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VICTORIAN VIRGIN WITH CHERUBSBlack Phoenix is thrilled to present our first Salon bath oil. Inspired by Albert Beck Wenzell's painting. Ángelus Dómini nuntiávit Maríæ. Et concépit de Spíritu Sancto. Ecce ancílla Dómini. Fiat mihi secúndum verbum tuum. Et Verbum caro factum est. Et habitávit in nobis. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei génetrix. Ut digni efficiámur promissiónibus Christi. Gilded amber, white mint, white chocolate, Christmas rose, and honeysuckle. Shea oil, olive oil, apricot kernel oil, fractionated coconut oil, rosehip seed, evening primrose oil, vitamin E, isopropyl myristate, glycereth-7-cocoate (derived from coconut), oleth 3, and Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfume blends. Short version: minty amber/floral (not rose) with white chocolate, hints of evergreen from the hellebore and mint. Strong enough to wear on its own, but will also layer beautifully with other Yule scents. Read on for the long version. I took a bath with Victorian Virgin, and then rubbed it along my collarbones after the bath. I wanted the full-on double-rainbow all the way experience. I loved how the oil felt on my skin. My hair does get oily so I did shampoo and rinse off after the bath, and it did leave a slippery film on the tub, so be careful not to fall if you use it in the bath. On to the scent...... First of all, if you didn’t already know, Christmas rose isn’t really rose, it’s hellebore. This isn’t a rose scent at all. If you remember Christmas Rose, the Yule scent from 2 or 3 years ago, you might recognize it in this scent. It’s a sweet, greenish floral scent, and combined with the mint, it goes high up in my nose and reminds me a little bit of evergreen. But don’t let that scare you, I don’t think anyone is going to smell this and think, “Pine!!”. I never did pick out honeysuckle, so maybe it’s combining with the Christmas rose or just supporting the other notes. Overall, this is a minty amber scent, with a big shot of the aforementioned hellebore, and I can smell the white chocolate, too. I’m not a big fan of chocolate or cocoa in my perfume (with a couple exceptions), and the white chocolate here is different. The amber/floral combination makes me think of another Yule scent from the past, When The Winter Chrysanthemums Go. It also reminds me a bit of Cloister Graveyard, which makes sense. I think this bath oil can layer really wonderfully with a lot of different Yule scents. On its own, it lasts at least a couple hours, maybe 3 or 4, but it's not quite as strong as a perfume oil. It’s still pretty strong, though. This is a great interpretation, through scent, of the painting. I love the lab’s Salon scents and I hope we see more bath oils of this nature!

Koito and Sashichi Green tea, tobacco absolute, and agarwood I think this is the one for me, based on reviews......maybe buying a bottle before they go down. I realized today that except for F5, there is a serious lack of fresh green tea scents in my collection. I couldn't even find imps of Embalming Fluid or Shanghai. This must be remedied!

