Morrighana

A fiery Martial blend that embodies primal rage, lust for conquest, and all-encompassing desire. Dragon's blood essence, heavy red musk, Indonesian patchouli and swarthy vetiver with a drop of cinnamon. In the bottle: Mmm...dragon's blood. There is a darkness here, too, but I can't pick out any other notes. Wet: I still smell dragon's blood prominently, but I also get the impression of marischino cherries (even though there isn't a cherry component to this blend). Odd, but still okay. Dry: Wow. I can't really pick out any individual notes anymore, but let me tell you, the Darkness has come out to play. Not at all foody anymore, Bloodlust has turned into a heavy, dark, spicy, resiny, hot presence on my skin. SO good. It makes me want to bite something. Overall: This is SUCH a fabulous scent. I cannot get enough of it! Since the first draft of this review, I've invested in a larger bottle and I wear it whenever I need to feel strong and empowered. Amazing.

Okay, here's a bit of background info: Most of my life, I've worn "traditional" flowery perfumes. Lately, I've turned to wearing a lot of resiny/incensey scents, especially those containing Dragon's Blood(my absolute favorite single note). I tend to like sweet-ish scents, that are pervasive but not intrusive. Now, I have always been wary of wearing foody scents. I was even hesitant to order Snake Oil due to its vanilla content, which I thought would be too foody for my tastes. Silly, I know. lol Anyway, I've discovered that I don't mind wearing it at all, and I get a really good response from others when I'm wearing it. Sooo, I've decided to venture a bit further into the Gourmand category, but I want to start out light. I want something (or things, lol) either decidedly foody or just with Gourmand influences, but I don't want to smell like a restaurant kitchen or anything...too much...like that! You know what I mean? I've been reading reviews like crazy, but it's oh-so-hard to decide. Anybody have any suggestions of foody scents for me to start off with?

Honey, ambergris, neroli, white peach, patchouli, and cocoa absolute. Just before I begin, I want to say thank you to Beth and Brian for inviting me to be a small part of this amazing collection, and thank you Jenn for creating such an amazing painting of "me" to go along with it! It is such an honour, I am perpetually bowled over when I think about it. Okay, now let's get down to it: Eisheth Zenunim is one of four Qabalist angels of prostitution, sister to Lilith and fellow Grindhouse temptress Agrat Bat Mahlat. Conceptually, it tickles me that she and Agrat have hitched their wagons to the Carnaval train. They are often referred to as succubi, so working the Grindhouse is an absolutely appropriate way for these two oft-forgotten angels to continue getting their groove on with humanity! Eisheth in perfume form is complex and beautiful. Opening the bottle, I can immediately pick out the peach and the cocoa dancing softly together. I often find that these two notes individually can be too sweet and overpowering, but here they are in perfect balance with their darker counterparts, the ambergris and patchouli. The latter pair prevent the peach and cocoa from leaping out and taking over, and they in turn pull the dark notes up and temper their edges. To my nose, no one note is permitted to dominate this blend. As it develops on my skin, the honey, patchouli, and ambergris come more to the fore, folding the cocoa into their ranks and slowly mingling to become a sweet, spicy, sensual base so cohesive that is difficult to pull individual notes back out of. That mix stays really close to the skin. The peach and neroli begin to flit past the senses and become prominent as I move my wrist away from my nose, and are enthusiastically reported to be the first notes to greet those who enter my personal space. Overall, I have to say that I am completely and totally in love with this scent, and I hope that everyone who is afraid of one note or another gives it a try anyway, because I think it will surprise a lot of people! It seems to be very different on different people, as you'll see in the reviews below. Thank you, again, to the Lab!!!

*dies* I did not expect this one to be SO FUCKING GOOD. I'm used to ordinary clove, I guess, and not sweet clove, but...wow. I almost can't believe that this is a single note! So spicy, but without that sinus-clearing force that some very spicy sniffs carry, and still sweet enough to be wearable without people thinking you've had a cooking mishap. Very nice.

...how the heck is this pronounced? My best guess was "z-you-teh-choot-lee", but it could just as easily be "zoo-teh-suit-lee" or...something else ...anybody know for sure?

Welcome to our grand reopening! You will see a lot of changes when you log into your account, but here is a basic rundown of what has changed, what we've lost, what we've gained, and why. First of all, we want to explain why we didn't announce our downtime ahead of taking the forum offline. We discovered some security vulnerabilities in the software, and felt it was important to bring the board down for safety reasons and not allow hackers the chance to make our system even more vulnerable. To restate, we have no evidence of a compromise on a data level, but in spite of this we still highly recommend caution...please change your password, as well as changing any other web accounts that used the same password. Following our pulling the boards down, we had to sort out exactly what needed to be done and how to accomplish it. We needed additional tech support to help us untangle what was an absolute mess on both a server and a software level, and communicating around the globe about this did slow things down. Finding new problems everywhere we turned meant a lot of back-and-forth during the upgrading process, but we finally got it done! Now, when you log on, you will see a number of changes. First, the good news! The new software is super fast, clean, and easy to use. You'll see minor changes to the appearance of the usual tools and thread layouts, but otherwise will feel quite at home in no time at all. We are missing a few features, which we hope to bring back someday. First and foremost, the feedback system. We understand how important feedback is to swaps, but this app was completely un-upgradeable. To the best of our knowledge, the data from the feedback system is still in our databases, so we are looking into alternatives and replacements. Similarly, stash manager. The price cap database is still operational, so once again we hope we will be able to bring back this feature with a new app. The skins were also all obliterated in the upgrade. We will have some choices up for you ASAP, but thought it would be better to get the board open even if it looks generic for the moment. The Mobile skin seems to be having some issues for some users as well, though others report it looks fine. If you notice any bugs or get any other errors, please report them here. Welcome back, everyone!

