GETCHER MIND OUTTA THE GUTTER!
If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen me squee over a delightful quad of vials with a backdrop of a rather surreal, though enjoyable painting (buttslol).
Also, if you know me very well, you would know that I LOVE perfume. A lot. It makes me feel nice feelings of nicety and warm.
And, in addition, Halloween has just passed, though I do tend to revel in the celebration all year round.
Using powers of deduction, you might conclude that these vials are none other than Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs Halloweenies perfumes for the year 2017.
Good job, you critical thinker you.
Now this company is quite prolific, and they often launch a HUGE array of tempting potions each season. I was daunted with the task of narrowing down what to buy with my measly revenue flow.
After severe deliberation and bashing my head against my desk a few times, I have selected the following four elixirs for my olfactory scrutiny. There was also some cursing involved probably. Actually, not probably.
Here are my impressions of the chosen ones after having mulled them over for an extended period of time (heh. heh. autumn. mulled….idk it’s a stretch):
Samhain 2017:
Truly the scent of autumn itself — damp woods, fir needle, and black patchouli with the gentlest touches of warm pumpkin, clove, nutmeg, allspice, sweet red apple and mullein.
This one took me a few tries to decide whether or not I liked it. This one was STRONG right out of the bottle. On first application it smelled like a spicy cherry vanilla cola, which is really weird to me but not off putting. It also kinda makes me want to experiment with mulled cola…
It is a very autumn scent, the cloves and nutmeg is definitely at the forefront. After wear, it mellows out to a warm vanilla-y spice with a sharper note in the back, I’m guessing from the apple or the fir. It does remind me of the quintessential Halloween festivity that you do outdoors. Crisp, spicy, and a little fruity.
Overall I like it, and a little bit goes a looong way.
Groan of Mortal Terror:
Opaque grey amber and opoponax swelling up like thick smoke, pressed under the weight of baleful tobacco.
This one was nice, I was looking for a rounded smoke scent, and I love the smell of pipe tobacco (looking for recommendations too if you want to ping me on Twitter). It was a nice blend of incensy notes and had a slight sweetness at the back end. Definitive something I would want to wear while on a brooding stroll through a dark night.
It dried down more of the same, softening slightly and blending together much better than first whiff.
Dead Leaves, Violet, and Sugar Cubes:
I mean, the title kinda says what it is…
Ohhhhhh, sweet merciful gods. This one is my FAVORITE of the bunch. I love me some leaves. I love me some violet, and if you sweeten that violet with a hint of sugar or cream…..dayumn
I didn’t get too much of the dead leaves not here, however. Right out of the bottle it does smell like wet leaves with a hint of grassiness, but it went immediately to the back and accented the violet. I’d quantify this blend as a Violet +1
Still, love it so much!
Hemophobia:
Crimson splatter, pulsating with blackened vetiver.
This one gave me a hard time with distinguishing the notes. It was kind of cloyingly sweet, but not in a sugary sense, more like how a red wine is sweet-ish. It was the kind of fragrance that once you sniffed it you couldn’t get the smell OUT of your nose, and the more I experienced it, the more off-putting it became.
It mellowed down to something more earthy, but ultimately it didn’t do much for me and I ended up trading it off. I was kind of expecting something more metallic-y or visceral, but eh, I’m not mad, this was the one I was gambling on.
And for a bonus, A quick rundown of the imps they sent in with my order, because they have to feed the habit:
- Druid (RPG Series) – LOVE, though it fades quick. Soft fresh slightly woody.
- Aureus -PURE CEDAR ENEMA.
- High John the Conquerer – I was disappointed that my chemistry didn’t work here. In the bottle it smelled wonderfully fruity (I think grape was involved), but when I wore it, it turned soapy and floral.
- Somnus – Lavender and s- nope. Hate lavender so I didn’t get very far with this one.
- Scherezade – Musky, spicy and incensy. Nice.
- Beladonna – Something in here had a chemical tang of a dry erase marker. You know what I am talking about. Kind of astringent with pine-y wet needle notes and fresh herbs.
- Hunger – LOVE. Fruity, spicy and mellows with a little vanilla like note.
- Lyonesse – Soft floral, a little powdery, hints of sandalwood and vanilla. Meh to me, but I have other priorities.
AAAAND that’s what I got for ya. Hope you enjoyed this stinky review. If there are any other scents I need to try be sure to let me know on all the social medias.
A quick status report for those who are interested in my Novel Workings: The scrub over is proceeding…proceeding. That’s all I’m going to say. I have chopped off about 15 pages of content, and I am pretty much re-writing a whole chapter. It should get easier after this one, I have about four more chapters after this in the same voice. Then after that everything has a current voice, so editing that should be smooth sailing. I am hoping to be done with everything by next week (HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA)
Anyhow, that’s all from me, I will now crawl back into my gloriously scented hole.
-Until Next Time!
…there was probably a better way to say that.
