Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is an L.A.-based esoteric perfumery I discovered after moving to Bloomington. I was immediately struck not only by their inspirations and dedication to the perfume oils they were making, but by the wonderful and fanatical community dedicated to their products. Through the months that I obsessively collected their “imps” (small one ounce samplings of their perfumes), I collected seven or eight aromatic oils that I felt could be signature Mischief scents and dozens more that were beautiful, evocative and sensual.
BPAL is a small operation, birthed by a petite gothic woman named Beth. Beth not only puts high quality oils into her products, but research, thought, love, and tons of imagination and patience into each hand-blended bottle. She offers a general catalogue of scents, based on locations, characters from Shakespeare and Alice in Wonderland, Sins, and lustful & wanton literary characters, in addition to rare and limited edition scents inspired by lunar and planetary cycles, poets (such as the recent Edgar Allen Poe series), and holidays (Luperci, Samhain, and Yule), among many others. They also offer a selection of t-shirts to help you show your love for favorite oil blends and have recently added metal oil lockets.
Along with the perfume oils, Beth has spent time working with larger events such as Convergence, an annual gothic festival featuring vendors, performers and historical activities (this past year based in my lovely home in heart, New Orleans). Beth was very active in sponsoring the fashion show and graciously provided BPAL goodie bags for those who paid to attend the tea party. Outside of the organization, the fans of BPAL continue to show their love for the product by running an independent fan forum, creating storage boxes and bags, necklaces, and running decant rings (a process where all the scents of a limited edition series are purchased, separated into imp bottles and distributed for those wanting a sample of these scents).
I find myself most often wearing The Peacock Queen, a limited edition Yule scent inspired by the Snow White and Rose Red Story. The Peacock Queen is supposed to be the grown version of Rose Red, and the scent itself is a haughty, deep rose scent, with a touch of a woman’s bath powder. Another favorite is the catalogue scent Severin (named for Masoch’s character in The Venus in Furs), a unisex scent made up of dry black teas, Earl Grey and leather. One more, before I quit, would be Roadhouse, described as: “Truck Stop Sleaze. Weedy dandelion and hops with a whiff of tobacco and hemp and a swirl of booziness.”
