The Phoenix At Dusk

[Heavenlyrabbit]

Dreams in the dusk,
Only dreams closing the day
And with the day’s close going back
To the gray things, the dark things,
The far, deep things of dreamland.

Dreams, only dreams in the dusk,
Only the old remembered pictures
Of lost days when the day’s loss
Wrote in tears the heart’s loss.

Tears and loss and broken dreams
May find your heart at dusk.

The muted flame of in-between time, the stillness of the gloaming: blue chamomile, green tea, Spanish moss, champaca flower, white sage, jonquil, wisteria, and white honey. This Phoenix embodies the strange beauty of the dreamscape, the force of the imagination, and the power of the spirit.

 

Slightly herbal, slightly floral, slightly pungent. A laid back sort of sexy.

All mixed together seamlessly for a quiet, almost meditative quality. Captures the time of day perfectly.

This also suits me immensely well.

Gorgeous artwork on the label.

 

[violetblue]

I don't know how or why but this reminds me a lot of a mellower Poison by Dior. The notes in that are: coriander, pimento, anise and is accented with rosewood, orange blossom and vanilla, none listed in the bottle, but there's a perfumey quality to this one I am not sure I am loving. May be off to swaps...

[angelicruin]

Soft floral notes and green tea. Not picking up any of the honey note in this one. Has a calming quality that reminds me of that peaceful view of the sky right after sunset.

[puck_nc]

Origin: Straight from the Lab

 

Initial Thoughts: I will always consider a blend with wisteria, and I rarely see jonquil as a note. I think I remember champaca flower being in a couple of blends I like. No death notes in the mix. Worth a try.

 

In the Bottle: Much darker and sexier than I expected - the sage is really strong. I agree with the impression of similarities with Poison, which was one of the few commercial perfumes I wore before discovering BPAL.

 

Wet: SAGE! SAGE! SAGE! And the florals that manage to join it are taking on an herby quality as well. Definitely evokes a gathering darkness.

 

Drydown: Still a bit herby with an undertone of florals and honey. The tea has emerged as well. Overall it's become sweeter than before and not quite so moody as the wet stage implied.

 

Verdict: Not the noseful of wisteria I was hoping for, but a pretty scent. I will have to think on it.

[Amalthea]

This scent starts a lot stronger than I expected but it quickly mellows into something really comfortable and lovely. I see the similarities with Poison but this is much softer and lovelier. Very calming, loving it and glad I got a bottle.

[Akurarei]

The Phoenix at Dusk

 

In the Bottle:

Smells very similar to one of the metal phoenix blends from a couple of years ago...maybe the Quicksilver Phoenix bottle.

 

On my Skin, Wet:

a very brilliant burst of bright floral and dripping wet fruits - to me it seems like I'm looking at the setting sun through a slice of a peach after a rainstorm while standing amongst wildflowers.

It smells like peaches, gardenias & water in this stage.

 

On my Skin, Dry:

A powdery element appears - this has got to be the wisteria (it always turns to powder on me)

so it's now wet peaches, powder and a faint background of wildflowers.

There is also just a hint of sage too - this lends a cool, crisp feeling to the scent.

 

Verdict:

This is lovely - and quite summery!

I love that this has such a strong layer of wet peaches on me.

and the touch of sage is just delightful.

This is a gorgeous Phoenix!

[cinnamonster]

It's wet smelling, not damp or musty but wet, a tiny catch of peach as you breath in that hits you just as you exhale again. Almost like pears, real pears, not pear scent.

That's my in bottle impression.

 

I am sometimes struck by inexplicable impressions of people I used to know from a scent, this is a girl I used to know as a child, how strange.

 

It's beautiful and almost sad, wisteria winds its way out, trailing on a base of the cleanest honey I have ever smelt, no BO tones here for me, this truly is mine of the phoenix I have smelt thus far.

 

The label is beautiful too.

[mistressfizz]

Sniff: Soft flowers with a spike of herbs and something almost minty

 

Wet: A warm floral scent that strongly evokes certain colors: lavender, ivory, celadon, light and wispy and dreamy. There's a touch of sweetness, which along with the astringency of tea and sage, balance out the flowers nicely.

 

Dry: My skin smells like I just washed with expensive herbal soap! Very feminine and fresh.

[Little Bird]

This smells like white floral perfume and white bars of soap over a bed of hay, with whisps of sharp, citrussy green tea and sweet honey that fade in and out. It's very soapy, sharp, and odd on me...

 

I wound up having to scrub this off after only about a half hour, because it was giving me a headache. I usually enjoy wisteria notes, so I'm not sure what was so harsh and perfumey on me here.

