BPAL + Neil Gaiman = Awesomeness.
So. Neil Gaiman has given the go-ahead to Beth of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab to formulate a line of perfume oils based upon his works. And for charity-- the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. This can only be made of pure win.
The first set of offerings draw from American Gods and Anansi Boys, with the promise of more to come. Full descriptions of the Neil scents here (plus the Crow Moon limiteds), and just the notes below.
Neil Gaiman's Carousel
Bilquis:: Honey, myrrh, lily of the valley, rose otto, fig leaf, almond, ambrette, red apple, and warm musk.
This could go either way. I worry about the lily of the valley and almond, as both can kill a scent for me. That said, the amber, honey, red apple and musk sound great.
Mad Sweeney:: Barrel-aged whiskey and oak.
Boozy, so probably not.
Mama-Ji:: Spices, cardamom, nutmeg, and flowers.
Mmmm. This seems like it would work much better on me than Kali did. I love spicy scents, with a little depth.
Mr. Ibis:: Papyrus, vanilla flower, Egyptian musk, African musk, aloe ferox, white sandalwood.
Sounds like a very pretty warm white scent. This may be a purchase.
Mr. Jacquel:: Golden amber, hyssop, North African patchouli, and embalming spices.
Also sounds like it may work, provided the embalming spices aren't to dusty.
Spider:: White ginger, artemesia, vetiver, nutmeg, King mandarin, bergamot, and lime.
This sounds like tarted-up Whitechapel, which I love. A smidge worried about the vetiver, but still.
Mr. Nancy:: Sugar cookies with bay rum, tobacco, and lime.
Rum + Tobacco equal sailor stank on me.
Crow Moon and The Year of the Pig
Crow Moon:: This is the final Full Moon of winter. The call of the crow signals the end of the frost, and their scent, of vervain, black violet, white musk, and Chinese cedar, is brushed by the last cold wind of winter on their wings, and the scent of evergreen boughs touched by the season’s final flowers and the first blossoms of spring: wintersweet, green-barked dogwood, primrose, snowdrop, and lenten rose hellebore bouquet.
Oooh, this has the potential to be dark and lovely. All of those florals are delicate and white, and I am terribly curous about black violet. That said... cedar overwhelms on me. Maybe a decant.
Oborot:: A scent of trasformation. Balkan fir sap, dark mosses, Greek Mountain tea flower, black pine, salty ocean spray, deep black earth, and a moon-touched magickal incense of sandarac, frankincense, and ravensara.
Sounds dark and thick. Sticky. Probably not me, but I'll want to sniff it, nonetheless.
Fire Pig:: A new year’s blessing! Peony, China’s national flower, with bamboo for flexibility, plum blossom for perseverance, courage, and hope, tangerine for wealth, orange for happiness, lychee for household peace, pine resin for constancy, golden kumquat, pussy willow, and quince for prosperity, narcissus and King mandarin for good fortune, and peach blossom for longevity, with a splash of blazing red of dragon’s blood… to help you scare away the rampaging Nian.
I have no idea how these notes are going to stack up. Honestly, most of them work on me, but this sounds like it might be fruit salad, and I'm none too keen on balls-out fruit.
As for BPAL of the day, I'm going through my imp box to test out old imps. I've got a lot of friends newly into it, so I can at least give away what doesn't work for me. So today is a double-tester.
Vaguely spicy dust. It smells like an antique store, like the remnant scent of annointing oils clinging to a faded tapestry. I get incense and sandalwood, plus the vaguest hints of myrrh and smoke over powdered cardamom and saffron and dried grasses. Very evocative but somehow subdued. Great for writers in creating a mood, I'd venture, but as a perfume, this isn't really my style.
A billowy, sweet red scent. It's hard to explain what dragon's blood smells like to most people. Outside of pagan/occult circles, it's not a widely-used resin these days. Metaphysically, dragon's blood means strength, proactive movement, Martial (as in the planet) energy. Add it to any working to increase efficacy. Scent-wise, think of spicy red amber, but with a sweetness and a muskiness, and maybe a teensiest bit of florals in the drydown. Very complex. Sometimes, it's mistaken for cherry, but I think that's due to the overwhelming redness of the scent, not due to any olfactory connection. And yet it's more than that, and I can't put it into words. You know dragon's blood when you smell it. This is a mix of dragon's blood and thick, creamy honey. It's almost too much-- my skin chemistry amps both cream notes and dragon's blood, which makes a little of this go a long, long way. It's almost cloying, but comforting in a strange way. A good balance of strength and sweetness, masculine and feminine. It's definitely not like anything else on the market, that's for sure. If you're looking for a unique signature scent, this would be one to try.