I recommend The Black Tower

COUNTESS DOLINGEN OF GRATZ (Dracula's Guest, the omitted introduction to Bram Stoker's Dracula) Now and again, through the black mass of drifting cloud, came a straggling ray of moonlight, which lit up the expanse, and showed me that I was at the edge of a dense mass of cypress and yew trees. As the snow had ceased to fall, I walked out from the shelter and began to investigate more closely. It appeared to me that, amongst so many old foundations as I had passed, there might be still standing a house in which, though in ruins, I could find some sort of shelter for a while. As I skirted the edge of the copse, I found that a low wall encircled it, and following this I presently found an opening. Here the cypresses formed an alley leading up to a square mass of some kind of building. Just as I caught sight of this, however, the drifting clouds obscured the moon, and I passed up the path in darkness. The wind must have grown colder, for I felt myself shiver as I walked; but there was hope of shelter, and I groped my way blindly on. I stopped, for there was a sudden stillness. The storm had passed; and, perhaps in sympathy with nature's silence, my heart seemed to cease to beat. But this was only momentarily; for suddenly the moonlight broke through the clouds, showing me that I was in a graveyard, and that the square object before me was a great massive tomb of marble, as white as the snow that lay on and all around it. With the moonlight there came a fierce sigh of the storm, which appeared to resume its course with a long, low howl, as of many dogs or wolves. I was awed and shocked, and felt the cold perceptibly grow upon me till it seemed to grip me by the heart. Then while the flood of moonlight still fell on the marble tomb, the storm gave further evidence of renewing, as though it was returning on its track. Impelled by some sort of fascination, I approached the sepulchre to see what it was, and why such a thing stood alone in such a place. I walked around it, and read, over the Doric door, in German: COUNTESS DOLINGEN OF GRATZ IN STYRIA SOUGHT AND FOUND DEATH 1801 On the top of the tomb, seemingly driven through the solid marble-for the structure was composed of a few vast blocks of stone-was a great iron spike or stake. On going to the back I saw, graven in great Russian letters: 'The dead travel fast.' There was something so weird and uncanny about the whole thing that it gave me a turn and made me feel quite faint. I began to wish, for the first time, that I had taken Johann's advice. Here a thought struck me, which came under almost mysterious circumstances and with a terrible shock. This was Walpurgis Night! Walpurgis Night, when, according to the belief of millions of people, the devil was abroad-when the graves were opened and the dead came forth and walked. When all evil things of earth and air and water held revel. This very place the driver had specially shunned. This was the depopulated village of centuries ago. This was where the suicide lay; and this was the place where I was alone-unmanned, shivering with cold in a shroud of snow with a wild storm gathering again upon me! It took all my philosophy, all the religion I had been taught, all my courage, not to collapse in a paroxysm of fright. And now a perfect tornado burst upon me. The ground shook as though thousands of horses thundered across it; and this time the storm bore on its icy wings, not snow, but great hailstones which drove with such violence that they might have come from the thongs of Balearic slingers-hailstones that beat down leaf and branch and made the shelter of the cypresses of no more avail than though their stems were standing-corn. At the first I had rushed to the nearest tree; but I was soon fain to leave it and seek the only spot that seemed to afford refuge, the deep Doric doorway of the marble tomb. There, crouching against the massive bronze door, I gained a certain amount of protection from the beating of the hailstones, for now they only drove against me as they ricocheted from the ground and the side of the marble. As I leaned against the door, it moved slightly and opened inwards. The shelter of even a tomb was welcome in that pitiless tempest, and I was about to enter it when there came a flash of forked-lightning that lit up the whole expanse of the heavens. In the instant, as I am a living man, I saw, as my eyes were turned into the darkness of the tomb, a beautiful woman, with rounded cheeks and red lips, seemingly sleeping on a bier. As the thunder broke overhead, I was grasped as by the hand of a giant and hurled out into the storm. The whole thing was so sudden that, before I could realise the shock, moral as well as physical, I found the hailstones beating me down. At the same time I had a strange, dominating feeling that I was not alone. I looked towards the tomb. Just then there came another blinding flash, which seemed to strike the iron stake that surmounted the tomb and to pour through to the earth, blasting and crumbling the marble, as in a burst of flame. The dead woman rose for a moment of agony, while she was lapped in the flame, and her bitter scream of pain was drowned in the thundercrash. The last thing I heard was this mingling of dreadful sound, as again I was seized in the giant-grasp and dragged away, while the hailstones beat on me, and the air around seemed reverberant with the howling of wolves. The last sight that I remembered was a vague, white, moving mass, as if all the graves around me had sent out the phantoms of their sheeted-dead, and that they were closing in on me through the white cloudiness of the driving hail. Hailstone-pounded cypress boughs, olibanum, and an ozone blast of lightning. First of all, as you can tell from the description, this does indeed have a big shot of ozone! I've never had a problem with ozone, but if you do, you probably already know this scent isn't for you. Okay.....with that out of the way, this scent will be very familiar if you like the Lab's aquatic and wintery scents, especially Archangel Winter*, but the olibanum does set this apart. I guess olibanum is frankincense, and it brings a little more richness to this scent. And then as the scent dries, the cypress starts to come out, just adding a slight woody element. It's very ozone and icy, fierce winds blowing hail through the tree-tops, and sweet in that slightly fruity way that the fresh-water aquatics can be. So.....no real surprises for me here, but definitely something I can wear, since I love this kind of scent. My only problem with aquatics is that they can be hard to tell apart, but that just makes it more fun to try them all! This one is somewhere between Archangel Winter and Eanach Duin, maybe with a touch of Death Of The Gravedigger. *Edit: After some comparison/testing, this definitely does not smell like Archangel Winter and I'm sorry if I misled anyone. Maybe it was the Snow Storm that I'm thinking of, I tend to get them confused. The Countess has a lot more wood than Archangel Winter (which has no wood at all that I can smell).

