olympia301

I love this blend because it is a real departure, a turn in the road. This is a light and clever use of lavender as a sophisticated topnote that never overpowers or takes center stage to burn itself out. When it disappears, it does so gracefully. This is a graceful scent overall, one that you would wear to work and be considered fresh and ladylike but efficient and cool. It is a refreshing blend, and if it reminds me of anything, that is Yardley's Bond Street (which has been out of production for years). That is a very high compliment indeed. The drydown goes to a serious but womanly musk which is wonderful in its compatability with the lavender which was chosen for the opening. I also get amber, a dry and straw-like scent bolstering the drydown phase and it is leading this composition into another direction, back to the nature side again. Dolce Stil Nuovo is really a well well blended scent and I would vote for having it stick around, elevated to the general catalog. Everything in it works in harmony with everything else, even the strong departure of the musk in the intermediate drydown is done by someone who knows what they are doing.

Abhisarika is a fabulous white floral to my nose. It is as if the assignment was to make the smell of a gardinia out of everything but the essence of gardinia. It is exceptionally fresh and non cloying, which is a real accomplishment for this sort of deeply creamy white flower. I don't get any jasmine here as some do, and the rose is blended into the rest of the flowers so that I can't quite get a grip on it either. But the effect of the whole is indeed floral, and it is beautiful. So, for all the flower lovers out there, this one is a real treasure. (I love the concept, it's about time that we all got a bit of information on how beautifully Indian culture handles sexuality, so different form the west and entrancing. If we were busy dividing the Annunciation into five parts and panting over each one, the Indians were busy deconstructing the orgasm. *sigh*)

This one reminds me of Blood Moon. Go ahead and laugh, but it just does. I would never have guessed that it contained any of the ingredients listed (white carnation, iris, orange blossom, and sugared cream). It's more of the cassia side of things to me and I bet that is because of the transformation that scent notes go through if you blend them correctly. The carnation's clove scent is muted by something else and bent into a cassia thing. I can detect the orange blossom in the background and maybe the iris but sugared cream is subsumed into some other set of rooty dark scents. Zarita is an original and I really have to say that the end product is fascinating in that it proves a good perfumer can take a set of well recognized ingredients and turn them into something entirely different than the sum of its parts.

I love the smell of violets and Faith is all beautiful candied violets.At first I was worried that it was going to be fleeting but faith grew in intensity and encased me in a cloud of sugary violet lovliness. I don't think she will have to be imprisoned in a scent locket, she will last on your skin but I think a scent locket would make it an all day and into the night affair. Faith is a thing to make you yearn for spring, a perfect Black Phoenix scent appearing at the right time.

I wore Hope in bed last night and its creamy goodness was a great way to sleep and wake up with a happy scent all about me. I swear that I think my bottle of Hope smells more like the rose one and Faith like violets! This is the beautiful smell of roses (to me) and the Antique Lace kick that I love so much. My only problem with Hope is that she dries down almost completely on my skin and does not broadcast as much as I would like. However, putting her in a scent locket does the trick. This one is made for a scent locket! It's a great perfume and if you haven't done so, give it a try and then buy it. It is definately worth the price of admission!

This is just gorgeous. Bloody gorgeous. It has to be one of the most superb oriental/resiny/deep and beautiful perfumes ever concocted. Of course it is chocolate at first, as everyone else has said, then the Snake Oil sliters out and then it sort of either goes into hiding or your nose gets used to it. Fine, you put more one and think it's because you have a greedy nose. But, it amps up again after it dries down and delivers such a perfectly harmonious blend of excellent resins, mixtures of roots and deeply strong earthy delights that you can do nothing but give into the divine hedonism. Mmmm. Real good.

Snow White Alice Underpants Beaver Moon Milk Moon Regan Antique Lace London Tamora Fae (though this one might be too sexy because of the musk) Maiden Kumiho

Give Dana O'Shee a try. Very nice milky, grainy, honey scent. Light but so good in a scent locket.

It is like a warmed up lily of the valley. I remember it from my childhood. Have you tried to Google the name? There are places which sell just about every perfume ever created out there, the rare and the wonderful. If you are looking for a BPALm go to the Lab site and do a search on "Valley". I got 8 hits, one should be a Diorissimo-like enough (or maybe even better) for your friend. I got: Moscow, Hymn, The Queen of Hearts, Suspiro, Endymion, Wings of Azrael, Belle Epoque, & Dragon's Eye.

