Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs (BPAL) - Perfume Oils

[Ophidia]

Anyone out there buy stuff from Black Phoenix?

I was looking for some decent quality sandalwood oil & stumbled across them on the 'net. They don't seem to sell pure oils, but the blends sound pretty intriguing, and the names & descriptions make visiting the site worthwhile.

I picked up a sample pack of 6 oils for $22, and they threw in a couple of extra. I got to pick out the ones I wanted to try and managed to pick three with an overwhelming dragon's blood scent, to the point where I can't tell them apart :P I also picked one called 'Cthulhu'. It was disappointing - smells like Irish Spring.

One of my freebies is Port-Au-Prince, which is spicy and has a nice bay rum smell to it. It definitely makes me think of Haiti or N'Awlins in the height of Creole society. People walking around w/canes & top hats, that kind of thing.

I'm probably going to try a few more out, see if I can get away from the dragon's blood, lol. Right now my entire house, me & my purse smell like a bordello because I, in my infinite wisdom, decided to open & smell each sample one right after another.

[Caelia]

Re: Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs (BPAL) - Perfume Oils

I think Juniper Raven does. I know she did many moons ago.

[Dez]

Re: Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs (BPAL) - Perfume Oils

I wore their Cheshire Cat for years! Then my toddler dumped the remaining drops down the drain...

I need to get a pack of imps ears and try some new ones.

[Ophidia]

Re: Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs (BPAL) - Perfume Oils

I got my first sample pack the day before yesterday, but I've only had the chance to try out two of the 8.

I got:
Bohun Upas - I love this, oh how I love this. It smells better than Opium, which is the only 'real' perfume I'll ever wear.

Port-au-Prince - I originally went on there & requested 'Black Lace' because it has Bay Rum in it, but the customer service rep e-mailed me & said Black Lace wasn't available in the imps. So I asked for something 'like' Black Lace & got Port-au-Prince. It's like the CS rep could read my mind of the scent I was looking for, but I haven't worn it yet

Kubla Khan - this smells funky to me - kind of weird & chemically. Bohun Upas smelled like cheap perfume in the bottle & turned out really well, so Kubla might surprise me, too. Then again, it could make me smell like cat pee.

Cthulhu - in the bottle, it was like 'Wow! Irish Spring soap!', which is a yucky thing. On me, it didn't smell like Irish Spring, but it's still soapy/dryer sheet kinda smelling. Or like Febreeze.

Fenris Wolf
Malice
Bloodlust
Serpent's Kiss

In the bottle, all four of these smell like pure dragon's blood oil. Which isn't a bad thing, just, I was hoping for something more interesting. But like Bohun, I'll have to wear them to find out. All I know is, my co-workers are going to loathe me in the next week or so :devil:

[Dez]

Re: Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs (BPAL) - Perfume Oils

LOL...I love that you're updating this!

I have scents smell totally different on me, too. I've had a couple lately that I tried on that reeked! What was it? Victoria's Secret--Sexy Little Things Noir smells like pure musk on me, like some sort of large animal went into heat.

I'm fairly sure that wasn't what they were going for...

[Ophidia]

Re: Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs (BPAL) - Perfume Oils

LOL...I love that you're updating this!..

I tried another one last night.

Fenris Wolf - opening the bottle, it smelled like mild dragon's blood oil - that kind of candy cinnamon sweetness. Which is weird, because according to BPAL there's no dragon's blood in it - it's amber, red musk, rosewood & red sandalwood. I've worn all of those oils separately & none of them seem dragon's blood-ish to me.

However, putting it on... holy moley. All the dragon's blood faded and I got something that was made of pure funk. Of course, I waited til after my shower for work to put it on & I immediately regretted that I didn't have time for a second shower. I went outside. It smelled like someone had just dumped a bottle of heavy floral fabric softener on me, like one of the new freesia or lilac vomit ones. It did finally fade to a shadow of fabric softener - in fact, it smelled exactly like a cheap brand of dryer sheets that I've used in the past.

Now, 12 hours later, it's almost gone, but I do get the occasional faint whiff of the amber, and it's a nice soft amber, too - but I'm not putting any more of that stuff on just to get amber 12 hours later.

