 'Tis mine; and this will witness outwardly, As strongly as the conscience does within, To the madding of her lord. On her left breast A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops I' the bottom of a cowslip: here's a voucher, Stronger than ever law could make: this secret Will force him think I have pick'd the lock and ta'en The treasure of her honour. No more. To what end? Why should I write this down, that's riveted, Screw'd to my memory? She hath been reading late The tale of Tereus; here the leaf's turn'd down Where Philomel gave up. I have enough: To the trunk again, and shut the spring of it. Swift, swift, you dragons of the night, that dawning May bare the raven's eye! I lodge in fear; Though this a heavenly angel, hell is here. One, two, three: time, time! - Iachimo, Cymbeline Act II, Scene 2 There are few things more disturbing than a Jack in the Box. A strangely sinister, unnerving holiday scent: redwood, bitter clove, tonka, hemp accord, and tobacco with peach blossom, black currant, and red musk. EL DIA DE LOS REYES 2009 The Day of Kings, the Celebration of the Magi. In Mexico, on January 6th, children place their shoes by their windows. If they have been good during the previous year, the Wise Men tuck gifts into their shoes during the night. Hot cocoa with cinnamon, coffee, and brown sugar. EVENING CICADAS AND RED PEPPERS It is so, so cold! A cicada in the eaves With the red peppers. Frost-limned, ice-bejeweled branches, scattered blood-red maple leaves, a few camellia petals, red peppers, and nacreous, multi-colored musks that shimmer like gently-beating cicada wings. FAUNALIA Held on December 5th, this is the festival of the Horned God of the Forest, one of the di indigetes of Rome, god of cattle, fertility, wild, untamed nature, and prophecy through dreams. The scent of a thick, starlit, unspoiled forest, with a burst of wild musk, opobalsamum, black bryony, mandragora, and hemlock. THE FIRST SOFT SNOW The first soft snow! Enough to bend the leaves Of the jonquil low. Heavy drifts of snow blanketing winter's narcissus. THE FRUIT OF PARADISE 2009 While Persephone visited the realm of Hades, she tasted one single pomegranate seed, an act which compelled her to remain connected to the Land of the Dead for all eternity. Demeter's grief over her beloved daughter's absence that brings on the bleakness and barrenness of the winter months. The Fruit of Paradise, the Nectar of Death: bittersweet pomegranate, nurtured and cultivated in the hollow darkness of the Underworld. GACELA OF THE DARK DEATH I want to sleep the sleep of the apples, I want to get far away from the busyness of the cemeteries. I want to sleep the sleep of that child who longed to cut his heart open far out at sea. I don't want them to tell me again how the corpse keeps all its blood, how the decaying mouth goes on begging for water. I'd rather not hear about the torture sessions the grass arranges for nor about how the moon does all its work before dawn with its snakelike nose. I want to sleep for half a second, a second, a minute, a century, but I want everyone to know that I am still alive, that I have a golden manger inside my lips, that I am the little friend of the west wind, that I am the elephantine shadow of my own tears. When it's dawn just throw some sort of cloth over me because I know dawn will toss fistfuls of ants at me, and pour a little hard water over my shoes so that the scorpion claws of the dawn will slip off. Because I want to sleep the sleep of the apples, and learn a mournful song that will clean all earth away from me, because I want to live with that shadowy child who longed to cut his heart open far out at sea. Terebinth pine, pitch, and clove. HYPOTHERMIA Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm! How shall your houseless heads, and unfed sides, Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you From seasons such as these? Bone-chilling, heart-stopping cold. IN WINTER IN MY ROOM In Winter in my Room I came upon a Worm -- Pink, lank and warm -- But as he was a worm And worms presume Not quite with him at home -- Secured him by a string To something neighboring And went along. A Trifle afterward A thing occurred I'd not believe it if I heard But state with creeping blood -- A snake with mottles rare Surveyed my chamber floor In feature as the worm before But ringed with power -- The very string with which I tied him -- too When he was mean and new That string was there -- I shrank -- "How fair you are"! Propitiation's claw -- "Afraid," he hissed "Of me"? "No cordiality" -- He fathomed me -- Then to a Rhythm Slim Secreted in his Form As Patterns swim Projected him. That time I flew Both eyes his way Lest he pursue Nor ever ceased to run Till in a distant Town Towns on from mine I set me down This was a dream. Pink, lank, and warm: grapefruit, yuzu, tuberose, peony, violet leaf, pikaki, Indian frankincense, and tonka. JOULUMUORI Old Lady Christmas, the sweet, smiling wife of Finland's Joulupukki. Her scent invokes the comforts of Christmastime and the warmth of love and cheerful companionship: a glowing hearth, luumukiisseli, riisipuuro, and sima. LICK IT TIL IT'S STICKY The stickiest thing you shouldn't lick this winter. Peppermint candy cane with an extra jolt of sugar. (As always, we have to state: don't lick perfume. Don't eat it, drink it, cook with it, or use it in any strange and unforeseen way. Black Phoenix is not responsible for that sort of irresponsible funnybusiness.) MIDNIGHT MASS 2009 I will wash my hands among the innocent; and will compass thy altar, O Lord: That I may hear the voice of thy praise: and tell of all thy wondrous works. I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of thy house; and the place where thy glory dwelleth. Take not away my soul, O God, with the wicked: nor my life with bloody men: In whose hands are iniquities: their right hand is filled with gifts. But as for me, I have walked in my innocence: redeem me, and have mercy on me. My foot hath stood in the direct way: in the churches I will bless thee, O Lord. In Roman Catholic tradition, the Christmas season begins liturgically on Christmas Eve, though it is forbidden to celebrate the Christmas Mass before midnight. The most devout attend Midnight Mass, celebrating both the Eucharist and the drama of the Nativity. This perfume is a traditional Roman Catholic sacramental incense, most often used during a Solemn Mass. Traditionally, five tears of this incense, each encased individually in wax that has been fashioned into the shape of a nail, are inserted into the paschal candle. This is, of course, represents the Five Wounds of Our Risen Savior. Symbolically, the burning of the incense signifies spiritual fervor, the fragrance itself inspires virtue, and the rising smoke carries our prayers to God. Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem, factorem caeli et terrae, visibilium omnium et invisibilium. Et in unum Dominum Iesum Christum, Filium Dei unigenitum, et ex Patre natum ante omnia saecula. Deum de Deo, Lumen de Lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero, genitum non factum, consubstantialem Patri; per quem omnia facta sunt. Qui propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem descendit de caelis. Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine, et homo factus est. Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato, passus et sepultus est, et resurrexit tertia die, secundum Scripturas, et ascendit in caelum, sedet ad dexteram Patris. Et iterum venturus est cum gloria, iudicare vivos et mortuos, cuius regni non erit finis. Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem, qui ex Patre procedit. Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur et conglorificatur: qui locutus est per prophetas. Et unam, sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam. Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum. Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen. NES GADOL HAYA SHAM But not long after the king sent a certain old man of Antioch, to compel the Jews to depart from the laws of their fathers and of God: And to defile the temple that was in Jerusalem, and to call it the temple of Jupiter Olympius: and that in Gazarim of Jupiter Hospitalis, according as they were that inhabited the place. And very bad was this invasion of evils and grievous to all. For the temple was full of the riot and reveling of the Gentiles: and of men lying with lewd women. And women thrust themselves of their accord into the holy places, and brought in things that were not lawful. The altar also was filled with unlawful things, which were forbidden by the laws. And neither were the sabbaths kept, nor the solemn days of the fathers observed, neither did any man plainly profess himself to be a Jew. But they were led by bitter constraint on the king's birthday to the sacrifices: and when the feast of Bacchus was kept, they wore compelled to go about crowned with ivy in honour of Bacchus. And there went out a decree into the neighboring cities of the Gentiles, by the suggestion of the Ptolemeans, that they also should act in like manner against the Jews, to oblige them to sacrifice: And whosoever would not conform themselves to the ways of the Gentiles, should be put to death: then was misery to be seen. For two women were accused to have circumcised their children: whom, when they had openly led about through the city with the infants hanging at their breasts, they threw down headlong from the walls. And others that had met together in caves that were near, and were keeping the sabbath day privately, being discovered by Philip, were burnt with fire, because they made a conscience to help themselves with their hands, by reason of the religious observance of the day. - The Second Book of the Maccabees, 6:1-11 In order to consolidate his power in Jerusalem and Hellenize the area, the Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes outlawed Judaism and ordered the population to worship Zeus and the Hellenic pantheon. As this was anathema to the Jews, they refused, and Antiochus moved to enforce his religious decree by extreme force. Some origin tales say that the dreidel was used at this time as a method by which the Jewish people were able to continue to study the Talmud in secret under the guise of gambling. Now, in addition to being a light gambling game, the dreidel is also a reminder of the strength, devotion, and perseverance of the Jewish people and the mercy of God. One scent in four parts: Nun, the Snake: nuun, nothing. Naḥš, in modern Arabic, means bad luck. Represented by scents of loss and remembrance: opoponax and lemon verbena. Gimel, the Camel: the Ship of the Desert. Represented by scents of abundance, fortitude, and determination: patchouli, heliotrope, pomegranate, and almond. He, the Window: sometimes used to represent the Unutterable Name of God, this is the window in our souls through which God's light touches us. Represented by scents of clarity and piety: frankincense, myrtle, and hyssop. Shin, the Tooth: also stands for Shaddai, one of the names of God. The hand formed into shin acts as a priestly blessing. Represented by scents of strength, generosity, kindness, and benediction: carnation, myrrh, red poppy, and hibiscus. The essences of Nun, Gimel, He, and Shin are blended to become Nes Gadol Haya Sham. NOW WINTER NIGHTS ENLARGE Now winter nights enlarge The number of their hours, And clouds their storms discharge Upon the airy towers. Let now the chimneys blaze, And cups o'erflow with wine; Let well-tuned words amaze With harmony divine. Now yellow waxen lights Shall wait on honey love, While youthful revels, masques, and courtly sights Sleep's leaden spells remove. This time doth well dispense With lovers' long discourse; Much speech hath some defence, Though beauty no remorse. All do not all things well; Some measures comely tread, Some knotted riddles tell, Some poems smoothly read. The summer hath his joys And winter his delights; Though love and all his pleasures are but toys, They shorten tedious nights. Shorten those tedious nights with a surge of body heat: vanilla-infused red musk, champaca, petitgrain, ylang ylang, patchouli, nutmeg, honey, galbanum, and traces of caramel. ON DARKNESS 2009 You darkness, that I come from, I love you more than all the fires that fence in the world, for the fire makes a circle of light for everyone, and then no one outside learns of you. But the darkness pulls in everything; shapes and fires, animals and myself, how easily it gathers them! -- powers and people -- and it is possible a great energy is moving near me. I have faith in nights. An embrace: black poppy, lavender, thick black incense, black amber, rose geranium, Brazilian rosewood, and benzoin. THE PEACOCK QUEEN 2009 In dramatic contrast to the soft innocence of Snow White and the dew-kissed freshness of her sister, Rose Red, this is a blood red, voluptuous rose, velvet-petaled, at the height of bloom. Haughty and imperious, vain, yet incomparably lovely to the eye, but thick with thorns of jealousy, pride and hatred. PINK SNOWBALLS A lighthearted winter scent: chilly vanilla rose snowballs! Dainty, soft, and certainly unfit for flinging! THE SEASON OF GHOSTS In Latvia, the Ziemassvetki, or Winter Party, is a celebration of the birth of Dievs, the Sky God and Supreme Ruler of the Latvian pantheon. The two weeks prior to the Ziemassvetki is Ve?u laiks: the Season of Ghosts. Candles are lit to honor the gods and a fire is kept burning throughout the Season, burning away the unhappiness of the previous year so men's spirits can be renewed. At the feast of the Ziemassvetki, places are left as a courtesy to the ghosts, who arrive by sleigh. A scent created to burn away sorrow: bergamot, frankincense, rose geranium, ginger, lemongrass, and blood orange. THE SHIVERING BOY 2009 Cold, cold forever more. A winter storm roaring through empty stone halls, bearing echoes of despair, desolation, and death on its winds. The scent of frozen, dormant vineyards, bitter sleet, and piercing ozone, hurled through labdanum, benzoin, and olibanum. SLEIPNIR At Yule, Odin leads a divine hunting party through the heavens. On Yule Eve, children would fill their boots with sugar, carrots, and straw and place them by the chimneys for Odin's eight-legged horse, Sleipnir, to eat. To repay the children's kindness, Odin would refill the children's boots with sweets or small gifts. Confections spun of hazelnuts, honey, elderberries, and bilberries with a dusting of hay and a bit of carrot. SNOW-FLAKES 2009 Out of the bosom of the Air, Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken, Over the woodlands brown and bare, Over the harvest-fields forsaken, Silent, and soft, and slow Descends the snow. Even as our cloudy fancies