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Sweet baby Jebus that's a lot of cherry. It's not cough syrup at all but I wasn't expecting it to be so.... Cherry. It's a nice tart dark cherry, cozied up by the chamomile. I get a vague baked goodiness that implies muffin or some such, without being overly bready. It makes me think of cherry scones and herbal teas. This was a total shot in the dark for me and it's nice but definitely outside of my wheelhouse. I lived and I learned.
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Imma be real, this does kind of smell like crickets at first. That scorched black sesame is no joke. This is dry and cronchy. The chocolate is real dark, in that bitter way you get with like 90%+. A bit of a camphor vibe from the patch leaf, I'm guessing. I was not feeling it at first but the longer this sat on me the more I kept sniffing it. Weird and true to concept, so A+ for execution!
- Today
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I have an ancient bottle of this, and it has aged gloriously. Getting dry sharp florals, woods, and leaves.
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This opens with an almost fizzy aldehydic lily that makes me think of vintage 20s vamp scents. The DB is indeed a glorious incense rendition of itself and combined with the SO keep that lily grounded in a really incredible way. The vintage vamp vibes intensify. This feels glam. I am not glam, but I really enjoy this haha. The dragonsblood here is really really nice. Once the lily settles down it's more a veil of lily over the DB + SO and it's vampy in a different, more recent era way. Morticia Adams vibes. (Or maybe Lily Munster would be more apt.)
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In the vial it was very chocolate, but as soon as I applied it, voila, berries! It reminds me of Snakes in the Berry Sonker but with creamy chocolate. Berry Sonker is one of my favourite SOs so this one an instant yes. Once it's settled on skin for an hour or two it really does smell like ruby chocolate and snake oil. Yummy but extremely wearable.
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In the vial this smelled like a dry wooden scent, which I love, but on skin it unfolds into a whole other thing. This is spicy and expensive smelling. A creamy woody-amber with rounded spice notes and a floral aura. It's.... Familiar? In a 'something I used to smell a lot but haven't in a long time' way. Maybe a guy I used to know wore a similar cologne? Was it Pi? Who knows. The dry woody aspect slowly creeps back into frame, and I'm here for it. The hint of lilac is just perfect here. Man, this is really nice.
- Yesterday
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This starts off with the crushed dandelion stems and honey before deciding it is mostly going to be a floral scent -- and I don't know what pansies smell like, but I think that's the floral note I get the most of here. There's a hint of fruit in the background, but I would not describe this as a fruity floral, at least, not on my skin, as I get more honey with the pansies than strawberries. I tried this twice and never smelled the vanilla, but maybe that would become more noticeable with age. I think that this smells pretty, but there are other currently available floral-heavy scents that call to me more, so I don't need more than my decant.
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Girl and Butterflies is mostly a black oud and lavender scent on my skin, with touches of the lilac and poppy, a airy quality that must have been from the ambergris, and a bit of brightness that must have been from the white tea. I tried this twice and never ended up detecting the sweet pea on my skin. The oud is not funky whatsoever -- it just smells deeply resinous. Paired with the lavender, it smells a little perfume-y, but it's not high-pitched. As the day goes on, the black oud increases and strength, and the lavender calms down, yet never leaves its side. I think this smells nice, but since this scent didn't make me swoon and there are other lavender scents available right now that I want back-up bottles of, I do not need more of this.
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This starts off as a really lovely sugary, nutty scent, but the sugar party disappears as the benzoin asserts itself and declares dominion over all, accompanied by a little earthiness. I really enjoyed the wet phase of this scent, but I was sad once the resinous benzoin note took over.
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Forsaken Elephant Puppet
doomsday_disco replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Gifts with Donation or Purchase
I was fortunate to receive a tester of this from my decanter. Forsaken Elephant Puppet is predominantly a cuddly cotton scent on me, with sprinkles of kettle corn strewn about, on a base of white amber. I didn't really get the honey from this on my skin, but that's okay with me. This was fun to get to try, but I'm glad I didn't fall hard for it since I didn't love the 13 with which this was paired. 😅 -
This 13 is mostly champaca incense and woods on me. It is dry, and the chocolate doesn't really make this a gourmand-leaning book scent to my nose, as it is strongest in the beginning and then quickly beaten back by the incense note, which is in full force on my skin. These notes are backed by the leather, which is fortunately not a sharp or chemical-y variety. I prefer Jólabókaflóð for a chocolate-y book scent, so I'll be passing on my decant of this one.
