Failmingo

OMG MUGS! A limited quantity of mugs has been unearthed: https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shop/oddments/black-phoenix-coffee-mug/

Good news! Not only are we back on schedule with our customary Lunar New Year scent, but it's accompanied by a mini-release celebrating the release of Darla Teagarden's art book ALTARS: https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/collaborations/darla-teagarden-altars https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shop/beloved-favorites/water-tiger-perfume-oil/ WATER TIGER A new year’s blessing! Peony, China’s national flower, with bamboo for flexibility, plum blossom for perseverance, courage, and hope, tangerine for wealth, orange for happiness, lychee for household peace, pine resin for constancy, golden kumquat for prosperity, King mandarin for good fortune, cypress for longevity, sticky rice cakes for abundance and hopes for a rich, sweet life, and a splash of blazing red of dragon’s blood to help you scare away the rampaging Nian. Art by Zhang Shanzi (張善孖)

Gonna go ahead and share this while I'm drafting the formal Lunacy announcement. Note that we have included TWO different candles, in very limited quantities! When they're out, they're out -- but we'll be expanding these options soon, so consider it a test run. Also, those who look forward to shirts should know we've been prevented from offering the latest designs at this time. We intend to make good on it later! Updates coming soon. https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-tag/december-2021-january-2022

Hey everyone, here's your notification that following the upcoming (date TBD) Lunacy release, the 2021 installment of The Fool's Journey dedicated to The Hierophant will be dropping from the site, along all the with the following Lunacy items from last summer: RED MANGO & GREEN TEA POMEGRANATE & JUNIPER POMELO & WHITE MUSK RED CURRANT & CACAO TONKA BEAN & PINK PEPPER RADIANT ABUNDANCE THUNDER MOON

I only just got my hands on a bottle of this. And I wish I had classic Villain on hand to compare it to -- "A classic Victorian men’s cologne: a lavender fougere, with hints of lilac, lime, and citrus musk." It's amazing to me how the introduction of plum to these citrus notes creates quite a mellow fruity blend, the kind that would be hard to tease apart if I didn't have the list of notes in front of me. In the bottle the sweet and tart clash a little bit, but on the skin they mingle and play well together. The floral and fougere give it a bit of elegance and impart a pleasant springtime feel, almost reminding me of the lab's cherry blossom note. With a little wear I start to get these green grassy, fern-y, woody wisps that give me the sense of strolling through a very well-kept garden. I'm happy to report that the fruit notes, while gentle, still keep some of that initial tartness. A couple hours later it's soft and kinda breathy-sweet, almost like a kid's stuffed toy smell, if that makes any sense. So I'd say the sugar plum element definitely dials back the villainy a bit! Even a villain can take holidays off.

We regret to inform you that BPAL is officially in Omicron mode. Recently we've had two staff members out with positive test results, and one downed by the flu. As a result, everything is delayed even more than usual. Please be advised that the average ship time for orders will be roughly 21 days, and all parts of our process from Customer Service to shipping will be slower while we deal with the next phase of the pandemic. Product launches will be delayed, replies will be delayed, packing and shipping will be delayed. (Even this announcement has been delayed!) We're doing our best to keep everyone at BPAL safe during this challenging time, updating our workplace protocols to minimize risk of exposure and supporting those who are unable to come to work. We urge everyone else: please get vaxxed and boosted if you are able; please be diligent about testing to avoid unnecessarily exposing others. We are concrete proof that it saves lives. Happy New Year! No, really. BPAL

UPDATE: The perfume didn't arrive in time for this weekend's event, but is now currently available on their website! https://www.muttermuseumstore.org/products/a-very-mutter-holiday-perfume Here's the scent: A VERY MÜTTER HOLIDAY "The scent of warm gingerbread wafting through polished wood corridors, with hints of balsam, leather, benzoin resin, ambrette seed, and myrrh." Proceeds from all sales are going to help digitize and preserve their collection of rare medical texts. Personally I don't know yet how much the perfume will cost, or whether they'll continue selling it in the gift shop after the event. Nothing is certain, so if you know someone who's planning to go (or is able to go), you might want to put a bug in their ear! Just a wee harmless bug.

We heard you were in the mood for a little holiday cheer — and perhaps some ghosts! https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/yule-2021/ This year's Winter/Yule perfume collection captures everything strange and glorious about the season. Here's what you'll find therein: ❄️ YULE GENERAL CATALOG: Old friends! New contenders! All the basics to set the stage for winter holidays ❄️ AN EVENING WITH THE SPIRITS: A series inspired by historical accounts of Victorian spiritualism ❄️ PECULIAR WINTER FOG: Scents inspired by the our hometown's recent spate of unseasonal weather ❄️ GINGERBREAD COTILLION 2021: Exciting new scents heavily accented with you-know-what ❄️ THE SUGAR-PLUM TREE: An olfactory adaptation of Eugene Field's festive children's poem ❄️ BOX OF COOKIES: Tell Santa he needs to bring his own cookies for the road this year! Funds from this set of perfumes benefit LA Regional Food Bank ❄️ SUGAR PLUM ALCHEMY LAB: We've plummified a few of your faves. You're welcome! [Please note that while we're shipping out as fast as we can, we're currently unable to guarantee delivery by Christmas.]

