hypothermya

Just to throw this out there -- I've tried both Dragon's Heart and Red Moon, and the main difference is that while Red Moon is a very physically powerful scent (in mood), it's still very ethereal and magical smelling. A very strong floral. Dragon's Heart is like wood. Pure, heavy, musky, dark wood. Very heavy, sweet, and powerful. Between the two, Red Moon is the orangey/red glint of sunset and Dragon's Heart is a smoldering bit of coal. If that helps distinguish at all...

I'm sure it's been said before, but: Old Shanghai, Embalming Fluid, Phantasm. Like they could be sisters.

I have to say that I've never really given this scent a whole lot of attention. It went onto my "too masculine" or "too floral" sounding list, and I forgot about it entirely until someone sent me an imp of this. First Impression Huh. This is really light. Sweet, but not earthy and not too floral. Just a mix of the too, and this very ethereal sweetness. Weird. Wearing It Both my boyfriend and I tried some of this out. On our skin, it stayed sweet (too sweet for my boyfriend to like), and mainly smelled of iris. Now, iris has always been one of my favorite flowers, but I can't really imagine the scent of the thing. But in this, it's so crystal clear that I'm smelling iris -- clean, floral, and light... None of the heady scents that rose or jasmine illicit, nor the creaminess of lotus. Not the wispiness of lilac. Just a clean, upright, modest iris. Full, without being too overstated. The sage and civet seem to give this a touch of earthiness, lending to its grounded and modest scent. The orris? Maybe that's what makes it feel a bit more enchanted. Overall, it's sweet, floral, earthy, and very beautiful. Lasting Power Poor, I'm afraid. Within two hours the scent had vanished. I think I really like the scent of iris. I'm going to keep my eyes open for it in a less floral/earthy blend. This is nice, but not my style. But I can guarantee that if Beth creates a fruity/citrusy/tea blend that has iris in it, I'm jumping and getting some.

Initially I wasn't too interested in trying out Hamadryad, but after reading that it had cinnamon in it, I was convinced that I at least needed to try it. Initial Impression Smells like cinnamon, yes, and something woodsy. Moss, maybe, or bark. About what I expected. Wearing It My goodness does this stuff go on strong! At first, all I could smell was cinnamon. And it didn't smell like a bit of ground cinnamon -- no, this stuff smelled like the whole thing, like a cinnamon stick that I could toss into a cup of tea or hot buttered rum. Mmmm... A bit overpowering though. Then it settled down into this really white floral/heavy cinnamon scent. I don't know why, but it reminded me of a drink called Horchata (which is a mexican drink made of rice milk and cinnamon...smells delicious, tastes delicious, etc.). Very yummy smelling. However, after about a half an hour, it settled down to a mainly white floral with hints of bark and moss, and a strong remenant of cinnamon. Lasting Power It lasts a good long while. I was still able to smell this without trying when I was finished with my evening class at 7pm...I'd only applied it at 1pm... The part of the scent that stayed strongest throughout wearing it was the floral. Overall, it's nice. If it stayed longer at the Horchata smelling stage, I'd be dying for more of this. Sadly, florals aren't really my thing, so I think this'll be one that's up for swaps. On the other hand, I do love the first two stages of this.

Actually...she's right. Snow White, despite the occasional minty swirls of snow, smells a great deal like cake batter. Of course, it being a limited edition, it's going to be a hassel to get ahold of. Another recommendation would be Ravenous. It doesn't smell exactly like cake batter, but it gets really similar smelling on my skin.

For seasonal scents, I've found that Old Port-Au-Prince smells just like Christmas to me. In fact, I may have to get another imp of it, timed to arrive just before December... Just to see if I can't get my house to smell that way. I was wearing Masabakes last night, and my boyfriend commented that it smelled a great deal like a holiday scent, then suggested Halloween or Thanksgiving. He swore up and down that he caught a whiff of pumpkin in it. But I do think it's a very Halloween type of scent. Also, Tintagel is a very Christmas like scent to me, but in a different way than Old Port-Au-Prince. Where Old Port-Au-Prince smells just like hot buttered rum, and pomanders, and Christmas parties with my families, Tintagel smells like how Christmas ought to smell, with the scent of real trees, and mulled wine, and a close group of friends... It actually reminds me a great deal of my Yule celebrations with my coven (kinda coven...). What else... Obviously there are those limited editions, if you're lucky enough to get your hands on them. I'm horribly upset that I missed an opportunity to trade for Gingerbread Poppet, because that sort of scent would bring back late November for me perfectly... And Midwinter's Eve, etc. I'm coveting my 1/3 imp of Samhain, dragging it out as long as I can, since it smells so wonderful -- and *just* like Halloween. Bon Vivant reminds me of New Years parties. Seraglio sort of reminds me of Christmas, only it's so heavy on the rose that unless you associate rose with Christmas... Old Cairo, in it's own way, reminded me of Christmas, but not directly... rather it reminded me of Glog (a scandinavian winter drink which is very heavy on the raisony taste) which I spent one winter drinking. I'm not sure I care for Glog, but it was an interesting experience, and very Christmasy in its own way. And that's about it. Hope you find something you like.

