sarada

When I opened this, someone across the room from me said "That smells like blueberries."

 

I responded, "This is Gha'agsheblah, the Perimeter of Destruction."

 

"Oh, well it smells like blueberries."

 

Well, actually up close it smells like a nice floral to me -- these Qliphoth have a lot of really nice florals in them, really bright, light, slightly soapy. It becomes a lot more of a strong soapy floral as I wear it. Nonetheless it's pleasant and if it was a regular perfume blend I'd count it among the spring florals that I'd consider wearing.

This really does smell like a scent of heat and fire at first. Not cinnamon or clove though, not spicy -- more like a glowing yellow-gold-red bright flower. There's an inner warmth to it that bursts, pyrotechnics on the skin.

 

I'd say overall this is another that is roughly floral in category but with a gritty fruit scent underneath. I thought maybe fig but apricot could also be a possibility. It's one of the earthy fruits, something golden and glowing just beneath the surface. And through it all, a persistent blaze of light and warmth and heat-without-spice.

Thagirion struck me as a very bright, nice, cooling, refreshing white-yellow floral. As it dries down it becomes a strong, cleansing, soapy scent.

 

I'm not actually getting lemon from this but I am getting the impression of the color of pale yellow. I'd say it's mostly floral, a little soapy, but again it's a very strong, piercing, cleansing scent. Something you could really use to scrub away negativity. That's what I'd be inclined to use it for if I was to use it for something...but for the moment I am just enjoying the scent.

Mmmm, rampant lust.

 

I'd think that red musk could be in something like that but I don't smell it -- however this has a lovely color, as zillah37 pointed out.

 

It is like....wood shavings, I agree, but with a bit of spice and musk to it. The color makes me think of dragon's blood but I don't really smell any. A powerful, dominating blend. If you're expecting something like the catalogue blend Lust, it's not like that, but it's a very appealing and authoritative masculine blend. Again, not really a scent you'd wear to perfume yourself but it is a warm and sensual scent. The woodiness fades pretty quickly though and I am left with something that feels like the scent of a flickering red-orange flame, as the spice grows in power.

 

The spice never quite takes over, it just stays close enough to your skin so you can sniff it if you pull in close. It doesn't have nearly as much throw as the others in this series that I have tried so far.

Evil really does come in a beautiful guise sometimes -- this is an absolutely gorgeous, bright fresh floral. It's all of the things that I love in blends like Flower Moon and Phantom Queen -- refreshing, crisp, soft, a sparkling floral possibly over a faintly powdery wooden base. You know that smell when you go into a place where freshly-cut wood is stacked up? It's a sort of very pale, powdery fragrant sawdust scent underneath the flowers.

 

I'd consider a bottle of this for the spring/summer just for the fragrance but I'll have to see how it wears on me after a little while. Positively scintillating. It's a beautiful lie that you want to believe in.

Sweet and slightly woody -- a touch of something like lemon verbena at first.

 

The Qliphoth I've tried so far all seem to be slightly sweet and fruity in some stage. This is much lighter than I expected for something that rules over perverse sexual desire.

 

There's definitely a dusty/musty scent underneath. A pale, dusty golden wood.

 

Since I'm testing oils for fragrance right now I can't reflect on its other properties but I can imagine using this to try to control those uncontrolled desires and channeling them into something constructive.

This is the one of the Qliphoth that I was most drawn to, perhaps because of the association with Lilith. And wearing something associated with the Angel of Prostitution, well, that's a conversation-starter, isn't it?

 

She has a very appealing fragrance, at first in the bottle it makes me think of "classy perfume" (those are just the first words that come to mind), with a sort of fruity muskiness. It is like a lighter, perfumey version of the perfume Lilith at first.

 

On my skin, it becomes a bit like a light Smut without what I refer to as the "cheesy" note, i.e. not as musky or sweet. It's medium in strength and tone, and it's being drowned out on my wrist by the Blood Kiss I put behind my ears this morning.

 

Like the Sephiroth, the Qliphoth all together have a general sort of "occult store oil" feel for me, meaning that they definitely make me think more of fragrances used in rituals or for a purpose, rather than purely as perfume. However this one works wonderfully on my skin. It's a bit like a lighter Smut with a bit of a floral-fruitiness and just a pale musk instead of a deep one, as it warms on my skin.

 

It strengthens as it warms and I feel like it's beginning to wreath me with an enticing cloud of musky fruits and flowers. I don't feel particularly evil, but...well, I'm feeling kind of confident and powerful so hopefully I'm bringing out her more positive aspects somehow.

