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Showing results for tags 'genius loci'.
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A flutter of bronze and azure blue: coconut amber, patchouli and tobacco absolute with blue lotus petal, lilac, tobacco petal, dried blueberry and blackcurrant, and khus. Dang, this is nice! A really nice summery twist for tobacco lovers. I feel that the floral parts are in the background enough to let the amber, patchouli, tobacco, and blueberry do their magic. I'd say the coconut amber really takes the stage, but the stage is definitely tobacco. The vetiver is so light, I don't detect it.
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I want my rooftop filled with Pallid Bats. Not only are they cute as hell, but their favored meal is the Arizona bark scorpion, whose sting is the most venomous to be found in North America. Bats > Scorpions (Sorry, Scorpios!) Tea leaf, bourbon, a sting of white ginger, and Italian bergamot swirled in amber incense smoke. I was hoping that the tea note would be similar to the tea in Theodosius the Legerdemain, and I was not disappointed. It's that lovely tea, with a very bright and zingy HELLO I'M GINGER. This might be my favourite of all the Weenies I bought this year.
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These mountain-dwelling cutie pies roost in caves, mines, and rocky outcrops, and love to munch on moths that they catch mid-flight. A fuzzy moth scent, dappled grey and delicious: rosehips and sandalwood with a touch of tobacco flower. Rosehips, sandalwood, and a whiff of flowers. This is a very delicate rosy blend. Low throw and wear length on me.
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The Gene Simmons of the Phyllostomidae family, this little buddy has a tongue built for harvesting nectar, extending up to a third of its body length and covered in hairy and horny papillae. Smoked chili peppers, caramelized saffron, and clove bud. Something about this is a little pumpkiny. Not like the Lab's usual pumpkin note that goes kind of buttery on my skin, but closer to the one in Jack. I assume it's mostly the caramelized saffron, with the help of clove bud. The smoked chili peppers are reminiscent of Raven Moon 2012, but milder, and they come out more when applied to my throat and higher up my arm. Mexican Long-Tongued Bat is comforting, subtle, and perfectly autumnal. As good as it is now, I believe it's going to get even better and could be worthy of a backup bottle.
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A venerable and well-respected bat, Ghost Face Bats can trace their ancestry to the late Pleistocene era. Sugared coconut meat, vanilla pods, condensed milk, white honey, and benzoin. In The Bottle: The soft, cuddly scent of sweet coconut mixed with benzoin and white honey. It's not foodie per se, just warm and snuggly. Wet On Skin: The benzoin comes to the front a bit more, but the vanilla pods are in the mix now too, giving the scent some depth. The fragrance moves further from gourmand at this point, and is reminding me a bit of Hod. Dry Down: The condensed milk finally joins the party and sweetens the mix just a bit. However, the scent retains what it basically had as traits from first sniff: warmth and cuddles. This is a perfect cold-weather scent, and I expect to get lots of wear out of it in the next 6 months!
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The Anise Swallowtail is a creature of wide open spaces. She flies through wide open spaces, over hills and through lots abandoned by humankind, dancing among dill, parsley, fennel, and wild carrots. Bourbon vanilla, star anise, cypress, juniper berry, a drop of blood orange, and bronze fennel. Anise Swallowtail reminds me of Golden Priapus with its smooth, cool evergreen notes and lots of creamy, lightly sweet vanilla. The cypress, juniper and fennel are green, frosty, slightly herbal, and slightly camphorous, without smelling like full-on menthol or mint or anything harsh. This reminds me quite a bit of Tokyo Milk's "Arsenic" fragrance as well, especially as it dries down (that one is notes of 'absinthe, vanilla salt, cut greens and crushed fennel'). Cool, green, and lots of vanilla.
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A child of summer, the woodnymph sips moisture from the sand and flits through grasses and wild buckwheat. Hay and grasses with two eyespots of cacao and tonka. Great Basin Woodnymph is lovely, and I can pick out all four of the listed notes. I enjoy green grass fragrances, but they are difficult for me to wear, as they usually take on a too green, slightly sour, sharp edge. The toasty hay with its soft, lemony scent and the sweet creaminess of the tonka and cocoa are wonderful, though, and take the sharpness out of the green grass. I always get this lemony scent from bpal's hay notes, like in Hay Moon. The toasty notes, lemon and vanilla-ish tonka swirl together and smell like having a decadent little lemon cream tart on a bed of dying grasses. I like the fresh, outdoorsy gourmand feel.
