The Phoenix

[Gwydion]

Sea air, gunpowder, lime, salt-crusted wood, a splash of blood, and a dribble of Snake Oil.

In the bottle, this is very aftershavey with lots of sea air and a hint of lime. I mean, it really screams man of the sea. On first application this is much the same, only sexier and more complex. I am really liking this in a men's aftershave kind of way. It is bracing, strong, clean, and spicy. It is a little like getting spanked by the Ioan Gruffudd Horatio Hornblower. Seriously, this cologne is telling me there is a man smelling of boat and limes right there and I should rip his clothes off right now and give him what for. Dry, the OMG, sea backs down leaving sexy seaman behind. I am liking this. I am liking this a lot.

[oceandreamer001]

Oh Yes.....this is an outstanding aquatic. I love Mary Read, even though it is a little masculine on me.

On my skin, this is Mary Read's more delicate sister.

 

I smell ocean, but not briney ocean. It is definitely Caribbean water, not overpowering, but the scent of ocean that is carried on the breeze to you. Almost flowery, but either not really there (my imagination) or so expertly blended that it is not really identifieable. Maybe it is the lime mixed with the ocean breeze?

 

As it dries I get some spice, which deepens the aquatic, but it isn't overly SNAKE OIL!!! It is a lovely anchor, and reminds me slightly of Banded Sea Snake, but although the association is there, it is absolutely not BSS #2.

 

I am so glad I got two bottles---this one may be a hoarder for me!

[slave1]

THE PHOENIX

 

In Bottle: Dirt, wood and ozone

 

On Skin: This is an ocean scent, full of ozone and aquatics. I was scared of it in the bottle, but on my skin it bursts into a scent I actually love and the dirt I smelled in the bottle vanishes. It is unisex, and quite refreshing. It starts out bright but then the Snake Oil comes it and gives it a gorgeous dark depth. The sea air is strongest, followed by the wood and then Snake Oil. The lime is in the background, giving the ozone a spike, and the blood seems like a nice warm resin. A beautiful scent that has really woken me up. About 15 minutes into wearing it the ozone amps even more giving it a soapy quality which to me makes it slightly more masculine. I want my husband to try this one out for sure. I’ll wear Pirate Moon and he can wear The Phoenix. Moderate throw and average to long wearlength.

[jolarocknrolla]

Winner! It's kind of marine/ozone at first and what i guess is lime but smells more delicate like yuzu to me. It actually gets a slightly deeper, spicy/inscency note later on that makes it really interesting a full bodied. plus the bottle art ROCKS!

[Desanera]

I smell like a salty dog!

 

OK - not technically a dog, but I smell very salty.

 

There is a hint of something grounding in the background, that almost smells like men's cologne but thankfully stops just short of that - I assume it is the snake oil. No lime on me yet, but I have only worn it once, so it may morph. But I like it - it smells like the ocean - except without the fishy smell!

 

This is one of the weirder scents (like my beloved brimstone), but I like it very much indeed.

 

Edited to say thankfully this goes neither aquatic or ozone on me, because neither scent does me any good. It's just - salt and some interesting very slight background notes.

Edited October 25, 2007 by Desanera

[taramarie]

On me, The Phoenix is salty ocean air (hello, Mary Read!) and lime with a hint of wood in the background. I like it and I'm really glad I got a bottle.

[QueenFae]

Whoa, this is a seriously STRONG scent!!

 

This is an in your face, sea salty aquatic blend; and a heavily masculine one at that. The lime, sea air, gunpowder, and salt crusted wood are all spot on; I can pick each one of those out. As for the dribble of blood and the snake oil, they are not apparent on my skin at all. I don't know how Beth did it, but she made a blend that smells like gunpowder, amazing!! It doesn't get anymore piratey than The Phoenix; this is a pirate lover's dream scent.

 

This is one of the strongest and most long lasting scents I've ever sniffed. For those of you in search of something for the all night long scene, check this one out, it'll stay with you! This is certainly not for me, though, since it screams Capt. Jack Sparrow (ahhhhh...Johnny, what a wonderful image to conjour ). I"m sure the hubbie will dig it!!