Oh, and I just figured out what was nagging at the back of my thought process: Cordelia Through some weird act of scent bizarity everyone who reviews this smells cinnamon in it. It's listed no where in the description, but is apparently there. The even weirder part is that most of the folks who review this definitely don't think it smells like they'd expect it to smell. Freaky, huh? It's on my wishlist right now (with a star and everything) because if it smells like it's supposed to, I'll love it, and if it smells like cinnamon, I'll love it.

Tintagel also smells like cinnamon to me. And it's yummy smelling. Letsee....my favorite cinnamon smelling BPAL blend isn't available yet -- it's The Lion. But other cinnamon scents I've tried are: The World... A really round, strong, earthy cinnamon scent. It's got bits of floral, and bits of aquatic, and bits of earth, and...well, bits of everything. It reminds me of Good Earth tea. Chimera. This one's the easiest way to smell like a sugar cookie with liberal amounts of cinnamon. I love it. On the other hand, I'm always paranoid that if I wear it someone's going to think that there are sugar cookies in the room. Serpent's Kiss... It says "spices" in the description, but please translate that as "lots of cinnamon with a dash of some other stuff." If you like Dragon's Blood and you like vetivert, this one'll be perfect for you. On me, it smelled like earthy cinnamon cherry cough drops. I liked it, but not enough to keep it. Umbra. This one's got *strong* amounts of patchouli in it. The cinnamon is just an after thought to that. When I tried it, I was a bit overwhelmed by the patchouli, but otherwise liked it. I guess that I'm discovering that I really like patchouli and vertivert when they are just supporting notes, rather than big ol' hit you in the face notes. Other spicy scents? I really love the spices in Scherezade, Old Morocco, Old Kathmandu, and . Oh, and Old New Orleans has some great spiciness to it. It smells like a hot house with lemon and clove and some other spiciness. As for clove, I seem to have bad luck with clove blends. Succubus went horrible on my skin, Old Port-Au-Prince was *all* clove with no rum, Jack was burnt pumpkin pie, Seraglio went straight rose on me, and March Hare turned into a candle scent. And each of these is specific to a problem with my skin chemistry, but I'm hoping that maybe I'll find more than only one scent with clove that works on me. That one, by the way, is Voodoo which smells delicious! I will be trying out The Three Witches pretty soon, though. Hopefully that one will work well one me...

First Impression Smells very fruity. Kinda like a combination between Depraved and Fae. I can definitely distinguish the peach and the patchouli. The other elements though are escaping me (can't remember/identify them), but I'm really loving the way this smells in the bottle. Wearing It Oh, my! THIS is what I was looking for when I tried out Fae, and then Depraved. Mmmmm.... In an act of rarity, my skin hasn't turned the fruit notes too sweet; instead the peach is light, light, light, and floating behind the other elements in this blend. My skin is positively singing out this warm, musky, peach smell...with just a bit of patchouli to lend it some earthiness. But honestly I can barely smell the patchouli at all. Just warm, smooth, sweet peach. Looking at the other ingredients (amber, and musk), I can see why my skin loves this so much. Musk always agrees with my skin. Mmmmm. And I never knew that my skin liked amber so much (Haunted turned to baby powder on my skin, so I assumed it was the amber), but in this blend it's a very strong, prominent, and beautiful note. Lasting Power So....the lasting power on this is very poor. The musk lasts for a good long time, but the peach is gone within a half hour or so. And it's a pity, cause the peach is what makes the scent for me. What's left (the musk and amber) is nice, but more like what I envisioned Haunted to smell like. So when I wear this I always carry the imp ear with me for frequent reapplication. Well. Mark another on my Big Bottle list. I was convinced that this one wouldn't work because of the fruit/amber notes, and I was *so* wrong. And I'm glad I was wrong. This smells divine! It's a bit like how O smells on my boyfriend, except with fruit instead of honey. (huh...I hope he doesn't try to steal this imp from me....) Definitely getting more.