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The California Leaf-Nosed Bat prefers the desert. Theyre homebodies and do not migrate, and theyre also definitely Type A bats, as they dont hibernate. Go go go! Nightfall in the desert: Mojave yucca, creosote bush, saguaro, dusty clove, and sacred datura. I've never been a first review before. I will also note that I am emotional because I'm trying this the same day I'm trying Resistance, when we're a week away from an important election in the (not-California, but very close) desert that I love. In the bottle: I smell the creosote first, though by the time I have a full inhalation, the dusty clove note is stronger. And "dusty clove" is a good way to explain it. It is dry but not overly biting. On my skin: Immediately, it's creosote and yucca. For people not from the desert, the closest parallel I can draw is that of sweet, live grasses. It's a little bit green and a little bit golden and a little bit woody and a little bit sun-kissed and just a touch smoky (which might be unique to the desert). It is very much full of the spirit of live desert plants... creosote and yucca, yes, but also ocotillo and palo verde. It is not so sharp as a wood but not so delicate as a flower. It is earthy but not pungent, spicy but not biting. It is hiking through the desert one week after a good rain. It is earth and old plants and dormant plants promising . It is gentle and lovely, and if I had to compare it to anything, it would be Fledgling Raptor Moon, though it is more for the soft woody feel than for any particular note (though yes, the general gentle spicy feel is the same on me for both). If I have any sadness about this scent, it is that it is so close to the skin on me (as is Fledgling Raptor Moon). But I've never had such a grounded scent have much throw, so I suppose it's unreasonable to hope for this to be the exception.
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The Southern Yellow Bat is the friggin’ cutest, and she always looks like someone just told her a hella funny joke. The cackling grin on her face sums up my life goals. Warm patchouli, smoked pumpkin, and golden amber bubbling with sugared almond. I absolutely love this! The patchouli is very soft and not overpowering at all. I notice warm amber and almond with just a touch of patchouli. This is very well blended with all the notes complementing one another. I personally don’t detect any pumpkin but I have only had it one day and it was in a cold mailbox so I’m hoping it will come out with some aging. ❤️
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Fairly antisocial as bats go, Western Bonnie sticks to colonies of less than a hundred other bats. A girl needs her privacy, you know. Butterscotch tobacco. Butterscotch laced with tobacco. A yup. This one is sweet sugary butterscotch supported by some brown chewy tobacco. This will age to a sugary tobacco mess. Good throw and wear length. Which means, if you like sugar or tobacco, GO GET IT.
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The Mexican Long-Nosed Bat is a versatile critter, building her roosts in caves, vacant buildings, hollow trees, or sewers. She loves agave nectar, pollen, and participating in a polygynandrous mating system. If the cavern’s a-rockin’, don’t come a-knockin’! Agave nectar, mushed guava, and wildflower honey. Guava, sugary nectar and a whiff of wildflowers. This one is a sweet, sugary guava. Fresh, fruity, sugary.
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Bourbon vanilla, cardamom, amber cream, and star anise. Cream, vanilla, and a whiff of cardamom. This is mainly a vanilla cream on my hair. Very creamy. Medium throw and wear length.
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Russet amber and orange blossom honey, red labdanum and wild plum, golden musk and a rustle of patchouli root. Mostly orange blossom honey and patchouli in the bottle, and it's a lovely, creamy, sweet orange blossom and dry patchouli. I wish that this is the scent that showed up on my skin, but that's not to be. On my skin, this actually gets sweeter (a bit cloying) and more powdery than I would like, and the patchouli instantly disappears and never returns. There's a weird, slightly funky soapiness that makes me think of rest room soap, and I think that's the honey note going a bit urine-like on me, and the orange blossom trying to clean it up. The amber and musk form a powdery, perfumey cloud around the intensely sweet honey and slight funkiness. No plum or patchouli for me, unfortunately.
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Our gilded silvery mud-puddler! His scent is of the blackberry bushes and wild lilacs in which he makes his home. Tart blackberry bushes. Freshly applied on my skin, Echo Azure smells like blackberries that are tart and dry, rather than fresh and juicy. Somehow I also get a little dried greenery impression, as though a few limbs of the plant have been cut and hung to dry, their leaves beginning to curl. Or like dried moss. As the blend dries, the lilac comes out, cushion-soft and blended into the blackberries. The initial tartness settles into a dry blackberries softened with lilacs. The dry mossy note, for its part, now makes me think of oakmoss and lichens. I'm not sure if this is just what my skin is doing to the blend -- but it's appealing, a little rustic. This blend is basically a visit to a Willamette Valley blackberry orchard in the dry part of summer. That thought is making me super nostalgic for Oregon. Echo stays in this sort of blackberry-country vibe throughout its life on me. ETA: My friend later tried this. It's not as tart on her as it is on me. On her it's just a natural blackberry. The rest of the blend is similar on her.
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Marshmallow mint and a drop of lemon sugar. In the bottle and when initially sprayed, Cabbage White Caterpillar HG smells like Trix cereal. But that quickly changes. I get a blast of lemon sugar at first, more lemon sugar than I was expecting from the description, that made me think this would be good to pair with scents like Lemon-Scented Sticky Bat. But the lemon sugar calms down over time, and the marshmallow ends up being the main feature of this scent. The mint is a soft mint. Whenever I randomly got a whiff of my hair, I always got the lemon sugar or the marshmallow (especially the marshmallow) from this one, not the mint. I had to hold my hair up to my nose and search for the mint, so it is not nearly as minty as I thought it would be. Because of that, I would be more likely to pair this with marshmallow or lemon sugar scents than mint ones. I paired this with Dragon Smooch perfume oil yesterday because they both have mint and marshmallow listed in the notes, and I got a lot more mint from Dragon Smooch than I did from this hair gloss. After several hours of wear, this becomes all about the marshmallow, and I can still smell it in my hair the next day. I am really happy that I grabbed a bottle of Cabbage White Caterpillar HG.
