The 2024 releases from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab brought me several surprises in the form of silk and lichen and a few more lessons learned about incense notes. It was a great year for true florals and office wear, but it wouldn’t be our beloved Lab without a few toe-curling dashes of smut to round things out. Here are a baker’s dozen hits from my 2024 sniffing adventures!
As always, the delightful goblins at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab have no idea I’m making this list. But when The Arts STL offers the opportunity to make any Best Of lists that I’d like, BPAL perfume oils (and hair gloss this year!) are always top of mind. I hope you find some ideas to pique your scent-huffing interests.
- My Wild Heart Bleeds With Yours
A fierce rush of pink pepper, carnation, pulsating red berries, and crimson musk
The Carmilla series is an interpretation of Sheridan LeFanu’s pre-Dracula vampire story. The thrill of early forbidden encounters comes through here, with a rush of sweet cherries and a whiff of danger in the musk. The musk is decidedly enticing, not a raunchy version. Every time is the first bite and a headrush of dark, juicy danger.
- Peach & Red Bean Paste Hair Gloss
This standout from the annual Georgia peach-themed Dragon Con exclusive releases might be my biggest winner for the year. The peach is warm—more like peach pie than peach fuzz or peach Jolly Ranchers. The red bean paste is a dense, earthy sugar added to give it a little more gravity—think more like the sweetness in beets. The result is a rich, deep huff of peach that lasts into the next morning. I love a good peach note, and this is exceptional.
- Falling Star
Incandescent, glittering musks, pearls of sweet Florentine iris, and an indigo sigh of blue cypress, Italian bergamot, pink jasmine, cistus, white amber, mimosa, and black lilies
This came out with the February installment of Paintings of the Month, bottled with a gorgeous label depicting a painting by Witold Pruszkowski.Blue florals are tricky for me, as I love irises and lilies, but their representations can easily veer into my old memories of Renuzit air freshener in my grandparents’ bathroom. The incandescence of this blend comes from the bergamot and amber, which give some weight to otherwise flighty flowers. This series is one of the more fleeting of BPAL’s offerings, and I’m still hunting down a full-size bottle, in case anyone’s got a lead for me…
- Galanthus Nivalis, Single Snowdrop
The season’s first snowdrop, stark white and spring green against a backdrop of black ink and myrrh resin
Another unique offering from the February Paintings of the Month, this flower is sharp and crisp, borderline shrill. It’s almost a citronella effect, but with powdery florals rather than astringent lemon. White flowers alone are generally too boastfully precious for my taste, but this blend has a cool vegetal element that makes it soft rather than shrieking, addictive rather than repellent, a clean and intriguing blend. This would definitely work as an office scent, making a composed first impression.
- White Sandalwood and Honey Cream
I once read a story where mead was described as tasting like pickle juice—fermented sugar gone so far sweet it continued around the horn to border on sour. This is that honey note. The sandalwood gives it not so much a scent but a vehicle to loom in the atmosphere, hanging in the air like a funky-sweet incense. It falls into good company with the Lab’s strong vanillas, such as They Shut Me Up in Prose, but with a tinge of rebellion rather than dessert.
- Poet’s Hearts Break So
Bourbon vanilla fougère, violet leaf, iris root, Italian bergamot, porcelain accord, and a trickle of red musk
This blend is all about the violet. Most other notes were indistinguishable as unique elements, but their efforts in tandem accomplish the near-impossible feat of keeping violet from smelling like eating soap. The red musk is lost as a feature, but it’s working hard with the fougère to keep this both sparkly and lush. This is a dapper scent, made for houndstooth wool and Peter Pan collars, sitting in a cafe window, composing lamentous entries in a journal.
- The Decadents
Lilac cologne and luscious blackcurrant, blonde tobacco, laburnum petals, and sugared absinthe
Lilac lovers such as myself are always looking for the finest example of these fleeting purple flowers. They overwhelm the air for a small window in the spring before receding for another year. This blend captures the tiny blossoms with fidelity. The tobacco note rounds out the cologne vibe to keep it on the heavier side of atmospheric. It’s quite fancy, not shy. While lilacs are a natural for April, the cooler notes make this a sophisticated and intriguing wintertime floral, too.