Creepy and Punkie Night were very apple on me. The Hesperides is apple as well, but it has a big shot of birch/wintergreen in it which is fresh and cold (like apples in the snow). If you can get your hands on the first two I mentioned, you won't be sorry.

I am in the same mind set as yeahbutnobut. I have always thought of The Lion as being the sunniest scent of all, more so than the citrus blends even.

Lex Taleonis and Saturnalia. Actually, going to the local Wild Oats or healthfood store and sniffing the tester of vetiver is a free way to find out what pure vetiver smells like.

Champagne is a really funny scent. It can smell like the inside of a glass of wine or it can smell pretty bad. It all depends on how you feel at the moment! Really. One of the things it was in was a very limited blend from BPAL and I can't remember the name of it, something like Imp of the Damned or something. It was champagne and roses. Bon Vivant has a champagne scent to it as well.

I tried Queen of Spades and lost. I was very sad because my tarot card has been the QoS from the very beginning. However, Purple Phoenix is the Queen Who Works on Me. Thanks to Portalkat, Sarada for bringing that up! Somehow Purple Phoenix is a sparkling version where the Spade Queen was earthy. I love this one. I can't really say I think "purple" when I smell it, I do think "natural, violet, intellect, wisdom". I feel ebulliently profound when I wear it, as the Queen of Spades should be. (Forget all that "woman of loss and sorrow who passively aggressively takes it out on everyone else, especially the poor old King of Swords"). Mattie hit the nail on the head with the Maya Angelou poem. Purple Phoenix isluscious, and it's a great capsule of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab because it could not have been made by any other perfumer. I'm a bit tongue tied here. It is just wonderful. *sigh*

As others have said, this is like one of the notable componants of Snow White made aquatic. It is a beatiful and risky perfume and I completely say it's wonderful. It's risky because Beth took something which is so well loved and served it to us in another form, and one which has it's fans and not-fans. I don't usually like aquatic scents but I had to try this one given the reviews from others. I am so glad I did. I will treasure my bottle of Snow-Flakes. I love the name and the concept and I am so glad that Beth did this. When it snows I will put this on and smile. Really beautiful and highly recommended to anyone who ever loved Snow White.

This is what I was hoping Skadi would be for me. It is indeed a cold fir shot all the way through, but it has a candy like/fruity side to it as well which never goes away and gives the fir its charm. This one is not at all a pine-you-to-death scent, it's using the conifer family in scent the way it should be used. With respect and for the whole scale that the ingredient gives. This one honors the fact that fir can produce fruit and be charming in the off season. It is one of the few fragrances I would recommend for use on your skin or in a scent warmer. Really charming.

I hope I'm not too late to put in my $.02. Here are some really good ones if no one has mentioned them: 1) Kumiho 2) Severin 3) Ravenous (really great and loooong lasting orange/oriental which is a gorgeous gorgeous thing in the fall and winter). 4) Alice (not a huge citrus, but with something lemony in there which is refreshing). 5) Wilde--I can't wear it but it's heaven if you can. 6) Dorian--ditto the above but lots of people swear it's a citrus beauty. I think it's very sporty.

I love Black Opal, Trick or Treat, and Ravenous at Halloween. Actually, Ravenous comforts me on November 1, which I am sad that Halloween is over.

I am so happy I yielded to this blend before it went away. Such a beautiful floral that morphs through its components and presents you with a new interpretation of the whole over it's drying and well into its dry stage. It's like a kaleidoscope of white and clear stones which reveals fabulous patterns as you turn the tube. Really breathtaking.

Dee and Old Scratch are both great lavenders.

Velvet Snow White Eat Me Alice London Whitechapel Fae Snake Oil Wilde Ravenous Severin Hungry Ghost Moon

