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So today is the full moon, time for a one-day-only special at Black Phoenix. I didn't go crazy but I did place an order.

Buck Moon: only available in 5ml bottles, which is what I bought.
"This Full Moon marks the time of the year when the new antlers of buck deer emerge from their foreheads, coated in soft velvet. This is a time of masculine vigor, thunder, balmy nights, glorious sunlight and hot winds. Buck Moon is an animalistic, deep scent: an amplification of one痴 natural musk coupled with forest herbs, a hint of clear, warm evening air and a crystalline spark of lunar oil."

I'm leery of all that musk, but then again I really liked Wanda so I figured it's worth a try. if I don't like it I can always swap and/or sell it off.

Tarot: Strength: only available in 10ml bottles, which is what I bought. No description provided by the Lab but reviews describe it as earthy, warm, and green. I've already arranged a swap with Bummble & I'm hoping I'll be able to swap/sell as much as I need to.

Dorian: bought 5ml bottle. "A Victorian fougere with three pale musks and dark, sugared vanilla tea." I heart Embalming Fluid (white musk and tea) so much that this one seems like a sure thing. Also it's very popular, so if I bizarrely end up hating it, I'll have no trouble swapping/selling it.

Also I got an imp pack while I was at it.
Sudha Segara: "Sweet milk and warm, healing ginger with a touch of golden honey and our blend of Ambrosia." People love this one, and I love ginger, so I thought I'd better give it a try.
The Dormouse: "A dizzying eddy of four teas brushed with light herbs and a breath of peony." I hope all the teas smell as good as Embalming Fluid, because I'm going to have a lot of them.
Santa Eularia des Riu: "Piquant citrus tempered by jasmine, soft Mediterranean herbs, lavender and orange blossom." This one is too new to have any reviews yet.
O: "Amber and honey with a touch of vanilla." Another one I'm ordering because people like it so much.
Verdandi:"Deep herbs and apple with black amber." I sure hope amber works on me.
Nanshe: A somnium that's supposed to help encourage dreaming, it's described as lavendar and lemongrass.

I did not buy the other two of today's limited editions: Carnivale, "sweet wild berry, spicy carnation and heliotrope layered over deep amber and musk;" or Love in the Asylum, "two roses, tolu balsam and ambergris with vanilla, labdanum, tobacco leaf, carnation and tonka." I don't even know what half that stuff is, but I know I don't want a heavy floral like rose.

More BPAL arrived today! I got Mi-Go Brain Canister, which is supposed to smell spicy and pink, a counterpoint to Pink Moon I guess, but I didn't open the imp to smell it. Also Szepasszony, which I tried on and with which I was extremely disappointed. It's supposed to smell like a rainstorm, but after fifteen minutes it turned into fabric softener sheets. That's the second "watery" scent I've tried, and the second that smelled like a cleaning product. Dang. I so love the descriptions of the aquatics. I really wanted them to work for me. I've got another watery scent (Sea of Glass) on the way. If it also smells like soap, I'll know to avoid them in future.

Lisa came over and took a tour of the garden as she very kindly agreed to water while we're away. Being a bit obsessive I drew a map. It's not really that much to water, but I thought it would be easier to keep track of it that way. I offered her some vegetables in repayment, but unfortunately all we've got in eatable condition are beets and chard, neither of which tempted her. (At least I'll be able to do Moses-feeding duty in the future.) Hey Lisa, if you see any male squash blossoms (they don't have a little tiny round fruit at the base) you're welcome to those too. Be careful when you pick them because the plants are spiny. And if you do decide to take any chard, just cut the biggest leaves off each plant, rather than cutting any plant entirely down.

Jane showed off her very good "sit" for Lisa, and with some coaxing we got her to do "down" too. She really should be able to do "down" without a treat at this point, but that's still pretty rare. And getting her into heel position is still a wash. Whenever she sees the treat, she sits. I guess because it's what she knows. Thirteen was very brave too, coming close enough to let us both know how stinky she is right now. It's all that rolling around on the ground to scratch her back. I really need to bathe her.