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Milk Moon: Spiced Rum & Dark Chocolate
Frills replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
I hoped it would be like a rumball, the kind I get at Christmas time. But it's actually a really sexy cologne and when I layer it with Milk Moon it's complex and really lovely. So glad I got them together. -
Of the currently available blends featuring wild strawberry as a note, this one is the most complex. The wild strawberry and incense notes are the main players on me, and these notes really come through in the throw (and the this scent has great throw). I get touches of the honey, florals, and moss, but only when I sniff up close, and with the moss, I could only smell it after sniffing close after the scent had been on all day. Layered with Strawberry Moon: Wild Strawberries and Inky Musk: this ups the wild strawberry and the musk, of course! Layered with Strawberry Moon: Kyphi and Sweet Cream: this ups the incense and also adds a smattering of buttery cream on top of it all. Layered with Strawberry Moon: Zante Currants and Lime: this adds a nice brightness and tartness to the scent. This is different than the other strawberry moons and I'm currently debating whether or not I need more of it before it goes away. In any case, I'll definitely be keeping my decant to pair with my Strawberry Moon: Wild Strawberries and Amber Hair Gloss.
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When I first tested Apricot Vulva, I didn't like it. It wasn't that it smelled "bad," but the combination of apricot and bergamot brought to mind my mother's bath products from the 90s. Taking it on a full day spin today, I experienced something different, and I am smitten. At first, the apricot and bergamot do behave as they did in that initial test, obliterating each other's individuality to produce a bright generic fruit accord, but this phase is very short. Soon the apricot becomes recognizable, made somehow brighter and darker by the bergamot. As the cream musk and vanilla come in, the bergamot effect swings decidedly toward dark. The bergamot feels daringly, bracingly, wonderfully, arrestingly bitter in contrast with the sweet and juicy apricot and this bitterness elevates the scent away from teen girl territory. This isn't an extremely shadowy scent, but does bring the apricot from a bright juicy fantasy to something more nuanced, bringing out the tawny undertones one sometimes sees in unsulfured dried apricots and which are certainly on display in the label art. As much as the lab's shungas deal in classic springtime accords, I find them to be the most "serious" of the recurring BPAL seasonal collections, and Apricot Vulva works this magic on one of the most youthful and frivolous of fragrant fruits (cf the lab's use of apricot in Katharina). I thought surely that this would not be in FB contention, but this may be the surprise winner of my Luper decants.
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Yes! That would be the original. Nice one 😊
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I just acquired a full bottle of Spanked that's in a cobalt bottle, and I am wondering the same thing. It says "Naughty" on the label as well, so I am assuming it's the original release?
