wickedgoddess Report post Posted November 18, 2010 Happy birthday, BPAL! Every year I attempt to put my gratitude into words, and it never seems to be enough. It’s almost impossible to convey how thankful I am for everyone that makes Black Phoenix possible, from our customers to my coworkers and business associates, but I will try… Thank you to my brother and partner, Brian, the mastermind behind Black Phoenix’s Production Department. I love you, dearest brother. Your dedication and compassion helped to form the company’s foundation, and your strength and clarity of purpose propel us forward. Without you, Black Phoenix is idea without form. You are the greatest of brothers, and I love you. Thank you to my husband, Ted. You are my love and my inspiration. Lord, how I love you. Thank you for everything you do… for your kindness, your wit, and your dedication to your work. You are a truly great man, and I am honored beyond words to be your wife and your business associate. I adore you. Thank you, Kathy, my right hand woman. Thank you for being a wonderful friend, and thank you for always being there for me. You handle every bump in the road with dignity, strength, and grace, and I am eternally grateful for your friendship. I love you! Thank you, Jacquelynn, BPAL’s General Manager. You are phenomenal, and we adore you! Thank you to Bill, our patron saint of customer service. You are an amazing man, and I love you! Thank you to Will, Piolet, and Norman, our production staff, for their dedication, perseverance, and hard work. You guys enable us to share our creations, and I am truly grateful for everything you do. Thank you to the mods and administrators of bpal.org for being the most amazing, wonderful friends I could imagine. Modding the forum is no small task, and it is often a thankless one. I cannot thank you all enough for the hard work and love that you put into the forum. Thank you for being my dearest sisters, and for lending me strength during difficult times. You are all fuckin’ amazing people, and I love you. Thank you to Sue and Del at Dark Delicacies for giving BPAL a home away from home, for always being there for us, and for being the best goddamn grandparents a Little Demoness could ask for. We love you! Thank you to the artists that work with us — Adam Hughes, Jennifer Williamson, Alicia Dabney, Julie Dillon, Madame Talbot, Quique Alcatena, Jennifer Rodgers, Manda Lander, and Sarah Coleman, for bringing our scents to life! A huge thank you to Lisa and the crew at Whole Foods in Roswell, GA and Christen Cottam at knows perfume for giving their all to make the Dirty South and Pacific Northwest will calls happen! Thank you to the Mütter Museum, knows perfume, Whole Foods, Urban Outfitters, Pretty Indulgent, and Healthy Living for giving our products a home in your stores! Thank you to the bloggers, journalists, magazines, and other media outlets that have shown interest in Black Phoenix, and have taken the time to do writeups on our shops! Thank you for your time and energy; it means the world to us! Thank you to Neil Gaiman for affecting me like no other author, for being such a supportive friend, and for allowing me the pleasure of interpreting your beautiful, witty, soul-moving stories through scent. Thank you to Peter S Beagle, Amanda Palmer, Terry Pratchett, Terry Moore, Mike and Christine Mignola, George Perez, Peter David, Molly Crabapple, Mark Waid, Storm Constantine, Ross Ritchie, Jill Thompson, Brian Pulido, Joseph Michael Linsner, Eva Hopkins, and Gris Grimly for giving us such all such joy through the beauty of your art, and for giving Black Phoenix the opportunity to interpret your work. Thank you to the kind people at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Hero Initiative. You help those who cannot help themselves, and you are an inspiration to us all. Many thanks to Mark Waid, Ross Richie, Chip Mosher, and Kate the Shark for inviting us to participate in the Irredeemable 1st birthday party at Challenger Comics in Chicago. Much love and thanks to Charles Brownstein for inviting us to be a part of “An Evening with Neil Gaiman” at C2E2. Much thanks to Pop Culture 2 and Reggie’s Rock Club for hosting our meet n sniff in Chicago! Huge thanks to Geek Girl Diva, Connor Cochran, Susan Auger, Filip Sablik and the rest of the crew at Top Cow, and Mariah Huehner and Chris Ryall at IDW for helping us get new projects moving! And finally… Thank you to our extended family: our clients. Thank you for being there with us and