Speaking of stinky, we had to play with my (small, but growing) BPAL collection. I did my first trade! Pink Moon to Lisa, for an as-yet-to-be-determined imp. In other words when she starts to get her stuff, she'll give me something that I want but didn't work for her. Also she tried on Embalming Fluid. (Which I consistently typo as Emblaming Fluid. What would that be? Perfume that assists the wearer in passing the buck?)

I love Embalming Fluid. I lurrrve it, and it was actually a little odd to smell it on someone else. I've worn it every day for the past week, and I guess I'm starting to get used to it on myself. A few times when she moved I caught a hint of it, and had this weird thought of "hey, she smells like me!" (I hasten to add it wasn't a strong scent at all, definitely not Stinky Perfume Lady.) I love citrus, and love tea, so I bought a bottle of Embalming Fluid before I had even smelled it. Thank goodness it worked for me! In my database I rate each scent I've tried, and Embalming Fluid is the only one so far to warrant the highest rating ("yowza"). I hope I can find something which suits me so well but will be appropriate for cooler weather. Maybe Dorian.

Lisa wrote about how Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab cleverly increases sales on a luxury item by reducing risk for their customers (low entry price, vast selection, thriving aftermarket). They also encourage enthusiasm, I think, with frequent "limited edition" additions to the catalog. They have a new series based on a theme every two months, plus one-day-only specials at least once a month, on the full moon and on important days of the pagan calendar. None of the limited editions are available in sample imps, and I'm sure that many people buy bottles of a limited edition but would have settled for an imp if the same scent were in the regular catalog. And those people probably buy other things at the same time, to round out the order. I'm already planning what I'm going to order next Wednesday when "Buck Moon" goes on sale.

Also, by not offering sample imps for a few regular catalog lines (the Tarot, the Sephiroth, Panacea), they make those lines seem more valuable. There may be a non-marketing reason for this: they claim to blend all oils to order rather than keeping any product inventory. Maybe they don't sell enough of these lines for it to be worth making imps for people.

I ordered some empty imp-sized bottles so that I could try the Tarot oils with less financial committment: if I'm not crazy about one, I can decant it off and sell or swap them on the forum. Bummble and I have already worked out a swap (she's going to get the Hermit and I'm going to get Strength). I guess I need to get pipettes too, although I've heard that some people use little straws.

And one additional way they generate enthusiasm is to generously give freebie imps with every order. I can't tell you how many forum reviews begin with "I would never have picked this scent for myself, but the lab included it with my last order and I love it...."

Also I got my storage box set up yesterday. It's a Ganesh lunchbox which I padded with cloth-covered foam. I really like the way it turned out. The center divider moves, so it can hold the imps snugly upright. Unfortunately the foam was a little thick and took up more volume than I expected. If my collection grows too fast I'll have to get a bigger lunchbox, or thinner foam. I guess that will be an incentive not to go too crazy.

And to keep track of all this I made myself a little BPAL database. I'm tracking my wishlist, my scent reviews, orders I've placed and my inventory. I am such a geek.

One last, funny thing: Georg mentioned to me recently that my interest in Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab has put in his head the theme song from a video game we both used to play with a similar name. The same is true for me! Whenever I see BPAL's full name written out, I hear the voice from the beginning of game saying "It's time for ... Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab! Are .. you .. ready?" That was a fun game, I should download it again and pay the shareware fee this time.

So apparently they release another Lunacy blend every month, for just one day. On the full moon maybe? The next one is coming up on the 22nd. They don't release the descriptions in advance but the next one is called Buck Moon.

Pink Moon was from three months ago. WIth the two month delay in fulfillment (I hear that they recently lost two staffers from an already small company), the people who ordered it just received it a few weeks ago. So it's probably the easiest Lunacy blend to get on LJ right now. I ordered it because of the song, although it actually has nothing to do with the song.

Pink Moon The name of this moon refers to the color of wild ground phlox, a primary component of this Lunacy Blend, which is one of the most widespread floral signposts of springtime in North America. This Lunar blend is soft with phlox, tulip, daffodil, dogwood and muscari, dusted with pink sugar and honey, and a touch of the first strawberries of the season.