 

ETA: When it dries down the sense of a strong, musky floral perfume is even greater and the fruitiness is all but gone. It no longer bears any ressemblance to the other oils that I mentioned in the review, after it dries down.

Yew-Trees is another really natural smelling tree smell to me. It smells just like a particular evergreen section of a forest that I frequent. It doesn't have that "piney" smell though it's more like the actualy resin from evergreen trees...a dark green scent.

 

Strangely, I find that Death on a Pale Horse smells like a clear stream bubbling over rocks and dark soil. This mgiht be subjective but this is an extremely clear experience to me and it is almost dead-on as far as I'm concerned.

Ogun starts out with melon that is a lot stronger in this than I expected. It's rather like a darker, masculine Yemaya at first. I didn't think that these ingredients would work together, but it creates a novel scent...I agree that there isn't anything quite like it in the catalogue.

 

After the initial burst of melon, a smoky scent takes over, rather like burning wax or the scent of a candle that was just blown out. I was afraid of the mention of cigar tobacco since almost nothing makes me feel more sick. But while this isn't exactly the tobacco scent that I normally like, it is not the nauseating, eye-watering pungent cigar smoke that I feared.

 

The melon disappears completely, and I guess there is kind of a sharp quality slicing through this that could be the juniper and chili. Not hot on the skin, but it smells like ... heat.

 

It's mainly an extinguished candle smell to me, not terribly boozy and only slightly sweet. It makes me think of incense that has burned on coals and now that it has all burned up, the coal is just burning itself out. Smoky, slightly harsh but if I think of a dark temple or an altar in the woods, with offerings burning on the coals and candles smoking, it all makes perfect sense. I think I'd like this more as an incense or candle actually but it's an interesting experience and not unpleasant.

Write to them at answers@blackphoenixalchemylab.com and include your order number if you have the receipt from CCNow. It's probably a very common mistake. You can use CCNow if you're using a credit card, but if you're using Paypal you're not supposed to go through CCNow too...I'm not sure what the reason was for that, whether it was technical or an issue of them getting double-charged on fees.

I'm trying this for the copal, but I like resins in general, generally like tonka and I am fond of heliotrope. I have no idea what this is going to smell like.

 

In the imp: hmm, a dark floral perfume, but very mellow. It makes me think of the color of dark amber or a pale golden brown.

 

I was just sniffing candles at the mall and determined that iris is a floral note that I like, and there aren't any florals in here that bother me so far, even though I can't pick them out.

 

On my skin....oh, oh my. Copal is definitely coming out. I love copal. A very dry resin, this smells like it smells when it is burning. Like gold dust, in a way, but a deep and dark gold. There's a slight woodiness in the background. The florals are all arranging themselves neatly on top of this.

 

A collection of flowers in a dark, somber building. A memory of joy. The flowers are like pale, scattered shards of stained glass in a room that is vast, solemn, dark, formal, dry, dim. It is not "perfumey" to me, and the dry resiny base really works wonders with my skin. I will have to see if this changes considerably after it dries down. I don't know if I can really get a full idea of where this is going and what it can do with just one wearing.

 

This is great to experience, and even if I wouldn't find many occasions to wear it I think it is a beautiful piece of art. A great blend for contemplation.

Banana and coconut are not my favorite things in the world to smell. Banana is probably the only fruit that I don't like in general and I really dislike coconut as a smell.

 

But I love pomegranate, can dig pineapple sorta, and am OK with apples, so what happens here? Well I do smell banana but it's pretty faint, more like the banana candy scent that I get from lotus scents and I don't smell coconut at all. Pomegranate and a general thick, fresh fruit cocktail are my impression.

 

Since I like fruit scents that smell like real, natural fresh fruit (not baked goods) it's pretty appealing. Chili pepper doesn't really jump out at me either, but it's an energizing blend, overall. I'm glad I overcame my fear of banana and coconut to give it a try, it's really quite a nice thick dark fruity scent. There aren't many occasions that I'd wear it, but perhaps during a thunderstorm, when lightning is in the air, it would be just the thing to dab on as I watch the skies.

Oh WOW.

 

I really love honeydew -- I love that IC Honeydew drink they have at Panera, I love honeydew ice cream, and well of course the melon itself is one of my very favorite summer treats.

 

And this is the scent of honeydew, alright! That's really all I smell and that is quite enough to make me happy.

