BPAL Miskatonic University

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Coffee has become something of an obsession of mine. Not in the drinking of it, but rather the smelling of coffee. That rich, dark, woody fragrance of coffee is the hallmark of a good morning to me. I suppose it helps that I’m not a coffee drinker so all the terrible mornings don’t sour this scent. But in my search for the perfect coffee fragrance, I’ve discovered one thing; The note does not last. Miskatonic University

In Bottle: Beautiful, creamy, rich coffee with a french vanilla twist in it. I smell a slightly fungal scent in this too that can probably be attributed to Black Phoenix’s dust note. It smells a bit like mushroom to me, but in the bottle, the mushroom is a good pairing to the coffee, making it just a little more complex than, “Here you go, your coffee smell” plunked down onto the table without ceremony.

Applied: Coffee, dense and rich and good enough to taste with creaminess and sweetness mixed into one. Miskatonic University is like a really good cup of coffee–for about thirty seconds. The coffee note in this fragrance is really fleeting on me and disappears in less than a minute. I can try layering all I want but it is not going to stick around on my skin. When that elusive coffee does evaporate it takes the vanilla and the sweetness with it. Remember that mushroom note? After  the coffee departs, the mushrooms absolutely bloom. Actually, I don’t think it’s mushroom I’m smelling but the leftover cream and the dust note mixing together to form this really bizarre tangent with the woodsy notes in Miskatonic University getting a scent that I can only attribute to mushrooms on wood polish. It’s not particularly interesting or nice. Well–that’s not true, it is interesting.

Extra: Miskatonic University is a fictional post-secondary institute located in Arkham which appears in the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

Design: Miskatonic University is bottled much in the same way all other Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfumes are. It has a different label to denote its place in the Picnic in Arkham series.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Irish coffee, dust, oak.

As much as I wanted to find that one true coffee scent in this fragrance, Miskatonic University and I were just not meant to be. The coffee note is so fleeting, and I shouldn’t be surprised, I guess. It is a top note for me. I just hoped it’d be one of those top notes that defied all logic and reason and hung around a bit.

Reviewed in This Post: Miskatonic University, 2009, 5ml Bottle.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab The Unicorn

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Sometimes I put down my Guerlains and go for something simpler, something with more simplicity and clarity and during those times, The Unicorn from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab suffices. Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, The Unicorn is a lovely white floral reminiscent of what a mythological horse with a cone on its forehead would actually smell like. Unicorn

In Bottle: White and ethereal, floral with a very light powdery shimmer. This fragrance smells like a bar of lush soap and a bouquet of freshly picked linden flowers. It’s gentle, airy and a little bit sweet.

Applied: That clean white floral scent is the first thing I smell as the linden flowers start to take over the place. I can detect some mild hints of jasmine in this too, I think. It’s an understated jasmine though, just there to give the fragrance a more floral edge. As the dry down starts winding its way into the picture, The Unicorn turns from a pure clean, white floral into a greener, sweeter herbaceous fragrance. Its final stage is marked with powdery white flowers and fresh sweet greenery that smells a bit like parsley.

Extra: The unicorn in Alice in Wonderland is a play off of a folk song. If I recall correctly, the unicorn and the lion were representative of England and Scotland, much like the coat of arms of the United Kingdom today. The Lion being England and The Unicorn is Scotland.

Design: The Unicorn is bottled in the same way most other Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab oils are. Its label is the standard general catalog design.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Linden blossoms, jasmine, sweet herbs.

I tend to attribute The Unicorn as more of a soap fragrance than a personal fragrance. But I do love clean, soapy scents. There’s just something very soft and comforting about this scent that would make it a fantastic fragrance for soaps.

Reviewed in This Post: The Unicorn, 2009, 5ml Bottle.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab The Girl

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One of my favorite pairings, florals and amber. The Girl is, well, feminine. But I don’t like assigning seasons, genders, or occupations to certain scents. I will say that this is a lovely, pure amber fragrance that doesn’t try to muddy the waters by adding in too many florals. The Girl is a limited edition fragrance from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s 2009 Halloween limited edition run. The Girl

In Bottle: Light jasmine and ylang-ylang. Smooth fragrance with a nice sweet amber and almost vanilla scent. The heart of this fragrance is in the amber and the florals are used as backing for this. There’s a bit of woodsiness in this too which helps cut up the smoothness with a bit of dry airiness.