[edenssixthday]

The Phoenix - Due to the "gunpowder" note, this is the one blend of the September lunar update that I thought I was going to really dislike. As it turns out, it's my favorite. This is definitely a woody ozone scent and the gunpowder in it is very evident, yet in this blend (unlike all other blends with similar notes) it gives the overall scent a depth and an edge that makes it positively perfect. It's bold, dangerous, and super sexy. This is not an aquatic in the typical sense, yet I definitely get the feeling of being on a war-battered ship on the sea. This is definitely a gender-neutral scent, and I could see my husband really pulling off this scent...but he's not going to have a chance to because I'm keeping it all for myself! Once the scent has been on my skin for about an hour, it mellows out a lot and the various notes all soften and become virtually indistinguisha ble from one another, except for the Snake Oil, which is now the dominant scent. This is most definitely my favorite Snake Oil blend of all time. I am totally in love with this scent. I especially love it when worn in a scent locket because it seems to maintain its strength that way and I can also smell a hint of the lime, which apparently fades from my skin instantly.

[LadyCrow]

Colorless Phoenix, eh?

 

In the bottle: Sweet ozone and lime.

 

Wet: Strongly ozone. The note doesn't always agree with my skin (as in this year's Thunder Moon), and for a significant chunk of its wet-on-skin time, it smelled very much like aftershave. It was a bit salty, but not enough to make me think of sea air.

 

Drydown: However, after a while, the redeeming notes come out: tangy woods, a high whiff of gunpowder (note to self: try Agnes Nutter and compare), and what I would swear is some DRAGONZ BLUD hidden in the middle like a piratey treasure.

 

Overall, a very clean, and, as others have said, unisex scent with a surprisingly strong throw. I'm still not in love with it, which is probably good for my wallet, but I can definitely appreciate the craft that went into putting it together.

[Little Bird]

I cannot wear Snake Oil (smells like oily hair and baby powder on me), but I loved a few of the Snake Pit blends, so I decided to give this a try. I also have trouble wearing aquatics, but I loved Banded Sea Snake. The Phoenix has potential.

 

I love this in the bottle where it's salty, sweet sea air with a hint of lime and an exotic twist, but it's not very good on my skin. I dislike BPAL's gunpowder note and that combined with the blood gives this a metallic, dry, gritty sort of smell that I'm not fond of. Over time a bit of the salty sweetness that I loved comes back out, but it's not enough to save this blend for me. The gunpowder shoots down The Phoenix

[crazyredhead17]

Disclaimer: My nose has been stuffy recently and while I still have a semi-decent sense of smell I may miss subleties.

 

In the imp, it's a very fresh, oceany scent. On me, it doesn't really change at all. It's just a very subtle ocean breeze scent. I don't get any lime or much in the way of salt or gunpowder.

 

I'll try it again if/when my nose clears out, but there's other aquatics that I like better.

[carbide]

on my skin, the salty limey scent from the bottle turns into overpowering gardenia air freshener. i don't know what's up with my skin, but a light application had everyone i met spluttering and asking if i knew how i smelled. so, the throw and the wear length were excellent, but pending a little further experimentation, it doesn't look like the phoenix and i can be pals.

[Miss Lynx]

Alas, this one mainly just smells like sharp synthetic perfume to me. I suspect that's the "sea air" note -- notes that are supposed to smell like rain, air, wind, etc. usually seem to be some variant of the dreaded ozone note, which to me just smells like cheap drugstore perfume, or maybe dryer sheets.

 

Snake Oil has a touch of that drugstore perfume feel too, so maybe that's part of it.

 

If there's wood and blood in here, I can't tell.

 

Grade: D

[zankoku_zen]

Salty ocean air! This one is a clean breeze of an ocean scent. The predominant note for me is the ozone, but it's got wood and something else carried in the breeze.

 

Very lovely. Perhaps a tad masculine for my taste. Strong throw.

 

YARR!

[303marlena]

Both this and Pirate Moon have captured the essence of Piratism beautifully. If Pirate Moon is the quintessential smell of ocean spray, The Phoenix is the smell of the ocean--soaked boards of the Jolly Roger (or Black Pearl, if you prefer).

 

Unlike Jolly Roger, which heretonow has been my first and foremost scent to evoke the smell of ocean air, this blend has depth and more bite. The ozone is just enough to give the feel of recently crashed waves. The woody notes evoke the planks of the ship. I get a touch of citrus with this one also, but not like the lime in Pirate Moon. There is no leather or tobacco. I can't distinguish the snake oil, but it grounds the blend without standing out. I can faintly detect the dragon's blood resin, but it also is well blended and lends a metallic, blood-tinged vibe to the Pirate motif.