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A tiny creature with a wingspan less than two inches wide, she thrives on diversity but has a taste for mustard. She may be small, but she is fierce: one cabbage white butterfly can be the matriarch of generations of millions. Orris root, orris butter, lily of the valley, and vanilla cream. The double hit of orris here transforms into a fatty violet, fruity, sweet and waxy floral with vintage overtones. I get a little bit of lily in the background, giving it a certain, damp coolness, like walking through a rainy meadow filled with silvery mist. The yummy vanilla is so creamy, it's alot like a delicious violet ice cream with the perfect amount of sweetness. I'm going to dot this on my pillow tonight because I find this incredibly soothing and perhaps the perfect sleep scent. EDITING to add that I opened and applied this the day it arrived and it screamed of talcum powder. I wasn't sure it was wearable for me, so I stuck it in my storage box and forgot about it. I think this one needs a bit of aging before testing.
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With golden dorsal fur, but brownish-black wings, limbs, ears and facial mask, she looks a bit like a tiny flying Siamese cat. She is the bat world’s little debutante, draped in fur and headed to a masquerade. Wild roses twined around creamy amber and a tangle of patchouli. Rosy amber with a whiff of patchouli. I get mainly amber, with touches of both roses and patchouli.
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The El Segundo Blue butterfly is endangered, and only three colonies remain: one at Los Angeles International Airport, one at an oil refinery, and one on a tiny patch of SoCal beach. Sand and sea salt, murky beach water, a gust of peony, and a drop of petroleum. Bpal's aquatics tend to go soapy on me, and this one does too, but the sharp salt and dark, murky notes are keeping it interesting for me. I smell this and can't help but think of "Duma Key," which is my favorite Stephen King novel. It's like a haunted beach along the ocean, with a storm rolling in and the twang of sharp, salty ozone in the air. The peony, I think, adds a rich, round sweetness to the scent, sort of a juicy, heady floral in the storm. I'm actually shocked by how much I've been enjoying El Segundo Blue. I think this is my favorite bpal aquatic ever. It manages to feel beautiful, but dark and creepy, at the same time.
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October Surprise Update: Genius Loci, Hallowenches, and More
Failmingo posted a topic in Announcements
Hold on to your bats! Er.. we mean butts. Either way, the Lab has a doozy of a late October surprise for you -- a new Genius Loci release staring our furry night-winged friends; Hallowenches over at Trading Post; our monthly Full Moon scent; and a trunk show of vintage BPAL rarities. Links to all can be found below! ++ GENIUS LOCI: BATS OF LOS ANGELES Six bat perfume oils. Art by Drew Rausch! https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/limited-edition/halloween-2018/genius-loci-bats-of-los-angeles/ Three bat hair glosses: https://blackphoenixtradingpost.com/category/genius-loci/genius-loci-bats-of-los-angeles/ ++ HALLOWENCHES A frisky collection of Halloween-themed perfumes and bath oils (!!!), featuring your favorite good time ghouls, the Hallowenches. Labels by Aidan Casserly! https://blackphoenixtradingpost.com/category/halloween-2018/hallowenches-halloween-2018/ ++ MOONS OF SATURN: HYRROKKIN "Viper-green and smoldering: smoke-swirled black pine, patchouli leaf, coriander, and sweet green vetiver." https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shop/limited-edition/a-little-lunacy-limited-edition/moons-of-saturn-hyrrokkin/ ++ TRUNK SHOW We're clearing out space at the Lab! These are available in very limited quantity. Just what they sound like: SNAKE OIL LEMON BOMB WHITE TEA FUCK UP https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shop/limited-edition/halloween-2018/snake-oil-lemon-bomb-white-tea-fk-up/ KINDA SORTA SNAKE OIL CREAM SODA https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shop/limited-edition/halloween-2018/kinda-sorta-snake-oil-cream-soda/ And we saved the best for last: SAMHAIN V1 -- Our original 2002 prototype! https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shop/limited-edition/halloween-2018/samhain-v1-the-original-2002-prototype/ Thanks, one and all -- have a very happy Halloween! -
Drifting low to the ground, this tiny, tough butterfly searches for nectar and mates in vacant lots and coastal flats. Orange blossom and brimstone. I love orange blossom and tend to hate ashy, soot-y, smoky fragrances. I'm really happy that this is about 90% orange blossom on me, and only 10% of a smoky scent that actually isn't that bad. Dainty Sulphur is mostly strong, beautiful orange blossom. Slightly waxy, super creamy, white floral with sweet, ripe orange. Very realistic and natural smelling, and has a tropical vibe to it, like being covered in a wreath of orange blossoms. The smokiness hides under the sweet orange and adds more of a dark, sexy growl than woodsmoke or ash. It reminds me of the way that black musk can sometimes have a smokiness to it. This is one of my favorites of this year's butterflies.