Nope. Just hang on for a bit! It could be the bottle of Haunted holding you up...maybe they needed to mix a new batch of that. Whatever the case, though, don't fret! CCNow is a bit of a pain in the butt, but in this case you should be perfectly fine.

http://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/faq.html You're right about the rest, the meaning of "awaiting shipment", etc. I'm not sure how fast the international queue is moving these days, but you'll see it change a short time before you receive your shipping notification.

As some of you may have noticed, our database project is temporarily on hold due to unforeseen events! We are hugely grateful to those who volunteered, and will be contacting you as soon as we are organized again! Thanks for your patience, and enthusiasm!

I know for a fact that the Lab has nothing against the idea of a Canadian authorized reseller. Like Eclectic said, though: The Lab also has to consider things like how many wholesale relationships they currently have the manpower and product to support, and in the case of an international reseller especially, I'm sure import/export laws and costs would have to be a factor in determining the feasibility of the relationship too.

Did you pay for 8 bottles but only list 7 in your order? If so, definitely email answers (at) blackphoenixalchemylab (dot) com and explain the situation; I'm sure they can help you! However, if you paid for 7 bottles, listed 7 bottles, and now want to add and pay for 1 more bottle, the policy established by Beth in the first post in this thread is still valid:

If you're going to contact anyone about it, I'd call the post office, not the Lab. They are the ones who are controlling the show at this point, after all! It's possible someone scanned your package as delivered but then it missed the truck.

As many of you already know, Shriekingviolet is on hiatus from the forum, and is likely to be for some time before things will settle down. She is regularly checking in with Quantum Spice while she is away, but for now she is unable to receive PMs or emails from the forum. Going forward, I will be the Admin team's point person for forum customer service. PMs regarding point redemption, name changes, and other general administrative issues should be sent to me from now on. I am based in Europe most of the year, so please be patient with regard to response times; my 'hours of operation' generally do not line up with the North American business day! Quantum Spice is still around and handling all of our behind-the-scenes tech stuff, but (as many of you also know) the workload involving that same 'tech stuff' has increased hugely lately, so we are trying to take some of the pressure off of her so she can have an actual life outside of the forums. Of course, if something comes up that requires either SV or QS's opinion/action, I will pass it along to them to deal with ASAP. Thanks!

The Amazon orders are processed by BPTP, which is a different physical premises and shipping queue from BPAL, so if you want GCs not offered on Amazon, AFAIK you'll have to order them directly from BPAL.

USPS does NOT, ever, update their Click'n'Ships internationally, so it'll say that forever. The date you received the C'n'S email is the day the Lab printed your postage label, so it either went out that day, or the following, and is on its way to you now. Basically, no worries! Start stalking your mailbox towards the end of next week/beginning of the following week, making allowance for the xmas postal rush.

Wickedgoddess has stickied a great post on that very subject, Excetra! Colormonochrome, as long as you have your email receipt from *paypal*, and/or the transaction shows up on *your* paypal account history, then you're golden. That's all anyone gets from paypal orders.

There's also a thank you thread in BPAL Chatter.

Prototype In the Bottle: The first thing I thought of when I opened Toxin was Blue Moon. Your mileage may vary quite a bit on that one, as it has been a very long time since my Blue Moon moved on to a more loving home, but it seems to me that they share at least one common sweet, fresh top note. The more I sniff the bottle, though, the less alike to BM it becomes...there is a light, almost aquatic note and something citrussy in there, too. On my skin: The citrus note comes out immediately on my skin. It doesn't seem like lemon, but perhaps lemongrass? It is very calm and refreshing. This slowly gives way to a light, fresh floral scent. Dry: Whatever the top note I initially smelled was, it seems to have resurfaced as Toxin dried. It is resting atop the floral notes, keeping them from becoming cloying and producing an overall effect almost like clean linens. Overall: I think fans of clean, light scents such as Dirty will absolutely adore Toxin. It is soft and subtle while still pervasive enough to be noticed, and its refreshing tone makes it a perfect fun spring/summer scent.

Contact CCNow to ask about that...it looks like them, rather than that Lab, who canceled your order. Very weird!

But it doesn't say it's been delivered, right? Just call USPS' normal customer service, not the tracking line. Or go to your local PO and ask them for assistance, but what you get from them may depend on the helpfulness of your local posties.

Call USPS. I'm sure they'll notice how off-route it has gotten eventually, but calling their attention to it will get your package to you sooner.

The only real indicator internationally is other people in your country. Are there any Germans reporting orders arriving? Because they may all ship on the same day, but each country's customs and post system will take a different amount of time to get a package to its destination. I know it has happened in the past that orders have reached customers in England before they've reached me here in Canada, so it really can vary illogically! Other Europeans may be able to give you a bit more perspective, but my own rule in US-to-Canada shipping is to wait 15-20 business days from the time it ships before I even consider worrying. You're not yet at 2 weeks from your ship date (and sometimes packages leave the Lab one day later than the CnS says, if the post person picks up earlier than usual on a given day), so I really wouldn't worry yet.

Again, if the scents that you want are available on Amazon, you can use Amazon.com gift certificates.

Or, if the scent you want is available on Amazon.com, you can use your Amazon wishlist!

If the post office knows where it was, then they should be able to track it down. I'd go back to them and make noise until they figure out where the hell they put it.