With every new Lunacy comes a new down date! Here's the master list of everything that will be leaving the site this upcoming weekend, Sunday night. FROG MOON 2021 WORM MOON 2021 RABBIT MOON 2021 BUCK MOON 2021 https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/a-little-lunacy-limited-edition/ BROOD X https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shop/limited-edition/brood-x-perfume-oil/ ASTRONOMICAL TWILIGHT CIVIL TWILIGHT NAUTICAL TWILIGHT NIGHT https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/limited-edition/who-can-fight-against-dispair/ FOUR SEASONS ALCHEMY LAB https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shop/limited-edition/four-seasons-alchemy-lab-perfume-oil/ PAX 2021 BOUNCE CLEANING HOUSE SEALING SANCTUARY ELEUTHERIA https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/a-little-lunacy-limited-edition/twilight-alchemy-lab/ And the following DUETS, all of which can be found here: https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/a-little-lunacy-limited-edition/duets-2021/ BLACK PEPPER & PINK GRAPEFRUIT RICE MILK & MANGO TOMATO & CUCUMBER CINNAMON & LEATHER OSMANTHUS & AGARWOOD BLACK AMBER & SUGAR CANE HONEYSUCKLE & WISTERIA BLUE CYPRESS & HAITIAN VETIVER ORANGE BLOSSOM & DRIFTWOOD SWEET MYRRH & GREEN FIG WHITE OAKMOSS & LAVENDER TI LEAF & CHAMPACA PETALS ITALIAN LEMON PEEL & ORANGE BLOSSOM WILD ROSE & DANDELION SAP VETIVER & BLACK PEPPER SCORCHED OAK & BLOND TOBACCO CARDAMOM & WHITE SANDALWOOD BURNT SUGAR & BLACKBERRY FRANKINCENSE & GINGER ROOT And while I'm here, might as well inform you that we are indeed slowly working our way through the 'Weenies in the great sniff-vid tradition. Here's the brand new VANITAS installment:

"Glittering ambrette seed, crystalline sparkles of lemon and orange blossom, blood orange and orange peel, bay leaf, sweet myrrh, and caraway." https://haute-macabre.myshopify.com/collections/citrine/products/citrine-by-black-phoenix-alchemy-lab

Friends, we've really done it this time. The backed-up Lunacy pipeline has come uncorked, disgorging all manner of strange scents. Here's everything that's included: 🌕 Beaver Moon perfume! Beaver Moon tee shirt! 🌕 Leaf Moon perfume! Leaf Moon tee shirt! 🌕 Seven, count 'em, seven Duets! 🌕 Two Twilight Alchemy Lab blends! 🌕 A seasonal feast-inspired mini collection that's just too absurd to explain here: BLAPIMPSOTTLE 🌕 And here's just a taste of Yule before the main event comes later: BOX OF COOKIES, a collection of eight sugar cookie scents that will be raising funds for our local food bank. Happy holidays, y'all! xo TB

See the caption of our video announcement for the list if gift imps going into every order this Friday thru Monday!

Kids and old people love ’em! Too bad this bright ‘n’ shiny morsel holds a terrible, trippy, low-pH secret… This is warm and almost boozy with a real bite. It's at its MOST deeply and sublimely butterscotchy in the bottle and while wet, and then very quickly starts giving off a gingery heat (or perhaps capsaicin) that doesn't cut the sweetness so much as imbue it with more dimension and character. Still firmly in the foodie realm, but a less familiar delicacy -- which pulls it out of the range of "comfort food" and into something more like "discomfort food," I suppose. Which is fine by me! It weirdly does smell shiny and hard to me, like actual candy. I find myself reapplying it often just to go through all of the stages again. Hours of entertainment!

A quick note about holiday shipping! Just like last year, due to pandemic-induced nuisances (both foreseeable and otherwise), BPAL will not be able to guarantee delivery in time for Christmas. We'll still be running our usual Black Friday promo, adding exclusive free samples to every order made that weekend (11/26 through 11/29, more info TBA) but if it's extremely important that your order arrive before a particular date, we urge you to make those purchases as early as possible. And here's my first of many seasonal reminders that BPAL gift cards are available in any amount, and can be purchased right up until the holiday since they arrive in the form of an email. https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shop/oddments/gift-certificate/ Thanks in advance for understanding, I know many retailers are offering similar caveats and it's greatly interfering with folks' ability to plan out their gift-giving. We promise to do our best, but in the meantime it's probably best to be realistic about how things are likely to go.

