Smell like a Goddess (blackphoenixalchemylab.com)

Member Name: Fairydustbitch

Product:	blackphoenixalchemylab.com
Date:	17/02/06 (1123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gorgeous smells, reasonable prices, large range and variation of products

Disadvantages: The imp bottles are a pain, has to be shipped from US, very addictive.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab are an American company specialising in perfume oils for your body and your home. You wont find any boring, formulaic, high street scent blends here though, BPAL fragrances are dark and romantic with a touch of Gothicism. With names like “Absinth”, “Penny Dreadful” and “Serpent’s Kiss”, BPAL mix pure essential oil blends to devastatingly alluring effect and then give them twisted and bizarre names from the worlds of mythology, history and literature. There are blends named after pagan goddesses and the characters in Alice in Wonderland, tarot cards and the old-fashioned country names for deadly plants. Despite the gothic feel of Black Phoenix’s website and packaging, they carry a wide variety of scents that will suit everyone from the sweet toothed bunny, to the classic floral chick and the full blooded goth. They have so many scents that to review them all would be ridiculous, even if I did have enough money to sample the full range!

BPAL are not merely selling nice smellies. The owners of the company have a good deal of knowledge into the principles of homeopathy and aromatherapy, and if you believe in the power of scent to lift your mood or focus you, then these scents do more than just make you smell sweet and sexy. BPAL are also a very ethical company, the perfumes and home fragrances they provide are made from 100% essential oils, not tested on animals and contain no animal tested products whatsoever, so being a real animal lover is no reason not to indulge in a taste of BPAL’s dark alchemy.


I’m going to deal with the boring stuff first so we can get on to BPAL’s gorgeous products, so here’s a bit about price, delivery and the site itself.

All this gorgeousness might sound like a pricey endeavour, but BPAL’s perfume oils are actually remarkably cheap. 10ml of BPAL fragrance costs $19.50...approximately £11.20, whereas 5ml (about the size of a standard essential oil bottle) costs $12.50, around £7.20. Imps cost a mere three dollars each, and you can buy six imps for sixteen dollars. Considering the cost of designer perfume, and then factor in the fact that BPAL uses pure essential oils, is very ethical and is a small company, the prices are actually incredibly low.

BPAL do sell internationally, obviously, however you can only pay via Paypal for international orders. Delivery costs for 4 items or less come to a very reasonable $9 dollars to the UK (six fragrance imps count as one item), five or more costs $11. The last order I placed took absolutely ages to arrive, well over a month, however this had to do with the fact that I ordered just after Christmas, usually BPAL orders take around two to three weeks, which is quite a while but given the cheapness of delivery not a huge problem. The BPAL people are also incredibly generous, and they sent me no less than eight free samples of different fragrances with my first order, which more than made up for the wait…I’m not sure if they do this with all orders or just new customers but it was a lovely surprise anyway!

The BPAL website is functional but still very attractive. The background is white and the text mostly black with a little red, grey and orange. The effect is pretty dramatic, and the website has images from Beardsley alongside its devilishly bewitching brews. The whole effect is classy and creepy, yet the website is still well-ordered, with the myriads of scents organised by theme listed on the left hand side of the page. BPAL also has an exhaustive FAQ section and a search engine, and a bustling forum of BPAL addicts.

BPAL fragrances, like essential oils, should be stored in a cool dark place, and if you follow these instructions the fragrances will last well over a year…remember these are essential oil blends not chemical perfumes so they will not last as well as regular perfume.

The perfumes themselves come in two sizes…5ml and 10ml. They are provided in little cobalt blue bottles exactly the same the type used for essential oils. You can also order what are called “Imp’s Ears” from BPAL. Imps are basically tiny glass vials of scent which allow you to sample a fragrance without splashing out on a whole bottle. These can be ordered singly or in sets of six.

The bottles, the kind used for essential oils, are functional and easy to use, however the plastic droppers used on top of the bottles so you can just drip a drop or two of fragrance often get stuck in the lids of the bottles which is a bit of a pain. Other than that the packaging on the items is neat, functional and comes complete with cute, individual labels for each item. It suits BPAL’s image, what they provide is high quality products and packaging is less important. The imps, however are an entirely different matter. The little plastic lids that come with the imps make it very difficult to take the lid off without spilling the fragrance everywhere, which is a bit of a pain in the butt.


As I’ve mentioned, listing all of the scents BPAL has available would be impossible, so here is some of what I have on my BPAL shelf right now.

Alice: from BPAL’s “Mad Tea Party”, Alice in Wonderland styled collection. BPAL’s description reads “Curiouser and Curiouser. Milk and honey with rose, carnation and bergamot”. To me Alice smells like slightly floral honeyed sweetness, yet somehow manages to avoid smelling sickly. Carnation, a favourite scent of mine which I feel is massively underused in perfume, along with bergamot, are probably the strongest fragrances in this one.

