BPAL Embalming Fluid

Embalming Fluid, despite its name, is actually quite pleasant. It’s a nice, green summer scent that’s got a good bit of refreshing bite to it that makes it perfect for warm weather. The heart of the fragrance is one of my favorite notes; green tea. Embalming Fluid

In Bottle: Green tea and lemon. Embalming Fluid isn’t high on the complexity meter but it’s a lovely mixture of two notes that go very well together when I smell this in the bottle.

Applied: Green tea amps up immediately and remains with me as the lemon comes rushing in afterward. There’s a slight sweetness to this too that helps soothe the very sharp lemon and tea scents. It mellows them out a little as the fragrance approaches mid-stage where, honestly, it does very little changing. I could be happy wearing this though and so would anyone else if they were a green tea note fan. The dry down gets a bit more interesting as the muskiness comes up for the final curtain but Embalming Fluid is a pretty easy and simple fragrance to love.

Extra: Embalming Fluid is one of those misunderstood fragrances with a name that could turn people away. Give it a chance though if you’re looking for a light, green, fresh summery scent.

Design: Bottled the same way other general catalogs scents from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab are.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: White musk, green tea, aloe, lemon.

The green tea note in Embalming Fluid is quite good. It’s very reminiscent of Creative Universe’s Te, except much simpler and lasts quite a bit longer.

Reviewed in This Post: Embalming Fluid, 2009, 5ml Bottle.


BPAL Aizen-Myoo

Aizen-Myoo is like a flowery grapefruit scent that’s nice and pleasant if you need a spring or summer scent. It has a clean, green feel to it that makes it highly appropriate for inoffensive wear at the office or at school. It’s just a lovely, light, citrus fragrance that does not overdo it on the citrus side. Aizen Myoo

In Bottle: Grapefruit, something slightly sweet and a bouquet of beautiful white flowers. I love the way Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab uses white florals. It’s fantastic in many cases and really gives the fragrance that clean, airy feel without being too heavy.

Applied: Very strong initial grapefruit scent. This is actually yuzu I should be smelling in which a real yuzu has a slightly less astringent scent to it. It smells greener, not as sharp, in other words. But for simplicity’s sake, Aizen-Myoo opens with powerful grapefruits. The black tea comes up after the grapefruit calms down a bit, adding in that nice, dense, tea scent to the fragrance. The cherry blossoms round off the fragrance, making things pleasant and light. The citrus notes in this are front and center. Most of what I get is grapefruit but there’s a sweetness in there lent from the kaki as well. The cherry blossom and kaki do good work preventing the citrus from becoming too much.

Extra: Mikan is referring to the satsuma fruit, a citrus that bears an outer resemblance to a mandarin or orange. It is seedless and edible. Kaki is referring to a type of persimmon.

Design: Aizen-Myoo is bottled in the same way as other general catalog scents from the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.

Fragrance Family: Citrus

Notes: Yuzu, kaki, mikan, cherry blossom, black tea.

Aizen-Myoo is just a pleasant exercise in simple but nice. The black tea note in this fragrance is one of the more prominent of BPAL’s offerings.

Reviewed in This Post: Aizen-Myoo, 2009, 5ml Bottle.


Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab The Unicorn

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

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

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

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.