Tonight, it's going to be Port-Au-Prince - I want to see what it morphs into

[Thjoth]

Re: Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs (BPAL) - Perfume Oils

Hmmmm...do you ladies think that something from here would be a decent birthday present for my mom and sister? They both have their birthday on the 29th, and I never manage to get them anything "ladylike" when I manage to get them anything at all. In a fit of desperation my sister wound up with a Henry repeating rifle for her 13th birthday (which she actually likes, so that worked out) to give you an idea of my gift-buying ability. Corbin's shop has rescued me with awesome jewelry the last few Christmases

[Dez]

Re: Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs (BPAL) - Perfume Oils

Scent is tricky, Thjoth, because the exact same perfume can smell totally different when it mixes with the compounds on different people's skin.


If you wanted to do something like this, I'd strongly suggest buying a set of Imp's Ears (little test vials) so that they can try them out like Perz is right now, then getting them the one they like best.

[Ophidia]

Re: Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs (BPAL) - Perfume Oils

I'd have to agree w/Deseret about the perfume - unless it's a person you're in a relationship with, and you know their tastes, buying perfume or cologne is tricky.

BPAL does have soaps, little containers & jewelry - check out the Trading Post.

If you're looking for unusual 'girly' stuff, I'd try the Pyramid Collection (among their gifts, they do sell some vibes, but the shop is not entirely made up of sex toys :P)

[Dez]

Re: Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs (BPAL) - Perfume Oils

Heh...even if you know someone really well it can be tricky! L and I have very different taste in scents, and so I always drag him along when I'm going scent shopping, because our Venn diagram has a rather narrow overlap.

[Thjoth]

Re: Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs (BPAL) - Perfume Oils

Yep, that's far more complicated than I expected. Oh well You ladies of PF really need to stop shattering my preconceptions of this sort of thing being simple, I'm losing pieces of my blissful ignorance every day

My sister doesn't wear jewelry (or perfume, now that I think of it) which makes her hard to shop for (the repeating rifle being the best gift I've ever gotten her), and my mom...is my mom (*cough*SHE'SWEIRD*cough*), so she's hard to shop for as well. My dad doesn't even know what to do for either of them.

More on topic, my favorite scent that they had on that site was the Robotic Scarab under Steamworks because that totally looks like it would smell like an armory, and that happens to be my favorite smell on planet earth. That said, it seems rather dangerous to smear something like that on your skin.

[Dez]

Re: Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs (BPAL) - Perfume Oils

Thjoth, how old is your sister?

[Ophidia]

Re: Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs (BPAL) - Perfume Oils

I tried two more out

Port-au-Prince is currently the prize of the collection for me. It is rum, almond, bay, clove and sassafras. Definitely has a nice bay rum base to it, and I lurrrv bay rum. Only I feel weird buying plain ol' Bay Rum cologne because it is very masculine & all the Mexican guys at my job wear it. The sharpness of the clove and bittersweet almond balance one another perfectly, and the sassafras gives the whole thing a tangy playfulness. The other scents I think would be a little too cloying without the sassafras. My only complaint is that it faded way too quickly. I put it on around 8pm & by about 2am it was gone. Didn't even leave a shadow of scent on me. But I could see myself not minding reapplying it at all, because even fresh on it's not overwhelming.

The other one I tried last night - Serpent's Kiss. It's fairly simple - dragon's blood, vetiver & 'spices'. It faded very fast, within a couple of hours. I liked it, but I could just get some dragon's blood oil & some vetiver, maybe some nutmeg or clove, and get the same effects that would probably last longer.

More on topic, my favorite scent that they had on that site was the Robotic Scarab under Steamworks because that totally looks like it would smell like an armory, and that happens to be my favorite smell on planet earth. That said, it seems rather dangerous to smear something like that on your skin.

I haven't looked at too many of the Steampunk flavors yet. Too many oils, not enough money!

[Thjoth]

Re: Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs (BPAL) - Perfume Oils

Thjoth, how old is your sister?

This is going to be her 18th birthday.

I haven't looked at too many of the Steampunk flavors yet. Too many oils, not enough money!

Well if you decide to try one out, try that one. Then go hang around your local gun shop or swordsmith and see if they're similar

[thalassa]

Re: Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs (BPAL) - Perfume Oils

Thjoth....Gift Cert to a spa works for me, anytime...you might make some subtle inquiries.