 

Actually at first I do get a very slight whiff of what I can only describe as "nail polish" which I think might be the grape. When I sniffed the lab's Grape single note it smelled just like nail polish to me, so there you go. I also smell this in Shango.

 

This is a strong, thick honeydew scent and I guess there could be cantaloupe in there as well but this is mostly a pale green, stick-sweet but utterly refreshing scent. Oh, and it's strong, it lasts, and it has decent throw for a fruit scent. It fades slowly to a light green honeyed fruity scent. So good.

 

I put this on when I was picking up a friend in the car, and he got in and said "What's that?? That's my absolute favorite!!" (after a year and a half of having me wave smelly wrists at him every week). So I should probably get him a bottle, since he is a big fruit scent fan. I think we will both need bottles, actually.

 

I don't wear a whole lot of fruit scents, except for plum/pomegranate, but this is definitely going to enter my summer scent rotation. BOTTLE ME NOW!!

Wow, I don't even remember seeing this in the catalogue! Hello, frimp!

Sniffing it, I have no idea what is in it, but there's a gritty, sweet orange fruit -- apricot? I'd swear there's something incensy in there too but sweetness dominates.

It reminds me of Drpraved, but lighter, possibly a little floral, golden/honeyed in tone.

After writing down those notes I looked up the ingredients and I see it all makes sense. I don't smell jasmine, but the sharp spicy ginger is definitely there, playing with the apricot to make it both sweeter/spicier and brightening it at the same time. The vanilla must be helping to sweeten the otherwise tart ingredients.

Like, say, Wanton, this is something that I like that will be destined to get forgotten in favor of the other ... 50 or 100 blends I reach for regularly. But I like it and I think there will definitely be times where I want this exact combination of sweet, spicy, soft, bright and fruity.

I would never have sought this one out because it has cherry in it, and cherry equals a huge almondy headache for me usually. I also rarely like anything with vanilla and honey together in it, because it becomes too cloyingly sweet and foody, which is not my thing.

 

But OH MY GOD, Blood Kiss. Thank god for frimps!

 

Just like the wild naked romp I had with Perversion last year when I tried it for the first time after expecting not to like it, I am completely blown away.

 

Thick, rich, sultry, intoxicating...a dark rich tobacco with a hint of clove. Wait, tobacco? Yep, that's how my nose interprets the dark, sweet, earthy vetiver and the musk, paired with a tiny hint of sweet luscious dark red cherry (the kind so dark red they look like little black hearts), a hint of clove and all luxuriating in a bath of smooth, softly sweet nectar.

 

I could drown in this. Sweet and dark without striking me as foody, and still pornographically lickable.

 

I hope it's not just a one-night stand with me and this scent, I can't imagine not ever loving it, every time I pop open the imp to take a sniff. That vetiver is the glossy, polished, dark wood that it becomes at its best, and now that I know what happens when clove and honey meet (see also: The Masque) I am hooked. I didn't even realize this had red wine in it! Another note that I just utterly adore. Anything that has red wine in it smells drinkable to me (note: I do not drink, in real life, and never have!).

 

I am really curious to see if this becomes the first time I go through an imp before I get my bottle. I NEED this. Now I have to try every single thing I missed in the catalogue, to see what else I am missing out on!

I've been trying to figure out how to review this for several days now!

 

This is indeed the most viscous, thick oil I have ever tried. When applying it, it feels like sticky resin, as though it's an oil that has been aging for quite some time (though this is fresh, of course).

 

It is a very familiar scent. A resiny smell that reminds me of a store I went to as a child with my mom that sold things like incense, yoga mats and beaded curtains. But it is such a subtle scent, on my skin....so faint I can barely smell it unless I put it right up to my nose, and then, ahhh....a nice, strong, resiny sticky dark dry cedar, maybe with a hint of true church frankincense.

 

It's a bit like a darker version of Magus. A green wood, a thick cedary resin smoke snaking through a wooden chapen, overshadowed by evergreens and beds of fallen auburn needles.

 

Gorgeous, and definitely a favorite though it is so faint on me that I will either have to slather it, locket it or find another way to disperse it. Perhaps a good one for an oil burner, since it seems very much like something that should be slowing filling a room with a dark but uplifting scent.

This was a generous frimp from a forumite! I really want to try all the Poe scents even though most of this series are floral, and florals don't agree with me (they give me headaches and my skin soaks them up almost instantly).

 

However during spring and summer, I have much greater success rates with florals and can wear almost anything, if only for a short time before my skin drinks it up! (c'mon scent locket!)

