Silvertree

If, like me, you want your lilac perfume to give you that “yeeted face-first into a lilac bush” experience, then ask your perfumer if Vase de Lilas a la Fenetre is right for you. (It is.) On the bottle and fresh on my skin, this is a profusion of fresh, sun-warmed lilac blossoms spilling their gorgeous purple fragrance into the clean spring air. There's a slight greenish note reminiscent of fresh stems and leaves, but predominantly I get great billowing clouds of pure lilac goodness. I'm going to have to compare against my precious Blue Lilac SN, but this is practically a lilac SN. It's everything I wanted, and more!

A few months ago, while we were prepping the return of the OLLAs, I butchered a massive bottle of Eve. I was stressed out and distracted, and accidentally replaced the rose component with an in-house sage combo of ours that contains Clary sage and Dalmatian sage. Basically, a whole lotta sage and zero rose. Anyway, it smells amazing, so imma sell it. I even gave it a really classy and poetic name because I'm a classy and poetic guy. I may be about to commit BPAL heresy--actually, let's go with BPAL blasphemy, for the alliteration--but I may like Eve With Sage Fuck Up even more than OG Eve. Eve, it's not you, it's me--rose is a tough note for me to wear. So minus the rose, plus sage, Eve WSFU has suddenly become a very wearable scent for me. In the bottle, and wet on my skin, Eve WSFU is soft mossy greenery and a hint of honeyed incense. It's green and warm and glowing, just a tiny bit "perfumey". The sage is fresh and herbal, and doesn't have that bone-dry quality it sometimes gives off. It's a beautifully earthy yet sophisticated blend, and I wish all my fuck-ups were this good.

A balm for the soul, this is an oil that assists in healing the acute lacerations of sorrow and loss that both cut and calcify our hearts. Angelica essential oil and root, carrot seed oil, lavender essential oil and bud, Roman chamomile essential oil and chamomile harvested from the BPAL garden, vetiver root and oil, neroli essential oil, organic Italian bergamot essential oil, and white vegetal musk.

The duets are always beautifully blended, but never before have I smelled one quite so lovingly intertwined as this honeysuckle and bee balm duo. The honeysuckle is sweet and almost ephemerally light, and the deeper, greener bee balm grounds and anchors it. It’s earthy without being in-your-face dirt, herbal (but not medicinal or astringent) and overwhelmingly, breathtakingly, transcendentally growing and alive. It’s late spring or early summer in my mom’s garden, first thing in the morning before the sun rises too high over the trees and it’s all warm and green-golden. Gorgeous, and I need more bottles. If you like Planting Moon and other similar scents, smash that add to cart button while you can!

While this is not a scent I'd typically go for (I'm usually all about the resins) I'm so glad I did. It's gorgeous and truly wild, like a rose garden that is lovingly tended but also left to follow its own whims. This is a true, fresh, vividly blooming rose, dew-spangled, with a fresh, green scent twining joyfully around the floral notes.

No additional scent description.

Vibrant with the joy and sweetness of life in death! A blend of five sugars, lightly dusted with candied fruits. Water, saponified organic fair-trade palm kernal oil, coconut oil, soybean oil, organic fair-trade shea butter, castor bean oil, jojoba oil, Sugar Skull fragrance, and crushed vanilla bean. Now, I've received many a good-smelling package from Black Phoenix”” both the Lab and the Trading Post. The box my soap arrived in smelled better than anything I can describe. Sugar Skull is one of my favorite scents, a fragrance that never fails to put me in a good mood. Naturally, I couldn't wait to have it in soap form! The wrapper is what you'd expect and hope for from the soap gurus at Silk Road: beautiful and perfectly appropriate. Pink and red hearts adorn a black background, interspersed with cheerfully grinning skulls. When I carefully slit open one side of the packaging, the delicious smell wafting out intensified, and I decided to take the soap for a test wash. Sugar Skull soap is a lovely creamy brown, like pale coffee, with a milky white core. Little flecks of ground vanilla bean pepper the soap and provide the perfect scrubby texture to really clean your skin without rubbing you the wrong way. I lathered myself with extreme enthusiasm, and was rewarded with soft clouds of lather. The familiar, comforting aroma of rich brown sugar and just-ripe fruits filled the shower; there's no way this little bar could pass for unscented. The tiny silken bubbles washed clean, so that I felt neither oily nor too dried-out and squeaky-clean. The scent doesn't linger too much post-shower. There's just a whiff of sweetness, a gentle breath of fruity fragrance. Sugar Skull perfume would go quite well with this, of course, but I don't think another perfume would clash, either. Bathe and scent with abandon!

For this lunacy round, I voted for Scherezade + hair gloss, hands down, no second guessing. I may have even browbeaten several kind and understanding friends into voting, too. All that pestering and refreshing and hand-wringing has more than paid off, and I'm sad that Scherezade came and went while the forum was down--this gorgeous scent needs its own horde of rabid followers. The perfume has been one of my favorite fragrances since the earliest days of my BPAL obsession, and the gloss transforms it into a glorious new medium. If you're worried that red musk, saffron, and spices sounds heavy or too aggressive, fear not--the scent of the master storyteller is soft, sensual, and beguiling. I use two pumps, which infuses my shoulder-length curly hair with a lightly resinous cloud that hovers tantalizingly on the border between warm incense and sultry musk. This is warring with Sin for my favorite hair gloss, and as a writer, I use a little whenever I need some creative inspiration. My only complaint is that I didn't buy two bottles. Perhaps if we tell Puddin' stories for 1,001 nights, he might bring Scherezade back!

