#indie perfume
No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were:
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
–John Donne
We at BPAL are enormously concerned about the oncoming wave of pandemic-induced evictions as countless Americans grapple with diminishing prospects and no meaningful economic relief in sight.
Among the resources that will be hardest hit are your local food banks. This is a great time to find out what donations they’re accepting and begin bolstering their supplies! In many instances, cash donations make the greatest impact. Or you can just help spread the word about their needs — sometimes that’s all the help we can muster.
We created this NO MAN IS AN ISLAND perfume blend this spring as a fundraiser for our Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, but you can also donate directly via their website: https://www.lafoodbank.org/
“Warm, dark patchouli, hazelnut cream, coffee bean, cassis, tonka bean, purple sage, and bourbon vanilla.”
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Never fear, the Lab is still very much operational, and capable of fulfilling orders!
Note, however, that we have no control over what happens with those orders once they’re in the hands of the post. So shipping MAY end up being way slower than usual? We can’t really be sure yet. We’re all learning together!
But here’s your reminder that if you already have an order pending, you can combine it with a new order to save on shipping! Just email us the info and let us know: [email protected]
Now without further ado, here’sa brand new mini-collection of perfumes which we’d intended to herald the arrival of spring… and which has taken on an altogether new significance, given the current state of things. Art can be slippery like that!
Note that one of these blends is an emergency fundraiser for the Los Angeles Food Bank, because we know these resources are among the hardest hit right now.
Here in Los Angeles people are still carefully slipping out of their stuffy homes to go taste the spring air, visiting places that are usually quite isolated… and then finding that others had the same idea. Don’t worry, there’s enough springtime for everyone!
We should know, we bottled it.
https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/limited-edition/dum-spiro-spero-spring-2020/
In less than 45 minutes, we’ll be flinging open our doors to weary travelers and olfactory thrill-seekers and would-be Valentines alike! For those of you who can’t visit in person, here’s a recap of the Lunacy-specific perfumes and more that just arrived on the site.
++ A LITTLE LUNACY
Many years ago, Ted and I woke up to the sound of footsteps. It was incredibly disconcerting: the tread was heavy and even, and it sounded just like a full-grown man was walking on our roof. Ted grabbed our officially-licensed Shawn of the Dead cricket bat and I grabbed a flashlight, and we tried to figure out if someone was breaking into our house. We couldn’t find anything, so we went to check the attic. I’ll tell you… opening up your pitch black attic in the middle of a pitch black night armed with only a cricket bat and a Maglite is some serious horror movie shit. Few things test your mettle like realizing you’re absolutely /not/ the Final Girl in a slasher film because you’re creeping in an attic at midnight while investigating strange sounds. Anyway, the thuds and thumps kept happening, and eventually we figured out that raccoons were humping on our roof.
Every year since, raccoons have consistently found the atmosphere on our roof conducive to romance.
Now, I’ve been trying and trying to write something profound and poetic to describe this scent, but this really is a perfume about raccoons schtupping. For the bulk of the US, February is the harbinger of Raccoon Sexytime, and for the next month my whole family will get woken up by the thumps and squeals of frantically lusty raccoons using our roof as a No Tell Motel.
Bring out the amorous trash panda in you: a winter’s backdrop of slush, snow-covered evergreens, juniper, and winter gardenia with sweet brown musk, rooty patchouli, spicy birch, hay absolute, osmanthus, and a pile of uprooted pansies.
The accompanying Lunacy Tee (featuring illustration by Dan Santat) can be found here!
++ LUNAR NEW YEAR
A new year’s blessing! Peony, China’s national flower, with bamboo for flexibility, plum blossom for perseverance, courage, and hope, tangerine for wealth, lychee for strong family relationships and peace in the home, orange for happiness, pine resin for constancy, golden kumquat and quince for prosperity, narcissus and King mandarin for good fortune, coconut for longevity, and candied melon for good health, with a splash of blazing red of dragon’s blood… to help you scare away the rampaging Nian.
++ MÉNAGE À TROIS
Harmonious three-note perfume blends!
MAHOGANY, WOOD MOSS, AND SMOKE
RED PATCHOULI, NUTMEG, AND OUD
SPICED RUM, VETIVER, AND CINNAMON BARK
++ TWILIGHT ALCHEMY LAB
This is a warm, sweet, and sensual oil that radiates a soft, rose-tinted charismatic glow. It is a poem in a bottle, a tender ballad, a girdle of gentle glamour; this is an oil of epic romance, of nobility, compassion, and valor – of love that inspires story and song.
Includes: rose absolute, organic rose petals, jasmine absolute, bourbon vanilla, powdered vanilla bean, lemon balm, honey absolute, benzoin resinoid, butter C02 extract, helichrysum, and strawberry natural fruit compound. Please note that this oil is not vegan.
++ SCENT LOCKETS
The Zodiac lockets have returned! Exquisite, elegant, and exclusive to Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.
These are heavy lockets, thick with silver, and are perfect for use as a perfume oil conduit. Dab your favorite Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab concoction onto muslin, velvet or cotton, and place the swatch inside the locket. Your body will warm the silver, and the locket will exude pure, unadulterated scent.
The Zodiac lockets are hand cast 925 sterling silver that has been partially gold washed using a method popularized in the 19th century, and each is adorned with at least one stone corresponding to the sign the locket represents. Each locket’s bale sports one of the BPAL logos: the alchemical symbol for brimstone. Portions of the face of the lockets have been deliberately tarnished. They measure approximately 1.25″ in diameter. These lockets are heavy.
They are not fragile, filigreed pieces; they are durable, extremely weighty with silver, and are suitable for your most adventurous airship excursions.
These lockets are exclusive to Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, and were created by and for Black Phoenix. They cannot be found anywhere else in all of Heaven and Earth.