 

I didn't look at the notes in this before sniffing, and my first impressions are: jasmine, but very carefully balanced with other elements, so it doesn't overwhelm. A pretty jasmine, it reminds me of stepping outside at night when I was staying in California and I could smell all of the night-blooming flowers in the garden. This also has something very familiar, herbal and green mixed in with the bright, sparkling white florals. Jasmine has a....how do I say..."assy" quality to it, to me, but I seem to be able to tune it out in this blend.

 

Looking at the description it all makes sense. That herbal scent is rosemary, which can become an overwhelming, eucalyptus-like scent when it goes wrong, but in this case it balances out the strong white florals very nicely.

 

Again, I don't really care for many florals. I don't typically like night-blooming jasmine, and I openly dislike opium poppy -- it really ruins blends for me like nobody's business. BUT, this is a really gorgeous blend! None of the "always goes wrong" notes are going wrong! Maybe it's the warmth in the air and my current open mind about florals, or maybe it's the work of the gorgeous oakmoss, grounding it and giving it an earthy edge....or crypt musk, goodness, doesn't that sound exciting?

 

The warm air really does wonders with this stuff. Along with The Perfumed Garden this goes on the very very short list of things that I can wear with jasmine or night-blooming jasmine in it. Thanks to the herbal rosemary, green/earthy oakmoss and the subtle warming/softening qualities of musk, this is rather happy on my skin.

Morella was one of the first BPAL scents I ever tried, as a frimp, two years ago...at the time I hadn't developed my sniffing abilities so I didn't know what was in it (though I could have checked on the site, eh?). I remember thinking that it was violet...and I had satisfied myself that it must be mostly violet.

 

I still actually think that I smell violet but that must be a combination of the purpley-smelling iris and the soft, dusty orris. I definitely smell sage and I love the lab's sage. It is a lovely pale green aromatic herbal scent, really just like the scent of true sage, warming in the garden or drying in the sun. It is strong at first but quickly supplanted by that dusty/soapy violet scent.

 

I do not like civet but I do not smell it here. I don't positively hate civet, but I'm not fond of it, because it tends to just stick to everything once I open it up and positively dominates a blend when it is heavy in it. Nope, I don't smell it. But sage and this violet iris/orris scent would evaporate very quickly without something to anchor it down and I guess that drop of civet must be helping to keep the blend together and help it to disperse and soak into the skin. So yay!

 

Not really a sarada scent for general wear but I like it, and wouldn't mind putting it in, say, a shampoo or something...if I ever got around to doing things like that!

I expected something a bit more woody in this, but it's a golden, slightly lemony herbal with a soft, gentle sweetness about it and a creamy wooden base. Very light, buoyant and spring/summery. Light slanting through pale geen leaves, shedding a sweet golden light.

 

It's got a bit of a cleansing sharp tang to it.

 

As it dries, it becomes an indistinct, pleasant soft green scent. Faded slightly creamy fruit, a bit of a "cleaning fluid" sharpness and a grassy green base.

 

Much lighter than I expected and much cleaner. A pleasant scent, though not one that I'd wear.

This has a soft, powdery honey combined with a fresh green herbal scent that is a faint echo of Honey Moon -- very faint, but the gentle powdered honey/pollen scent does match nicely with the aromatic, crisp green herbs.

 

It is a lovely sunny scent and if your skin takes well to these sorts of scents this would be a very nice match.

 

As it dries I get a faint hint of powdery rose starting to warm like a blush around the edges.

 

This makes me think of a women with skin the color of pale honey, in a foamy, herb-infused bath with tropical plants and flowers blooming all around her.

 

After it has dried down for awhile it smells a lot like the drydown of Persephone on me. A sweet, powdery rose with luscious pomegranate. I don't know where the pomegranate came from but this smells like it does when it dries down. Yep, that's the drydown of Persephone on me, alright. Isn't that strange?

I had a feeling I'd like this, and I didn't know why. It was an appealing concept and it's very bright, vibrant and sunny in the imp. I couldn't say exactly what was in it...if it's floral then it's a very crisp, fresh one. It really comes to life on my skin and blossoms, extending dewy tendrils and bright lemon-colored light.

 

In a way it makes me think of a pale yellow version of Mantis. I also think of pale, crisp, broken stems. It doesn't exactly smell lemony but it makes me think of the color of pale, glowing lemon. Fainty fizzy citrus, as others have said...but with that strange pulpy stem scent.

