Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

[Jasujo]

I won't link to this site because some of the catagory images, although artsy, do show a bit more skin than is allowed at PPT. Feel free to PM me if you are interested, though. It's really not that hard to figure out.

BPAL is one of my addictions. They make some of the most wonderful perfume oils I have ever smelled. Every month there is a limited edition scent specially made for that full moon and is only offered for three days. Also, there is a *huge* general catalog. You can even search the catalog by ingredient. The forum is really helpful as well. There are reviews of every scent and anyone is free to post them up. The reviews are both positive and negative. You are free to post up what you really thought of the scent (as long as you aren't rude, of course lol). It's nice to read both to get a real idea of how the scents smell irl and how they could smell wrong if your personal chemistry plays with them. There are also threads on scent catagories like floral, foody, earthy, or spicy, and the people there are really helpful. There are also Will Calls, which are special get togethers of the members in their shops the day of the full moon. There is one on the east coast in Pennsylvania and one on the west coast in California. There members meet up and chat, try new scents, and post up reviews once they come back, if they want. Sometimes they are even themed and people dress up. I haven't been to one yet, but maybe sometime I can plan out a trip to the east coast one.

Also, when you make an order, you get around 2 sample scents for each bottle you purchase. You get samples as well if you just order the sample size (called imp's ears), but I'm not sure what the ratio is there. Sometimes there are other free things, too, like when I ordered from the limited edition Atomic Luau Lounge, I got a paper umbrella with my order. I made two orders from that series, so I ended up with a pink and a yellow umbrella. ^.^

I *love* foody scents. Some of them smell so delicious! The fresh flower scents are really pretty, too.

Some of my favorite scents so far:

Eat Me (General Catalog, Mad Tea Party)
Three white cakes, vanilla, and red and black currants.

Egg Nog (Limited Edition, Yuletide 2007)
Sweet brandy, dark rum, heavy cream, sugar, and a dash of nutmeg.

Fruitcake (Limited Edition only in sample sizes, Yuletide 2007)
Fruitcake.

Gingerbread Poppet (Limited Edition, Yuletide 2007)
Warm, cozy gingerbread spiced with nutmeg, clove and cinnamon.

Hanami (Limited Edition, 2008)
Sakura, ume blossoms, and wisteria.

Kitsune-Tsuki (General Catalog, Diabolis)
Asian plum, orchid, daffodil, jasmine and white musk.

Love’s Philosophy (Limited Edition, Love Poems)
Vanilla, saffron, and cream.

Lucy’s Kiss (General Catalog, Ars Amatoria)
Rose and a blend of Victorian spices.

Midway Resurrected (Limited Edition, 5th Anniversary)
Funnel cake, caramel apple, cotton candy, salt water taffy and sugar tart.

Miskatonic University (General Catalog, A Picnic in Arkham)
Irish coffee, dusty tomes and polished oakwood halls.

Miskatonic Valley Junior Baseball Association Spring Training 2008 (sold at BP Trading Post)
Peanut Brittle Caramel Popcorn.

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (Limited Edition, Love Poems)
Heather, clover, Irish moss, English ivy, tea rose, and carnation.

Screeching Parrot (Limited Edition, Atomic Luau Lounge: Tiki Bar)
Golden rum, apricot liquor, pineapple, pomegranate, ginger, brandy, grapefruit, and pink lime.

Upa Upa (Limited Edition, Atomic Luau Lounge: Tiki Bar)
Spiced rum, coconut, pineapple, and vanilla.

Tim's favorite:

Mr. Nancy (General Catalog, Neil Gaiman)
Sugar cookies with bay rum, tobacco, and lime.

Are there any other BPALers here? I recently made an order with some of the new Carnaval Diabolique Acts IV and V. They sound so delicious. I can't wait until they arrive!

[Helena]

Aww, I was looking on this site, and some of these cents seem like they'd be amazing... but I don't think they ship to the U.K, so... I'll just have to crawl eBay for an age.
If I could, I'd probably get Drink Me, Evening Star, Empyreal Mist and The House.

Edit: Found a few on eBay, but not many.

[Jasujo]

They do ship to the UK! A lot of the forum members are from international countries. I notice because they post their countries in the "shipping notification" and "I got my order" threads on the forums.