take Suddenly shape in some divine expression, Even as the troubled heart doth make In the white countenance confession, The troubled sky reveals The grief it feels. This is the poem of the air, Slowly in silent syllables recorded; This is the secret of despair, Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded, Now whispered and revealed To wood and field. The radiance and desolation of winter. THE SNOW MAIDEN 2009 The Snow Maiden is the daughter of Spring and Frost: as lovely as the first snowfall, and as striking as a sliver of icicle. Isolated because of her chilly otherworldly nature, and unable to know love, she longed for the companionship and warmth of mortals. One bright, white winter's day, the Snow Maiden came upon a gentle, handsome shepherd named Lel. She grows fond of him, and beseeches Mother Spring to grant her the ability to feel. Her mother is moved by her daughter's plight, and blesses her, but the moment the Snow Maiden is struck by the depth of love she feels for Lel, her heart warms, and she melts. SNOW WHITE 2009 A chilly, bright perfume: flurries of virgin snow, crisp winter wind and the faintest breath of night-blooming flowers. SNOWBALL FRACAS This means war. A scent tight with delirious adrenaline. Muddy dirt and frost-covered moss from the trenches rubbed into winter clothes and snow impact overspray. This scent hits like the sting from those dang icy hard snowballs... the ones that have been packed too hard by someone who is not playing nice... nailing you right in the face. SOL INVICTUS 2009 Sane, sol et in cloacam radios suos defert nec inquinatur. A radiant blend of solar oils: golden amber, saffron, heliotrope, hibiscus, citron, frangipani, frankincense, tangerine, mock orange, and orange blossom. WHEN THE WINTER CHRYSANTHEMUMS GO When the winter chrysanthemums go, there's nothing to write about but radishes. Lest the next few updates be dedicated solely to radishes, we've created this scent to keep the winter chrysanthemums alive. A gentle flurry of snow dusting the season's last chrysanthemums, illuminated by pale rays of winter's amber-tinted sunlight. YULE CAT The Yule Cat is a gargantuan Icelandic feline that feasts on indolent people who shirk their community responsibilities. Don't be lazy! - idle hands make for a very unpleasant Yule! Malevolent musk, a drop of infernal civet, vetiver, club moss, birch, goosefoot, and rowan. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing… er… Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn! The Miskatonic Valley Yuletide Faire is here! ++ THE MISKATONIC VALLEY YULETIDE FAIRE Welcome to Innsmouth, the Pearl of New England! Every December, the Esoteric Order of Dagon hosts the Miskatonic Valley Yuletide Faire, a holiday marketplace at the former Masonic Temple at New Church Green in Innsmouth. Mayor Obed Marsh, may the Deep Ones bless his eternal governance, lights the community sacrificial pyre on the first of the month, and the festivities begin! Amidst holiday entertainments, local artisans and craftspeople ply their wares. The Voices of Azathoth, our local children's choir, and the Servitor Flautists perform on the Grand Stage of Malignity throughout the month! "Dread Hymns Ancient and Modern" and the canonical cult scriptures are always lovingly reprinted and distributed by the kind folks at the Wilbur Whateley Memorial Library so that residents and visitors can sing and chant with the carolers, Esquimaux wizards, Louisiana swamp-priests, and local cultists. At midnight on Midwinter Eve, the liturgical play "the Adoration of the Mi-Go" is performed under the lights of a synathroesmus of iridescent globes by Arkham's world-famous acting troupe, the Haunters in the Dark, on the Great Stage. Get ready for holiday parties and ritual feasts with the help of our local farmers, bakers, and candymakers! Every year since 1928, Mother Shub has set up her tempting pastry and confections stand, the Yule Goat, and this year is no exception! Mason & Jenkin's Pantry will be selling their home made preserves, and the Innsmouth Canning Company will be offering a selection of fresh fish, true to their motto: You Are What You Eat! Shopping for holiday gifts is a breeze at the Miskatonic Valley Yuletide Faire! Old Man Ackerman, proprietor of Miskatonic Valley's renowned toy store and antiquities dealership, Elder Things, brings hand-crafted clockworks and tin machines that spout iridescent, prolately spheroidal bubbles to delight the wee ones. Old Man Ackerman's educational toys make non-Euclidean calculus fun! Curwen Imports brings a selection of exotic merchandise and antiquities from all over the globe and points beyond, including authentic 12th century illuminated manuscripts crafted by Bartolomeo Corsi. There's no better time to get a pet magah bird for little Billy or a new set of yellow Carcosan robes for yourself! Bargains galore! (For the pleasure of the adults, the Black Temple Burlesque Troupe performs nightly through January at the Vault of Zin in Innsmouth's Red Light District.) And that's just a sampling of what the Faire has to offer! Fun for the whole family! May this Yule season bring madness and the void's wild vengeance to all! THE ADORATION OF THE MI-GO The time-honored ecclesiastical drama that illustrates the piety of the Fungi and First Coming of the Crawling Chaos to the majestic black stone terraces of Yuggoth! Recapture the magic! Luminous, otherworldly wet and piquant odors mingling with black incense, the pitch-stench of Yuggoth, and fungal lichens. MOTHER SHUB'S SPICED LAIT DE CHÈVRE Nothing warms the cockles like a mug of Mother Shub's egg nog! Goat's milk egg nog with coffee liqueur and spices imported from the Crimson Desert! MOTHER SHUB'S PFANCY PFEFFERNEUSSE Fit for the finest oblation -- and your holiday table, too! Sugar-sprinkled pepper nuts with a bit of cinnamon, a bit of clove, a little cardamom, and a hint of nutmeg. MOTHER SHUB'S TOOTHSOME BANKETSTAAF A treat sure to please even the most finicky cultist! Tubular pastries oozing with spijs, glazed with apricot jam, and dotted with glace cherries. MASON & JENKIN'S PORT JELLY Red and sticky! From a genuine Old Salem recipe! OLD MAN ACKERMAN'S INSTRUCTIONAL TOYS Educational toys for tots! Learn non-Euclidean calculus, catoptric theory, quantum physics, and the mysteries of Elder magic the fun way! An ancient baetylus floating within an array of bizarre trapezoidal figures, glimmering tubes, rusting spheres, and whirling gogs formed from peculiar metals, glowing tektites, strangely suspended lead mirrors, and eerie driftings of meteoric dust. THE SMILIN' SERVITORS' HYPERDIMENSIONAL HOLIDAY HITS As seen on tv! A musical extravaganza of madness, terror, and woe! Twenty-three insane interstellar holiday hits from everyone's favorite amorphous toad pipers, including "Doom to the World" and "Here We Go to Sacrifice"! A discordant scent, silvery and strange like a lunatic's tinsel garland: freesia, eucalyptus, and yuzu, with sicilian lemon, massoia, opoponax, night-blooming jasmine, white bergamot, and copaiba oleoresin. PET MAGAH BIRD Every kid wants a pet magah bird! A prism of scent, an explosion of multi-colored feathers: blood orange, black plum, sugar cane, guava, frangipani, coconut, pimento berry, violet, caramel, and pear. THE BLACK TEMPLE BURLESQUE TROUPE Straight from the pits of black, lightless N'kai: the voluptuous bat-winged vixens of the Black Temple Burlesque Troupe! Cacao, black musk, and tobacco absolute. The Miskatonic Valley Yuletide Faire was illustrated the eldritch and diabolical Julie Dillon! The next card in Neil Gaiman's Vampire Tarot is also here! -- the Magician! ++ 15 PAINTED CARDS FROM A VAMPIRE TAROT: THE MAGICIAN They asked St. Germain's manservant if his master was truly a thousand years old, as it was rumored he had claimed. "How would I know?" the man replied. "I have only been in the master's employ for three hundred years. Burmese rosewood, olibanum, benzoin, turmeric, currant leaf, and oude. And finally, the latest addition to the GC… the District! A collaboration between Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, Black Phoenix Trading Post, and Molly Crabapple that benefits Habitat For Humanity: New Orleans! ++ THE DISTRICT Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense Shame to Him Who Evil Thinks Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and Black Phoenix Trading Post are proud to present a scent series representing the people, places, and culture of New Orleans' Storyville, featuring artwork by the inimitable Molly Crabapple. Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is pandering the perfumes, and Black Phoenix Trading Post is offering District-themed atmosphere sprays and a gorgeous District tee illustrated by Molly! Lavish bordellos and shady cribs, dazzling jazz, and swinging saloons: bounded by Basin, Iberville, Robertson, and St Louis, Storyville, known to locals as the District, was New Orleans' legal red light district from 1897 to 1917. This is a charitable, not-for-profit venture. Proceeds from every bottle go to Habitat for Humanity: New Orleans. Habitat for Humanity builds houses in partnership with sponsors, volunteers, communities, and homeowner families, whereby families are empowered to transform their own lives, and aids in eliminating poverty housing in the New Orleans area while serving as a catalyst to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action. Molly Crabapple is an award winning illustrator, and the founder of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School. Molly has drawn for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Marvel Comics, the Bloomberg Corporation, the Coagula Art Journal, and Playgirl, and she has illustrated eight books including Scarlett Takes Manhattan. She has also turned her talents to 30-foot theatrical backdrops, children's books, parade installations, burlesque posters, critically acclaimed webcomics, pornographic comic books, art writing, and gallery shows around the world. More about the lovely Miss Molly can be found through a feature on her in the Art & Design section of the New York Times. Thank you, Molly, for inspiring this series! COUNTESS WILLIE Sophisticated, dramatic, well-traveled, glamorous, and worldly, Countess Willie V. Piazza, owner of the French Studio, was a trendsetter in style and fashion. Countess Willie was an educated woman, a patron of the arts, and possessed an impressive library of rare volumes. She featured many historic jazz musicians in her House, including Tony Jackson and Jelly Roll Morton. Unlike many of her counterparts, she was known for having a kind heart and a generous, loving nature. She was fiercely protective: when a patron of her establishment, the nephew of a prominent New Orleans cleric, committed a heinous act of sadism against one of her ladies, Countess Willie shot him dead. Chocolate plum musk, red musk, amaretto, candied fruits, and red ginger. CRIB GIRLS Situated on of the lowest rungs in the Red Light District's hierarchy, the crib girls solicited from their windows and doorways, entertaining their clients in sparsely furnished, dingy two-room apartments. Seven honeys under one unkempt roof, with fiery-tart cubeb and dusty cardamom. EMMA Better known as the "Parisian Queen of America," needs little introduction in this country. Emma's "House of all Nations," as it is commonly called, is one place of amusement you can't very well afford to miss while in the Tenderloin District. Everything goes here. Fun is the watchword. Business has been on such an increase at the above place of late that Mdme. Johnson had to occupy an "Annex." Emma has never less than twenty pretty women of all nations, who are clever entertainers. Remember the name, Emma Johnson 331 and 333 Basin Street Vanilla bourbon, tea rose, jasmine, pink pepper, and patchouli. FLORA Everybody in the sporting world knows Miss Flora Meeker and she knows everybody worth knowing. So it is unnecessary at this time to make any introductory remarks about Miss Meeker, suffice it to say she is still at her same old place where she has been for a number of years past, doing a boss business which deserves, Miss Flora is well thought of by all and her house is patronized by the best element. Carnival visitors should not overlook this swell mansion where the cream of female loveliness will be found which is situated at No. 211 Basin avenue. Miss Flora Meeker's Palace of Mirth Sweet, wet fruits, sibilant Eastern musk, apple blossom, tuberose, calla lily, osmanthus, wild orchid, amber, and sandalwood. HILMA The amiable, ebullient proprietor of the Mirror Ballroom, where Jelly Roll Morton got his first gig. Miss Burt, while very young, is of a type that pleases most men of today - the witty, pretty, and natty - a lady of fashion. Her managerial possibilities are phenomenal, to say the least, and her success here has proven itself beyond a doubt. Miss Burt has been with us but a short while but has won all hearts. Her palace is second to none. It is good for one who loves the beautiful to visit Miss Burt's handsome palace. There are no words for the ladies - one can only realize the grandeur of feminine beauty and artistic settings after an hour or so in the palace of Hilma Burt. Miss Burt, aside from having two handsome homes here, has one in St. Louis and one in Kansas City, Mo., where, it is said, she is as popular as in New Orleans. Don't forget to converse with her, as she is very clever, jolly, and cultured. 205 N. Basin Honeysuckle, Bulgarian rose, night blooming jasmine, sweet clove, cedarwood, black tea, and nectarine. JOSIE The brooding, raucous, and hot-blooded proprietress of the Château Lobrano d'Arlington, the gaudiest bordello in the District. Miss Josie had a true talent for hype, and promoted her ladies in an effusively romanticized, over-the-top fashion. La Belle Stewart, who was in actuality a circus hoochie koochie girl from Chicago, was billed as "a bona-fide baroness, direct from the court of St. Petersburg." Heady magnolia and honeyed peaches. LULU The Diamond Queen. An expert showman and entrepreneur, the eccentric Miss Lulu was the Mistress of Mahogany Hall until 1917. She invested heavily, but not always successfully, and at the end of her career as a madam, wanted to fund production houses for the budding movie industry in California. The 1934 Mae West film, "the Belle of the Nineties", was loosely based on Lulu's exploits. Tobacco flower, white gardenia, bergamot, and bourbon geranium. The Magician is $30 for the card and scent set, all scents in the District series are $25 per bottle, and all the Yules (including the Miskatonic Valley Yuletide Faire scents) are $17.50 each. And that's it for now! Please stay tuned for the upcoming Black Phoenix Trading Post update!