For my labeling, I printed out labels with the name of the scent in bold, along with the name Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs (in case the imp traveled to the uninitiated) and the date it was decanted (just for posterity). Then I'd trip the labels down a bit, and tape them just to the side with packing tape (once again trimming it down with an Xacto knife). That way the vial is clear so the person using it can see how much is left, but there's still all the relevant info. Plus packing tape is pretty durable, won't absorb spills, and pretty cheap. So that was my solution. It is a bit of work, wrestling with the Xacto knife, and whatnot, but I have to do a lot of that anyway, so who cares?

When I decant perfumes, I always use a new pipette and new vial (reusing the pipette only, if I'm doing multiple imps of the same scent in the same day). But I've heard (i think?) that sometimes other people reuse old containers. I wouldn't really have any qualms about doing that for an imp that I'm planning on keeping for myself. And having gotten a decanted imp of Venom from paperdoll (which I'm wearing today, go figure), I have to say that her decanting is wonderful. The imp that I recieved from her was clean, full, and a delight to recieve. Also, it never hurts to ask someone in the PM you send them whatever it is that you're curious about. I've swapped with several "new" swappers recently(I only say this because I still consider myself new, having only started swapping things via mail in late May), and some of them had questions for me about packaging, etc., and I really appreciated it. I love answering any questions someone might have for me, and I think it helps clarify the whole deal. That way no one's unhappy with the swap.

Initial Impression Out of the vial, this smells like green tea and lemon verbena. The jasmine/neroli aren't noticeable on their own, but they lend a bit of sophistication to the overall scent. Smells a great deal like Embalming Fluid and Old Shanghai. I wonder how it'll compare on my skin, though... Wearing It Okay, this is just gorgeous. It's got that cool, citrusy scent like Old Shanghai and Embalming Fluid do -- of course it's more like Old Shanghai, since the green tea is a bit bitter smelling, and the lemon verbena makes this a sharp, green lemon scent rather than a sweet lemon scent. Keeps it fresher smelling, in my opinion (although my skin tends to disagree with straight fruit oils, so that might be another explanation). But the thing that makes this oil truly phenomenal are those jasmine and neroli oils. It's like Venom, except that instead of berries, you've got green tea and lemon. Sophisticated, elegant, and instead of that high brow, sneaky scent that Venom evokes, this brings to mind a natural, zen-like feeling. Lasting Power If there's anything that makes me more upset than a bad scent, it's a scent this gorgeous that doesn't last. And unfortunately, this really doesn't last. After about an hour on my skin it was gone and I had to reapply it. I suspect that if I had a larger bottle on hand I wouldn't mind, since reapplying from the big bottles tends to be more effective than from the imps. I really love this one. It might even surpass my love for Embalming Fluid (a few more test runs of both ought to make up my mind, although I could see keeping both around -- one for casual occasions, and the other for more formal occasions). There are very few jasmine scents I can put up with (one of my main reasons for putting off trying this one for so long), and this fits the bill perfectly.

First Impression Smells like sweet grass and vanilla. The lightest hint of smoke and spice beneath it. Wearing It Uh oh. Seems like I've found that mystery ingredient again...the one that turns good smelling perfumes to powder on my skin. And this is amazingly strong smelling too! My boyfriend just asked me from across the room whether I was wearing baby powder... Not so good. Plus I only applied just the tiniest bit, and it was *strong*! Well, I was planning on wearing this more often if I liked it, because more amplification of my personal power would be nice... BUT there's nothing that makes me more irritable than smelling like baby powder, so I guess that'll counteract anything positive that I would get from using this. Oh well.

Will we *never* know the answer!?! Honestly, I'm dying of curiosity. However, I'm glad you like Bewitched...it's a lovely scent.

First Impresion Smells spicy, in a good way. And the cedar is very noticeable. Mmmm... Might be a bit too woody/dry for me to wear every day, though... Wearing It Mmmm. Cedar. I think this may be my favorite cedar scent by BPAL yet. The cedar is super strong, and the spices are the only other thing I'm able to smell. Except...ten minutes later, the cedar has faded a lot and it's turned into this delicious smelling mix of spices (mediterranean food spices), dry woods, and ...yes, that's the lotus, very faint... Mmm. I really like this one. This is *much* more balanced now. It's kinda like Sherezade, only softer. And instead of a heavy musk scent, there's wood. I'm wanting to try this one out on my boyfriend who loves cedar scents, but I'm also wanting to hoard it for myself. What to do...