- Last week
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Couple Making Love Behind a Folding Screen
gentle-twig replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Lupercalia
This blend checked a number of shunga boxes for me: polished woods, honey, tea, and silk notes. I was curious about mint, and plum can often work on me. But I was concerned that it may go haywire. Bluberry blossom? And would the plum combined with lemon and mint go too fresh, too shampoo? Reader, fear not. My worries were unfounded, and this indeed provides a wonderful shunga experience that is also different from other scents I have tried. On me this is mostly about the blueberry (blossom silk), plum, ebony, and mint for the first several hours. The blueberry is the first note I experience, and it doesn’t smell particularly floral or silky. In fact, it has an almost gourmand, cooked blueberry nuance, an almost spicy character that some berries and other fruits have that really helps balance the sharpness of the plum rind. Together, they produce a lovely dark fantasy fruit that is suspended between the dry ebony wood and a hovering, subtle, but glorious mint. Indeed, the mint helps this whole scent almost to glow—maybe the silk is helping out here too. I don’t get the classic aldehyde silk, but there is a certain steamy impression I associate with the first lab silk scent I ever tried, Impressions of the Floating World. There is a suggestion almost of a landscape in the contrast between bright chilly mint and dark fruits and woods, a decidedly moonlit landscape, dark and cool-toned, filled with snowy peaks and valleys deep in shadow But the scent is more complex even than this, and for me suggests almost the perceptual alternation of an illusory nocturnal landscape (atmospheric, airy herbs and fruits), and the insistent material fact that this is (in my imagination) a landscape painted or carved on an ebony folding screen. About four hours in, the honeyed tea comes to the fore. For some time before, I perceive it as a vague chocolatey quality that I think is part of the otherwise bone dry ebony. But as it comes into its own I recognize it as the honeyed tea, as if I zoom out from the landscape scene to find myself cozily contemplating it in its frame with a cup of (black) tea steaming before me. The tea plays so nicely with everything else going on here, especially the ebony. And so even as its arrival signals a drastic shift for me—from exterior to interior, from night today, from cool to warm, and from nature to artifice—I find it quite welcome, and oddly consistent with what has come before. Despite the ephemeral quality of some of the notes here, the tea, honey, and ebony do not blot out mint, fruit, or silk. Somehow all these notes stick around all day for me and the scent just seems to build up in layers. I’m really glad I got to experience this blend, and I will probably get a full bottle. We’ll see, though, because my shunga decants are all so tempting! -
EDITING this post to share a link to all the Pride, Blue Moon, and Single Note action you can possibly handle: https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/collections/blue-moon? Hi everyone, we'll be launching the Pride 2026 collection pretty soon and I thought you might be interested in a preview of its contents. Will update with a link once these are live! WE ARE ONLY OURSELVES TOGETHER For this year’s collection we’re reveling in the beautiful and captivating results that may be concocted from unlikely pairings. Please enjoy the following two-note scents: ✤ BANANA & VETIVER ✤ BLOOD ORANGE & OUD ✤ BOURBON TOBACCO & CONDENSED MILK ✤ CANDIED VIOLETS & BLACK PEPPER ✤ CLOVE & CUCUMBER ✤ CREAMED CORN & DARK CHOCOLATE ✤ MUSHROOM & JASMINE ✤ PEACH PULP & LAPSANG SOUCHONG ✤ PENCIL SHAVINGS & BERGAMOT ✤ RED BEAN PASTE & WISTERIA Funds raised by the following 5ml perfume oils will be split evenly between SAGE, Athlete Ally, and the Trans Youth Equality Foundation. Everything above the cost of production will be donated.
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Flower Moon: Ylang Ylang and White Sugar Lotion
doomsday_disco replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Lotion
This is GLORIOUS. I'm a big fan of sugary floral scents, so I figured that it would be, but I love it even more than I thought I would since the emphasis here is on the white sugar note. It's not listed as one of the sugars in 13 March 2020, but I think it may be one of the sugars found in that scent? Anyway, the sugar note is properly sugary and it smells divine. I'd say this is probably 95% white sugar and 5% ylang ylang on me, especially in the throw, and this is one of the lotions where the throw is decent and the scent even lasts between hand washes. The ylang ylang in it is a little more noticeable after it has been on the skin for a few hours, but it is not nearly as strong as the sugar and it isn't heady. I need a bottle in my life! -
Flower Moon: Calla Lily and Purple Musk
doomsday_disco replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
I'm not really sure what purple musk contains, but I think there must be some kind of resin in it, as there's an incense-y note to this that I wasn't expecting from this duet. I get lily and incense-y musk from this, and since incense-y florals are not really in my wheelhouse, I don't feel the need to grab more of this one. I'm curious to read other reviews, though, to see what others are experiencing with this purple musk note. -