The first set of offerings draw from American Gods and Anansi Boys, with the promise of more to come. Full descriptions of the Neil scents here (plus the Crow Moon limiteds), and just the notes below.
Bilquis:: Honey, myrrh, lily of the valley, rose otto, fig leaf, almond, ambrette, red apple, and warm musk.
This could go either way. I worry about the lily of the valley and almond, as both can kill a scent for me. That said, the amber, honey, red apple and musk sound great.
Mad Sweeney:: Barrel-aged whiskey and oak.
Boozy, so probably not.
Mama-Ji:: Spices, cardamom, nutmeg, and flowers.
Mmmm. This seems like it would work much better on me than Kali did. I love spicy scents, with a little depth.
Mr. Ibis:: Papyrus, vanilla flower, Egyptian musk, African musk, aloe ferox, white sandalwood.
Sounds like a very pretty warm white scent. This may be a purchase.
Mr. Jacquel:: Golden amber, hyssop, North African patchouli, and embalming spices.
Also sounds like it may work, provided the embalming spices aren't to dusty.
Spider:: White ginger, artemesia, vetiver, nutmeg, King mandarin, bergamot, and lime.
This sounds like tarted-up Whitechapel, which I love. A smidge worried about the vetiver, but still.
Mr. Nancy:: Sugar cookies with bay rum, tobacco, and lime.
Rum + Tobacco equal sailor stank on me.
Crow Moon:: This is the final Full Moon of winter. The call of the crow signals the end of the frost, and their scent, of vervain, black violet, white musk, and Chinese cedar, is brushed by the last cold wind of winter on their wings, and the scent of evergreen boughs touched by the season’s final flowers and the first blossoms of spring: wintersweet, green-barked dogwood, primrose, snowdrop, and lenten rose hellebore bouquet.
Oooh, this has the potential to be dark and lovely. All of those florals are delicate and white, and I am terribly curous about black violet. That said... cedar overwhelms on me. Maybe a decant.
Oborot:: A scent of trasformation. Balkan fir sap, dark mosses, Greek Mountain tea flower, black pine, salty ocean spray, deep black earth, and a moon-touched magickal incense of sandarac, frankincense, and ravensara.
Sounds dark and thick. Sticky. Probably not me, but I'll want to sniff it, nonetheless.
Fire Pig:: A new year’s blessing! Peony, China’s national flower, with bamboo for flexibility, plum blossom for perseverance, courage, and hope, tangerine for wealth, orange for happiness, lychee for household peace, pine resin for constancy, golden kumquat, pussy willow, and quince for prosperity, narcissus and King mandarin for good fortune, and peach blossom for longevity, with a splash of blazing red of dragon’s blood… to help you scare away the rampaging Nian.
I have no idea how these notes are going to stack up. Honestly, most of them work on me, but this sounds like it might be fruit salad, and I'm none too keen on balls-out fruit.
As for BPAL of the day, I'm going through my imp box to test out old imps. I've got a lot of friends newly into it, so I can at least give away what doesn't work for me. So today is a double-tester.
Silk Road:: A panoply of cultural treasures, spanning the herbs, flowers, oils and balms of the Romans, the Byzantines, the Mediterranean, the Levant, Northern China, Eastern Europe, Iran, the Bulgar-Kypchak, Mesopotamia, the Crimean Peninsula, Anatolia, Antioch, and North Africa.
Vaguely spicy dust. It smells like an antique store, like the remnant scent of annointing oils clinging to a faded tapestry. I get incense and sandalwood, plus the vaguest hints of myrrh and smoke over powdered cardamom and saffron and dried grasses. Very evocative but somehow subdued. Great for writers in creating a mood, I'd venture, but as a perfume, this isn't really my style.
Dragon's Milk:: A truly fae nectar! Dragon's blood resin and honeyed vanilla.
A billowy, sweet red scent. It's hard to explain what dragon's blood smells like to most people. Outside of pagan/occult circles, it's not a widely-used resin these days. Metaphysically, dragon's blood means strength, proactive movement, Martial (as in the planet) energy. Add it to any working to increase efficacy. Scent-wise, think of spicy red amber, but with a sweetness and a muskiness, and maybe a teensiest bit of florals in the drydown. Very complex. Sometimes, it's mistaken for cherry, but I think that's due to the overwhelming redness of the scent, not due to any olfactory connection. And yet it's more than that, and I can't put it into words. You know dragon's blood when you smell it. This is a mix of dragon's blood and thick, creamy honey. It's almost too much-- my skin chemistry amps both cream notes and dragon's blood, which makes a little of this go a long, long way. It's almost cloying, but comforting in a strange way. A good balance of strength and sweetness, masculine and feminine. It's definitely not like anything else on the market, that's for sure. If you're looking for a unique signature scent, this would be one to try.