Each piece is hand cast.
Our lockets come with a 24″ nickel-plated iron chain.
The Zodiac lockets were designed by Alicia DabneyofElements and Artifacts.
Our first Lunacy release of the ‘20s is off and running, with some brand new features!
++ A LITTLE LUNACY
WOLF MOON (and accompanying TEE)
This incarnation of Wolf Moon honors the She-Wolf who nursed and sheltered Romulus and Remus in her den, the Lupercal, after they were cast out into the wild by King Amulius.
“A mother’s unconditional love, soul-deep compassion, and destiny: date plum, myrrh, black mulberry, black poplar, black fig, cypress, cassia, and Pan’s sacred pines.”
++ MÉNAGE À TROIS
Three-note scents born from our perfumer’s freeform daydreaming. These perfumes are ideal for layering, or can be worn alone. Duets will be appearing and disappearing here and there with the Lunacies throughout 2020.
FRESH CUT GRASS, LEMON PEEL, AND BERGAMOT
RED PATCHOULI, CHERRY WOOD, AND TOBACCO ABSOLUTE
VANILLA, TUBEROSE, AND JASMINE
++ TWILIGHT ALCHEMY LAB
An oil of fresh starts, but not a new beginning that ignores the past. This is a catalyst for new beginnings that spring from learning from experiences, processing the past, and being able to move forward with a clear head and your eyes open. Passion flower has been added to make the process gentler, and lemon peel and acacia gum to make the process swifter.
Includes: lemon peel, passion flower herb, birch bark, acacia gum, frankincense, bay leaf, calendula, chicory root, grains of paradise, and lemon balm.
++ A SUNBURNT COUNTRY
These scents are a fundraiser for Country Fire Authority Victoria in the hopes that we can help ameliorate the suffering caused by Australia’s bushfire crisis.
“Her far horizons, her jewel-sea: a rose-tinted sunset of amber salt spray azure musk.”
“Wild grass, mosses, lemon myrtle, cinnamon myrtle, and bush nut.”
“Dusty vanilla bean and Moreton Bay Fig.”
++ ZODIAC SCENT LOCKETS
++ ZODIAC SOCKS
And at long last….
++ ONEIROS: A HYMN TO MORPHEUS
We’re deeply honored to present scents sprung from the beautiful, poignant prose of Neil Gaiman.
Inspired by Neil Gaiman’s words and David Mack’s art, and created in conjunction with Neverwear. [https://neverwear.myshopify.com/]
Amorphous streams and sparks of lavender fancies drifting through a moonlit musk, given form on this plane by fossilized amber and sweet agarwood.
YOU GET WHAT ANYBODY GETS – YOU GET A LIFETIME
An unimaginably ancient scent, older than time. The gentle, fluttering embrace of oblivion: myrrh and blackened champaca blossom, attar of oudh, black amber, Casmir wood, and dried fig.
Words by Neil Gaiman [https://www.neilgaiman.com/ ] , art by David Mack [ http://davidmackarts.com/]!
We’re overjoyed that “Support small businesses!” is such a common refrain in the days after Thanksgiving, and that we end up on so many people’s shopping list. We wanna spread the love by sharing this list of all our retail partners, each of whom offers SO MUCH MORE than just our perfume collaborations. And many of them are running their own special deals this weekend!
In no particular order:
Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Thank you all for helping us build this network of bright, talented, industrious people to pool resources with. We hope you’ll keep looking for small biz options throughout the entire gift-giving season!
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The scent of autumn, the taste of blood, the crunch of leaves underfoot: all these and more await inour 2019 Halloween perfume collection!
The following BPAL offerings have had a good run, but as any goth will remind you: nothing lasts forever! Consider this your LAST CALL, everything linked here will vanish this Thursday, June 6th.
LUPERCALIA 2019 - We couldn’t be any prouder of these blends celebrating everything licentious, lascivious, and libidinous. Take one more scroll down memory lane, you may find yourself shocked by something you missed on the first pass.
HEXENNACHT - Our tribute to annual Night of the Witches revelries: “German fir and forest herbs, incense and bonfire smoke, broom straw, and the wet, glimmering scent of skin warmed by dance.”
LILITH’S WINTER TRAVELOGUE - A rare second set of Lilith perfumes, inspired by a wealth of wintry European vacation memories, both cheerful and somber, like this one: “Lilith surrounded by the ghosts of six million Parisians: damp black moss, grey sandalwood chips of bone, and winding sheets of balsam, ambergris, nagarmotha, and frankincense.”
VERNAL EQUINOX FULL MOON - The Solstice is almost upon us, which means it’s definitely time to relax our grip on springtime fancies and make way for new attractions. With a backup bottle, you can always return to that special time of year! Our blend: “Fossilized amber resin releasing a cascade of crocus and daffodil petals, glory-of-the-snow, graceful iris, radiant life everlasting, and a rainbow burst of tulip.”
DUETS - Our new collection of two-note perfumes will resurface occasionally with Lunacy releases, and then recede just as quickly. This is your last chance for these four blends:
The New Noses is a series on independent perfumers who came upon the craft the unconventional way: who aren’t French men, heirs to perfume empires, or trained in prestigious fragrance schools. This is the first in the series—an interview with Courtney Rafuse, the nose behind Toronto niche brand Universal Flowering. An excerpt:
The word that I use to describe scent, more than anything else, is horny. Because that’s what I like! I love all the human body smells that go into perfumes. Things that smell gross and horny. My friend was telling me that a girl came into her shop, sprayed Madmen’s Honey and was like, “Ugh, this smells like piss.” But ten seconds later, she said, “I love it!”
That is one thing that I try to focus on when I am making scents: I like to make them smell grossly human.
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