for us throughout these past eight years. Thank you for sharing our joy and for standing with us during difficult times. The family that has grown around BPAL is like no other in the world. Every time I wander into the forum, I see people supporting one another in times of need, showing selfless kindness and offering support to one another… to me, you all are models of emotional generosity and true friendship, and it is truly an honor to be a part of your lives. I cannot express my gratitude enough. Thank you for celebrating the beauty of living with us, and for holding our hands during times of stress and sorrow. This year has been turbulent for just about everyone we know. It’s been a hard year filled with challenges and hidden lessons, but none of it is insurmountable because we all have this tremendous, genuinely loving family. Thank you. Somehow making our anniversary post always makes me cry. Without further ado – the new shit: COLD MOON 2010 The Full Moon that shines over the frost-rimed heart of winter. Traditional lunar oils combined with glittering snow flowers, soft breezes and frozen ferns. cold moon Buy the companion shirt here. Artwork by Julie Dillon. The Cold Moon perfume and tee will be live until Tuesday, November 23, 2010. The world is in tumult, and we are all experiencing a time of transformative change. For our anniversary this year, we are exploring the phoenix as it moves through the seasons, through its cycle of death and rebirth. ++THE SEASONAL PHOENIXES THE PHOENIX IN SPRING Newborn, with flecks of myrrh still dusting its wings, the Phoenix emerges: dandelion florets, cherry blossom, spring wildflowers, and myrrh. THE PHOENIX IN SUMMER The Phoenix soars through a summer thunderstorm: Nepalese amber, galangal, red musk, saffron, ozone, and the scent of hot rain striking pavement. THE PHOENIX IN AUTUMN Through swirling winds, the Phoenix restlessly wanders: dry leaves, Indonesian patchouli, coffee bean, twining ivy, teak, hyssop, and tonka. THE PHOENIX IN WINTER Blood and fire illuminate the darkness of winter: daemonorops, holly berries, and juniper berries in a snowdrift. ++THE NUTCRACKER: ACT 3 THE KINGDOM OF SWEETS An empire of jellybeans, rock candy, sours, lollipops, gumdrops, peppermint sticks, held together by taffy mortar. SUGAR PLUM FAIRY Queen of the Kingdom of Sweets: sugar plums, vanilla-infused sugar, tiare, amber musk, apricot peel, and a light dusting of cacao. MOTHER GINGER From beneath her skirts emerge eight gingerbread children: gingerbread, French vanilla, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and marshmallow cream. + Divertissment THE SPANISH DANCE Chocolate, orange blossom honey, and pomegranate. THE ARABIAN DANCE Leather, coffee, hazelnut, tobacco, and Middle Eastern spices. THE CHINESE DANCE Green and black tea, King mandarin, violet, blackcurrant, and wormwood. THE RUSSIAN DANCE Florentine iris, black tea, labdanum, patchouli, champaca flower, benzoin, patchouli, and ambergris. DANCE OF THE MIRLITONS Marzipan, Burmese rosewood, white sandalwood, Somalian rose, tonka bean, rum accord, and white musk. THE WALTZ OF THE FLOWERS White musk, Madonna lily, jasmine sambac, ylang ylang, bourbon vanilla, and clove. VALSE FINALE ET APOTHÉOSE The return journey: three honeys, white mint, and apple blossom. ++YULE MIDWINTER’S EVE 2010 A melancholy, deep scent, poignant and brimming with nostalgia. The perfume of sugared plums over a breeze of winter flowers. And last but not least, Black Phoenix presents Heroine, the first scent created specifically for the Hero Initiative, with label art by the fabulous Adam Hughes! HEROINE Nepalese amber, East African patchouli, dark musk, apple blossom, petitgrain, aged leather, skin musk, and rhubarb. Proceeds from every bottle of Heroine sold go to the Hero Initiative, the first federally recognized not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping comic book creators, writers and artists in need. Founded in late 2000 by a consortium of comic book and trade publishers including Marvel Comics, Image Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Wizard Entertainment, CrossGen Comics and Dynamic Forces Inc., the 501©(3) charity aims to assist comic creators with health, medical, and quality-of-life assistance. Things are stirring over at the Trading Post as well! + IMP BAGS $16 * SACK OF SWITCHES Fern Frost Strawberry Lemon Drop Candy Cane Sweet Winter Berry Ale * BAG OF COAL Chocolate Espresso Gingerbread Kourabiedes Shortbread Snowflakes + MASSAGE OIL 4oz $20.00 HOLIDAY JOY Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough. – Emily Dickinson Clary sage, peppermint, blood orange, lavender, geranium, juniper berry, bay laurel, King mandarin, and opoponax. Almond oil, refined rice bran oil, fractionated coconut, rosehip seed oil, Citrus aurantium subspecies amara, Pelargonium graveolens, Lavandula angustifolia, Salvia sclarea, Juniperus communis, evening primrose, vitamin E, and our Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfume blend. HOLIDAY STRESS RELIEF Relax, revive, restore. Peppermint, spearmint, geranium bourbon, lavender, clary sage, white amber, juniper berry, laurel leaf, coriander, opoponax, and mandarin. Almond oil, refined rice bran oil, fractionated coconut, rosehip seed oil, Lavandula angustifolia, Juniperus communis, Salvia sclarea, Pelargonium graveolens, evening primrose, vitamin E, and our Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfume blend. + BATH OIL 8oz $30 for all except for F&M which is $35 CRANBERRY COOKIE BARK Shortbread, white and dark chocolate, dried cranberries, and a smattering of crushed candy cane. FRANKINCENSE & MYRRH O Sanctissima, O Piissima Dulcis Virgo Maria Mater amata, Intemerata Ora, Ora Pro Nobis Somalian frankincense and Ethiopian myrrh. POLAR BEAR PLUNGE Dive into an invigorating icy vanilla mint bath! SNOW WHITE A chilly, bright perfume: flurries of virgin snow, crisp winter wind and the faintest breath of night-blooming flowers. Black Phoenix is thrilled to present our first Salon bath oil. Inspired by Albert Beck Wenzell’s painting. VICTORIAN VIRGIN WITH CHERUBS Ángelus Dómini nuntiávit Maríæ. Et concépit de Spíritu Sancto. Ecce ancílla Dómini. Fiat mihi secúndum verbum tuum. Et Verbum caro factum est. Et habitávit in nobis. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei génetrix. Ut digni efficiámur promissiónibus Christi. Gilded amber, white mint, white chocolate, Christmas rose, and honeysuckle. + ROOM SPRAY 4oz $25 BLOC NA NOLLAIG Nollaig faoi shéan is faoi shonas duit! A fresh-chopped Yule log glowing in a holly wreath-festooned hearth, with snow-dappled evergreens, bay leaf, bittersweet winter berries, and apple beer. HOLIDAY ARGUMENT DIFFUSING SPRAY Soothe the tensions of the holidays with a kerfuffle-quelling blend of carnation, white sandalwood, vanilla bean, Roman chamomile, ylang ylang, bergamot, and lemon peel! Spray around your home or office to take the edge off of Yuletime gatherings. (Please do not spray this in anyone’s face, or near anyone’s body at all. It isn’t a very nice thing to do, and in addition to being unsafe, it will likely escalate whatever drama you’re attempting to diffuse.) MR. FEZZIWIG’S BALL “Yo ho, my boys!” said Fezziwig. “No more work to-night. Christmas Eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let’s have the shutters up,” cried old Fezziwig, with a sharp clap of his hands, “before a man can say Jack Robinson!” You wouldn’t believe how those two fellows went at it! They charged into the street with the shutters—one, two, three—had ’em up in their places—four, five, six—barred ’em and pinned ’em—seven, eight, nine—and came back before you could have got to twelve, panting like race-horses. “Hilli-ho!” cried old Fezziwig, skipping down from the high desk, with wonderful agility. “Clear away, my lads, and let’s have lots of room here! Hilli-ho, Dick! Chirrup, Ebenezer!” Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn’t have cleared away, or couldn’t have cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done in a minute. Every movable was packed off, as if it were dismissed from public life for evermore; the floor was swept and watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire; and the warehouse was as snug, and warm, and dry, and bright a ball-room, as you would desire to see upon a winter’s night. In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the lofty desk, and made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty stomach-aches. In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In came the three Miss Fezziwigs, beaming and lovable. In came the six young followers whose hearts they broke. In came all the young men and women employed in the business. In came the housemaid, with her cousin, the baker. In came the cook, with her brother’s particular friend, the milkman. In came the boy from over the way, who was suspected of not having board enough from his master; trying to hide himself behind the girl from next door