Antique Lace is temporarily unavailable. =( There is a possibility that it may have to be discontinued due to component issues, but we’re holding onto hope. The AL dilemma does not affect anything else in the GC; the component in question has been in past LE’s. Over the next few days, we will be contacting those of you that have orders pending that contain Antique Lace to make arrangements for either a refund or substitution. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding through this challenging time. =/

Happy Halloweenie Month, everyone! The Lunacy this month is from the Algonquin calendar, Raven Moon, and the scent itself is inspired by a quote by Edgar Allan Poe: RAVEN MOON The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins? Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance: shining, moonlit ebony musk with benzoin, myrrh, smoky vanilla, patchouli, nutmeg, and dried red chili. The gorgeous accompanying tee was drawn by Jennifer Williamson, and is available at Black Phoenix Trading Post. Both the scent and the tee will be live until 6 October 2009. This month, we are also presenting a scent dedicated to our beloved friend, Pa-pow… PA-POW Such glorious faith as fills your limpid eyes, Dear little friend of mine, I never knew. All-innocent are you, and yet all-wise. (For Heaven's sake, stop worrying that shoe!) You look about, and all you see is fair; This mighty globe was made for you alone. Of all the thunderous ages, you're the heir. (Get off the pillow with that dirty bone!) A skeptic world you face with steady gaze; High in young pride you hold your noble head, Gayly you meet the rush of roaring days. (Must you eat puppy biscuit on the bed?) Lancelike your courage, gleaming swift and strong, Yours the white rapture of a winged soul, Yours is a spirit like a Mayday song. (God help you, if you break the goldfish bowl!) "Whatever is, is good" - your gracious creed. You wear your joy of living like a crown. Love lights your simplest act, your every deed. (Drop it, I tell you- put that kitten down!) You are God's kindliest gift of all - a friend. Your shining loyalty unflecked by doubt, You ask but leave to follow to the end. (Couldn't you wait until I took you out?) -- Verse For a Certain Dog, Dorothy Parker Pa-Pow, Ted’s best friend and companion for 17 years, passed away on September 1st, 2009. To celebrate her life and the joy she brought to all of us, we have created a scent evocative of bright days running through the grass and sun-warmed puppy fur dusted with California wildflowers. The proceeds from the sale of this scent will go to the Pasadena Humane Society so she can help care for the animals that were displaced and injured during this summer’s Station Fires. To find out more about the Pasadena Humane Society, please visit: http://www.pasadenahumane.org/. Pa-Pow, we love you so much. At long last, there are some additions to the general catalogue… ++ MARCHEN: GODFATHER DEATH GODFATHER DEATH He went onwards, and then came Death striding up to him with withered legs, and said, "Take me as godfather." The man asked, "Who art thou?" "I am Death, and I make all equal." Then said the man, "Thou art the right one, thou takest the rich as well as the poor, without distinction; thou shalt be godfather." Death answered, "I will make thy child rich and famous, for he who has me for a friend can lack nothing." The man said, "Next Sunday is the christening; be there at the right time." Death appeared as he had promised, and stood godfather quite in the usual way. Olibanum, elemi, Bulgarian rose, yew, and oppoponax. THY GODFATHER’S PRESENT When the boy had grown up, his godfather one day appeared and bade him go with him. He led him forth into a forest, and showed him a herb which grew there, and said, "Now shalt thou receive thy godfather's present. I make thee a celebrated physician. When thou art called to a patient, I will always appear to thee. If I stand by the head of the sick man, thou mayst say with confidence that thou wilt make him well again, and if thou givest him of this herb he will recover; but if I stand by the patient's feet, he is mine, and thou must say that all remedies are in vain, and that no physician in the world could save him. But beware of using the herb against my will, or it might fare ill with thee." A bruised purple bundle of herbs with hyssop and life-everlasting. THE LIGHTS OF MEN’S LIVES When Death saw that for a second time he was defrauded of his own property, he walked up to the physician with long strides, and said, "All is over with thee, and now the lot falls on thee," and seized him so firmly with his ice-cold hand, that he could not resist, and led him into a cave below the earth. There he saw how thousands and thousands of candles were burning in countless rows, some large, others half-sized, others small. Every instant some were extinguished, and others again burnt up, so that the flames seemed to leap hither and thither in perpetual change. "See," said Death, "these are the lights of men's lives. The large ones belong to children, the half-sized ones to married people in their prime, the little ones belong to old people; but children and young folks likewise have often only a tiny candle." "Show me the light of my life," said the physician, and he thought that it would be still very tall. Death pointed to a little end which was just threatening to go out, and said, "Behold, it is there." The wax and smoke of millions upon millions of candles illuminating the walls of Death’s shadowy cave: some tall, straight, and strong, blazing with the fire of life, others dim and guttering. ++ MARCHEN: VASILISSA THE BEAUTIFUL THE LITTLE WOODEN DOLL "My little Vasilissa, my dear daughter, listen to what I say, remember well my last words and fail not to carry out my wishes. I am dying, and with my blessing, I leave to thee this little doll. It is very precious for there is no other like it in the whole world. Carry it always about with thee in thy pocket and never show it to anyone. When evil threatens thee or sorrow befalls thee, go into a corner, take it from thy pocket and give it something to eat and drink. It will eat and drink a little, and then thou mayest tell it thy trouble and ask its advice, and it will tell thee how to act in thy time of need." So saying, she kissed her little daughter on the forehead, blessed her, and shortly after died. Little Vasilissa grieved greatly for her mother, and her sorrow was so deep that when the dark night came, she lay in her bed and wept and did not sleep. At length she be thought herself of the tiny doll, so she rose and took it from the pocket of her gown and finding a piece of wheat bread and a cup of kvass, she set them before it, and said: "There, my little doll, take it. Eat a little, and drink a little, and listen to my grief. My dear mother is dead and I am lonely for her." Then the doll's eyes began to shine like fireflies, and suddenly it became alive. It ate a morsel of the bread and took a sip of the kvass, and when it had eaten and drunk, it said: "Don't weep, little Vasilissa. Grief is worst at night. Lie down, shut thine eyes, comfort thyself and go to sleep. The morning is wiser than the evening." So Vasilissa the Beautiful lay down, comforted herself and went to sleep, and the next day her grieving was not so deep and her tears were less bitter. Gently carved wood warm with a maternal love that reaches beyond death: rose-infused amber and soft golden sandalwood. THE WHITE RIDER The wood was very dark, and she could not help trembling from fear. Suddenly she heard the sound of a horse's hoofs and a man on horseback galloped past her. He was dressed all in white, the horse under him was milk-white and the harness was white, and just as he passed her it became twilight. White leather and sandalwood. THE RED RIDER She went a little further and again she heard the sound of a horse's hoofs and there came another man on horseback galloping past her. He was dressed all in red, and the horse under him was blood-red and its harness was red, and just as he passed her the sun rose. Red leather, red moss, and balsam. THE BLACK RIDER As she stood there a third man on horseback came galloping up. His face was black, he was dressed all in black, and the horse he rode was coal-black. He galloped up to the gate of the hut and disappeared there as if he had sunk through the ground and at that moment the night came and the forest grew dark. But it was not dark on the green lawn, for instantly the eyes of all the skulls on the wall were lighted up and shone till the place was as bright as day. When she saw this Vasilissa trembled so with fear that she could not run away. Black leather, oppoponax, tobacco, and black amber. THE CHICKEN-LEGGED HUT But at evening she came all at once to the green lawn where the wretched little hut stood on its hens' legs. The wall around the hut was made of human bones and on its top were skulls. There was a gate in the wall, whose hinges were the bones of human feet and whose locks were jaw-bones set with sharp teeth. The sight filled Vasilissa with horror and she stopped as still as a post buried in the ground. Creaky wood and sun-dried thatching, clacking bones, leering skulls, burnt herbs, and enormous magical chicken feet. BABA YAGA Then suddenly the wood became full of a terrible noise; the trees began to groan, the branches to creak and the dry leaves to rustle, and the Baba Yaga came flying from the forest. She was riding in a great iron mortar and driving it with the pestle, and as she came she swept away her trail behind her with a kitchen broom. Spell-soaked herbs and flowers, cold iron, broom twigs, bundles of moss and patchouli root, and moth dust. THE WITCH’S REPAST "Well," said the old witch, "I know them. But if I give thee the fire thou shalt stay with me some time and do some work to pay for it. If not, thou shalt be eaten for my supper." Then she turned to the gate and shouted: "Ho! Ye, my solid locks, unlock! Thou, my stout gate, open!" Instantly the locks unlocked, the gate opened of itself, and the Baba Yaga rode in whistling. Vasilissa entered behind her and immediately the gate shut again and the locks snapped tight. When they had entered the hut the old witch threw her self down on the stove, stretched out her bony legs and said: "Come, fetch and put on the table at once everything that is in the oven. I am hungry." So Vasilissa ran and lighted a splinter of wood from one of the skulls on the wall and took the food from the oven and set it before her. There was enough cooked meat for three strong men. She brought also from the cellar kvass, honey, and red wine, and the Baba Yaga ate and drank the whole, leaving the girl only a little cabbage soup, a crust of bread and a morsel of suckling pig. Kvass, honey-drizzled bread, roasted meat, and wine. FIRE FOR THY STEPMOTHER’S DAUGHTERS Vasilissa ran to the yard, and behind her she heard the old witch shouting to the locks and the gate. The locks opened, the gate swung wide, and she ran out on to the lawn. The Baba Yaga seized from the wall one of the skulls with burning eyes and flung it after her. "There," she howled, "is the fire for thy stepmother's daughters. Take it. That is what they sent thee here for, and may they have joy of it!" Flaming coals, hellfire, and blackened bone. VASILISSA "Take it, then," the Tsar said, "and bid her do it for me." The old woman brought the linen home and told Vasilissa the Tsar's command: "Well I knew that the work would needs be done by my own hands," said Vasilissa, and, locking herself in her own room, began to make the shirts. So fast and well did she work that soon a dozen were ready. Then the old woman carried them to the Tsar, while Vasilissa washed her face, dressed her hair, put on her best gown and sat down at the window to see what would happen. And presently a servant in the livery of the Palace came to the house and entering, said: "The Tsar, our lord, desires himself to see the clever needlewoman who has made his shirts and to reward her with his own hands." Vasilissa rose and went at once to the Palace, and as soon as the Tsar saw her, he fell in love with her with all his soul. He took her by her white hand and made her sit beside him. "Beautiful maiden," he said, "never will I part from thee and thou shalt be my wife." So the Tsar and Vasilissa the Beautiful were married, and her father returned from the far-distant Tsardom, and he and the old woman lived always with her in the splendid Palace, in all joy and contentment. And as for the little wooden doll, she carried it about with her in her pocket all her life long. She herself had cheeks like blood and milk and grew every day more and more beautiful: creamy skin musk and blushing pink musk with soft sandalwood, white amber, dutiful myrrh, and star jasmine. ++ WANDERLUST EL DORADO Gaily bedight, A gallant knight, In sunshine and in shadow, Had journeyed long, Singing a song, In