Just a note to the community informing you that Ted is likely to be out of commission for the next few days as he recovers from a (planned, non-emergency) medical procedure. So please press Pause on your expectation of prompt Customer Service replies, while our man gets his legs back under him. Many thanks!

How could anyone not click on a post with this title?? This is just to inform you today, October 32nd, is the day when our seasonal collection grew two scents larger: OCTOBER 32 "The scent of Eternal October: leaves fluttering against a thick wool sweater, the cool amber glow of an autumn sunset, dollops of thick cream swirling in black tea." https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shop/halloween-2021/october-32-perfume-oil/ EVERY DAY IS HALLOWEEN "Skin-warmed sandalwood and toasted pumpkin settle into a gentle blend suitable for all 365 days of Halloween." https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shop/halloween-2021/everyday-is-halloween-perfume-oil/ Just to keep the good times rolling as long as possible. Happy Halloween!

Hello! The recent Quicksilver Tongue series sold out almost immediately, but Kaitlin at Sphere + Sundry discovered a box of additional bottles, and those are now listed on her site! (Note that ILLUMINER is not restocked as a standalone product -- the only bottles left of that one have been set aside for those who purchase the whole trio.) https://sphereandsundry.com/offerings/the-bard-queen/ https://sphereandsundry.com/offerings/honey-quicksilver/ https://sphereandsundry.com/offerings/quicksilver-tongue-x-bpal-trio/

It looks like we're clear of yesterday's Big Problems, and the Weenie collection is ready to take off into the night skies! Enjoy, everyone. https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/halloween-2021/

It looks like we're clear of yesterday's Big Problems, and the Weenie collection is ready to take off into the night skies! Enjoy, everyone. https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/halloween-2021/

Relive this dream sequence over and over again! Our newest scent for Haute Macabre is now available exclusively from their website. https://haute-macabre.myshopify.com/collections/shop-new/products/phantasmagoria-by-black-phoenix-alchemy-lab PHANTASMAGORIA "Sweet indigo labdanum, mugwort herb and oil, black rose petals, bitter clove, lavender buds, aged red patchouli, ink-black vegetal musk, myrrh, and dark, velvet-smooth spices."

We are breathlessly awaiting the new book release from Century Guild, BITTER BLOSSOMS: The Art of Der Orchideengarten Vol. 7. And yes, we've crafted a perfume to match! BITTER BLOSSOMS "A gust of white sandalwood and sweet amber incense poisoned by opium pod accord, hemlock leaf, and raw wild elderberries." Only available via Kickstarter!

Hiiiii so... remember how we're in the midst of like, an ongoing international crisis? Right, that. Well, please take note that any current order containing the Kobold Barista, Burnt Sugar & Blackberry Duet, or Jareth perfumes is held up temporarily as we're stuck waiting for components to arrive. We'll ship as soon as we're humanly able, promise! Just spreading word about this to head off unnecessary Customer Service queries. Thanks, and sorry for the extra wait!

I've been sitting with these since they were in the prototype phase. It's been a unique journey because neither of these blends -- the other being THE LAST SYLLABLE, I'm gonna crosspost my review there -- are something I would normally reach for on its own, but layered together there is a strange effect that is intensely pleasant to me. In the bottle THE LAST SYLLABLE ("Photos pinned to cool plaster walls, discarded papers, a web of strings, a mirror, a doll, singed straw, scattered books, and unfurled magnetic tape") is musty, damp, papery, almost institutional. It truly smells like studio space in a loft or warehouse. To me that's an exciting and almost mystical scent, the potent combo of reference materials, art supplies, and empty space. Agree with others that this is more "new books" than "old books," although the humid plastery note really keeps this out of a comfy and cozy contemporary setting. Kind of like shoving your face into a cardboard box of newly-printed pamphlets that has been left in a crumbling old storage unit. (Incidentally, the little Cycladic babydolls featured on the label actually were formed out of plaster, painted to look like stone. So it's very fitting that they ended up repping this scent!) On the skin it all seems to calm down a bit, and that's when I start to get old paperbacks. I can't detect the singed straw, it must be a very minor component. I probably wouldn't think "mirror" at all, except when I compare it to some of the other BPAL blends that are "glassy" I can trace the continuity between them. This is an intense "sense of place" perfume that strikes me as both contemplative and kind of creatively energizing; it ultimately wears pretty close to the skin and isn't super long-lasting. It appears to have very little in common with 'TIS STRANGE, which also aspires to a "sense of place," namely the backdrop for the story of Macbeth. So it's time as well as place that separates them, and in the bottle 'TIS STRANGE kind of sets me back on my heels. It has a singed quality, definitely the incense smoke set aloft on the kind of bitter freshness that the moss imparts. The leather is trackable but kind of subdued. I'm a little surprised at how warm it seems, given the darkness in the description, but on the skin you get a sense of the inky, scorched darkness that's revealed as the smoke lifts, like descending a winding castle passageway lit by torches. The scent is definitely martial with a real melancholy and unease to it, and the incense isn't like a sacred church blend -- more like a funky pagan brew meant to expunge evil spirits. I get something almost spicy sweet, like cinnamon or dragon's blood? This one has a bigger throw of the two, for sure. Now's the part where I cross the streams, and layer them. It would seem these two don't belong anywhere near each other, but there is something about how the incense and leather IMMEDIATELY ages the paper in the book smell, and how the industrial studio space is IMMEDIATELY warmed and dried by the smoke and spice. Together, they create one of my favorite scent experiences in recent memory, blurring the Old World with the New World in a way that strikes me as distinctly occult. I can barely tell where one ends and the other begins, and that's a good layering experience, friends! In term of "sense of place" I'm now reminded of that kid in The Neverending Story hiding out with a book in the school's attic amidst all sorts of insane theatrical rubble. And of course, since I'm wearing twice as much perfume, it hangs around with me quite a bit longer. So that's my combo review. And here's a reminder that the show these are inspired by -- "The Last Syllable" by Independent Shakespeare Co. -- can be accessed for free right here: http://www.iscla.org/the-last-syllable