 

As the names suggest, this blend smells like the vessel (ship) and the Pirate Moon more like the atmosphere or stage of the Pirate life. Both are exquisite and take the theme of ocean spray to heights I dared not hope for. I am so glad I have been privileged to acquire both blends in bottles and will be hoarding as much more as I can. As another reviewer wrote--this blend gives the sensory memory of the ocean beautifully, as does its sister, Pirate Moon, to a once dweller by the ocean who dearly misses the beauty of the ozone-tinged salt spray of Mother Ocean. While Pirate Moon is more like the spray, and Phoenix is more like the water-logged planks of your boat, both elicit the majesty of the sea.

 

Slather up my hearties YO HO!

[PurringPulsar]

The Phoenix

 

In the imp: a clean soapy sea note, this could go either way. Reminds me of Thalassa and F5.

Wet on skin: tangy lime and…dammit, washing powder and stormy ozone.

Dry on skin: now this smells a little bit smoky, probably due to the gunpowder. It also smells woody, like the salty woods from Jolly Roger or Calico Jack. But for now the dominant note is a sharp, clean, ozonic sea air, which is a little bit soapy/detergent-like on me. There's an electric, crackling feel to the ozone like in the stormy scents that potentially could ruin this scent. However, this sea note also reminds me of Thalassa, which I liked, it is a little bit sweet and has a hint of kelp. So this really could be a hit or miss…will the Snake Oil come out to save the day?

After a while: it's still predominantly that clean, crisp, ozone-aquatic, along with the dry solid ship woods and peppery gunpowder smoke, but I think it's growing on me. It is like Thalassa's slightly sweetened sea note, that's probably why it agrees with me better. It still smells a little bit soapy but it's not as 'OMG I smell like a laundrette!' as some of the other sea scents. I think the Snake Oil may be the thing that makes this work.

I don't smell much of the SO after a few hours, but the surprisingly agreeable aquatic has faded to a soft salty-sweet cleanness, with a hint of wood. Not jarringly soapy, but nice and clean and fresh.

Verdict: ok, this isn't as fantastic as Pirate Moon on me but I really like this one more than I expected. Yes, it is an aquatic, and one of those sea scents that has that soapy feel to it…but it's not 'soap of doom' or that horrid washing powder smell or that ozone scent that reminds me of static-covered tumble-dried clothes. This is the nice 'clean linen and ocean spray' scent that I find quite agreeable-and it's backed up by woods and spices and smoke, and I think the Snake Oil rounds it nicely. This is a more unisex version of Thalassa to me. This is what I was hoping to get from Jolly Roger. I was hoping for more of the Snake Oil, but for now, I think this is one sea scent I will keep-I think it may get better with age (anything with Snake Oil should, I think!)

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? Maybe. It's one of the nicer aquatic scents on me. And I think a bit of age will bring out the Snake Oil.

If you like this, try: Port Royal, Calico Jack, Jolly Roger, Mary Read, Thalassa, F5

[TheOneTheyCallLuna]

I'm in love with this scent! First of all, it has throw for days and lasts forever!! It smells so wonderful and is reminiscent of being out on the open seas! From the listed notes alone I was a little worried that this wouldn't work....well, I was so wrong! This is AMAZING! A sexy, unique, complex pirate scent. This one smells so feminine and luscious. The blood and snake oil stay in the background providing warmth and spicy sweetness. The lime, sea air, and wood stay front and center and are more calming and feminine than one might imagine! I detected the gunpowder in the beginning, and it was not at all unpleasant, but by the time this dries down it is barely detectable, adding to the complexity of the blend. This has become my "go-to" pirate scent! Yaarrrrr!

[Nimthiriel]

In the vial:

Snake oil and fruit – something like lime and guava!

 

Wet:

It’s fresh and fantastic! I’m delighted at this point – it really does remind me of the guava in Nocturne Alchemy’s Sobek oil. It’s delicious.

 

Dry:

After 10-20 mins, it’s gone more rough and salty. Maybe it’s the gunpowder, wood and “sea air” in combination.

 

40+ mins after application, it has mellowed out quite a lot, and it’s barely noticeable.

 

Finally:

A few hours later, it’s rich and incensy, very masculine, with a light splash of sea water. It’s a scent I’ll let my boyfriend try, mwahahaha!