I think this is beautiful.....I think it's interesting how there are so many aquatic scents that are different, and I'm glad Beth doesn't get tired of making them! This is best when I first put it on and it hasn't dried yet, it's this elegant, arcane, mysterious incense-y aquatic. I get just a hint of something like hazelnut, too....only in the very first opening stage. Sounds weird and it is weird, but it is so good, I wish it stayed like this forever..... After a while it dries and ozone comes forward, a pretty strong ozone component that almost tips the balance but not quite. Watch out if you amp ozone because that could be a problem here (not a problem for me). I was wondering how this compares to Kingsport and I think it's clearly related, but also different. It is less sweet and I don't pick up on any citrus or anything fruity (like I get from Kingsport). It's colder and drier, definitely a night-time scent. I'm picturing a beautiful woman with jet black hair, pale skin, stepping out of an old black limo, in a dark green fur coat with a few snowflakes landing on the fur coat. I don't know where she got a dark green fur coat but that's what she's wearing. Lol!

I smell mostly vetiver but for a vetiver-heavy scent this isn't like Death Adder, or Great He-Goat. It's not that earthy rooty vetiver, this seems to be more of a grassy, smooth vetiver, which I feel like I've smelled before, but I can't think of where. I get hints of chocolate in the very beginning when it's still wet, and I think that comes from the vetiver, I've encountered that before. I wasn't sure I liked it in the first 10 minutes or so, but then it really smooths out when it warms up and starts to dry on the skin. The smooth, smooth vetiver connects with the hay and overall this is very dry, even with the bergamot. And even though the vetiver is strong, the other notes are blended very smoothly and in the end, nothing really stands out, they connect so well. I'm sorry, I'm trying to describe this but having trouble. When I wear this I think of a couple GC scents, Incantation and Scarecrow come to mind, but don't get me wrong, this is entirely its own thing. Very very nice for a man, but I think some of the girls will like this too. I'm holding off on a bottle because I want to see what else comes along in this category, but I could easily wear this quite often and I have found myself wanting to revisit it a few times lately.

Jolasveinar has been around a few times..... "Their scent is a mishmash of snow, dirt, Icelandic moss, marsh felwort, and the smushed petals of buttercups and moorland spotted orchids, with the barest hint of the scent of pilfered Christmas pastries" it's a great snowy, woodsy scent.....there's a hint of pastries but just a hint in my opinion, not enough to make this a cakey scent. It's one of my favorite Yule scents.

I am starting to plan a Pumpkin King costume. Not like Nightmare Before Christmas, but a jackolantern mask and some kind of thrift store suit and tie. Who knows what for the scent, I only have half a ML decant of Pumpkin King, so probably not that. Maybe Pumpkin Cheesecake, or something not so obvious. I have yet to try Theme In Yellow, but it could be perfect....

Bolding mine. I always find it interesting how each of us comes to our decision-making about which scents to buy. I tend to order scents that are similar to those I know I love, so my LE box is filled with pumpkin-based scents. I will never have enough variations on Snake Oil, or anything that is heavy on the red musk either. Others like to spread their love around and try a little of this, a little of that. I am determined to wait for my decant order to arrive before I order bottles, so I can be sure about a couple of them. But I know I want a bottle of Hellgate of Ireland so I didn't order a decant of it. I just scored a backup bottle of last year's Witch Dance in a swap. I think I read a comment from someone that this year's Weenies *round 1* is lacking red musk scents. I hope that round 2 brings us something with red musk. Third Charm, Mircalla, Lucy Kissed- I'm longing to find something in that vein(pun intended ) in the 2013 batch. That's kind of how I feel about woods and spices. Moonarcana gave me a big wood box for bpal bottles, and I keep all woodsy/spicy scents in it! As for Snake Oil and variations.....I bought the Snake Pit when it first came out.....and I love those, but I don't wear them a whole lot. I'm not sure why! But speaking of the Snake Pit, I wonder if Snakes In The Pumpkin Patch smells anything like Anaconda (the free gift imp that came with the Snake Pit)? But yes, you are right....I like to try different things, and I also go through phases. I was even in a rose phase for a while! : ) But that didn't last long, although I still like some rosey scents. I'm with you on red musk, though.....scents with red musk usually work pretty well for me. I'm giving Morocco a test tonight, and I've decided I can live without Moroccan Pumpkin Patch.....which I already suspected. There's one I can cross off the list!

I'm baffled by the Pumpkin Patch...... Out of all those, Sin is the one I would want (I have enough Snake Oil and variations of it)...... But I think I'd rather just have plain ol' Sin without the pumpkin, to be honest! At least I have some time to think about it......