[zankoku_zen]

WISTERIA + honey.

 

My skin amps up wisteria like a demon, and this is no exception. PASS.

[windbourne]

This, very sadly, smells mostly of herbal cough drops on me. There's a very pleasant honey note that, in a different mix, would be lovely, but in this particular case, enhances the effect. Wisteria is another of my OH NOEZ notes, and true to form, it amps like crazy as it dries, so I get faboo cough drops being slurped under a lovely bower of wisteria.

 

Not a keeper, and just so you know, I'm terribly jealous of you who can wear this. It smells so pretty in the vial!

[milo]

Perfumey, musky floral which translates into cheap drugstore perfume, or maybe it's just turning out like that on me. Not for me, and I may even just wash this off.

[lilyliza]

I agree that this one smells just like herbal cough drops on me when I first apply it, but the sharp, medicinal smell goes away after a few minutes. It's a very herbal, musky, slightly sweet, contemplative scent. This isn't a bright, vibrant sunset; it's the sky just before darkness falls- soft, somewhat somber, but beautiful. It reminds me of sitting down and meditating on your day as it comes to an end. It really gets pretty as it dries and the flowers come out. The jonquil here is gorgeous, and the white honey has that golden sweetness I love about the normal honey note without that super sticky-sweetness that comes very close to being too cloying. The notes blend amazingly well together. This is definitely for people who enjoy herbal and musky scents, because there's a whole lot of both. I thought it was very pretty, and it reminds me of a perfume I've smelled before, but I can't put my finger on it. I think this one improves on that scent, though.

[Monday]

Yay jonquil! I quite like this. It's not too herbal (sage is one of my death notes) and a pleasantly airy perfume. It starts out a bit green then the florals kick in, the white honey is barely there though it does sweeten the blend. This is a very unobtrusive and (to me) nostalgic blend.

If you like this give L'Ecole des Filles a shot too.

[angelamaria]

In decant: clean, almost green, and almost herbal. My first thought was that this would be great as soap! Maybe I should expect a more floral feel from this, but that wasn't in the initial list of things I thought of when I sniffed it.

 

Wet on skin: oh, this is nice. A green floral--green and white, to be specific, clean and fresh, in a got-out-of-the-shower kind of way and not in a fresh-cut-stems way. I'm pleasantly surprised by this. The mix of herbs and florals in this blend must be contributing to this almost-creamy, very wearable clean and feminine scent. Loving this!

 

Dry: clean and fresh. It's a subdued scent, one that you would get close to sniff, but is irresistible once you do (I kept going back to it!). I'd call it a fresh light floral with a bit of herbal undertone.

 

Verdict: keeper! Very surprised with this one, I didn't think this would work, but it totally does. Love it!

[lohengrin]

In the imp: Floral and fresh, nothing standing out particularly.

 

On skin, wet: The green tea comes to the forefront, with florals behind, but alas I also smell a hint of soap.

 

On skin, dry: Getting soapier, with an undercurrent of green tea. I suspect either the jonquil or the wisteria is the soap culprit here.

 

After an hour: Soapy green tea. Sigh.

[OctoberGwen]

For some reason, when I selected a Phoenix from the Lab I chose Dawn, which is not 'me' at all. Sure enough, it was too sharp and bright and I traded it away without even giving it time to age properly.

 

Then I bought Dusk off a lovely forumite, and I am so happy with it. Thematically, this one is much closer to me and I also happen to love how it smells: it's a soft, wistful herby floral, beautiful and melancholy, capturing the sense of the 'in between' perfectly.

 

I was a little concerned about the Spanish moss, but I can't detect it.

 

This Phoenix, with its muted flame, is just my cup of tea.

 

[KissleMeNow]

A very fine blend of soft herbal-florals, but my skin eats it straight up. An hour later I couldn't smell it at all. :/

[Ghost of a Rose]

My imp is a decant from the generous Fright.

 

In the imp: The oil is clear and colorless. It has a medicinal kind of scent - the chamomile, green tea, sage, and perhaps the moss - that is reminiscent of (but definitely is not) eucalyptus. It doesn't have the sinus-clearing sharpness of eucalyptus, just a similar kind of fragrance.

 

On me, wet: Much the same as in the imp. Not sweet or floral at all, which is surprising considering the ingredients.