[heathercaley]

Sea air and a lime tree!! I agree with a few others that this is gender neutral, but veering more towards the manly side. Though the citrus in the lime adds a bit of a somewhat feminine touch. I smell a intsy tinsy bit of a snake oil just kind of lying down in the background, but I have to search for it. It doesn’t pop at you. I wish it would

 

This is a great perfume for the sake of collecting and sniffin a wee bit ol’ tha seven salty seas.. but I’d feel like I’m holding out on someone who would give it love. I’ll decide if I keep or pass.

[ryuk]

I was so scared of this. I always want to like aquatics, but they don't often work on me. They usually either turn scarily artificial, go ozone like whoa, or disappear after 2 minutes. I'd never tried lime, but citrus had a similar history as well - lemon and orange are both either nothing at all or awful on my skin most of the time. Snake Oil is nice, but not my favorite. Dragon's Blood is eww icky sticky sweetness. "Salt crusted wood" and "gunpowder?" Well, those sound cool, but potentially rather smelly.

 

So, with all of this yuckiness and uncertainty, why would I even try it? Well... I have a thing for pirates and the label was pretty. Besides, I am constantly on the lookout for aquatics that actually work on me.

 

Imagine my shock when all of this yuckiness and uncertainty combined to form... MY PERFECT AQUATIC!

 

I don't know how it happened, but this stuff is beautiful! Its like a dream of the ocean - like everything I always wanted in an aquatic perfume. It's clear, bright, tangy, salty, and somehow deep. Like a boat on a sunny day with a thunderstorm on the horizon. This is what I wanted Jolly Roger and Olokun and Cthulhu and Yha'nthlei and so many others to smell like None of them worked, this does. I am so very grateful.

Edited December 13, 2007 by Ryuk

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

I'm pleased to have a decant to try this--I think of it as Ghost Phoenix, because in my mind Mad Bess' ship gets conflated with The Flying Dutchman. I think it's because Puddin' looked so awesomely Cap'n Jack in the wedding pics! Anyway, The Phoenix is very pretty on me. Wet, it reminds me a little of a warmer, non-wintry Szepasszony--clean aquatic with a faint hint of floral. Buried in there is just enough of a hint of salt and lime for my brain to go, "margarita!" The merest ghostly breath of Snake Oil appears on the drydown. This feels like a summer vacation scent to me; it's lovely but soft, low-key. I'd slather it on to lounge by the pool and have fruity drinks. In fact, I just caught a special on the Travel Channel about Disney cruises to the Caribbean where you can see the original Flying Dutchman movie prop out in the water...that's the image that comes to mind. Vacation! Beach! Ghosts! Put it all together and it spells "made of win"!

Edited December 13, 2007 by Laurel the Woodfairy

[Phaedra]

Wet this is a strong sea and aquatic blend, fresh and bracing. It has a classi men's cologne smell. When first on it's the same fresh aquatic blend, bright and breezy. After several minutes, the Snake Oil starts to come out and warm it up a bit. After a couple hours there's an earthy undertone. As this dries down, the sea air note has mellowed quite a bit and this is much softer. Aquatics don't usually work on me buth the Snake Oil is what saves this blend for me. I think this will age very well too. Thank you so much Beth and Ted for allowing us to share in your wedding celebration. I will always treasure this special blend and it's companion Pirate Moon

[alaitallon]

This scent reminded me a lot of Thunder Moon because of its aquatic, slightly ozone scent, but there's a bit to this one that sets it apart. The ozone smell isn't nearly as overbearing in this one, the lime comes out quite nicely, and the gunpowder gives an odd sort of overtone. I really do like this scent, though, it really invokes being out at sea.

 

Rating: 8/10

[Ajila]

In the bottle – The salty sea air and the metallic blackness of the gunpowder

 

Wet on me – A combination of some sort of ‘sea breeze’ air freshener, patchouli (I don’t know where that’s coming from) and a hint of lime

 

Dry on me – Clean dry seawater with a touch of leather

 

Overall – I would have needed a bit more warmth to make this blend a winner for me

[pekeana]

The Phoenix smells just like taking a swim in the Pacific just before dawn. You can smell the seawater sluicing off of your body, and the kelp, woods, and other seaweeds tangled around your ankles as you climb out of the water. It's very cold, not at all warm or inviting, but bracing and invigorating. (And damn sexy.)