In the Bottle: Bubble gum. Wet, juicy bubble gum. yikes, it痴 sweet.

Wet: This is going to sound weird, but it smells pink. Pink and sweet. Is that pink smell carnation?

Georg could also smell this one from several feet away, but he walked in just as I was capping the bottle so the scent was still pretty fresh. And his first reaction was a very satisfying 典his one痴 nice; what is it?�

Drydown: Still sweet floral. The cotton candy sweetness makes this more youthful and girly than the others I致e tried. Definitely not a work scent! I thought I would hate anything as sweet as this. But to my surprise, I like it. I知 not sure if it痴 me, but I like it.

I just read the description and I guess the pink smell is phlox, and what I read as cotton candy is sugar and strawberry. Strawberry in a description has been a big turnoff to me thus far. Maybe it痴 OK here because it痴 not a dominant note.

Lasting: After 4 hours it痴 mellowed out to a faint sweetness. Georg said it still smells the same to him, just less strong. I like it a lot at this phase.

Repurchase: at Limited Edition prices, no, but I値l use what I have.

Overall: It痴 a pretty scent but too sweet for every day use. I値l save this for when I want to feel all girly.

I put this on after work yesterday and these are my notes from last night.

Water of Notre Dame. Brings peace to the spirit, a sense of calm and fulfillment, and attracts the aid of beneficial spirits.

In the Bottle: Smells the most like commercial perfume of any I致e tried so far.

Wet: It痴 a strong note but I知 having a hard time placing it. Is this the elusive 努atery� scent? What the heck does water smell like anyway?

Drydown: I applied the same tiny amount as always, a gentle dab with the wand, but Georg noticed it as soon as he walked into the room. Usually I have to hold my wrist under his nose to get a reaction. He pronounced it 田hurchy� because it 電oes and does not smell like church incense.� I have no idea what church incense smells like, but incense is the last thing I would have come up with for this. It痴 way too clean and soft for that.

I guess this is what people mean when they say a scent turns 都oapy.� After a half hour it does kind of smell like soap. Actually it reminds me of taking baths as a kid. Is it baby shampoo? It痴 been a long time since I smelled baby shampoo, but that痴 what I知 thinking of.

It痴 a nice scent, but too strong. Thank goodness I didn稚 put it on before work today! It痴 努afting蚤bout me, which is definitely not the effect I want. As I said to bummble earlier, I want the scent to be so light you would have to invade my personal space to even know I had it on. This is so strong I could be in Stinky Perfume Lady territory.

As advertised, it is very calming. As in 菟utting me into a languid stupor.� Which is not good because I wanted to get some work done tonight. I feel like I知 drifting in a cloud of scent. Maybe this is what Georg meant about church incense.

Lasting: After 3 hours the soapy smell has mostly faded. What痴 left is .. grassy? How did we get from water to church incense to baby shampoo to grass? I知 not complaining, it痴 very nice. Too bad we had to go through that soapy phase to get here. (After 4 hours Georg claims to still smell soap, but not as strongly as before.)

Repurchase: Probably not.

Overall: Even if I loved this to death, I壇 hesitate to wear it again because I知 not ready for such a strong scent. I think this one goes into the swap pile. Maybe I値l give it to someone, since it was a gift to me.

Another BPAL package today! yay! First I have to try Baobhan Sith. It was discontinued (along with Cheshire Cat and some others) three weeks before I started exploring BPAL. I heard it was due to bad weather messing with the grapefruit oil supply. Lee recommended it and it sounded like exactly what I wanted, so I snapped up the first imp I saw for sale on LJ.

Baobhan Sith: The ghostly White Women of the Scottish highlands. They seduce unwary travelers by night with their unearthly beauty and mesmerizing dancing. They engage their victims in a wild, hypnotic dance, and once they reach exhaustion, the demonesses exsanguinate their partners with their vampiric kiss. Talk about a quick courtship. Grapefruit, white tea, apple blossom and ginger.

In the bottle: Grapefruit.

Wet: Mainly grapefruit. Not sweet. Nice, but this phase didn稚 last long.

