Hunger Moon is rising over our debut Clive Barker update!

[kebechet]

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is thrilled to present our collection of scents dedicated Clive Barker’s body of work. The first fragrances in the series are inspired by a tale from Volume Five of the Books of Blood: the Forbidden.

 

It is a tremendous honor and privilege to work with Clive Barker, and we are eternally grateful to Clive Barker and Mark Miller for making this project possible!

 

THE DAY BURNED WHITE

Using the door, which was centrally placed in the wall like a mouth, the artists had sprayed a single, vast head onto the stripped plaster. The painting was more adroit than most she had seen, rife with detail that lent the image an unsettling veracity. The cheekbones jutting through skin the color of buttermilk; the teeth, sharpened to irregular points, all converging on the door. The sitter's eyes were, owing to the room's low ceiling, set mere inches above the upper lip, but this physical adjustment only lent force to the image, giving the impression that he had thrown his head back. Knotted strands of his hair snaked from his scalp across the ceiling. Was it a portrait? There was something naggingly specific in the details of the brows and the lines around the wide mouth; in the careful picturing of those vicious teeth. A nightmare certainly: a facsimile, perhaps, of something from a heroin fugue. Whatever its origins, it was potent. Even the illusion of door-as-mouth worked. The short passageway between living room and bedroom offered a passable throat, with a tattered lamp in lieu of tonsils. Beyond the gullet, the day burned white in the nightmare's belly. The whole effect brought to mind a ghost train painting. The same heroic deformity, the same unashamed intention to scare. And it worked; she stood in the bedroom almost stupefied by the picture, its red-rimmed eyes fixing her mercilessly.

 

Plaster and spraypaint, mottled with buttermilk – sweet, chalky, and edging on sickly. White and golden amber beams of daylight pour through the belly of the scent, while oakmoss and Spanish moss add a touch of decay.

 

 

FOOLISH AND VACUOUS

She was glad to see the back of him. When he failed to return that night she didn't even think of weeping about it. He was foolish and vacuous. She despaired of ever seeing a haunted look in his dull eyes; and what worth was a man who could not be haunted?

 

A scent with no depth: a light, reedy, almost vapid take on a classic men’s fougere.

 

 

SWEETS TO THE SWEET

One sight did catch her attention however. Scrawled on the paving stones she was walking over—and all but erased by rain and the passage of feet—the same phrase she’d seen in the bedroom of number 14: “Sweets to the sweet.” The words were so benign; why did she seem to sense menace in them? Was it in their excess, perhaps, in the sheer overabundance of sugar upon sugar, honey upon honey?

 

Sugar upon sugar, honey upon honey: white cane sugar and honey absolute.

 

 

On January 18th, Century Guild will host the opening of their newest exhibit, Clive Barker: Imaginer, a presentation of never before seen works.

 

CENTURY GUILD

6150 WASHINGTON BLVD.

CULVER CITY, CA 90230

18 January 2014, 7pm

 

 

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab has collaborated with Clive Barker and Century Guild to create a scent commemorating this incredible event:

 

IMAGINER

A report from the land of dreams: honeyed patchouli, Madagascan black pepper, fossilized amber oil, beeswax absolute, massoia bark, Egyptian myrrh, and a thin thread of blood-red saffron.

 

 

Imaginer is limited to one-hundred bottles, and it will be available at the opening night of the event, and if stock permits, the remainder will be sold on the Century Guild web site.

 

 

The Imaginer kickstarter project is in progress. If it tickles your fancy, please consider supporting the publication of this collection of dynamic artworks from the hand of one of the most influential creative minds of the last fifty years.

 

 

Hunger Moon is live at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and Black Phoenix Trading Post!

 

When Hunger Moon hangs high in the sky, the fields are frozen, and game is piteously scarce. Sleet covers the ground, and biting winds chill to the bone. This is a quiet, cold perfume: desolate and despairing. It is a clear night sky that and bracing chill wind that bears the promise of snow, sharpened by the pain of hunger, and the sharp, rasping stab of thirst.

 

Ozone, white sandalwood, Gum Arabic, crystallized white amber, verbena, oakmoss, clary sage, davana, and a hint of white citrus rind.

 

 

The Hunger Moon tee is available here at the Trading Post! Artwork by Tanya Bjork!

 

 

Next up: Lupercalia and all the filth that’s fit to print…