I think Day Of Skulls is one of those that varies wildly from person to person. If you read the reviews, some people get strong rose from it, and some don't. The impressions are all over the place (which I think is kind of neat). I personally don't get strong rose from it. If I didn't know I might not even know it had rose. It has a vaguely floral element, but nothing specific that I recognize. I asked a friend for his opinion and he said it smells like Black Love insence. I like smelling like incense so I took it as a compliment. However he specifically said he couldn't smell rose, so I know it's not just my perception (on MY skin, that is). And he works at the Chanel counter, so he does know a little about fragrances. So for anyone who is afraid of the rose, or flowers in general, I would say you probably have to try this one on to really know. edit: I can't pick out tobacco or any kind of cocoa eiter

Great topic! I am insanely curious about Theme In Yellow, first and foremost. I am dying to know, what kind of interpretation is it? Literally jack-o-lantern, or more of a portrait in scent? Either way I think I would like to find out, even more than the GC/pumpkin hybrids. I'm also curious about September Midnight, although I'm wondering if it might be TOO perfumey, if you know what I mean. I like powdery scents to a point. And even though I am not a huge fan of pomegranate, I am still very curious about this one. For the record, the Male Nude, Arms Upstretched oil from a couple years back has a red chypre component, but I mostly smell the musk in that one. I do like it quite a bit. I love Day of Skulls, I am wearing it today to celebrate the new update. Our weather finally cooled off here and it's the perfect day for it. I only have a smaller partial bottle of it, and a backup is not out of the question. I love Samhain, and I have bottles from '04 and '06, as well as a few decants from other years. Every year I consider another bottle, to me it's one of the essential bpal scents, and a full bottle this year is definitely a possibility. I haven't quite gotten around to the Phobos subset, I may be interested in 1 or 2 of those. And finally, I am also curious about A World Where There Are Octobers, and Autumn Fancies. These are lower on the list because they sound a little similar to some other oils I have (October, for example). But still, they both have my attention and I'll be watching reviews.....

Samhain has the earthy part, to some people

I haven't tried it but did a little research, apparently it's an aquatic fragrance with some fruit and floral aspects. From Fragrantica: "The composition opens with cold, green notes of leaves and apple. There is a tender dewy mimose in the heart, which is blended with watery note of lotus and an interesting accord of linen sail of a yacht. The composition is laid on a woody base, combined of cedar, moss, musk and amber". Some of the reviews on Basenotes mention hints of apple and melon. Bpal has tons of aquatic scents, and many of them have sweet, fruity, and/or floral aspects. These come to mind: Caliban, "salty seas, bittersweet wine, palm and tropical ferns". This is the first one I thought of. Cthulhu, "A creeping, wet, slithering scent, dripping with seaweed, oceanic plants and dark, unfathomable waters". This has a tart fruity aspect, maybe citrus. The Deep Ones, "Black algae, drooping seaweed, salty brine, and crushed coral". More dry and salty if I remember correctly. R'lyeh is one of the sweeter aquatic scents in my opinion, despite the description: "A hellishly dark aquatic scent, evocative of fathomless oceanic deeps, the mysteries of madness buried under crushing black waters, and the brooding eternal evil that lies beneath the waves". I really don't think it's as dark as all that suggests! Egle, "Ocean water, hyacinth petals, star jasmine, and fir". I'm a guy and I wear this to work sometimes. There are also The Sea Foams Blood and The Sea Foams Milk, I prefer the milk one between the two. And a couple of limited edition scents that would be harder to find: Thunder Moon, "Ozone deepened by liquid amber, and a spray of hot nighttime rain mingled with the scent of lightning-struck wood, water-soaked summer blooms, and sun-scorched grass". And my all-time favorite aquatic, Kingsport: "Salty ocean breezes touched by a numinous, incandescent mist". I'd love to see this brought back! If there's such a thing as "incense aquatic", this is it. It lasts all day on me. I know there are lots more, here's a whole topic: Aquatics

I have Noh Mask and Maple Leaves on the way. I threw in imps of Dracul and Santo Domingo. I tried Dracul ages ago, and ended up giving it away. Now I'm not sure why, it sounds kind of great. I never tried Santo Domingo, and I don't see it mentioned a lot. One of those things I've been meaning to try for a long time, finally getting around to it. Anyway.....I love the sweeter scents too, but I especially love woods and spices. Plunder and Port-Au-Prince are both fantastic.