Applied: Strangely enough the musk is one of the first things I get. Clean and smooth initially as the florals catch up to the party. Jasmine has less of a presence here than ylang-ylang but neither of them are really stars. They seem to be there to bolster this pretty white amber and touch of vanilla scent. Meanwhile the musk is still hanging around giving this an older, more sophisticated, quality while still maintaining the fragrance’s smooth amber floral scent. It’s just hard to describe The Girl. It’s a well-blended fragrance. On the dry down I’m smelling a bit more of the woods as the amber and vanilla chill out a little bit. And I mean, literally chill out. The Girl takes a turn for the cold and ethereal on dry down.

Extra: Immortelle, one of the featured notes in The Girl, is used to refer to a number of flowers in which one particular species can be steam distilled for its essential oil. Which smells like rubbery honey to me.

Design: The Girl is contained in a 5ml amber glass bottle with a plastic top. It has a limited edition label with the house name fragrance name on it.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: White amber, silver birch, immortelle, davana, pale musk, star jasmine, and ylang ylang.

I wouldn’t say The Girl is a typical oriental but its focus on the amber and vanilla helps it in that direction. If you’re looking for oriental in the classical sense, you would need to look more into Mitsouko or Shalimar. The Girl is a much more modern smelling oriental that’s in and of the same vein of L’Instant de Guerlain or Allure by Chanel.

Reviewed in This Post: The Girl, 2009, 5ml Bottle.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Morocco

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Morocco is among one of the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s more popular fragrances. Morocco conjures up romantic images of drinking tea in one of the most vivid nations in the world. The fragrance is BPAL’s interpretation of the place, using spices and warm milky notes to bring forward a very lovely gourmand fragrance. Morocco

In Bottle: Creamy, sweet tea with a touch of spices. I want to say I’m smelling saffron, nutmeg and cinnamon blended into a warm, milky, spicy beverage. There’s a touch of sweetness to this too that helps Morocco avoid being a hit of spices and milk. The sugar adds a much needed dimension because the sugar helps tip Morocco into gourmand territory.

Applied: Spices and milk before the milk settles off. Morocco moves along, carrying its cinnamon and nutmeg scent as sugar trails in behind. The fragrance ages into a slightly spicier piece of work when carnation starts to bloom. As Morocco continues to unfold on the skin there’s a touch of something musk coming up and intensifies as the dry down continues to wind its way through the streets piled high with spices and milky tea. Final dry down is a lovely creamy musk and woods.

Extra: BPAL fragrances are perfume oil blends. Which means they are fragrance oils set in carrier oils. This means the fragrance is set in an oil base such as almond oil or jojoba oil instead of alcohol and water.

Design: Morocco is contained in a 5ml amber glass bottle with a plastic top, just like other general catalog Black Phoenix Alchemy lab fragrances.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Spices, milk, sugar, carnation, sandalwood, cassia.

I do like Morocco, really and I was leery to even try it because of the spiciness. Sometimes too many spices can be a bit much to handle but Morocco strikes a very agreeable spice middle ground.

Reviewed in This Post: Morocco, 2009, 5ml Bottle.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Dana O’Shee

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Dana O’Shee is one of the lightest fragrances I own. A little doesn’t do it for this one simply because it’s so translucent. One look at the notes should tell you enough and make you wonder how a grain scent is supposed to be isolated. It’s not like milk and honey help much either. So when it comes down to it, Dana O’Shee requires slathering. Dana O'Shee

In Bottle: Honeyed almonds. Very simple, quite the gourmand. It’s extremely simple though and I can’t help but draw the similarity between Dana O’Shee and the almond extract in my cupboard. When it all comes down to it, had Dana O’Shee not been bottled and labeled as perfume, I might have mistaken it for a baking ingredient.

Applied: Upon application the almond fragrance starts to evaporate first and within a few moments that sweet almond extract fragrance is gone. What I’m left with is a flat, milky very slightly sweet scent. The middle stage of Dana O’Shee reminds of dusty kitchens and creamy milk. The simplicity is what helps it along. If I’m not expecting a complex garden of florals and incense, I can dig it. Dana O’Shee dries down to practically nothing within a few hours. Short lived, stays close to the skin, smells fabulously like almond extract at first then fades into creamy dust before disappearing.