search of Eldorado. But he grew old This knight so bold And o'er his heart a shadow Fell as he found No spot of ground That looked like Eldorado. And, as his strength Failed him at length, He met a pilgrim shadow "Shadow," said he, "Where can it be This land of Eldorado?" "Over the Mountains Of the Moon, Down the Valley of the Shadow, Ride, boldly ride," The shade replied "If you seek for Eldorado!" Copal resin incense blowing through halls of dazzling gold. OGYGIA On to Pieria he stepped from the upper air, and swooped down upon the sea, and then sped over the wave like a bird, the cormorant, which in quest of fish over the dread gulfs of the unresting sea wets its thick plumage in the brine. In such wise did Hermes ride upon the multitudinous waves. But when he had reached the island which lay afar, then forth from the violet sea he came to land, and went his way until he came to a great cave, wherein dwelt the fair-tressed nymph; and he found her within. A great fire was burning on the hearth, and from afar over the isle there was a fragrance of cleft cedar and juniper, as they burned; but she within was singing with a sweet voice as she went to and fro before the loom, weaving with a golden shuttle. Round about the cave grew a luxuriant wood, alder and poplar and sweet-smelling cypress, wherein birds long of wing were wont to nest, owls and falcons and sea-crows with chattering tongues, who ply their business on the sea. And right there about the hollow cave ran trailing a garden vine, in pride of its prime, richly laden with clusters. And fountains four in a row were flowing with bright water hard by one another, turned one this way, one that. And round about soft meadows of violets and parsley were blooming. There even an immortal, who chanced to come, might gaze and marvel, and delight his soul; and there the messenger Argeiphontes stood and marvelled. Sea air, kelp, and climbing vines, flame-singed cedarwood and juniper branches, cypress boughs, alder wood, violets, selino, parsley, glistritha, and white sage. PAÍS DE LA CANELA The legendary Valley of Cinnamon located east of Quito, deep in the Selva Amazónica. A thick tangle of deep green leaves, wild orchids, soft lichen, Patauá and Babassu palm spiced by the scent of deep, rich cinnamon. The bad news: De Sade is the latest to fall victim to misfortune. He’s being discontinued as of today. Pending orders will still be filled, but we do not have enough stock to accept new orders for this scent. The good news: later this month, a Vampire Tarot card enters the deck, we take you on a trip through the red light district, a sticky bat flits into the house, and snow falls early in New England. (The Stars Are Right!) At Black Phoenix Trading Post, they’re oiling the racks and heating up the pokers for an upcoming Inquisition!

Live now at Post War Trade! All scents are bottled in 5ml vials and each features a detail from an image in the book on the label. BATHROOM INCIDENT Soap residue, tile, and surface cleaner. BLACKBERRY JAM & SCONES Blackberry jam and… scones. CONSERVATORY TABLEAUX Lacquered beech wood and old books. CUPCAKE SPATTER PATTERN ANALYSIS Frosted chocolate cupcakes and filth. DAYLILIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE STAIRS Varnished oak flooring and flattened daylilies. FLOATER Murky water, rotting leaves, and silt. JOYEUX NOËL Douglas fir, tinsel, metallic swag garlands, arc flash, and the ozone smell of electrical discharge. LEAF-STREWN COUCH Dust, decaying fabric, dead leaves, and concrete. MANUS DEI (or the TYPEWRITER INCIDENT) Weeds, dirt, red clay, scattered groceries, inked fabric ribbon, machine oil, and cast steel. OCCURANCE AT THE DINER House salad, no dressing. UNEXPECTED GOLF HAZARD A freshly mowed teeing ground. UNFORTUNATE SHOPPING CART Powder-coated steel, caster wheels, cling wrap, and blood. Buy the set of 12, and the wonderful people at PWT will throw in a treat. http://www.postwartrade.com/

The Falling Leaf Moon tee is live at BPTP! The tee will be live until 9 September 2009!

Happy birthday to Miss Lilith Victoria and her beloved Uncle Brian! Neil Gaiman's 15 Painted Cards From a Vampire Tarot is live on BPAL & BPTP! Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is proud to present a 15-month scent and art series based on Neil Gaiman's short story, "15 Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot." Each package comes with a 5ml bottle of perfume inspired by the tale and a corresponding tarot card, created by Madame Talbot. The Fool's perfume: apple blossom, peppermint, allspice, and yellow sandalwood speckled with grave loam and clods of grave dirt. The Fool premiered at San Diego Comic Con 2009 through the CBLDF, along with a Limited Edition variant of the Fool, created by Alicia Dabney. The Fool is going live online with this September update. A new set will be added to the collection each month, spanning 15 months. T-shirts featuring Madame Talbot's artwork are available through Black Phoenix Trading Post. The Fool tee will begin to ship on September 14, 2009. We chose to utilize tees that have been put through the burnout process in order to mimic parchment. It is an extensive and expensive process, and along with the 2-sided print, it makes for a higher price point. The fabric is weathered and has been washed over and over again. It looks deliberately vintage, and has a comfy, well-loved feel to it. The fabric is garment dyed 50% cotton and 50% polyester, and was made in the good ol' US of A. Due to the burnout process, no two tees are exactly the same. We tested the burnouts for two years prior to offering them. The tees we tested withstood innumerable washings over the years, in addition to the abuse of being worn by Ted while he plays hockey (yowch!), and they just keep getting softer and more comfortable over time. (No, we are not selling tees that Ted has worn during hockey. That would be a biohazard.) The fit of the tees, both babydoll and standard crew, are slightly smaller than the usual Black Phoenix Trading Post tees. Please refer to the size chart on the Trading Post site for more information. The babydolls are crews, have a "boyfriend" fit, and were created to hang gently on the body and slide across your figure; they are not skin-tight. Black ink on grey-brown parchment fabric. The oil and tarot card set is $30, and the tee is $45. This is a charitable, not-for-profit venture: proceeds from every single set and tee go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which works to preserve the First Amendment rights of the comic community. Also new this month! The Hellboy series is live! So much thanks to Mike and Christine Mignola for their support and friendship, and for the opportunity to interpret the world of Hellboy through scent! HELLBOY Aftershave, candy wrappers, brimstone, and cat. TREVOR BRUTTENHELM A classic men's cologne mixed with the scent of old, yellowed books, a splash of bay rum, and summoning incense. KROENEN Shining black leather, gleaming metal, labdanum, and myrrh. LIZ A light, feminine vanilla floral perfume and a swirl of smoke and leather. PLAGUE OF FROGS Rubbery, wet, and warty. ABE SAPIEN A soft aquatic musk with kelp and juniper. The Hellboy scents are $25 each! Also new this month - scents inspired by Gris Grimly's illustrations for Tales of Death & Dementia! These scents debuted at the Tales of Death & Dementia Launch Party at Dark Delicacies, and will be carried here and on the Mad Creator website. To Commemorate the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe, Gris Grimly fully illustrated four of Poe's short stories, the Tell-Tale Heart, the System of Dr Tarr and Professor Fether, the Oblong Box, and the Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. We are thrilled beyond belief to have the opportunity to translate a few of Gris' illustrations into merrily macabre complimentary scents! A FIT OF ARTISTIC ENTHUSIASM Inspired by Gris Grimly's illustrations for the Oblong Box. Electric jolts of mania: a salt-crusted coffin bobbing through tumultuous ocean waves. DETESTABLE PUTRESCENCE Inspired by Gris Grimly's illustrations for the Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. Melty vanilla ice cream! HIDEOUS HEART Inspired by Gris Grimly's illustrations for the Tell-Tale Heart. A macabre Valentine: wild black cherries, licorice root, and cinnamon. SOOTHING SYSTEM Inspired by Gris Grimly's illustrations for the System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether. A lunatic's vintage cabernet. These scents are $20 each! And let's not forget this month's Lunacy… FALLING LEAF MOON My sorrow, when she's here with me, thinks these dark days of autumn rain are beautiful as days can be; she loves the bare, the withered tree; she walks the sodden pasture lane. The first autumn rains dripping onto fallen leaves against a backdrop of opoponax, labdanum, patchouli, agarwood, and oakmoss. Unfortunately, our illustrator is running a little late, so we're not able to post the Lunacy tee for another day or two. We're truly sorry for the delay, and will be extending the ordering time on the tee. It has been a very strange year. There's been a little revamping and clean-upping happening on the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab web site! A million thanks to our lovemuffin, Alicia Dabney, for the new menu bar art on the main site, and for the artwork featured on the new Neil Gaiman menu page! We do have a bit of bad news: Bat-woman has been discontinued due to component issues. We apologize sincerely for the lack of warning; it hit us suddenly. The price for the Salon series 1 imp packs has been adjusted to reflect this change, as well. There's a whole lot new at Black Phoenix Trading Post, too - Two new Atmosphere sprays! EREBOS Thus saying, from her side the fatal Key, Sad instrument of all our woe, she took; And towards the Gate rouling her bestial train, Forthwith the huge Porcullis high up drew, Which but her self not all the STYGIAN powers Could once have mov'd; then in the key-hole turns Th' intricate wards, and every Bolt and Bar Of massie Iron or sollid Rock with ease Unfast'ns: on a sudden op'n flie With impetuous recoile and jarring sound Th' infernal dores, and on thir hinges great Harsh Thunder, that the lowest bottom shook Of EREBUS. She op'nd, but to shut Excel'd her power; the Gates wide op'n stood, That with extended wings a Bannerd Host Under spread Ensigns marching might pass through With Horse and Chariots rankt in loose array; So wide they stood, and like a Furnace mouth Cast forth redounding smoak and ruddy flame. Before thir eyes in sudden view appear The secrets of the hoarie deep, a dark Illimitable Ocean without bound, Without dimension, where length, breadth, and highth, And time and place are lost; where eldest Night And CHAOS, Ancestors of Nature, hold Eternal ANARCHIE, amidst the noise Of endless warrs and by confusion stand. Solace in darkness, the personification of shadow: lavender, black vanilla, white melon, night-blooming jasmine, rose, cedar, cyclamen, violet, and hyacinth. THE FAINTING ROOM Lush velvet cushions and prim tea rose, a splash of rose water on a lace doily, strong black tea, a whiff of pomander, and an orris root sachet. Also new to the Post! - the SKELETON LIBRARIAN PLAQUES! The Skeleton Librarian Plaques are here! Inspired by the Skeleton Librarian t-shirt, this plaque is based on artwork created for Black Phoenix Trading Post by Kali of Johnny Ace Studios! Hand cast and hand painted, these plaques come in two styles: cold cast bronze and cold cast resin with a bone finish. These plaques aren't simply decorative: they hold eight bottles for display. Due to the handcrafted nature of these plaques, no two are exactly the same! Dimensions are 15"x9.5" This is a limited stock item: there are seventy-five bone plaques, and twenty-five bronze plaques. Once they're gone, they're gone. Suitable for indoor or outdoor use. Please note: the cold cast bronze plaque will patina over time. The Post is also thrilled to offer some Halloween treats! The Wanton Voluptuousness series - At Black Phoenix, we have a real thing for Lucy. This collection contains a bath oil, Oceans of Love and Millions of Kisses, which is innocent sensuality and sweetness personified. There are two room sprays: Lucy's Boudoir, which embodies Lucy's youth, beauty, and coquettish innocence, and another, Lucy's Darkness, that is the scent wafting through her room during her room during her final days among the living. They can be used alone, or the latter can be sprayed to corrupt the former. Lucy, Kissed is a perfume illustrating the scent of her undeath. $29 per 8oz Bath Oil $25 per 4oz Room Spray $17.50 per 5ml Perfume Oil No squirts or samples are available for this series. OCEANS OF LOVE AND MILLIONS OF KISSES BATH OIL Why can't they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble? Orange blossom and honey. LUCY'S BOUDOIR ATMOSPHERE SPRAY Rose