FYI, for BPAL website issues, your best bet is to email the customer service team: answers@blackphoenixalchemylab.com

These long-dead scents are back for a limited time in a slightly tweaked form! The Finnish Goddess of Agony, Torment and the joy found in inflicting pain on others. The Mistress of Torture, she has transformed in the modern era into the patron Goddess of Dominatrixes. The slap of slick, hot leather punctuates the warm, sensual embrace of black amber, red musk and dark, lascivious myrrh. The Bitch is back, and we're gonna be in trouble.... Out of all the Resurrected blends, I was most excited for Loviatar. And this most certainly does not disappoint. Loviatar 2.0 is very, very close to OG Loviatar, although of course it's tough to compare a fresh-from-the-mailbox blend with one that's been aging in a cool, dark box since...2005? But I'll try. Loviatar 2.0 gives off that same radiant warmth of amber, musk, and myrrh, wrapped up in the sexy, smoky embrace of leather. Loviatar is confident, sensual, even elegant. But that doesn't mean it's soft. This is elegance with an edge. It's the scent of that seductive, prowling strut you can achieve only when you feel completely comfortable in your own skin--and those thigh-high leather boots don't hurt, either. This is sexy with a hint of sweetness, powerful, and perfect. My only complaint is that it's no longer available in 10mL form!

Anyone reaching out with customer service requests this week, please note it may take us longer than usual to reply, as Lab staff are tending to a family emergency. If you'll keep directing requests to answers@blackphoenixalchemylab.com, we'll do our best to answer promptly. You will not receive a faster response via personal communication or social media messages; please consider that receiving these notifications at all hours can make it even tougher to set work aside during a difficult time. Many thanks from Team BPAL!

We're back, baby! The forum update is a success, but not without some issues. Which is to be expected! Please post in the appropriate topic to bring an issue to our attention, or use the report button. Thanks for your patience as we figure this out.

Hi, everyone! We have been working with a developer to fix the forum's more persistent issues, such as captcha-induced login difficulties. After a few rounds of extensive testing and troubleshooting, we are ready for an update. The forum will be offline starting at 9:00pm EST on Thursday, November 1. At this time we are not sure how long the update will take. Save any information you might need for swaps and sales in a secondary location, and cross your fingers for us! After the update, please report any issues you might come across. Once the captcha issue is resolved, we should be should be able to fix user names/merge accounts of those members who got locked out, so if you made another account please report your profile *after the forum is back online*. Thanks for your patience!

I would include them among the Weenies, since they went live as part of the Halloween update.

Apologies for the short notice! We are making some upgrades tonight and the forum will be down from (approximately) 9:30-10:30pm EST.

Clove, tobacco, sweet red patchouli, and chocolate. A Wild and Naughty Girl reminds me of a Vosges truffle: smooth, exotic, and luxurious. This is deep, dark chocolate with warm clove and earthy-sweet tobacco and patchouli. As the blend dries, the chocolate takes a back seat to the other notes. It's like lounging in front of the fireplace while a snowstorm rages outside your cozy cabin and your best friend makes hot chocolate (probably spiked) in a little cast iron cooking pot over the flames.

Golden amber and mahogany with frankincense, ho wood, and frothed white honey. The Gift is a warm, radiant scent. It glows softly but surely--a burnished golden fragrance that is strong but not overwhelming. I was worried that the honey might be too sweet or gooey, but the wood notes keep both the honey and amber from getting too sticky or powdery. It's the olfactory equivalent of sitting in front of a gently crackling fireplace on a chilly night (without any of the bonfire/burning scent associations, if that makes sense). Or maybe snuggling up under the covers with someone you love--waves of comforting, cozy body heat. Truly lovely.

Fresh out of the mailbox! I usually wait at least a day to test, but I couldn't resist smelling the Smooch. This is Dragon's Milk older sister. A little soft, honeyed sweetness; some rich, burnished patchouli. It's a very smooth scent, and falls into the category I think of as "glowing". I'm so glad I got a chance to try it!

There have been two lunacies--Crow Moon and Raven Moon--as well as: Fuck You, Said the Raven (American Gods) The Night-Raven (Marchen) And from the BPTP Snow Queen update: Caw-Caw hair gloss Court Crows hair gloss The Language of Crows perfume The Wolves Howled, The Ravens Screamed perfume

An oil of wisdom and guidance; a lantern in dark times. White sage and goldenseal, white sandalwood, hops, Atlas cedar, red benzoin, Somalian myrrh, lavender, cypress, champaca flower, and olive. Botanical fragments may be present in this oil. Athena and owls both are significant to me, and I wanted to contribute to Athena's Army; I am very glad to have been able to do so. On me, Owl's Wing is a soft, comforting, resin-forward blend. I get primarily the cedar, sandalwood, and myrrh, with maybe a touch of earthiness from the sage. The lavender and champaca flower lend some lightness and sweetness, but this is not an in-your-face lavender (or floral) fragrance. It's snuggly without being meek; soothing, but with a protective, sheltering quality--like a strong shield that's lined with the softest, downiest feathers.

This is one of the times when it is absolutely appropriate to contact the Lab, and is not bothering them. When in doubt, better safe than sorry.

Please be aware that we do not permit swap-related content on profiles or in blogs. Please post this content only in the For Sale, Swaps, and Wanted forums, or in the Wishlists topic. ~from Swapping 101 Thanks!

Most of the perfume oils should be gently rolled/swirled, not shaken (unlike the hair glosses, which benefit from a bit of energetic agitation). One or two blends are globbier (technical term), so you could use a clean straw or coffee stirrer to try to break up any bits that don't want to mix.