- Dream Skin
Somnambulant lavender and orchid incense suffused with red labdanum, champaca orchid, patchouli root, champignon, Italian bergamot, and white oakmoss
This collaboration with Blood Milk Jewels is my favorite lavender in a long time. For daytime wear, this projects a gentle, approachable feel, a cozy sweater, a safe space to open up. But it’s also an ideal bedtime scent, like a soft midweight blanket pulled up under your chin. I discovered with last year’s blend, The Harvest Haunt, that I love a lot of incense notes when they imply the quality of hanging in the air rather than smokiness, and this just furthered that lesson. The earthy elements—patchouli, champignon, labdanum—give second skin vibes to convince you and/or others that it’s just your naturally calming aura projecting grace and contentment.
- Stanczyk
Scarlet silk, spiced rose petals, well-worn red leather, Oman frankincense, labdanum, dried cherries, and blackberry wine
I never would have chosen this for myself. Silk? Leather? Wine? So many things that tend to repel me. But a generous decanter reading my selections like tea leaves threw in an extra sample for me to test, and it was an instant love. It goes on sweet and fruity in a resin-y way, almost bubblegum, like Thieves Rosin. It’s rich and sweet-tart. It seems the dark fruits + frankincense + labdanum combo is a winner for me, because this reminds me of a lighter, more floral version of The Wish, which I also adore. It dries to a powdered sugar-y dark fruit incense. And none of my usual troublemakers are causing me any grief here; instead they’re enhanced by the notes that I love—leather with the frankincense make it aromatic, wine with the dried cherries give it that rich fruitiness, and silk with the rose petals makes it a sensuous floral. Gorgeous. The artwork here is Jan Matejko’s depiction of the famous court jester of Poland’s King Sigismund I. I also have this image on a music box for Rigoletto. Fittingly, it smells like a splash of wine, flushed cheeks, and laughter loosened to come a touch too easily in a formal setting. I went ahead and ordered myself a bottle and thanked the frimper for the bullseye surprise.
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- Just Before Penetration
Pink fig and guava soaked in vanilla cream
The Lupercalia releases are always suggestive, but this one takes the cake. The distinctly piney-sweet smell of guava and luscious fig make this a scandalously musky tropical fruit blend. Exactly as advertised—gorgeous, voluptuous, bursting ripe fruits with surprising sillage and fidelity for something so precise. Delectable. Never Google Lupers for the label art at work, but this series is inspired by Edo-era erotica, and a discreet peek at the bottle is definitely worth it.
- Sturgeon Moon
Sandy shores and sweet fresh water, lichen, green algae, and whitestem pondweed, with benzoin, hay, cyclamen, moonlit musk, cucumber, blue poppy, driftwood, and agave
I know I said Stancyzk was the biggest surprise of the year, but this one makes it a tie. I picked this up blindly, at a time when this release felt fortuitous and I wanted to heed the call, even though it was loaded with aquatic notes, which I don’t typically care for. Remarkably, this turned out to be my kind of aquatic! Hay is a ‘must’ for me to at least try, and this did not disappoint. Starts out sweet and watery smelling, ends in a soft, sunny floral. It’s the perfect scent to extend that grassy, lake time vibe just a little longer.
- Olive wreath
An anointed circlet of leafy branches cut from the sacred wild-olive tree near the temple of Zeus
This release was part of the Kotinos series to benefit Athlete Ally, “an organization dedicated to helping schools, teams, and other athletic communities become more united in their understanding” of “the oppressive and unscientific” “treatment of cisgender, transgender, and intersex bodies of all ages as a condition for participating in athletics.” The series offers four wreaths of glory-inspired scents, and this one was right up my alley. Olive blossom and olive leaves are two perfect notes for me. It’s a little chlorophyll green, with clean flowers that are instantly calming. It’s classy and sophisticated, but still a hard-working all-purpose scent—equally at home in a spa, business meeting, or at brunch with friends. All proceeds above the cost of production are donated to this worthy cause.
- Lick It With Consent Hair Gloss
A sugar-crusted vanilla peppermint stick!
Each winter holiday season brings with it a version of the Lab’s Lick It peppermint candy perfume oil, with varying degrees of mint and sugar, and a dash of pandemic ennui in the 2021 version. My own perfume collection features the extra sweet 2020 blend called Don’t Lick It. It’s been years since they’ve released an accompanying hair gloss, so I jumped at the mention of minty-sweet hair. This stuff, however, must have some stealth chocolate note hiding from the description, because after the initial bracing jolt of mint slaps you in the face and the sugar stick shines through, this is without a doubt a chocolate mint candy cane! I made my husband sniff my hair, and he called it with a grin—Cocoa Puffs! This is a dead ringer for chocolate cereal, and I love it. It lasts into the next day, which is great for folks like me whose hair gets angry if washed too frequently. It’s quite the feat and a must for gourmand scent lovers. | Courtney Dowdall