water and lavender with stargazer lily, white carnation, bois de rose, white iris, violet, and honey. LUCY IN DARKNESS ATMOSPHERE SPRAY And then insensibly there came the strange change which I had noticed in the night. Her breathing grew stertorous, the mouth opened, and the pale gums, drawn back, made the teeth look longer and sharper than ever. In a sort of sleep-waking, vague, unconscious way she opened her eyes, which were now dull and hard at once, and said in a soft, voluptuous voice, such as I had never heard from her lips, "Arthur! Oh, my love, I am so glad you have come! Kiss me!" Denn die Todten reiten Schnell. Black opium poppy, laudanum, blood, and a chaplet of garlic flowers. LUCY, KISSED PERFUME OIL There was a long spell of silence, big, aching, void, and then from the Professor a keen "S-s-s-s!" He pointed, and far down the avenue of yews we saw a white figure advance, a dim white figure, which held something dark at its breast. The figure stopped, and at the moment a ray of moonlight fell upon the masses of driving clouds, and showed in startling prominence a dark-haired woman, dressed in the cerements of the grave. We could not see the face, for it was bent down over what we saw to be a fair-haired child. There was a pause and a sharp little cry, such as a child gives in sleep, or a dog as it lies before the fire and dreams. We were starting forward, but the Professor's warning hand, seen by us as he stood behind a yew tree, kept us back. And then as we looked the white figure moved forwards again. It was now near enough for us to see clearly, and the moonlight still held. My own heart grew cold as ice, and I could hear the gasp of Arthur, as we recognized the features of Lucy Westenra. Lucy Westenra, but yet how changed. The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness. Van Helsing stepped out, and obedient to his gesture, we all advanced too. The four of us ranged in a line before the door of the tomb. Van Helsing raised his lantern and drew the slide. By the concentrated light that fell on Lucy's face we could see that the lips were crimson with fresh blood, and that the stream had trickled over her chin and stained the purity of her lawn death-robe. Diabolical voluptuousness, a siren song from the grave: juniper and yew brushing against blackened violets and funeral roses, red musk and hot blood, veined white marble and icy, brittle musk, all pulsing with the sinister, hypnotic scent of patchouli, amber, oude, and cubeb. (Many thanks to Aunt Beastie for inspiring the perfume's name! You were born to be an undead seductress, woman!) There are also some traditional Halloween offerings! - PUMPKIN PIE BATH OIL Devilishly decadent and a little bit ridiculous! BARMBRACK ATMOSPHERE SPRAY An Irish Halloween tradition! This fruit bread is used as a method of divination: a medallion of the Virgin Mary, a sliver of rag, a pea, a coin, a stick, and a ring are baked into the pastry. On Halloween night, it is cut up and served to the household. If you received the stick, you would spend the next year in conflict… if you received the medallion, you would be called to the priesthood… if you received the rag, you would be plagued with misfortune… if you received the ring, you would be married within the year… if you received the pea, you would not marry within the year… Each bottle of Barmbrack spray comes with a toy coin and a wish for your good fortune in 2010! KNOCK-A-DOLLY Ding Dong Ditch! Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's Samhain scent with cinnamon sugar and candy dust! Every single order placed with Black Phoenix Trading Post from now til November 2nd will receive an imp of the Last Squished Jelly Bean. And that's that for now!

Due to a slew of unforeseen setbacks in Bethland, the 15 Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot series (on BPAL & BPTP), the Trading Post Halloweenies, and the other August stuffums will be delayed a week, and won’t be live until the September Lunacy. Just wanted to keep everyone posted! =)

The Chakras series is being discontinued, and will be leaving the barn on October 6, 2009.

The Sachs and Violens Collection is live! Scents based on the title characters from George Pérez and Peter David's groundbreaking comic book mini-series, 'Sachs and Violens'! Part of Marvel's Heavy Hitters line, "Sachs and Violens" was a 4 issue comic book miniseries written by Peter David with art by George Pérez. The series was published by Marvel's Epic Comics imprint from 1993 to 1994. George Pérez is one of the most popular and influential comic book artists currently working. He is best known for his work on Crisis on Infinite Earths, New Teen Titans, Wonder Woman, Superman, and the Avengers, and has most recently worked on DC's Final Crisis. Peter David is an Eisner Award-winning Writer of Stuff, including epic runs with the Incredible Hulk, She-Hulk, Aquaman, and Spider Man. Proceeds from every bottle sold go to the Hero Initiative, the first federally recognized not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping comic book creators, writers and artists in need. Founded in late 2000 by a consortium of comic book and trade publishers including Marvel Comics, Image Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Wizard Entertainment, CrossGen Comics and Dynamic Forces Inc., the 501©(3) charity aims to assist comic creators with health, medical, and quality-of-life assistance. SACHS A sensual scent, compelling and passionate, that stays close to the skin: Roman chamomile, bourbon vanilla, and smoky vanilla bean. VIOLENS Rugged and understated: five sandalwoods, dusty leather, and light musk. Help a truly worthy cause, and smell like a badass in the process! The Hero Initiative: because everyone deserves a Golden Age.

Black Butterfly Moon is live at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab & Black Phoenix Trading Post! BLACK BUTTERFLY MOON Sister of the first-born light, Type of sorrowing gentleness! Quivering mists in silv'ry dress Float around thy features bright; When thy gentle foot is heard, From the day-closed caverns then Wake the mournful ghosts of men, I, too, wake, and each night-bird. O'er a field of boundless span Looks thy gaze both far and wide. Raise me upwards to thy side! Grant this to a raving man! And to heights of rapture raised, Let the knight so crafty peep At his maiden while asleep, Through her lattice-window glazed. Soon the bliss of this sweet view, Pangs by distance caused allays; And I gather all thy rays, And my look I sharpen too. Round her unveil'd limbs I see Brighter still become the glow, And she draws me down below, As Endymion once drew thee. Soft, deep, and luminous: Lady of the Night orchid, benzoin, opopponax, currant, black chypre, white gardenia, ambergris, damp, wooded mosses, and black lily. Black Phoenix Trading Post's Black Butterfly tee! Artwork by Jennifer Williamson! One flat grey, one shimmer grey, two-sided tee. Good news! The WQ bath oils are back in production, and we will be able to resume shipping this week! The bottleneck is unbottled! BPTP's seasonal update is coming soon! BPAL also has a selection of late summer scents in the LE section: THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER 'Tis the last rose of summer Left blooming alone; All her lovely companions Are faded and gone; No flower of her kindred, No rosebud is nigh, To reflect back her blushes, To give sigh for sigh. I'll not leave thee, thou lone one! To pine on the stem; Since the lovely are sleeping, Go, sleep thou with them. Thus kindly I scatter, Thy leaves o'er the bed, Where thy mates of the garden Lie scentless and dead. So soon may I follow, When friendships decay, From Love's shining circle The gems drop away. When true hearts lie withered And fond ones are flown, Oh! who would inhabit, This bleak world alone? A quiet, solitary scent: white rose, frankincense, Arabian sandalwood, neroli, orris root, and patchouli. SHADOWLESS LIKE SILENCE I saw old Autumn in the misty morn Stand shadowless like Silence, listening To silence, for no lonely bird would sing Into his hollow ear from woods forlorn, Nor lowly hedge nor solitary thorn;-- Shaking his languid locks all dewy bright With tangled gossamer that fell by night, Pearling his coronet of golden corn. Where are the songs of Summer?--With the sun, Oping the dusky eyelids of the south, Till shade and silence waken up as one, And Morning sings with a warm odorous mouth. Where are the merry birds?--Away, away, On panting wings through the inclement skies, Lest owls should prey Undazzled at noonday, And tear with horny beak their lustrous eyes. Where are the blooms of Summer?--In the west, Blushing their last to the last sunny hours, When the mild Eve by sudden Night is prest Like tearful Proserpine, snatch'd from her flow'rs To a most gloomy breast. Where is the pride of Summer,--the green prime,-- The many, many leaves all twinkling?--Three On the moss'd elm; three on the naked lime Trembling,--and one upon the old oak-tree! Where is the Dryad's immortality?-- Gone into mournful cypress and dark yew, Or wearing the long gloomy Winter through In the smooth holly's green eternity. The squirrel gloats on his accomplish'd hoard, The ants have brimm'd their garners with ripe grain, And honey bees have stored The sweets of Summer in their luscious cells; The swallows all have wing'd across the main; But here the Autumn melancholy dwells, And sighs her tearful spells Amongst the sunless shadows of the plain. Alone, alone, Upon a mossy stone, She sits and reckons up the dead and gone With the last leaves for a love-rosary, Whilst all the wither'd world looks drearily, Like a dim picture of the drowned past In the hush'd mind's mysterious far away, Doubtful what ghostly thing will steal the last Into that distance, gray upon the gray. O go and sit with her, and be o'ershaded Under the languid downfall of her hair: She wears a coronal of flowers faded Upon her forehead, and a face of care;-- There is enough of wither'd everywhere To make her bower,--and enough of gloom; There is enough of sadness to invite, If only for the rose that died, whose doom Is Beauty's,--she that with the living bloom Of conscious cheeks most beautifies the light: There is enough of sorrowing, and quite Enough of bitter fruits the earth doth bear,-- Enough of chilly droppings for her bowl; Enough of fear and shadowy despair, To frame her cloudy prison for the soul! Dry leaves and white sandalwood, rock moss, cypress, and dry, lifeless roses. SUMMER'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT What pleasure always lasts? No joy endures: Summer I was, I am not as I was; Harvest and age have whitened my green head; On Autumn now and Winter must I lean. Needs must he fall, whom none but foes uphold. Thus must the happiest man have his black day: Omnibus una manet nox, & calcanda semel via lethi. This month have I lain languishing abed, ... Looking each hour to yield my life and throne; And died I had indeed unto the earth, But that Eliza, England's beauteous Queen, On whom all seasons prosperously attend, Forbad the execution of my fate, Until her joyful progress was expired. For her doth Summer live, and linger here, And wisheth long to live to her content; But wishes are not had when they wish well. I must depart, my death-day is set down; ... To these two must I leave my wheaten crown. So unto unthrifts rich men leave their lands, Who in an hour consume long labor's gains. Doomed summer, supported on the shoulders of winter and autumn: citrus-infused Baltic amber, red valerian, marigold, blood orange, and sunflower subdued by somber myrrh and dry geranium alongside the leaves of autumn and a breath of winter wind. UNDER THE HARVEST MOON Under the harvest moon, When the soft silver Drips shimmering Over the garden nights, Death, the gray mocker, Comes and whispers to you As a beautiful friend Who remembers. Under the summer roses When the flagrant crimson Lurks in the dusk Of the wild red leaves, Love, with little hands, Comes and touches you With a thousand memories, And asks you Beautiful, unanswerable questions. Blue and white musk, summer roses, wild crimson leaves, grey amber, carnation, lavender bud, and vanilla bean. Its August… and you know what that means at BPAL - ++ HALLOWEENIES BITE ME Well, we *are* doing a vampire update finally. Croquembouche with almond silk and a drizzle of caramel. BOO Eerie billows of spun sugar, fluttering white cotton, and sheets of cream. CARLIN The Spirit of the Eve of Samhain, an aspect of Cailleach, the Divine Hag, in her Destroyer aspect. While Brìghde rules the time between Beltane and Sahmain, Cailleach rules the Dark of the Year. On the night of Samhain, she transforms into Carlin, harbingering the death of the land and the onset of the snows. On Beltane, the Great Crone is slain by Brìghde so springtime can reinvigorate the land. Black sage, ivy-twined rowan, thistle, snapdragon, heather, gorse, fumitory, and