Drydown: The grapefruit disappeared fast (10-15 minutes!). What痴 left is a bit sweeter, is that the apple blossom? It still has the ginger to keep it crisp and not too juicy-fruity. I知 not really getting tea, but my nose probably isn稚 able to detect fine undertones yet.

Cold Moon made me fear floral. I never got those shifting tones as it blended with my body chemistry; it just sat on top of my skin and said 的 am PERFUME!� But this is predominately apple blossom after a half hour, and it痴 lovely. Maybe it痴 the 斗unar blend� (whatever that means) in Cold Moon that didn稚 work so well for me.

Lasting: Four hours later all that remained was the faintest whiff of ... play-doh? What the ?!? This is not nice.

Repurchase: It痴 kind of a moot point, but I知 not sure.

Overall: It痴 interesting to wear this the day after Embalming Fluid. They池e similar (both light scents w/ citrus and tea) but Baobhan Sith is sweeter from the apple blossom, and a little spicier from the ginger. It also faded faster, and turned into that weird play-doh scent.

I'll have to try it again and see if reapplication can stave off the play-doh effect. But if not, well at least I'm not so crushed about this being discontinued.

A BPAL package arrived today! I have to say, these LJ swapping people are the best. It only took a couple of days, she must have mailed it immediately. And she included a freebie! She went and read my blog, saw that I was looking for crisp, light scents, and sent me Water of Notre Dame. Which is a perfect choice; it was already on my wishlist.

It was fun to smell them all (though I think the scents tended to run together after the first couple), but I had to try Embalming Fluid first. Described as light, crisp, and summery, it's the one that I've been most anticipating. I had already ordered an imp from BPAL, but couldn't bear to wait two months. So I bought a half-full 10 ml bottle from the very generous person on LJ.

Embalming Fluid: A light, pure scent: white musk, green tea, aloe and lemon.

In the bottle: Tea with a little lemon. Really nice. The bottle, by the way, is a pretty cobalt blue. There's a little plastic doodad in the cap for applying: turn the bottle over to wet the cap, then remove the cap and press it against the wrist.

Wet: Slightly sweet, lemony: lemonade! I was worried about lemon in perfume smelling like lemon pledge, but this doesn't at all.

Drydown: The tea is coming forward. Not sweet at all now. Very light compared to the other two I've tried. I can hardly tell it's on, in a good way. It's that "me, but better" feeling, but so light and cool. Unlike Wanda which was warm and rich. Wow, I can really understand why people get so into these perfumes.

Lasting: Not so good unfortunately. I guess it's too much to ask that such a light scent would last. Georg says he can still smell it on my wrist, seven hours after applying, but to me it's as faint as Wanda was the next day. On the other hand, we did go to a cooking class tonight so maybe the food smells overwhelmed the perfume. Besides, the faintness of the scent is nice. It's about as far from "whoa! perfume!" as you can get.

Repurchase: I've already got about 5 ml, but I can see myself wearing this every day in warm weather. I will definitely buy more when this runs out.

This was the second of the 2 imps I bought off someone at LJ. This one wasn't quite full so the price was reduced.

Wanda: �...a deep red merlot with a faint hint of leather, sexual musk and body heat over crushed roses, violets and myrtle. �

Wanda was described in the forum reviews as sex in a bottle. Maybe I should have waited until I wasn�t alone to try it on. What the heck, here goes!

In the bottle: Yikes. Really strong and dark and fruity. It�s so strong I had to leave the bottle in the padded mailing envelope; it was reeking up the room. Not incensey; more like, I don�t know, grape candy? Whatever it is, it's awful.

Wet: While Cold Moon was nice & light in the bottle, and �eek! perfume!� on me, Wanda seems to have the opposite effect. Much less overbearing on my wrists. Still fruity, but to my surprise that�s not a bad thing. There�s something there besides fruit. Must be the leather but I can�t identify it as such. I don�t smell floral at all.

(aside: is my mouse pad going to end up reeking from these tests? Should I apply the scent someplace besides my wrist?)

Drydown: Okay, now I smell leather. The fruityness has mellowed out too. I guess it�s more like wine, but I hardly ever drink wine so I�m not sure.