 

The bamboo pulp that was in Holiday Moon is the closest cousin to this, but this is a little more mellow. If I thought I'd wear this on a regular basis I'd get a bottle...as it is I anticipate sniffing it a lot in the warm weather, so I might go through an imp fairly quickly and need more, just from constant sniffing!

My first impression upon sniffing was that I thought of my reaction when I tried The Cracked Bell. It has that perfumey quality to it, with something underneath...something sparkling just at the corners.

 

On my skin, it is very perfumey. It is rather like a classic perfume. I don't know which, since I've never dabbled in regular perfumes, but I think of the dresser where my grandmother collected her bottled perfumes when I smell it. Dry, bleached and floral, but very sophisticated...something you'd wear in a black dress to a formal event, that kind of thing.

 

When it dries, the incensy notes do come out, again rather like The Cracked Bell but not nearly strong as that. Still light, faint, dry and blown around by the wind. Just the memory of incense that's been burning.

 

Mostly a perfumey blend, but not a cloying floral. Nice for people who might be looking for something more classic or commercial in their BPAL arsenal. Not necessarily for me but I'm going to keep the imp around for the moment.

I knew from the name that I would love this....but oh, DO I love this.

 

I love earthy scents. I love incense. I love dark, deep natural scents. Most of my favorite scents have patchouli or vetiver in them or at least smell like a big box of incense of some sort.

 

Death Cap is just about perfect, but it is not your typical hippie dirt smell. I don't smell patchouli. If there is vetiver in this it is the sweetest one possible, very gentle, dark brown and sweet.

 

Unlike Destroying Angel, which was a very airy, crystallized dirt smell along the lines of Graveyard Dirt (though I compared it to the Rat King), this would be something like G. Dirt taken a few notches stronger, deeper, sweeter, browner.

 

And on my skin, WOW...this is an aromatic, smouldering mound of soft, sweet earthy incense. It is like soft blankets infused in years of sweet incense smoke. But again, nothing specifically leaps out at me in terms of champa or vetiver or anything. It reminds me of them but it is gentle and softly blended. A tiny bit spicy as well. I can see where the sweetness could be interpreted as something cookie-like.

 

Overall it's practically the perfect blend for me. This is going to duke it out in the Top Ten...I think it will have a permanent position there for me. Thank goodness I bought a 5 ml on instinct.

 

eta: This has got to have patchouli in it, right? Maybe I'm confusing it with the dirt smell. I can't imagine anything this earthy wouldn't have patchouli in it...anyway, this should be in my Top Five for all time...

 

Oh, and drydown 12+ hours later? This amazed rich dark amber, on my skin. Like I actually rubbed a big resiny chunk of it on myself. Amazing.

I have to agree that the color of this oil is amazing, that deep murky olive green. Unique!

 

The notes in this are almost a who's who of things that I like, except that I don't know what labdanum smells like on its own and I have had bad experiences with almost everything that contains saffron.

 

It smells as murky as it looks, but not in a good way for my taste. This smells like some sort of chemical cologne to me, not pleasant at all. It is very masculine but in a dark, aftershavey kind of way.

 

As I suspected, saffron is the key ingredient that messes up a blend for me and pairs with the woods that I would normally like to make them smell chemical, cologney and unpleasant.

 

I didn't want to test it but tried a drop and it didn't do very nice things. I don't smell patchouli, I don't smell woods...just a very murky, plasticky hairspray-like scent that is heated up by a heady musk.

 

The saffron does remind me of the sharp, bitter smell of saffron ice cream. But while I like to have that after Indian food for its cooling sweetness, I dislike the scent itself.

 

This was nothing like what I expected and I'm glad I was wary of the saffron. A good masculine scent perhaps, or for someone who doesn't have the weird reaction to saffron that I do (though I like the note in Scherezade, go figure).

This is the only one of the imps that I got today that I don't plan to test on my skin because the second I opened it I recognized the smell that makes me ill in Darkness and Languor. It smells like some sort of chemical to me -- something that would be used in doing something to hair or nails, though I don't know what. Just a very strong, bitter, chemical scent that disagrees with me to the very core.

 

I am glad to finally know the exact source of this smell and now I know to avoid opium and/or poppy, though it does work in a few blends here and there where I can't smell this chemical haze. I don't know if it would work on my skin because I just can't get close enough to it, to try it. I know that in the case of Darkness and Languor it didn't do anything good on my skin either.

 

Chalk this one up to a learning experience!