anise. CREEPY 2009 A return of 2006's Ridiculous Scent! As creepy as Spooky was spooky, this is the scent of butterscotch-kissed, caramel-smothered red apples spiked with a blast of coconut rum. DEVIL'S NIGHT 2009 Devil's Eve, Devil's Night, Gate Night, Trick Night, Mischief Night; whatever your name for it might be, the chaos is still the same. Contrary to popular belief, this festival of pandemonium isn't unique to Detroit. Falling on October 30th, it is an evening of mayhem and destruction. On the gentler side, it may be celebrated by practical jokes, an egging, Ding-Dong-Ditch, or enthusiastic TP'ing of your most hated neighbor's trees, and on the more violent side, arson and vandalism. This is the scent of autumn night, fires in the distance, with a touch of boozy swoon, playful sugar and thuggish musk. DIA DE LOS MUERTOS 2009 A joyous celebration of La Catarina, La Flaca, La Muerte... Glorious, Beautiful Death. In Mexico, death is not something to be feared or hated; She is embraced, loved, and adored. La Muerte is fêted, as the celebrant "...chases after it, mocks it, courts it, hugs it, sleeps with it; it is his favorite plaything and his most lasting love." This is a Mexican paean to La Huesuda: dry, crackling leaves, the incense smoke of altars honoring Death and the Dead, funeral bouquets, the candies, chocolates, foods and tobacco of the ofrenda, amaranth, sweet cactus blossom and desert cereus. FEEDING THE DEAD A barrel of beer, a pyramid of cakes, and three sticks of incense. THE HELL-GATE OF IRELAND The Cave of Cruachan in Connaught, a province that was given to the Formorians after the Battle of Mag Tuired. On the first of November, a flock of malevolent copper-colored birds bursts forth from the mouth of the cave, ushering a host of restless ghosts and wicked goblins that torment the living by blighting crops, killing livestock, stealing away brides-to-be, and replacing infants with changelings. Smoldering brimstone, bitter labdanum, clove, black musk, and copper-colored feathers. LAMBS-WOOL According to William Shepard Walsh, the Gentleman's Magazine for May of 1784 stated, "this is a constant ingredient at merrymaking on Holy Eve." He also quotes Vallancey's etymological speculation: "The first day of November was dedicated to the angel presiding over fruits, seeds, etc., and was therefore named La Mas Ubhal, -- that is, the day of the apple fruit, -- and being pronounced Lamasool, the English have corrupted the name to Lambs-wool." A popular holy day beverage in 18th century Ireland: roasted apples mashed into warmed milk and ale, with nutmeg, sugar, ginger, and clove. POMONA I am the ancient apple-queen. As once I was so am I now -- For evermore a hope unseen Betwixt the blossom and the bough. Ah, where's the river's hidden gold! And where's the windy grave of Troy? Yet come I as I came of old, From out the heart of summer's joy. The Roman festival for Pomona, Goddess of fruit, orchards, and gardens, was celebrated on November 1. On this day, the stores amassed during summer were opened for winter. Azaroles, nuts, and apple blossoms with red apple pulp, mulberry, blackberry, and pomegranate juice. SAMHAIN 2009 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. SUCK IT A companion to Bite Me. Layers well with Lick It. Hee! Sexy and suckable: black cherry brandy. TRICK OR TREAT 2009 The sticky sweet scent of candy corn! Even cornier for 2009! - cuz corny is how we roll at BPAL. (Sorry to be a spoilsport, but please don't suck Suck Me or bite Bite Me. Don't lick them, drink them, or put them where your bathing suit covers.) And the Pumpkin Patch is back! -- ++ HALLOWEENIE: PUMPKIN PATCH 2009 The 'Patch is back, and there are five new pumpkin blends to choose from. Pick individual pumpkins from the field, or snatch up the whole shebang! Pumpkin Patch I Pumpkin, almond, brown musk, and honey. Pumpkin Patch II Pumpkin, rosewood, red sandalwood, and tea rose. Pumpkin Patch III Pumpkin, fir needle, pitch, rosemary, and tomato. Pumpkin Patch IV Pumpkin, black musk, tobacco, myrrh, and clove. Pumpkin Patch V Pumpkin, chocolate, coffee bean, vanilla bean, and hazelnut. PUMPKIN BOOTY If you purchase Pumpkin Booty, you will receive an imp of Tattie Bogle: a scent created to compliment and complete the collection. TATTIE BOGLE Alane upon the field she stood, The tattie-bogle, tall an' prood. But certie, she wis smairt an' braw, A bonnie lass, tho' made o' straw. Her gowden hair wis made o' oo. Her dentie goon when it wis new Langsyne, hid been the guidwife's best. Sae trigly wis the bogle drest! The beasts they cam' frae a' the airts. (The tod ran tours frae furrin' pairts.) They cam' by day, they cam' by nicht, To see a maist byordnar sicht. An' craws an sparras by the score, A wale o' burds, mair nor afore. The fermer roared an' raged aboot. 'A'll cast yon tattie-bogle oot!' Pair tattie-bogle, she wis wae. 'Eh!' said the houlet, 'Whits a dae?' He flew doon frae the elder tree. 'Noo, dry yer e'en an' herk tae me. 'See, lassie, tak ma guid advice. There is nae yiss ye bein' nice. Can ye nae glower an' skreich an' a' Tae sen' thae cooardie burds awa'?' The bogle grat nae mair: instead 'A'm much obleeged tae ye,' she said 'Ma voice is lood - jist like the craik!' 'Then sing,' he said, ' for ony sake!' It chilled the verra bluid tae hear The bogle's sang : frae far an' near The burds rose up, a' frichtit sair An' nivver cam back ony mair. Sae should ye pass at skreich o' day Alang the road frae Auchenblae, An' hear a strange uncanny soun, That scares the burds for miles aroon, A soon like pincils on a sclate, Be on yer way an' dinna wait. Ye can be shair as onything Ye've heard the tattie-bogle sing. Hay, gunpowder, patchouli, autumn herbs, and sun-baked wood. The next part of our Halloween LE update was spoilered a bit by Bite Me and Suck It. Ah, well - ++ THE LITERARY VAMPIRE A cypress-bough, and a rose-wreath sweet A wedding-robe, and a winding-sheet, A bridal-bed and a bier. Thine be the kisses, maid, And smiling Love's alarms; And thou, pale youth, be laid In the grave's cold arms. Each in his own charms, Death and Hymen both are here; So up with scythe and torch, And to the old church porch, While all the bells ring clear: And rosy, rosy the bed shall bloom, And earthy, earthy heap up the tomb. Now tremble dimples on your cheek, Sweet be your lips to taste and speak, For he who kisses is near: By her the bridegod fair, In youthful power and force; By him the grizard bare, Pale knight on a pale horse, To woo him to a corpse. Death and Hymen both are here; So up with scythe and torch, And to the old church porch, While all the bells ring clear: And rosy, rosy the bed shall bloom, And earthy, earthy heap up the tomb. -- Songs from "Death's Jest-Book", Athulf's Death Song, Thomas Lovell Beddoes ARIADNE BRUNNELL (The Vampire Maid, Hume Nisbet) This contact seemed also to have affected her as it did me; a clear flush, like a white flame, lighted up her face, so that it glowed as if an alabaster lamp had been lit; her black eyes became softer and more humid as our glances crossed, and her scarlet lips grew moist. She was a living woman now, while before she had seemed half a corpse. She permitted her white slender hand to remain in mine longer than most people do at an introduction, and then she slowly withdrew it, still regarding me with steadfast eyes for a second or two afterwards. Fathomless velvety eyes these were, yet before they were shifted from mine they appeared to have absorbed all my willpower and made me her abject slave. They looked like deep dark pools of clear water, yet they filled me with fire and deprived me of strength. I sank into my chair almost as languidly as I had risen from my bed that morning. Yet I made a good breakfast, and although she hardly tasted anything, this strange girl rose much refreshed and with a slight glow of colour on her cheeks, which improved her so greatly that she appeared younger and almost beautiful. I had come here seeking solitude, but since I had seen Ariadne it seemed as if I had come for her only. She was not very lively; indeed, thinking back, I cannot recall any spontaneous remark of hers; she answered my questions by monosyllables and left me to lead in words; yet she was insinuating and appeared to lead my thoughts in her direction and speak to me with her eyes. I cannot describe her minutely, I only know that from the first glance and touch she gave me I was bewitched and could think of nothing else. It was a rapid, distracting, and devouring infatuation that possessed me; all day long I followed her about like a dog, every night I dreamed of that white glowing face, those steadfast black eyes, those moist scarlet lips, and each morning I rose more languid than I had been the day before. Sometimes I dreamt that she was kissing me with those red lips, while I shivered at the contact of her silky black tresses as they covered my throat; sometimes that we were floating in the air, her arms about me and her long hair enveloping us both like an inky cloud, while I lay supine and helpless. Poppy flowers, peat, sphagnum moss, gardenia, and white water lily. CLARIMONDE (La Morte Amoureuse, Theophile Gautier) I do not know whether it was an illusion or a reflection of the lamplight, but it seemed to me that the blood was again commencing to circulate under that lifeless pallor, although she remained all motionless. I laid my hand lightly on her arm; it was cold, but not colder than her hand on the day when it touched mine at the portals of the church. I resumed my position, bending my face above her, and bathing her cheeks with the warm dew of my tears. Ah, what bitter feelings of despair and helplessness, what agonies unutterable did I endure in that long watch! Vainly did I wish that I could have gathered all my life into one mass that I might give it all to her, and breathe into her chill remains the flame which devoured me. The night advanced, and feeling the moment of eternal separation approach, I could not deny myself the last sad sweet pleasure of imprinting a kiss upon the dead lips of her who had been my only love. . . . Oh, miracle! A faint breath mingled itself with my breath, and the mouth of Clarimonde responded to the passionate pressure of mine. Her eyes unclosed, and lighted up with something of their former brilliancy; she uttered a long sigh, and uncrossing her arms, passed them around my neck with a look of ineffable delight. "Ah, it is thou, Romuald!" she murmured in a voice languishingly sweet as the last vibrations of a harp. "What ailed thee, dearest? I waited so long for thee that I am dead; but we are now betrothed; I can see thee and visit thee. Adieu, Romuald, adieu! I love thee. That is all I wished to tell thee, and I give thee back the life which thy kiss for a moment recalled. We shall soon meet again." Her head fell back, but her arms yet encircled me, as though to retain me still. A furious whirlwind suddenly burst in the window, and entered the chamber. The last remaining leaf of the white rose for a moment palpitated at the extremity of the stalk like a butterfly's wing, then it detached itself and flew forth through the open casement, bearing with it the soul of Clarimonde. The lamp was extinguished, and I fell insensible upon the bosom of the beautiful dead. Pallid skin musk, white roses, and a languorous vapor of Oriental perfume. CRISTINA (For the Blood is the Life, F. Marion Crawford) He was near the village now; it was half an hour since the sun had set, and the cracked church bell sent little discordant echoes across the rocks and ravines to tell all good people that the day was done. Angelo stood still a moment where the path forked, where it led toward the village on the left, and down to the gorge on the right, where a clump of chestnut trees overhung the narrow way. He stood still a minute, lifting his battered hat from his head and gazing at the fast-fading sea westward, and his lips moved as he silently repeated the familiar evening prayer. His lips moved, but the words that followed them in his brain lost their meaning and turned into others, and ended in a name that he spoke aloud -- Cristina! With the name, the tension of his will relaxed suddenly, reality went out and the dream took him again, and bore him on swiftly and surely like a man walking in his sleep, down, down, by the steep path in the gathering darkness. And as she glided beside him, Cristina whispered strange, sweet things in his ear, which somehow, if he had been awake, he knew that he could not quite have understood; but now they were the most wonderful words he had ever heard in his life. And she kissed him also, but not upon his mouth. He felt her sharp kisses upon his white throat, and he knew that her lips were red. So the wild dream sped on through twilight and darkness and moonrise, and all the glory of the summer's night. But in the chilly dawn he lay as one half dead upon the