Do you sell internationally?
YES! Unfortunately, due to the limitations of our current credit card processing system we can only accept PayPal for any orders placed outside of the United States, Canada included.

As you know, on May 14, 2007, the USPS shot their international Priority shipping through the roof. At that time, we had to make adjustments to our shipping grid to reflect the spike in shipping cost. After a huge amount of experimentation, pestering postal workers, and talking to USPS reps, we have found a solution for small to medium orders.

The rescaled shipping is thus:

One 5ml = 1 item
Twelve imps = 1 item

If you purchase 12 items or less (in any combination of imps and 5mls), these are the shipping rates:

$11 to Canada
$13 to Western Europe & Australasia

If you live outside these areas, or are placing an order larger than 12 items, please email us for rates.

I have Drink Me. It's so good. I like Eat Me a bit more because it's a tad sweeter, but they're both good.

The Fall/Halloween/Sleepy Hollow scent update was just posted up last week. So many wonderful fragrances! I must admit my order was somewhat large. I can't wait until they arrive, though. These I am most interested in:

Huesos de Santo (Halloweenies 2008)
Orange-glazed cake, dotted with anise seed, and filled with custard, set beside a bouquet of celebratory funeral flowers.

Samhain 2008 (Halloweenies 2008)
damp woods, fir needle, and black patchouli with the gentlest touches of warm pumpkin, clove, nutmeg, allspice, sweet red apple and mullein.

Sticky Pillowcase (Halloweenies 2008)
Smushed candy corn, rock candy dust, marshmallow gunk, strawberry goo, spun blue sugar, globs of salt water taffy, and lint.

Sugar Skull 2008 (Halloweenies 2008)
A blend of five sugars, lightly dusted with candied fruits.

Fearful Pleasure (Sleepy Hollow)
Dried orange peels floating in simmering cider, roasted apples, smoldering firewood, chimney smoke, sassafras beer, warm hawthorn wood, and oakmoss.

Gunpowder (Sleepy Hollow)
Carrot peelings, hay, chaff, molasses, maple oats, red apples, stable wood, and musk.

Katrina van Tassel (Sleepy Hollow)
White rose and honeyed cream.



A couple scents in the Pumpkin Patch sound good, but I think I want to wait until reviews are posted before making a decision.

[Helena]

They do ship to the UK!

Oh, lol. I didn't check the FAQ. I'm so smart. XD

[Pardona]

Argh! If only I had some more money. Guess I'll have to find a job if I want some of those.
I've been looking through them (though not all of them yet, their collection is truly dazzling), and especially the Mad Tea Party collection stuck out.
I'm very curious about The Caterpillar, Croquet, The Mock Turtle's Lessons, The Red Queen, Tweedledee and White Rabbit.

Also, Jasujo, what is your username on the BPAL forum? I found a Jasujo there, I just wanted to verify it was you.

EDIT: It's now a few hours later than it was when I first posted this... yep, you got me hooked. I'm going to see to it that I get my order here come Christmas time.

[Jasujo]

Yep. I'm Jasujo there. I haven't posted much, but I read a lot. haha It's so interesting to read the review threads and find out what everyone else thinks things smell like. I am always amazed how some people can tell the different notes apart and know what's in something just by smelling it.

From the Mad Tea Party I've bought Drink Me, Eat Me, Mouse's Long and Sad Tale, and The Unicorn. I also have imps of The King of Hearts, March Hare, The Pool of Tears, and Two, Five, and Seven. Eat Me is one of my favorites. I think I might get a bottle of The King of Hearts in the future. It smells really good. I have so many on my "to get" list, though. haha

[Pardona]

Okay. I currently have a post running in Recommendations, because after browsing through the entire GC for my first batch of Imps, I needed someone with a little more experience to help me trim things down. I believe I had about 60 or 70 scents I wanted. 12 and a LE bottle for Christmas should do (for now).

[Jasujo]

XD I hear that. Before Christmas (maybe in October?), there's a huge Yule update of Limited Editions that go up. A lot like the big Halloween update that's up now. You've have plenty of more choices then.