Oh, you will be sorry you said that, Clover! Ha ha ha! I will try to be concise (uncharacteristicly). Snake Oil-The Classic heavy oriental. Nobody has done better with the resin and root perfume. I even detected a whiff of civet in Snake Oil. I would send it with a note saying,"This may not seem so special to you when you first try it, but persist...soon you will start to get to know it and want to explore its many vaults and chambers." I find something new in it every time I wear it. Dorian-So well loved by so many. I just don't get it but thousands of BPALers can't be wrong. I must be anosmic or my chemistry might destroy it, as it does Wilde (which is similar in some ways to my nose). Alice-Classic beauty of carnation for women. Feminine without the simper, creamy notes blended in so well that you only see their great combination with the carnation. Saturnalia-My favorite from that era of vetiver. Hard, black and shiny, Saturnalia has that violet lash in it which is so unusual nowadays. Not for the tremulous, a true Warrier Woman scent. This one tied with Lex Taleonis in my mind, but the violet pushed it out front. Hungry Ghost Moon-A radical departure from most of the lunacies I have smelled. Cool, cooling, ultra sophisticated, HGM takes me to the next place after all the tea scents have become old hat. Real innovative and thoroughly suitable for any age or circumstance. Severin-Deceptively simple and utterly elegant. I think of it as lemon, leather and tea. But not the "oh, it's tea...how boring" treatment. It's tea done right, and lemon that doesn't say "floor cleaner!!!". Aglaea-So innovative. A heavy herb going along with and apricot or peachy ingredient. It starts off very boozy to me and then gets sweet and then gets pleasantly astringent. A real winner and a serious departure from most perfumes. I don't know why it isn't spoken about more, it deserves to be. Whitechapel-Sex, sex, sex and sex. You have to have some nerve to put out a perfume which veers so wildly around: perfect lilac, fish/latex, musk, irresistible sticky sweet flowers. Did I mention there was sex in here? Much sex. For some wonderful reason this one never cloys or turns you off, but sex smells don't either. The most extreme I have ever smelled. I. Love. This. One. It makes me blush putting it on! Velvet-Chocolate, myrrh, and sandalwood? Who has the crust to put all that together? It worked and I feel as if it changed the minds of a great many people with its brilliant recognition of compatibility among foody and resinous scents. Velvet broke down the barriers of what was "allowed" and "not allowed" in perfume. A perennial classic. Embalming Fluid-This one detests my chemistry but despite that, it is the coldest of all the BPALs I have ever tried. Even Ultraviolet is warm compared to the lemony musk of Embalming Fluid. It smells like...embalming fluid. I always recommend this one to anyone who is suffering from summer swelter. Eat Me-Oooo, another beauty from the Snake Oil "heavy oriental" family. I love the foodiness of this. Pure sensuality and like to overwhelming (so thoroughly fitting in this case). You don't know whether to attempt to eat it or let your nose have the orgasm for you. I have to always remind myself not to put too much on at once, it will overpower. In the proper "dosage" it is incomparable. Asphodel-Flowers from Hell. I am not the most floral loving soul but this one is so fresh fresh and spring-like. Very Eastery, renewing and reviving when you need it. I am looking forward to wearing Asphodel in the dead of winter as it is spring in a bottle.

If I were putting together an imp pack to show off BPAL in all its classic glory (that is the ones I consider the most alluring/well done/facinating/risky) here is what I would choose. The rule is that I limit myself to a dozen, and the choices do not have to smell good on me, they have to be classic "pinnicle of the art" BPALS. They can be LE's, lunacies, GC's...anything. I am imagining that I could send this off to someone who really knew perfume (like Joe Guerlain) or who I really liked respected and wanted to introduce to BPAL. My picks are below, what would yours be? Here are mine: Snake OIl Dorian Alice Saturnalia Hungry Ghost Moon Severin Aglaea Whitechapel Velvet Embalming Fluid Eat Me Asphodel By the way, I reserve the right to change this list on a whim. You can do the same. I just was thinking about the really creative use of scent, and the really good all around use and familiarity with the ingredients. Also, taking risk and nailing it. I think each of those does that very well. By the way, 33% of these don't get along with my skin chemistry! However, they are so well done that I simply have to consider that a misfortune but recommend them to other people who would get on with them.

The frilly frilly cousin to Haunted, I can really smell the Black Musk in this blend. I think it is super, a comforting and somehow familiar concoction. Without overstating it, I think it should be considered one of the "backbone" scents in Black Phoenix and part of a "newbie's intro kit". Beautiful and classic.

REally nice. If you like foody scents get Creepy now! There is the overwhelmingly butterscotch and caramel lash of Grog plus the astringent/tart snap of fresh apples. Really nice play of one against the other and back again. I really love this scent and think it is a grand Halloween scent. I am going to be loving this one into Thanksgiving as well. Mmmmm.