Man, this smells good. It seems to be heading into the �me, but better� phase immediately. Does that mean it reacts better with my body chemistry than Cold Moon did? It could also mean that I didn�t apply as much, but I tried to use the same (very small) amount each time. If I smell like this all day, I will be one happy girl.

And now, a little later, the forum reviews are vindicated. It does smell like sex. I can�t explain it but it does. When does Georg get home?

Lasting: 3 hours later it was nearly gone. Maybe I did apply too little this time. Or maybe I accidently washed it off while rinsing a giant bunch of chard for dinner. I reapplied about a half hour ago. We'll see how it lasts tonight.

Overall: I must say I am stunned. Based on the description and the reek coming out of that bottle, I thought I would hate this. But put it on and it transformed into something wonderful. A bit warm for this weather, but it will be nice in autumn. It would seem that I have no idea what is going to smell good on me. I wonder how many of my big BPAL order will be hits and how many will be misses. I hope at least one of the �crisp, summery� scents works for me.

Repurchase? Oh yes.

Okay, so after placing my order with Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, I found out that orders are taking 2 months and up (!) and I couldn't wait that long. So I bought a couple of samples off the Livejournal group. It's an active group of people selling and swapping samples (and sometimes full bottles) they tried but didn't like. You can only get what people are offering of course, and if you're grossed out by the idea of pre-owned perfume then this isn't the way to go. But that doesn't bother me, especially if they only tried it once or twice. It seems like a great system to deal with the company's difficulty meeting demand.

I don't know if everyone is this fast or if I just got lucky, but I sent a few bucks via Paypal on Saturday, and I have the imps today! My first BPAL purchase ever turns out to be Cold Moon and Wanda. I tried on Cold Moon first, so it's my first review. It's part of a limited edition series from a few months ago, and wasn't sold in imps. So the person who sold it to me (or someone who sold it to her) must have bought a 5ml bottle and decanted it into sample vials.

Cold Moon: "The Full Moon that shines over the frost-rimed heart of winter. Traditional lunar oils combined with glittering snow flowers, soft breezes and frozen ferns. (Gender neutral)"

In the bottle: Very sweet. Reminds me of bubblegum?

Wet: Whoa. It's a pretty smell, but much more perfumy than I was expecting. Well, duh, it is perfume. But the people on the review forum are always talking about how different BPAL is from commercial perfume, so I was kind of expecting it not to smell like perfume. It seems strong to me, but I put it on while Georg was in the room a few feet away and he didn't seem to notice. So I guess it's not too overwhelming.

Drydown: It's nice and light, a pleasant smell, but still more sweet and perfumy than I would prefer. I don't see a man wearing this. Maybe it's the floral that I'm not liking. Which would be bad, since I ordered several florals in my big order from BPAL. Well if it turns out I don't like floral, I can always swap them.

A bunch of reviews described this as "watery," which appealed to me, but I have to say I don't get it. What is water supposed to smell like, anyway?

If I smell like perfume, at least I don't smell like stinky perfume. I sat down right next to Georg and even kind of draped my arm over him, and he didn't say anything until I asked if he noticed anything different about the way I smelled. He said that he had noticed it, but had figured I had changed shampoo. For someone (like me) who's fairly hesitant about the whole concept of perfume, that's a pretty good response. He said he couldn't really smell it from three feet away, even when I waved my arms in the air. But then he could smell it distinctly when he stepped into the area where I had been waving my arms.

Lasting: Almost five hours and I can still smell it faintly on the left wrist, strongly on the right. The left wrist smells like what I wanted from the start: not a perfume smell, just "wow, I smell good!" The right wrist still smells like perfume, but not as sweet now.

Overall: Georg's response pretty much matches mine: "It's not my favorite thing in the world, but it's nice." Pleasant, but it didn't send me into raptures like the people on the BPAL forum. I'm not going to relegate it to the swap pile immediately; I may find that after trying out different scents I can better handle the sweetness of this one. But my first impression is that this is not something I would wear every day.

[ETA: Midnight, both wrists smell great. Just the effect I was hoping for: me, only better. Too bad it took seven hours to get here.]