Extra: From Irish folklore, the Dana O’Shee are small, beautiful, eternal little creatures that kidnap people.

Design: Presented in an amber bottle and a black twist cap with 5ml of perfume oil.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Almond, milk, honey, grain.

Upon visiting the kitchen and unscrewing the ol’ bottle of almond extract in my baking cupboard, I wasn’t too far off. Dana O’Shee’s almond is a touch more complex than the stuff I add to cookies but it bears an extremely close resemblance.

Reviewed in This Post: Dana O’Shee, 2009, 5ml Bottle.

BPAL How Doth the Little Crocodile

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How Doth the Little Crocodile is part of Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs’ Alice in Wonderland collection. They call it the Mad Tea Party scents. It was this fragrance that made me realize something in BPAL’ s cedar note is really strong. How Doth the Little Crocodile

In Bottle: Smooth, creamy chocolate and pistachio with the iciness of peppermint added in. There’s also the vanilla in this sweetening up the deal a bit. I barely detect the cedar and oak moss in the background giving this fragrance a green, mossy personality and preventing it from fully crossing over to gourmand territory.

Applied: Chocolate and pistachio make a good run for the top as they’re quick to evaporate along with all mints. What I get after is a very strong mossy cedarwood fragrance. It’s very green, very fresh and extremely large. It’s almost like there’s a cedar tree up my nose. There’s a mild mossy note too so it’s not just a cedarwood single note on me. I get wee little touches of vanilla on the dry down but for hours and hours all I have is cedar and moss.

Extra: “How Doth the Little Crocodile” is a poem from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland about a crocodile who baits fish into his mouth by smiling. “How Doth the Little Crocodile” is also a parody of another poem, Isaac Watts’ “Against Idleness and Mischief”.

Design: How Doth the Little Crocodile is presented in the same way as other general catalog fragrances from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy

Notes: Chocolate, peppermint, vanilla, pistachio, oak moss, cedar.

It’s a shame I don’t like cedarwood that much. Well, that’s not true. I do like it but the cedarwood in this fragrance just loves to amp up on me and drown out everything else in the fragrance. These perfume oil reviews do tend to be more subjective as the notes can react very differently on various people.

Reviewed in This Post: How Doth the Little Crocodile, 2010, 5ml Bottle.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Dirty

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Dirty, from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is a purposefully ironic interpretation. Dirty, supposedly smells like soap and general cleanliness. Miles away from the gritty undertones of its name, Dirty is a flowery bar of soap sitting on the windowsill wafting in the cool breeze of a manicured garden. Dirty

In Bottle: Something very sweet in this. Sweet and floral this can’t be a single clean linen scent because it also contains what I swear is white floral and sweet herbs. It makes me think of fresh, white sheets blowing in the breeze and an opened window.

Applied: Definitely something sweetly floral in this. It reminds me of Bath and Body Works‘ Sweetpea and Cotton Blossom mixed into one. There’s a great sense of imagery in this fragrance though. I mentioned the clean laundry, the window, how about a little house in the Maritimes with the rolling sea crashing against a cliff edge’s jagged skirt hem? Yeah, that’s it. Dirty starts off with that sweet floral aroma and eventually dries down to subtle soap and clean cotton. It’s like a bath and a change of clothes during midday.

Extra: There’s been some speculation abound about whether or not BPAL uses all natural ingredients or if there’s some synthetics mixed in there. I would suggest you ask the company yourself if this concerns you. As far as my nose goes, BPALs are fun and simple fragrances. If they’re safe to use then whether they’re all natural or synthetic is of no consequence to me.

Design: Presented in an amber bottle and a black twist cap with 5ml of perfume oil.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Sweet herbs, white florals, cotton.

Dirty has an interesting case study. It delivers everything it needs to. I find myself conjuring up more vivid images in association with natural perfumes than constructed ones. That isn’t to say I don’t love the constructed ones or they’re somehow less effective. What tends to happen is natural perfumes make me think of scenes, landscapes, sounds and events. Constructed perfumes make me think of people and the cultures that they reflect.