Persephone: “Beautiful, radiant daughter of Demeter... her loveliness was so exquisite that even Hell itself could not resist her. Pomegranate and rose.” This is my second favourite BPAL scent after “Midwinter’s Eve”. Persephone is sexy, there is no other way to describe it. Its one men always compliment me on when I wear it. The strongest scent is a slightly sweet fruity scent, very “juicy” smelling, which I guess is the pomegranate. The rose itself is very subtle but has a considerable effect. Persephone is perfection in every way, sexy, sultry, not too sweet and not too floral. it’s a classic BPAL scent

Blood: From BPAL’s “Bewitching Brews” collection, their description reads: “A vital, bold scent, throbbing with sensuality. Essence of dragon's blood resin, thickened with myrrh and cherry, with a trickle of clove.” Don’t be put off by the twisted name, which is classic BPAL, Blood is a delightfully vibrant and darkly gothic BPAL scent. Quite spicy and a little sharp, but not too much so, the undertone of cherry softens the strong scent of the dragon’s blood (dragon’s blood is resin that comes from a particular type of plant, I think it may be a palm tree of some sort). This one is a brilliant pick me up and is brilliant for girls who don’t like to smell too sweet or floral…its not masculine, but its definitely a lot less girly than a lot of scents. Probably my joint second favourite along with Persephone.

Lick It 2005: A limited edition Christmas scent which will hopefully make it back next year. The BPAL description reads “What else could possibly be more lickable at Yuletide? This is a candy cane perfume, minty, sweet and sugared”, and sure enough, Lick it smells exactly like a peppermint candy cane. It has a fairly strong top-note of peppermint, layered with other sweet and sugary scents. Another one of my favourites from BPAL so far, it avoids being too strong on the peppermint (lets face it, we don’t want to smell like TCP) and the minty smell is beautifully rounded out by the sweet scents underneath. A perfect fresh perfume for summer, despite being a Christmas special.

Midwinter’s Eve 2005: Another Christmas special. “A melancholy, deep scent, poignant and brimming with nostalgia. The perfume of sugared plums over a breeze of winter flowers.” Midwinter seems to be a seasonal favourite and has instantly shot to the top of my BPAL favourites list. I love sweet smells and Midwinter is a delightfully warm and sweet scent that reminds me a little of candied fruit, with a little floral hint. This one is quite strong, but it is a brilliant mood lifter if you are feeling down in the dumps. A warming, lovely scent that is great for cosy nights by the fire (if you have a fire). I’ve also found it’s a total man magnet.

Gingerbread Poppet 2005: Yet another Christmas special, and according to BPAL, “Warm, cosy gingerbread spiced with nutmeg, clove and cinnamon.” Like most BPAL fragrances, it truly smells like its namesake…that is, a gingerbread man just out of the oven. I thought I’d adore this one but its really a little too sickly for me, far too strong on the ginger fragrance. It also has a strong hint of cinnamon and cloves, the nutmeg is less obvious. You have to be careful with this one and use it lightly if you don’t want to end up smelling like just baked cookies..

Snow Bunny 2005: Last my current festive scents, Snow Bunny. The description reads “I don’t always have to be sinister, do I? Here’s to finally being able to hit the slopes again! Soft white powder snow with a touch of youthful girlie perfume.” Snow Bunny is a pretty floral fragrance. I’m not too good at discerning one floral oil from another, as I’m generally not a fan of floral fragrances, but I think I can smell lavender in here. This fragrance avoids the very sticky and strong floral oils like rose and jasmine, and although its not exactly to my taste, it’s a good perfume for people who enjoy floral notes but find the stronger ones overpowering.


So there you have it. BPAL’s unique and wonderful scents are a treasure for any woman (or bloke…some of the scents are suitable for both sexes) who likes to smell a little on the individual side. Although the site itself and the company definitely leans in a gothic direction, the scents themselves are incredibly diverse, encompassing fresh, fruity, sweet, floral and classic fragrances. They have a lot more kick and character than most high-street or designer perfumes, and the range is so massive that you will never get bored of BPAL perfumes, as well as being very good value for money. The perfumes are inspired by everything from Shakespeare to all the different countries of the world, and reading the descriptions for the items is nearly as pleasurable as smelling them. Their collections include “Bewitching Brews”, “Voodoo Blends” and “Sin and Salvation”. The fragrances really suit the strange and wonderful little names they have too. If you like your perfume collection to be a little out of the ordinary, the best thing you can do is mix your own blends of essential oils. The next best is to visit Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab!

Summary: A spooky site for all your smelling-nice needs