I've been sitting with these since they were in the prototype phase. It's been a unique journey because neither of these blends (the other being 'TIS STRANGE, I'm gonna crosspost my review there) are something I would normally reach for on its own, but layered together there is a strange effect that is intensely pleasant to me. In the bottle THE LAST SYLLABLE is musty, damp, papery, almost institutional. It truly smells like studio space in a loft or warehouse. To me that's an exciting and almost mystical scent, the potent combo of reference materials, art supplies, and empty space. Agree with others that this is more "new books" than "old books," although the humid plastery note really keeps this out of a comfy and cozy contemporary setting. Kind of like shoving your face into a cardboard box of newly-printed pamphlets that has been left in a crumbling old storage unit. (Incidentally, the little Cycladic babydolls featured on the label actually were formed out of plaster, painted to look like stone. So it's very fitting that they ended up repping this scent!) On the skin it all seems to calm down a bit, and that's when I start to get old paperbacks. I can't really detect the singed straw, it must be a very minor component. I probably wouldn't think "mirror" at all, except when I compare it to some of the other BPAL blends that are "glassy" I can trace the continuity between them. This is an intense "sense of place" perfume that strikes me as both contemplative and kind of creatively energizing; it ultimately wears pretty close to the skin and isn't super long-lasting. It appears to have very little in common with 'TIS STRANGE ("Both bog and castle, moor and battlefield, chivalry and nightmare: scarred leather armor, moss-covered stone, shadows upon shadows, and billows of black incense.") which also aspires to a "sense of place," namely the backdrop for the story of Macbeth. So it's time as well as place that separates them, and in the bottle 'TIS STRANGE kind of sets me back on my heels. It has a singed quality, definitely the incense smoke set aloft on the kind of bitter freshness that the moss imparts. The leather is trackable but kind of subdued. I'm a little surprised at how warm it seems, given the darkness in the description, but on the skin you get a sense of the inky, scorched darkness that's revealed as the smoke lifts, like descending a winding castle passageway lit by torches. The scent is definitely martial with a real melancholy and unease to it, and the incense isn't like a sacred church blend -- more like a funky pagan brew meant to expunge evil spirits. I get something almost spicy sweet, like cinnamon or dragon's blood? This one has a bigger throw of the two, for sure. Now's the part where I cross the streams, and layer them. It would seem these two don't belong anywhere near each other, but there is something about how the incense and leather IMMEDIATELY ages the paper in the book smell, and how the industrial studio space is IMMEDIATELY warmed and dried by the smoke and spice. Together, they create one of my favorite scent experiences in recent memory, blurring the Old World with the New World in a way that strikes me as distinctly occult. I can barely tell where one ends and the other begins, and that's a good layering experience, friends! In term of "sense of place" I'm now reminded of that kid in The Neverending Story hiding out with a book in the school's attic amidst all sorts of insane theatrical rubble. And of course, since I'm wearing twice as much perfume, it hangs around with me quite a bit longer. So that's my combo review. And here's a reminder that the show these are inspired by -- "The Last Syllable" by Independent Shakespeare Co. -- can be accessed for free right here: http://www.iscla.org/the-last-syllable

We done did it! Here's the link: https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/lilith-2021/ Loving thanks to the team for all their hard work! TB