but one, who was proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress. In they all came, one after another; some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling; in they all came, anyhow and everyhow. Away they all went, twenty couple at once; hands half round and back again the other way; down the middle and up again; round and round in various stages of affectionate grouping; old top couple always turning up in the wrong place; new top couple starting off again, as soon as they got there; all top couples at last, and not a bottom one to help them! When this result was brought about, old Fezziwig, clapping his hands to stop the dance, cried out, “Well done!” and the fiddler plunged his hot face into a pot of porter, especially provided for that purpose. But scorning rest, upon his reappearance, he instantly began again, though there were no dancers yet, as if the other fiddler had been carried home, exhausted, on a shutter, and he were a bran-new man resolved to beat him out of sight, or perish. There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances, and there was cake, and there was negus, and there was a great piece of Cold Roast, and there was a great piece of Cold Boiled, and there were mince-pies, and plenty of beer. But the great effect of the evening came after the Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler (an artful dog, mind! The sort of man who knew his business better than you or I could have told it him!) struck up “Sir Roger de Coverley.” Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig. Top couple, too; with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them; three or four and twenty pair of partners; people who were not to be trifled with; people who would dance, and had no notion of walking. But if they had been twice as many—ah, four times—old Fezziwig would have been a match for them, and so would Mrs. Fezziwig. As to her, she was worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term. If that’s not high praise, tell me higher, and I’ll use it. A positive light appeared to issue from Fezziwig’s calves. They shone in every part of the dance like moons. You couldn’t have predicted, at any given time, what would have become of them next. And when old Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone all through the dance; advance and retire, both hands to your partner, bow and curtsey, corkscrew, thread-the-needle, and back again to your place; Fezziwig “cut”—cut so deftly, that he appeared to wink with his legs, and came upon his feet again without a stagger. Mince pie, dark beer, a well-loved spruce wood fiddle, and bow resin. SNOW WHITE A chilly, bright perfume: flurries of virgin snow, crisp winter wind and the faintest breath of night-blooming flowers. VESPERS Alma Redemptoris Mater, quae pervia caeli porta manes, et stella maris, succurre cadenti, surgere qui curat, populo: tu quae genuisti, natura mirante, tuum sanctum Genitorem, Virgo prius ac posterius, Gabrielis ab ore, sumens illud Ave, peccatorum miserere. Aromatic woods, frankincense, saffron, pine pitch, black amber, and balsam. + SOAPS $9 FRANKINCENSE & MYRRH O Sanctissima, O Piissima Dulcis Virgo Maria Mater amata, Intemerata Ora, Ora Pro Nobis Somalian frankincense and Ethiopian myrrh. GINGERBREAD POPPET And he ran till he came across a fox, and to him he called out: I’ve run away from a little old woman, A little old man, A barn full of threshers, A field full of mowers, A cow and a horse, And I can run away from you, I can! Then the fox set out to run. Now foxes can run very fast, and so the fox soon caught the gingerbread boy and began to eat him up. Presently the gingerbread boy said, “Oh dear! I’m quarter gone!” And then, “Oh, I’m half gone!” And soon, “I’m three-quarters gone!” And at last, “I’m all gone!” and never spoke again. Brown sugar, molassass, ginger, cinnamon, clove, raisin, orange zest, and a little frosting. PEACOCK QUEEN In dramatic contrast to the soft innocence of Snow White and the dew-kissed freshness of her sister, Rose Red, this is a blood red, voluptuous rose, velvet-petaled, at the height of bloom. Haughty and imperious, vain, yet incomparably lovely to the eye, but thick with thorns of jealousy, pride and hatred. SNOW WHITE A chilly, bright perfume: flurries of virgin snow, crisp winter wind and the faintest breath of night-blooming flowers. Due to an increased cost of components, the price of Snake Oil Bath Oil is now $35. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