Reviewed in This Post: Dirty, 2009, 5ml Bottle.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Baobhan Sith

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Baobhan Sith is one of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab‘s more veteran general catalog scents. Discontinued in 2005, it came roaring back the next year with its tart, grassy citrus and tea scent. This is a well-loved BPAL with excellent longevity and a great fresh, clean personality. Baobhan Sith

In Bottle: Tartness with the mild sting from citrus. I get the slightly astringent white tea as well. Baobhan Sith is a very white, very clean and fresh fragrance. Reminiscent of grassy knolls and ethereal mists. This is a fragrance that makes me think of teatime and, for some reason, cranberries.

Applied: Initial flair of citrus, a very normal thing for me as it seems, before the grapefruit says it’s had enough of me and decides to recede into the background. The white tea is the real star in this fragrance as it dominates for the better part of the scent’s wearable lifetime. There is a very, very mild bite of ginger in this as the fragrance ages, the white tea mellows out and the ginger gets its time in the sun. Fresh, citrus, clean with a really (I mean it) light touch of ginger to round it all out.

Extra: Baobhan Sith (pronounced, “Bow-Vahn Shee”), heralds from Scottish mythology where beautiful women in green dresses wander the mists as bloodsucking vampires.

Design: Similar in design to many other general catalog scents from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. The oils are stored in an amber bottle with a twist black cap. The label is printed with the house name and fragrance name.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Citrus

Notes: Grapefruit, white tea, apple blossom, ginger.

Baobhan Sith is great as a wearable fragrance but also a good room scent if you feel like diluting it a bit in water and letting an oil diffuser do its work. BPAL  fragrances are perfume oils, meaning they are not set in an alcohol base and are therefore unsuitable to be sprayed. Should one attempt to spray perfume oils, they will be met with a drooling, uncooperative stream, and a broken sprayer nozzle. To use BPALs as a spray perfume, you’ll have to find an alcohol base to dilute the perfume in first. You can find perfumer’s alcohol in specialty stores online.

Reviewed in This Post: Baobhan Sith, 2009, 5ml Bottle.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Aglaea

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Here’s the thing with Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (BPAL). It’s got a fragrance library that numbers into the thousands and is still growing to this day. It’s got a huge following with a huge set of fragrances spanning every single fragrance family you can think of and everyone reacts and has a slightly differing opinion of every fragrance because the oils smell different on everybody. This entire blog could be dedicated to just smelling and seeking out the entire BPAL library. But that’s a monumental task. What better place to start than with a very simple, very well-loved bottle of Aglaea?

Aglaea is a fruity, peachy, crystal clear and unfettered scent that brings simple joy to the table and all it expects back is the admission that, yes, it does smell like peaches. Aglaea

In Bottle: Sweet peaches with a very golden base and that slightly resinous scent mixed together. The musks must be very clear in this because I just can’t detect them at all. Myrtle seems like a lost cause because all I can detect in this is a very golden peach scent.

Applied: The peaches flare up as fruit notes tend to do and then promptly take a backseat (quite characteristically) to the golden amber that takes center stage. If you’re looking for a complex peach scent that melds into woods and morphs into a bouquet of florals or fruits, Alaea will sneer. It’s simple, and it asks to be kept that way to the point where I don’t even care to look for the musk, though there is something very slightly “real” about this. Real as in, it’s trying to tell me I’m smelling white musk. Something clean and complimentary.

Extra: Aglaea was the youngest of the three graces. Married to Hephaestus and spent most of her days prancing in green fields and being in famous sculptures and paintings such as Primavera by Sandro Botticelli.

Design: I can’t say much for most BPAL bottles as they do tend to look the same with varying labels. You can see in the photo that it’s a very unassuming amber bottle with a plastic cap and a gothic-esque printed label. That’s really all it needs.

Fragrance Family: Fruity

Notes: Peach, myrtle, amber, musk.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is a young fragrance house that I can’t exactly file in the niche category. It sort of defies explanation in some ways so I prefer to call them a small and independent operation. Most of Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs’ fragrances are available on their website for $17.00 a bottle. Aglaea is a part of BPAL’s general catalog scents and is, therefore, generally expected to stick around in the foreseeable future. BPAL also comes out with limited edition scents.

Reviewed in This Post: Aglaea, 2009, 5ml Bottle.