 

After 10 minutes: Mmm, the florals (especially jonquil and champaca) have kicked in, making this much nicer. There's still a strong green component and not much sweetness. I like the concept and how the notes tie in with it: blue chamomile = blue for dusk, chamomile for sleep and dreams; green tea and white sage = the mystery of the Orient and the deserts of the West; champaca and sage = spiritual practice; Spanish moss, jonquil, and wisteria = the mysterious swamps of the American South, flower and tree-lined avenues draped with the moss. Very intriguing!

 

After 20 minutes: Still very herbal and somewhat floral, but the spiciness of champaca incense is becoming more insistent.

 

After 30 minutes: For the first time, the florals have gotten the upper hand over the herbs, making this softer, gentler, and more feminine. I love the juxtaposition between that and the spiciness of the champaca.

 

After 1 hour: It's mostly the florals and the incensey champaca that I notice now.

 

After 2 hours: Quite soft and subtle now.The champaca is the main note, with the flowers hovering right behind. It's more perfumey than it was earlier.

 

After 4 hours: The scent is gone from my wrist.

 

My rating: 4 stars

Edited February 5, 2012 by Ghost of a Rose

[thekittenkat]

In the decant:Sage, florals, moss, a touch of the white honey.

 

Wet: Honey, sage, moss, some florals (most obvious is the wisteria).

 

The dry-down: Mostly as when wet, with less florals. This isn't a really sweet scent, regardless of the presence of the white honey, but with more of an herbal quality because of the sage and the moss. The green tea note makes me think of Dorian, but this would be as if Dorian gave up his bad lifestyle, and decided to live on the edge of an American desert at the beginning of spring. This is going in my April rotation.

 

Edited only for grammar fail.

Edited February 8, 2012 by thekittenkat

[karykeion]

PHOENIX REVIEW x2 COMBO!! Dusk style. Another thank you to azurephoenix for the decant!

 

I will admit, I basically only got this because even with my general aversion to girly-side scents I loved Cordelia so, so much (before the musk kicked in and destroyed everything else, as musk likes to do on my skin) and I misremembered the notes in Cordelia and thought Phoenix at Dusk shared like half of them but without musk as a listed note. Upon closer inspection, no, just green tea and wisteria, but I'm okay with that since I like green tea even if I can never smell BPAL's tea notes.

 

In the imp: HOLY CRAP I CAN SMELL THE TEA. THAT'S TOTALLY GREEN TEA. GET ON MY ARM. GET. ON. MY. ARM.

 

On me, wet: Hm. It's floral, but sort of herbally, and yes, I do recognize something from Cordelia--I guess that's what wisteria smells like. It's very comfortable and soft and nice, and surprise! No unlisted musk waiting in the background to brutally assassinate every single other note. Also, there's just a tiny bit of sweetness that I think must be the white honey. It's a very clean smell, and I think it smells like soap but without actually being soapy. It's kind of the perfume equivalent of a plain white T-shirt to me. It's very pretty, but I'm not sure i omgneedabottle like I thought I did, even though it captures the idea of "dusk" perfectly. Welp, there's my bank account breathing a sigh of relief!

 

On me, dry: Um...clean? It's basically very pretty, understated soap. I like it, but I don't really think it's a thing I'd wear.

 

I'll wait and try these again when it's not Shark Week, and if I like them enough I'll track down an unloved bottle, but for now I think I'll pass on the Phoenixes. Ah well, more money for other bottles important stuff!

[Viridian]

On me this is the same kind of cool, herbal floral that reminds me of the Blue Moon blends a little, though those tend to smell a little more "wet floral" to me. I see all they actually have in common is the green tea. It's very calm and smells like a spring evening to me.

 

It's going into my spring/summer floral rotation along with Blue Moon, Blue Morpho, and Leanan Sidhe, so I'd say if you love those sorts of florals try to track this one down.

[asciident]

Wet: Sage, floral…a hint of sweetness. Tea is in there. The scent is very soft.

 

First on: Immediately muted on my skin, but still soft and tealike. Dreamy and quiet.

 

Dry: No throw at all; it’s very subtle. No moss, sage has relaxed, so it’s just sweetly floral, but not overwhelming at all.

 

 

[Gin]

Even looking at the notes, I can't pick anything out, it's just a soft, quiet floral.

[Mechanical Death]

It's almost fruity floraly in the bottle.

 

On the skin the wisteria jumps out, but it's ver tempered by the tea and champaca which has a distinct spiced sweet tea like scent. It's slightly reminiscent of mimosa blooms in my opinion as well.

 

As it dries, the sage comes out adding a herbal depth and lushness. The moss also presents its self nicely, very soft and rounds out the honey sweetness in the background.

 

It started out as a commercial smelling scent, but it has dried into a beautiful complex feminine scent that is very floral sweet with herbal tones.