I just found a really old imp of The Caterpillar (maybe from my first order??), and it smells a LOT like L'Heure Bleue to me. Not too much of a stretch, they do share some notes, bergamot, carnation, neroli and iris. Maybe more, depending on what's in the 'heavy incense' notes of The Caterpillar. I think I have an imp of I Died For Beauty, somewhere, I'll have to compare (even though the discussion is 3 or 4 yrs old). : )

I for one am happy to hear that comparison! I love old classic men's (and women's) scents. I've read about Clubman but never tried it. I do love Great Sword of War, though. : ) Speaking of men's scents, every time I wear Love And Pain, it reminds me of A*Men/Angel Men (which I've only smelled once or twice, but it was pretty memorable).

Helloooooo comfort scent! I can see how this would be a better room scent than a perfume, but I still like it. There are occasions when I want something just like this. At first it's spicy and gourmand, but after a few minutes I start to pick up on the pine and holly. It's lovely. It's like bringing Jolasveinar indoors to warm up by the hearth. I'm actually thinking of tracking down more than my decant.

Carnaval Diabolique is a great lemon scent, and sooner or later it will hopefully be back.

Okay, I'm not sure which note is doing what at first. I put this on and for about 45 minutes, it was a stunning, sophisticated fruity incense deluxe fragrance. I thought uh-oh, another Salon perfume that I have to track down! I love patchouli but there is a certain patchouli that turns sour for me. Apparently that would be Indonesian patchouli because it takes over and kind of ruins Madonna for me, unfortunately. It reminds me of the heavy, sour patchouli that I didn't like in Smiling Spider. : ( I guess it's okay, since I can't afford to get all the Salon scents that I want anyway!

I gambled too. I got really lucky and found 3 lovely forum members with partial bottles of the ones I wanted. Sailor's Den and Lantern Ghost of Oiwa are the 2 I haven't tried before, but they sound really interesting. Love And Pain is the 3rd, which I've tried and know that I like a lot, although I've gone back and forth a few times on it.

I thought that Philosopher In Meditation was a must-have for me, but with repeated testings I finally accepted that I just don't like it. As burning wood/incense scents go, there are a few others I'd rather wear. Philosopher smells fruity and candy-like to me, not in a good way, just in a weird way. Fox-Fires On New Year's Eve was also a disappointment. I thought the notes sounded so beautiful, and when I tried it, it just fell sort of flat on my skin. See, at least there are some I can cross off the list with confidence. Anything to make the decision-making process a little easier!

Our tastes are so alike, as usual. : ) Great idea for a topic, ivyandpeony. I am a little overwhelmed and can hardly gather my thoughts on this, so I have a lot of decision-making to do. This will help a lot! Right now Love And Pain is near the top of my list of last-minute bottle purchases. I've gone back and forth in the past, but I am wearing it now and I do like it a lot. It reminds me of Angel or A*Men (but better). My top 5 wants right now, off the top of my head, would be: Love And Pain Carceri D'Invenzione (how do I not have a bottle already??) And There Was A Great Cry In Egypt (thanks for the Vol de Nuit comment, parrot_suspect! I never made that connection) The Great He-Goat (another one I'm surprised I don't already have) Cup Of Death, Sailor's Den, or Smiling Spider? Can't decide! I haven't even tried the first 2 of those. My favorites are: Cloister Graveyard Sunrise With Sea-Monsters Mad Meg Satan And Death Silence

A few more ideas..... Carceri D'invenzione...."Redwood, red sandalwood, black pepper, blonde tobacco and frankincense" Lear....."White cedarwood, blue sage and bay leaf" Ochosi...."His ofrenda is the soft shea he shares with Obatala, forest herbs, and sprucewood arrow shafts" Aureus...."True, perfect golden light, refined into an incomparably glorious scent".....this might depend on whether you like patchouli.....it seems to be a golden amber/patchouli blend with wood, possibly cedar Magus......"galangal, high john essence, frankincense, cedar, and sandalwood" ....I feel like there must be more that I'm not thinking of. The Pit and The Pendulum is good, although it's an older LE and might be harder to find. And too bad Sri Lanka was discontinued....

I love this! Something told me I might, but I didn't really expect to be wowed like this. I get the fruity bubble-gum top notes, but later this is sultry fruits and spices. This is special. Something about it reminds me of Djinn, which sounds crazy, but it's undeniable. There's nothing burnt about Plum Puddin', so maybe it's the spices? I also think of Joulumuori, which makes a little more sense. Anyway I really like this, glad I took a chance.