I decided to try this because I adore lemon verbena, and orange blossom as a note has worked on me in several other perfumes. I'm a bit wary of the heliotrope and honey blossom... First Impression There's something in here that doesn't smell so good to me. Maybe the heliotrope or something else....It smells green and citrusy and sweet and floral all at once, but there's a bit of a harshness in the bottle that's disagreeing with me. Wearing It When I put it on, the harshness was still there, and I was tempted to wash it off. But I let it dry down and within three minutes or so, it smelled divine. It reminds me a lot of a light punch, sitting on a glass table in a garden. There's a sweet orange/lemon/honey scent there, and it's slightly blubbly, and slightly bitter -- which for me is perfect, because I hate when scents get too sweet or too floral. This one is a perfect mix of all its elements, and I'm loving it. This isn't the spirited bright scent that Katharina is...instead it's a lazy seductress, laying in the afternoon sun on her porch -- catlike. It seems very southern to me. There's something very light about this, but not innocent at all. I think I'll definitely be using up the rest of this imp...and knowing how Beth's perfumes tend to grow on me as I wear them, this will probably end up being a 5ml.

Initial Impression Oh, this is truely lovely smelling! It's cool, like iced fruit with a bit of chilled floral mingling with it. There's the obvious scent of sweet pea and pear and musk rose, and the rest is beautifully blended... Mmmm Wearing It Drat. Turned straight to musk rose, without allowing room for anything except this vague chilled sweetness to get past. Just...pure musk rose. It smells nice enough for a musk rose scent, but... Eh. I'm tired of how my skin amplifies rose scents to the exclusion of all else. Lasting Power Pretty good. Lasted for at least 5 hours. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but I guess I was hoping that this would be more fruity on my skin. And I adore sweet pea, so I was hoping that some of that would come out as well. Oh well. I'll probably give an imp of this to my sister (along with other imps that have pear ingredients in them) for Christmas... She caught a whiff of it while I was wearing it and said that it smelled really good, so I guess she'll like it even more when there's less rose and more pear/fruit scents.

Apparently, Obeah is a type of Afro-Jamaican Shamanism, similar to Voodoo... I wonder if this is one of Beth's oils for that shop in LA? There are a ton of Obeah spells/curses out there, so I can't really intuit whether she means for this to be an oil like "Voodoo" or an oil like her "Voodoo Oils"....eg. Black Cat, Van Van, etc.

Oooooooo! You got a prototype! Lucky!!! What does it smell like?

This one never made it onto my wishlist until a friend of mine passed it under my nose for a minute. Immediately I needed an imp of my own. First Impression It's a light fragrance, like maybe Vanilla Karo syrup, just sweet, almost vanilla, almost honey, and spiced. Spiced how? Well, cinnamon obviously. But I think that the myrrh or the copal is adding some sort of incencey touch to this also. Yes, it must be the myrrh which is adding a sweet/smokey/sexual quality to this blend... I think I'm beginning to recognize the scent of it from Voodoo, Velvet, Lust, etc. Either way, this smells good. Wearing It Oh, this is heaven! When you sniff up close, it turns into a blast of pure cinnamon, but from a distance this maintains a sweet spicey syrup scent. Oh my gosh! Vanicolion is *so* dead on! I remember that ice cream! Normally I'm not a fan of ice cream, so my boyfriend will buy me a pint and then share it with me after he's finished up his pint. But this was the only ice cream that I wouldn't share with him -- in fact, I recall threatening him with my spoon if he so much as touched it! And this stuff smells just like it! Okee, just a quick decoder: Copal, I just found out, is a resin that is kinda like amber, but precedes amber in its chemical make up. If you leave it long enough, it might just turn into amber. So, here are my thoughts on this one: I adore it. Really. There aren't a lot of sweet perfumes that'll make me happy, but this is one of them. Even though I hate cinnamon essential oils, I don't know why but Beth's make me the happiest being ever. And unfortunately my boyfriend hates cinnamon in all it's incarnations, including this one. So I think I'm going to hide it away from him, and wear it when I'm not going to be around him....to school, to clubs, to any place where I can get my cinnamon fix while not having to hear him complaining about how I smell like cinnamon...