mound down there, recalling and not recalling, drained of his blood, yet strangely longing to give those red lips more. Then came the fear, the awful nameless panic, the mortal horror that guards the confines of the world we see not, neither know of as we know of other things, but which we feel when its icy chill freezes our bones and stirs our hair with the touch of a ghostly hand. Once more Angelo sprang from the mound and fled up the gorge in the breaking day, but his step was less sure this time, and he panted for breath as he ran; and when he came to the bright spring of water that rises half way up the hillside, he dropped upon his knees and hands and plunged his whole face in and drank as he had never drunk before -- for it was the thirst of the wounded man who has lain bleeding all night upon the battle-field. She had him fast now, and he could not escape her, but would come to her every evening at dusk until she had drained him of his last drop of blood. It was in vain that when the day was done he tried to take another turning and to go home by a path that did not lead near the gorge. It was in vain that he made promises to himself each morning at dawn when he climbed the lonely way up from the shore to the village. It was all in vain, for when the sun sank burning into the sea, and the coolness of the evening stole out as from a hiding-place to delight the weary world, his feet turned toward the old way, and she was waiting for him in the shadow under the chestnut trees; and then all happened as before, and she fell to kissing his white throat even as she flitted lightly down the way, winding one arm about him. Chestnut trees, juniper berries, violet leaf, labdanum, dazzling, moonlit white musk, and night-blooming summer flowers. COUNTESS DOLINGEN OF GRATZ (Dracula's Guest, the omitted introduction to Bram Stoker's Dracula) Now and again, through the black mass of drifting cloud, came a straggling ray of moonlight, which lit up the expanse, and showed me that I was at the edge of a dense mass of cypress and yew trees. As the snow had ceased to fall, I walked out from the shelter and began to investigate more closely. It appeared to me that, amongst so many old foundations as I had passed, there might be still standing a house in which, though in ruins, I could find some sort of shelter for a while. As I skirted the edge of the copse, I found that a low wall encircled it, and following this I presently found an opening. Here the cypresses formed an alley leading up to a square mass of some kind of building. Just as I caught sight of this, however, the drifting clouds obscured the moon, and I passed up the path in darkness. The wind must have grown colder, for I felt myself shiver as I walked; but there was hope of shelter, and I groped my way blindly on. I stopped, for there was a sudden stillness. The storm had passed; and, perhaps in sympathy with nature's silence, my heart seemed to cease to beat. But this was only momentarily; for suddenly the moonlight broke through the clouds, showing me that I was in a graveyard, and that the square object before me was a great massive tomb of marble, as white as the snow that lay on and all around it. With the moonlight there came a fierce sigh of the storm, which appeared to resume its course with a long, low howl, as of many dogs or wolves. I was awed and shocked, and felt the cold perceptibly grow upon me till it seemed to grip me by the heart. Then while the flood of moonlight still fell on the marble tomb, the storm gave further evidence of renewing, as though it was returning on its track. Impelled by some sort of fascination, I approached the sepulchre to see what it was, and why such a thing stood alone in such a place. I walked around it, and read, over the Doric door, in German: COUNTESS DOLINGEN OF GRATZ IN STYRIA SOUGHT AND FOUND DEATH 1801 On the top of the tomb, seemingly driven through the solid marble-for the structure was composed of a few vast blocks of stone-was a great iron spike or stake. On going to the back I saw, graven in great Russian letters: 'The dead travel fast.' There was something so weird and uncanny about the whole thing that it gave me a turn and made me feel quite faint. I began to wish, for the first time, that I had taken Johann's advice. Here a thought struck me, which came under almost mysterious circumstances and with a terrible shock. This was Walpurgis Night! Walpurgis Night, when, according to the belief of millions of people, the devil was abroad-when the graves were opened and the dead came forth and walked. When all evil things of earth and air and water held revel. This very place the driver had specially shunned. This was the depopulated village of centuries ago. This was where the suicide lay; and this was the place where I was alone-unmanned, shivering with cold in a shroud of snow with a wild storm gathering again upon me! It took all my philosophy, all the religion I had been taught, all my courage, not to collapse in a paroxysm of fright. And now a perfect tornado burst upon me. The ground shook as though thousands of horses thundered across it; and this time the storm bore on its icy wings, not snow, but great hailstones which drove with such violence that they might have come from the thongs of Balearic slingers-hailstones that beat down leaf and branch and made the shelter of the cypresses of no more avail than though their stems were standing-corn. At the first I had rushed to the nearest tree; but I was soon fain to leave it and seek the only spot that seemed to afford refuge, the deep Doric doorway of the marble tomb. There, crouching against the massive bronze door, I gained a certain amount of protection from the beating of the hailstones, for now they only drove against me as they ricocheted from the ground and the side of the marble. As I leaned against the door, it moved slightly and opened inwards. The shelter of even a tomb was welcome in that pitiless tempest, and I was about to enter it when there came a flash of forked-lightning that lit up the whole expanse of the heavens. In the instant, as I am a living man, I saw, as my eyes were turned into the darkness of the tomb, a beautiful woman, with rounded cheeks and red lips, seemingly sleeping on a bier. As the thunder broke overhead, I was grasped as by the hand of a giant and hurled out into the storm. The whole thing was so sudden that, before I could realise the shock, moral as well as physical, I found the hailstones beating me down. At the same time I had a strange, dominating feeling that I was not alone. I looked towards the tomb. Just then there came another blinding flash, which seemed to strike the iron stake that surmounted the tomb and to pour through to the earth, blasting and crumbling the marble, as in a burst of flame. The dead woman rose for a moment of agony, while she was lapped in the flame, and her bitter scream of pain was drowned in the thundercrash. The last thing I heard was this mingling of dreadful sound, as again I was seized in the giant-grasp and dragged away, while the hailstones beat on me, and the air around seemed reverberant with the howling of wolves. The last sight that I remembered was a vague, white, moving mass, as if all the graves around me had sent out the phantoms of their sheeted-dead, and that they were closing in on me through the white cloudiness of the driving hail. Hailstone-pounded cypress boughs, olibanum, and an ozone blast of lightning. THE GIRL (The Singular Death of Morton, Algernon Blackwood) Then, suddenly, as they had turned to go, after much vain shouting and knocking at the door, a face appeared for an instant at a window, the shutter of which was half open. His friend saw it first, and called aloud. The face nodded in reply, and presently a young girl came round the corner of the house, apparently by a back door, and stood staring at them both from a little distance. And from that very instant, so far as he could remember, these queer feelings had entered his heart-fear, distrust, misgiving. The thought of it now, as he lay in bed in the darkness, made his hair rise. There was something about that girl that struck cold into the soul. Yet she was a mere slip of a thing, very pretty, seductive even, with a certain serpent?like fascination about her eyes and movements; and although she only replied to their questions as to refreshment with a smile, uttering no single word, she managed to convey the impression that she was a managing little person who might make herself very disagreeable if she chose. In spite of her undeniable charm there was about her an atmosphere of something sinister. He himself did most of the questioning, but it was his older friend who had the benefit of her smile. Her eyes hardly ever left his face, and once she had slipped quite close to him and touched his arm. The strange part of it now seemed to him that he could not remember in the least how she was dressed, or what was the colouring of her eyes and hair. It was almost as though he had felt, rather than seen, her presence. A seductive, serpentine white scent, elusive, crystalline, and spellbinding: white amber, silver birch, immortelle, davana, pale musk, star jasmine, and ylang ylang. MIRCALLA, COUNTESS KARNSTEIN (Carmilla, Sheridan LeFanu) Sometimes after an hour of apathy, my strange and beautiful companion would take my hand and hold it with a fond pressure, renewed again and again; blushing softly, gazing in my face with languid and burning eyes, and breathing so fast that her dress rose and fell with the tumultuous respiration. It was like the ardor of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet over-powering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips traveled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, "You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one for ever." Then she had thrown herself back in her chair, with her small hands over her eyes, leaving me trembling. Languid, melancholy fire: red musk, purple orchid, frankincense, smoky vanilla, Styrian herbs, peru balsam, tonka, Zanzibar clove, and patchouli. LORD RUTHVEN (the Vampyre, John Polidori) It happened that in the midst of the dissipations attendant upon London winter, there appeared at the various parties of the leaders of the ton a nobleman more remarkable for his singularities, than his rank. He gazed upon the mirth around him, as if he could not participate therein. Apparently, the light laughter of the fair only attracted his attention, that he might by a look quell it and throw fear into those breasts where thoughtlessness reigned. Those who felt this sensation of awe, could not explain whence it arose: some attributed it to the dead grey eye, which, fixing upon the object's face, did not seem to penetrate, and at one glance to pierce through to the inward workings of the heart; but fell upon the cheek with a leaden ray that weighed upon the skin it could not pass. His peculiarities caused him to be invited to every house; all wished to see him, and those who had been accustomed to violent excitement, and now felt the weight of ennui, were pleased at having something in their presence capable of engaging their attention. In spite of the deadly hue of his face, which never gained a wanner tint, either from the blush of modesty, or from the strong emotion of passion, though its form and outline were beautiful, many of the female hunters after notoriety attempted to win his attentions, and gain, at least, some marks of what they might term affection: Lady Mercer, who had been the mockery of every monster shewn in drawing-rooms since her marriage, threw herself in his way, and did all but put on the dress of a mountebank, to attract his notice -- though in vain; -- when she stood before him, though his eyes were apparently fixed upon hers, still it seemed as if they were unperceived; -- even her unappalled impudence was baffled, and she left the field. But though the common adultress could not influence even the guidance of his eyes, it was not that the female sex was indifferent to him: yet such was the apparent caution with which he spoke to the virtuous wife and innocent daughter, that few knewhenever addressed himself to females. He had, however, the reputation of a winning tongue; and whether it was that it even overcame the dread of his singular character, or that they were moved by his apparent hatred of vice, he was as often among those females who form the boast of their sex from their domestic virtues, as among those who sully it by their vices. The father of all dandy aristocrat vampires: Aqua Admirabilis with polished boot leather and blood. SARAH (The Tomb of Sarah, F.G. Loring) By half-past ten we were both getting very tired, and I began to think that perhaps after all we should see nothing that night. However, soon after eleven we observed a light mist rising from the 'Sarah Tomb'. It seemed to scintillate and sparkle as it rose, and curled in a sort of pillar or spiral. I said nothing, but I heard the Rector give a sort of gasp as he clutched my arm feverishly. 