Also, I have Fearful Pleasure and I really like it. It smells like apple cider. I keep looking at To Autumn, but haven't decided yet. The same with Wiley's Swamp.

Out of the scents you posted, I recommend Miskatonic University definitely. It's one of my favorites. It smells like irish creme coffee. Mag Mell is really nice, too.

If you want spicy, there is a scent that has popped up in the Yule update for several years called Gingerbread Poppet. I posted about it in the first post here. It smells just like gingerbread cookies. It's so fabulous. Maybe it'll be in the update this year.

Good scents for chocolate are:

Bliss (Bewitching Brews)
the serotonin-slathered scent of pure milk chocolate.

The Candy Butcher (Carnaval Diabolique)
Dark chocolate with a heavy cream undertone.

Bliss is more milk chocolatey, while The Candy Butcher is more dark, fudgey brownie.

I don't know if you like vanilla, but I finally got around to trying out Snake Oil and now I know why it's the most purchsed scent. It's so deliciously yummy.

[Pardona]

Thanks... I doubt whether I'll be able to wait 'till the Yule update to place my order, though, especially seeing how it will take them a while to arrive. One thing (among others) I'd really like some more advice on are the 'sea-bottom' smells. Cthulhu, The Deep Ones, etc. The level of brine and saltiness these seem to contain is something I'd definitely want to explore, and it also seems a nice alternative to some of the more common piratey smells like Jolly Roger and Mary Read. Do you have any experience with these?

[Jasujo]

I haven't really tried the aquatic scents yet. I've been meaning to, though. I'm more a foody, but I like to try a bit of this and that. I think it's excellent that you get free imps with your orders. I've found several scents I wouldn't have tried otherwise.

[Helena]

Woo. I just got some BPAL stuff, but they haven't come yet. I was lucky because I found some going real cheap on ebay because "Phoenix" was spelt wrong XD
I got: Satan and Death with Sin Intervening, Two Monsters, Azathoth, Inferno, and R'lyeh. I'm not sure how much I'll like them but I'm happy 'cause I really wanted Inferno and R'yeh.

[Pardona]

Jas, you being a foody, what's your personal experience with Gluttony? I'd like an opinion outside of the review thread (where it, admittedly, gets very good ratings)

[Jasujo]

Sorry for the late reply, I was in the middle of testing some Halloweenies and I wanted to get them out of the way first.

Gluttony (General Catalog, Sin & Salvation)
Dark chocolate, vanilla, buttercream, and hops with pralines, hazelnut, toffee and caramel.

I hadn't worn Gluttony in a while, so I put it on yesterday. It's not one of my "must haves", but it is very good. It reminds me of Eat Me, but more subtle and less berry sweet. It's a nice warm, caramely scent that smells a bit of butter cookies fresh out of the oven. It's sweet, but not overly so. It lasts a while, at least on me, too.

[Helena]

OMG OMG. Mine just came today.

Two Monsters (The Salon)
Oakmoss, vetiver, black musk, champaca flower, leather, patchouli, ginger, Japanese pittosporum, ambergris and white pepper.

I have no idea what half of that stuff is, but I don't even care. This one's really nice, kinda sweet, spicy, musky and in the bottle it has a weird toffee-ish untertone o_o On skin, it gets less spicer and sweeter as time goes.

Inferno (Bewitching Brews, Dark Elements)
The Dark Side of Fire: cinnamon, bitter almond, and neroli. Heavily spiced, torrid, and possibly conflagrant.

OMG This is my favourite. In the bottle it's all sickly sweet and almondy, and I was disappointed because I was hoping for a spicier smell. But when I put it on it changed like whoa, and it's really really hot cinnamon and light almond. ^^

Kostnice (Wanderlust, discontinued)
A celebration of the Bone Church of Prague. Frankincense, rosewood, lily, and geranium rose.

Haven't put this on my skin yet but in the bottle it's light, flowery and musky. Pretty. ^^

I've also got Satan and Death with Sin Intervening, Azaloth, and R'lyeh but I'll review 'em later as I have to go somewhere now.

[Jasujo]

Ooh, I'm not sure about Two Monsters because I'm not a leather fan, but Inferno sounds so good. I might have to check it out.