The crisp, clean scent of green tea touched with lemon verbena and honeysuckle. I wanted to try this one because of how similar to Embalming Fluid everyone said it was, and in addition, I love lemon verbena. First Impression This does smell almost exactly like Embalming Fluid! Um, only a little bit sweeter. I guess that's the honeysuckle. Wearing It There's something in here that I'm allergic to. Unfortunate. Also, this smells a lot more *green* than Embalming Fluid... The verbena's giving it a bit of a kick. And the honeysuckle is making this a very lazy, sweet scent. While Embalming Fluid does get some amount of sweetness from the lemon (which turns to a sherbet smelling entity on my skin), this is actually a lot more sweet, honey, floral. Otherwise, it's about the same. No musk, though. I guess this would be perfect for someone who had issues with skin chemistry and lemons or skin chemistry and musks... Unfortunately, I guess Embalming Fluid will remain my favorite of the two. Although this does smell good (not just nice -- good), I don't think I'm enjoying the allergies, and the slight floral undertones aren't my thing.

First Impression Smells sweet, like bubble gum balls. There's that dry oriental smell behind it a bit, which is the main difference that I've been able to notice between red patchouli and regular patchouli...it's drier and spicier. This smells like candy and exotic dancers. Wearing It Wow. This almost does have a vanilla smell to it when it dries down. It blends perfectly, so that you can't tell you're smelling patchouli and you can't tell that you're smelling orange blossom. Instead, it's like you're smelling some sweet & spicy exotic pastry with the slightest hint of orange. It's not as sweet as it was in the bottle, but still a little too sweet for my tastes. Although I love the red patchouli and orange notes together: this citrus spice, that kinda reminds me of Dark Swan Indulgence's Blood Orange soap bar, but less juicy and with a more woodsy spice. This would be simply delicious if it were to be just a bit less sweet... (incidently, I'm not a fan of vanilla scents, or any overly sweet scents, so I might be a bit biased about this one...) I really like this one -- except for how sweet it is. I wish that I could pull off wearing scents with straight orange in them, cause then I'd be tempted to order a single note of red patchouli and of orange and just wear them that way. Except that I'd never get the perfect mix that the Lab is able to achieve. Either way, this one is not for me. It's way too sweet.

First Impression That's the apricot. I recognize that from Katharina, but it isn't nearly as bright, sharp, or warm. Instead it's rich fruit and this wet earthiness underneath it. Smells good. Wearing It This is a *very* dirty scent. When I was reading the reviews, I kept seeing that phrase and wondering, "What's that supposed to mean?" I guess now I know. It smells... like something sweet and innocent that's been allowed to see the world. Like an image of a raggedly dressed teenager with dark, knowing eyes, who still could be mistaken for a girl angel if you saw her stepping out of the shower. Normally this type of patchouli stays very "wet" smelling on me, but this one dries down to smell like dry dirt and a hint of apricots. It *almost* smells like my mother's compost, except not nearly so foul. It's got enough apricot, though, to instead smell like an apricot that's perfectly ripe but has been tumbled through the dry dusty dirt. Having tried out two scents with patchouli today (this and Ravenous), I'd have to say that I prefer the red patchouli to the dark patchouli. There's something about this blend that turns the patchouli to dust on my skin. And while I do love apricot scents from the Lab, I have to say that Katharina comes out on top for that category. I could see wearing this if I wanted to come off as more deviant, dirty, and less perky than Katharina, though...

I don't know if you'll be getting a strawberry vanilla smell from Bewitched. I wear Bewitched all the time, and the berry tends to smell a lot like blackberries or maybe...in a really long stretch...raspberries, but never like strawberries. I'd say that oubliette's suggestion might have some merit. Although having never smelled Dragon's Milk, I might not be on the right track... But it does have vanilla in it, and dragon's bood can smell very fruity. Also, this may be *totally* off the mark, but what about Hunger? It's got orange blossom (which is something that it shares with Vice), and vanilla... And you mentioned that it smelled a bit like Maenad, which also has orange blossom in it...

tygher... When I normally pay with PayPal, I always get a confirmation e-mail from them saying that my payment has been sent. Typically from service@paypal.com, with the heading "Reciept for your Payment." Today I not only got one of those, but I also got an e-mail from Black Phoenix (blackphoenix@blackphoenixalchemylab.com), headed, "Black phoenix paypal payment recieved." The text looks like this: "Thank you for your purchase! We have received your PayPal payment. Your order has been entered into our queue, and it will be processed in the order it was received. We are doing our best to get orders out in a timely manner, but at this time we are on a minimum 21 day backlog. Thank you very much for your patience! If you have any questions, please email us at answers@blackphoenixalchemylab.com" Plus a link or two at the bottom. But that's the gist. When I was reading Brian's post, it seemed like they only just set this up, and that a few of the orders from last night were already cleared out of the inbox before they got the auto-responder working. I was, frankly, a little surprised that my order got a response, considering. But I don't think that I'd be worried if you haven't gotten an auto response...