'Great Heaven!' he whispered, 'it is taking shape.' And, true enough, in a very few moments we saw standing erect by the tomb the ghastly figure of the Countess Sarah! She looked thin and haggard still, and her face was deadly white; but the crimson lips looked like a hideous gash in the pale cheeks, and her eyes glared like red coals in the gloom of the church. Unholy mist congealing into soft, white flesh, with black marble, remnants of liturgical incense, wolf's fur, and black flecks of froth. JULIA STONE (The Room in the Tower, E.F. Benson.) And then, with a sudden start of unexplained dismay, I saw that there were two rather conspicuous objects which I had not seen before in my dreams: one a life-sized oil painting of Mrs. Stone, the other a black-and-white sketch of Jack Stone, representing him as he had appeared to me only a week before in the last of the series of these repeated dreams, a rather secret and evil-looking man of about thirty. His picture hung between the windows, looking straight across the room to the other portrait, which hung at the side of the bed. At that I looked next, and as I looked I felt once more the horror of nightmare seize me. It represented Mrs. Stone as I had seen her last in my dreams: old and withered and white-haired. But in spite of the evident feebleness of body, a dreadful exuberance and vitality shone through the envelope of flesh, an exuberance wholly malign, a vitality that foamed and frothed with unimaginable evil. Evil beamed from the narrow, leering eyes; it laughed in the demon-like mouth. The whole face was instinct with some secret and appalling mirth; the hands, clasped together on the knee, seemed shaking with suppressed and nameless glee. Then I saw also that it was signed in the left-hand bottom corner, and wondering who the artist could be, I looked more closely, and read the inscription, "Julia Stone by Julia Stone." Rotting once-white fabric, spotted with mold. PERLE VON MAUREN (Revelations in Black by Carl Jacobi) I stumbled forward, my eyes quickly accustoming themselves to the half-light from the almost opaque windows. At the end of the corridor a second door barred my passage. I thrust it open - and stood swaying there on the sill staring inward. Beyond was a small room, barely ten feet square, with a low-raftered ceiling. And by the light of the open door I saw side by side in the center of the floor - two white wood coffins. How long I stood there leaning weakly against the stone wall I don't know. There was an odor drifting from out of that chamber. Heliotrope! But heliotrope defiled by the rotting smell of an ancient grave. Then suddenly I leaped to the nearest coffin, seized its cover and ripped it open. Would to heaven I could forget that sight that met my eyes. There the woman in black - unveiled. That face - it was divinely beautiful, the hair black as sable, the cheeks a classic white. But the lips - ! I grew suddenly sick as I looked upon them. They were scarlet.... and sticky with human blood. Heliotrope, grave soil, and blood. All of our current LE's are $17.50 each, and the Pumpkin Booty set is $85 for all five pumpkins. Black Butterfly Moon will be live until August 9, 2009. The Feast For the Greatly Revered Ones, Labores Solis, Nonae Caprotina, Season of the Inundation, and the Festival of Anuket will be live until 8 August 2009. The Summer Garden series, the Last Rose of Summer, Shadowless Like Silence, Summer's Last Will and Testament, Under the Harvest Moon, and Stinky will be live until 6 September 2009. The Halloweenies and Vampire scents will be live (undead) until November 5, 2009. The Literary Vampire series is available here on the Black Phoenix site, and will also be available through the Dark Delicacies booth at Vampire Con. (Del will also be on the vampire panel on Sunday!) That's all for the moment, ladies and gents! Happy (early!) Halloween!

SUNBIRD IS LIVE! They were all so hungry the following morning. Zebediah T. Crawcrustle had a comedic apron on, with the words KISS THE COOK written upon it in violently green letters. He had already sprinkled the brandy-soaked raisins and grain beneath the stunted avocado tree behind the house, and he was arranging the scented woods, the herbs, and the spices on the bed of charcoal. Mustapha Stroheim and his family had gone to visit relatives on the other side of Cairo. "Does anybody have a match?" Crawcrustle asked. Jackie Newhouse pulled out a Zippo lighter, and passed it to Crawcrustle, who lit the dried cinnamon leaves and dried laurel leaves beneath the charcoal. The smoke drifted up into the noon air. "The cinnamon and sandalwood smoke will bring the Sunbird," said Crawcrustle. "Bring it from where?" asked Augustus TwoFeathers. "Why, where it always is, third lane after the old market in the Suntown district, just before you reach the old drainage ditch that was once an irrigation canal, and if you find yourself outside One-eye Khayam's carpet shop you have gone too far, "began Crawcrustle. "But I see by the expressions of irritation upon your faces that you were expecting a less succinct, less accurate description. Very well. It is in Suntown, and Suntown is in Cairo, in Egypt, where it always is, or almost always." Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is thrilled to present a numbered, limited edition chapbook of Neil Gaiman's acclaimed short story, Sunbird, beautifully illustrated by Julie Dillon. Each package includes a 5ml bottle of perfume, created by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, that was inspired by the tale. In Neil's words, "'Sunbird' smells like resin and deserts and the phoenix." This set is a limited run of 1000. 250 were sold by CBLDF at San Diego Comic Con 2009, and the remainder are available through the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab web site. Sunbird will be available on the BPAL site as long as supplies last. A million thanks and all our love to Neil, and to Charles Brownstein and his staff at the CBLDF! This August, we are beginning a series dedicated to Neil Gaiman's 15 Painted Cards From a Vampire Tarot. Each month, a new card will be featured on both the Alchemy Lab and Trading Post sites. Debuting in August: the Fool. Both the perfume oil's label and the corresponding tee were illustrated by the phenomenally ghoulish Madame Talbot. Each scent is a combination of notes inspired by Neil's story and the symbolically correct oils for the card. The Vampire Tarot series made an advance appearance at San Diego Comic Con. Madam Talbot's Fool was joined by a variant set created by our beloved friend, Alicia Dabney. Please keep an eye on the CBLDF's web site for release information on the remaining A. Dabney sets. Sunbird and the 15 Painted Cards From a Vampire Tarot are charitable, not-for-profit ventures: proceeds from every single product go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which works to preserve and protect the First Amendment rights of the comics community. Also upcoming this August - The Death & Dementia Launch Party Commemorating the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe! Please join Gris Grimly & Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab at Dark Delicacies Sunday, August 23 2009 from 2-4pm Featuring the premiere of… + Gris Grimly's new book Tales of Death and Dementia + Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's new line of scents inspired by Gris Grimly's illustrations + Original artwork from the book on display and for sale + Limited edition silkscreened event posters + Limited edition event t-shirts Dark Delicacies 4213 W. Burbank Burbank, CA 91505 August really is an exciting month here this year! -- This August, BPAL will be presenting a limited edition set of scents based on George Pérez's groundbreaking comic book mini-series, "Sachs and Violens". Part of Marvel's Heavy Hitters line, "Sachs and Violens" was a 4 issue comic book miniseries written by Peter David with art by George Pérez. The series was published by Marvel's Epic Comics imprint from 1993 to 1994. These two scents will debut at Wizard World Chicago at the Hero Initiative booth. They will be available concurrently at www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com. Proceeds from every bottle sold go to the Hero Initiative, the first federally recognized not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping comic book creators, writers and artists in need. Founded in late 2000 by a consortium of comic book and trade publishers including Marvel Comics, Image Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Wizard Entertainment, CrossGen Comics and Dynamic Forces Inc., the 501©(3) charity aims to assist comic creators with health, medical, and quality-of-life assistance. George Pérez is one of the most popular and influential comic book artists currently working. He is best known for his work on Crisis on Infinite Earths, New Teen Titans, Wonder Woman, Superman, and the Avengers, and has most recently worked on DC's Final Crisis. Wizard World Chicago will be held August 6 - 9th, 2009 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. The Hero Initiative can be found at booth #1340. The Hero Initiative will be hosting a really, really kickass, unique event at Wizard World Chicago to launch the line. Keep yer eyes peeled for details! Please stay tuned, as we'll be posting purchasing information for the Who Killed Amanda Palmer series as soon as we have it, and for information regarding the debut of the Hellboy series! Up-to-date information can be snagged here in the Shiny & New section of our site, through our mailing list, on the bpal.org forum, or through Twitter (@bpal & @bethshepsut).

They were all so hungry the following morning. Zebediah T. Crawcrustle had a comedic apron on, with the words KISS THE COOK written upon it in violently green letters. He had already sprinkled the brandy-soaked raisins and grain beneath the stunted avocado tree behind the house, and he was arranging the scented woods, the herbs, and the spices on the bed of charcoal. Mustapha Stroheim and his family had gone to visit relatives on the other side of Cairo. “Does anybody have a match?” Crawcrustle asked. Jackie Newhouse pulled out a Zippo lighter, and passed it to Crawcrustle, who lit the dried cinnamon leaves and dried laurel leaves beneath the charcoal. The smoke drifted up into the noon air. “The cinnamon and sandalwood smoke will bring the Sunbird,” said Crawcrustle. “Bring it from where?” asked Augustus TwoFeathers “Why, where it always is, third lane after the old market in the Suntown district, just before you reach the old drainage ditch that was once an irrigation canal, and if you find yourself outside One-eye Khayam’s carpet shop you have gone too far, ”began Crawcrustle. “But I see by the expressions of irritation upon your faces that you were expecting a less succinct, less accurate description. Very well. It is in Suntown, and Suntown is in Cairo, in Egypt, where it always is, or almost always.” Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is thrilled to present a numbered, limited edition chapbook of Neil Gaiman's acclaimed short story, Sunbird, beautifully illustrated by Julie Dillon. Each package includes a 5ml bottle of perfume, created by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, that was inspired by the tale. In Neil’s words, “’Sunbird’ smells like resin and deserts and the phoenix.” This set is a limited run of 1000. 250 were sold by CBLDF at San Diego Comic Con 2009, and the remainder are available through the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab web site. Sunbird will be available on the BPAL site as long as supplies last. This is a charitable, not-for-profit venture: proceeds from every single set go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which works to preserve and protect the First Amendment rights of the comics community. Sunbird will go live at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/sunbird.html) at noon (PST) on July 30, 2009. A million thanks and all our love to Neil, and to Charles Brownstein and his staff at the CBLDF!

Death & Dementia Launch Party Commemorating the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe! Please join Gris Grimly & Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab at Dark Delicacies Sunday, August 23 2009 from 2-4pm Featuring the premiere of… + Gris Grimly’s new book Tales of Death and Dementia + Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s new line of scents inspired by Gris Grimly’s illustrations + Original artwork from the book on display and for sale + Limited edition silkscreened event posters + Limited edition event t-shirts Dark Delicacies 4213 W. Burbank Burbank, CA 91505 www.darkdel.com www.madcreator.com www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com