I didn't order a decant of this scent, but my decanter kindly gifted me a tester of this to try that had enough in it for two tests. Flower Moon is very much a floral scent, with the flowers not being too high-pitched or heady, but I think I may be having a similar experience to leptonpyr, as I also get plenty of incense with the floral notes. It might be the amber in the blend, although it definitely made me think more of incense than amber. I had decided not to grab a decant of this one because of the earth note -- not because I dislike dirt notes, but because I didn't really myself appreciating it with these notes. Fortunately, there isn't any super earthy or moist dirt note in this scent -- but I can imagine some sun-baked, dry earth beneath the floral notes and their nectar if I sniff the scent up close. I like this moon more than I thought I would and think it is pretty, especially during the late drydown once the incense has calmed down, but since it didn't make me swoon like its lotion did, I'm not sure I need a bottle of this one. (I will probably huff my now empty tester a few more times before the scent goes away just to be sure, though. 😅)
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The lilac cream is the first to element hit my nose, followed by the “polished” aspect of the polished amber. It seems that lemon is a subtle through line in this year’s shungas, and I think that citrus is a subtle part of the sheen on this scent. I love BPAL lilac but find it difficult to wear, too blowsily feminine for my construction worker ass. Here it is wonderfully subdued by the soft cream and (probable) lemon, and soon by the spiced honey. Honey and beeswax haters of all but the most extreme stripe need not fear—I don’t get beeswax at all from this, and from the spiced honey I mostly get the spices, and even these are subtle. But they are there, and their effect is to turn Inyo Gozassu Nozu into almost a fougère. The oakmoss is absent, but there is a hypnotically paradoxical calm yet thrumming quality to this blend that emerges from the contrast between the lilac cream and that almost astringently spiced honey. I don’t know tolu balsam well enough to recognize it, but I may love it! There is a bittersweet balsamic quality indeed supporting this quasi-fougère that works with the cream to smooth everything out and fill in every gap between any potentially sharp notes. I never do get teak or beeswax specifically. In my BPAL pantheon, this is like the unexpected child of Lesbian Maidservants Cavorting With a Tortoiseshell Dildo and Dumb Cake. The fougère quality of the latter meets the airy and spiced amber of the former, and the mosses in both must be recessive because this is all smooth balsam, cream, lilac, and subtle spice with no moss to rough things up even to the level of velvet. This is such a wonderful blend and definitely FB worthy. I wonder for myself it it is too similar to Dumb Cake to justify a purchase. It also reminds me strongly of Hiram Green Arcadia, a spiced fougère fragrance I was already considering purchasing for late summer/fall (my fougère season). I will be death matching this against those fragrances, but mostly I will advise this is just a pure shunga delight. If you like shungas and like the notes here this is a no brainer. It is just lovely, dreamy, yet alive and buzzing with interest.
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Ugh, I should've bought at least 3 bottles of this. An absolute stunner - the best BPAL lavender scent since To A Wreath of Snow, imho. It's much more than a simple lavender scent - I do get some pale florals that support the lavender, in perfect balance with the gentle mossy-aquatic note, and sophisticated musk. Ethereal, soft, and gentle. Layered with Donkey's Tail, it becomes more grounded and structured somehow. The added fabric notes work really well. Verdict: the new lavender masterpiece of Yules 2025. I really need to get more bottles before it's discontinued.
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Nag Champa & Dragon’s Blood Resin
Amoraexcena replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
Exactly what's described - a rich, sweet incense scent that's reminiscent of Dragon's Heart. On me, it's about 80% DBR and 20% Nag Champa. If you're missing the Ars Draconis line, this might help scratch that itch (it does for me!) -
Myrrh and I are not always friends. I want to state that right off the top in the interest of total transparency. I envy those that can wear her with total abandon and glide through the air smelling of holy places and deep mythologies. On me myrrh usually smells like wet cardboard That said, the rest of the notes in this blend were compelling enough that I threw caution to the wind because sometimes ya gotta. In the bottle and upon initial application I get a powdery myrrh and a sharp stab of the bergamot bringing up the rear. Odd bedfellows to be sure, but there was also a third component I couldn't quite grab in the deep background and I was hoping to find out more, later. That incense note shows up upon drydown and "velvety" is a really accurate description for it. It's soft and plush- I get the above observation of it being almost as if nag champa incense was "really, really classy". It goes even a step beyond that for me because although I adore nag champa incense, I'm not a fan of it in my perfumes. This scent is definitely "incensey" but doesn't cross over into anything hippy-ish or head shop-y. It's rich and darkly intriguing and yes, myrrh and I are getting along like gangbusters, thankyouverymuch
