radiantfracture (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
radiantfracture) wrote2025-02-10 03:45 pm
radiantfracture) wrote2025-02-10 03:45 pm
a well-timed smell
A princely gift today in the mail. Precisely a gift for princes -- rare and ancient perfumes, which is to say a huge de-stash of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (and other perfumiers) from elusis.
Envelope after envelope pulled out of the big black packet like rabbits out of a hat, or hats out of a hat, wherein huddle dozens of curiously fragrant brown hares. And some of the coveted blue bottles, buzzing with antiquity. And a smell of rose so nostalgic I seem to remember a past life.
And one of those kits of individual notes for mixing, and a bottle to mix them in.
Thank you! it's a pretty incredible gift, and so far there's little or no overlap that I've noticed with my own accumulations.
The package was standing up against the door of the beautiful shed when I poked my head out, mole-like, at 3:15, having spent the day in bed due to post-vaccination fever and chills. By then I felt much better, and now I have a whole alchemist's shop to wander through.
It's a perfect bright clear day, but cold, so that even with both the oil heater and the baseboards on, it's been difficult to keep the beautiful shed at 19° C.
How can I describe this bright blue sky so that you see it more vividly than any other bright blue sky you've ever seen or I have ever described, which is a great many, I hope, on both sides? Well, it is like an early and surprised visit from a god of late summer, Lugh, say, stumbling in bewildered perhaps after a night of dancing at winter's wake, his long coat-tails brushing the dry branches and startling them into bloom. That kind of blue.
The package arrives with remarkably good timing, as I don't think any long walks under the blue sky are foretold for the rest of today.
§rf§.
elusis.Envelope after envelope pulled out of the big black packet like rabbits out of a hat, or hats out of a hat, wherein huddle dozens of curiously fragrant brown hares. And some of the coveted blue bottles, buzzing with antiquity. And a smell of rose so nostalgic I seem to remember a past life.
And one of those kits of individual notes for mixing, and a bottle to mix them in.
Thank you! it's a pretty incredible gift, and so far there's little or no overlap that I've noticed with my own accumulations.
The package was standing up against the door of the beautiful shed when I poked my head out, mole-like, at 3:15, having spent the day in bed due to post-vaccination fever and chills. By then I felt much better, and now I have a whole alchemist's shop to wander through.
It's a perfect bright clear day, but cold, so that even with both the oil heater and the baseboards on, it's been difficult to keep the beautiful shed at 19° C.
How can I describe this bright blue sky so that you see it more vividly than any other bright blue sky you've ever seen or I have ever described, which is a great many, I hope, on both sides? Well, it is like an early and surprised visit from a god of late summer, Lugh, say, stumbling in bewildered perhaps after a night of dancing at winter's wake, his long coat-tails brushing the dry branches and startling them into bloom. That kind of blue.
The package arrives with remarkably good timing, as I don't think any long walks under the blue sky are foretold for the rest of today.
§rf§.
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I love it.
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PirateShip has refused to track the package at all, so I had no idea whether it was even scanned into the system, let alone how far along it was in its journey. I have had such anxiety about whether it would make it with its contents intact - the mailer-not-box was far from ideal, but I was hoping that with individual packets inside it would at least mostly survive. And of course the problem of customs and whether perfume oil is a "hazardous item" and etc. etc. etc. - I thought the odds were a little gloomier than I really wanted to dwell on.
Just going through that stash was a whole Thing - almost all of it was bought when I was part of friendships I no longer have (assorted). There's my signature Renaissance Faire scent, and a couple of signature goth club scents, and scents I wore in various relationships. So since it turns out that scent is a tremendous evoker-of-memories... uh oh. Every time I started to try to sort through the stash I had flurries of dreams I'd rather not have.
Then there were newer things that had no awkward associations, but the reality is that I am not a "wear fragrance around the house" person at this point in my life, and when we do go out, it's usually to eat/drink, something better done without competing smells, or to sit-down entertainment where people have come to enjoy the show and not The Essence of Me so they've just sat in the basement among the other half-unpacked baubles of my pre-COVID, pre-Seattle life.
If even a fraction of them delight and inspire you, that will be such a joy to me.
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If it isn't too painful to say, I would love to know which were the signatures of what.
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The scents are more conventional than BPAL, but well-blended. I have Carmanah -- kind of lemony herbal woods -- and Jasper, which on me is cocoa and pitch.
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I might be able to scare up an extra sample of it amongst my acquaintance if you're interested! Fair warning: it might take me a week or two to get that organized.
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I did check out their site, but things seem to skew lighter and more "feminine"/unisex. That makes sense, since it's kind of just the nature of the market for independent perfumers (most guys I know are into really well known brands as kind of a status thing... Or their taste is too expensive + most don't care about animal cruelty or sustainable ingredients :( )
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oenoneperfume.com is a super-local-to-me tiny perfumier, but again, more femme-oriented.
I don't know these folks at all, but they look cool: https://cracherdanslasoupe.squarespace.com
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smell update
Re: smell update
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