“Moving between the legs of tables and of chairs, rising or falling, grasping at kisses and toys, advancing boldly, sudden to take alarm, retreating to the corner of arm and knee, eager to be reassured, taking pleasure in the fragrant brilliance of thee.â€Â
~T.S. Eliot~
Scent is a powerful magician. Certain scents can act as quickly as any time machine, transporting one to an occurrence mere moments ago or ages old, bringing with it memories both significant and trivial. The smell of cinammon conjures up a myriad of both childhood and more recent Christmas memories. The scent of cold winter air causes memories of growing up in Nebraska to dance in my mind’s eye. My wife’s perfume evokes many pleasant recollections.
Scent is intoxicating. If you’ve ever been in the presence of a woman wearing a perfume that for some reason grabs ahold of you, regardless of the way she looks, then you know what I mean. I assume the same thing occurs for women with men. Scent is powerful.
Many companies have made their mark on the world creating enchanting, alluring, unforgettable scents. The latest one that I have heard about, thanks to Janet, is Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. Among other fantastical offerings, they offer you the opportunity to smell like a literary character from the imagination of Neil Gaiman.
Intrigued? Read on.
From their website, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab “specialize[s] in formulating intriguing, compelling body and household blends with a dark, romantic Gothic tone. Our scents run the aesthetic gamut of magickal, pagan and mythological blends, Renaissance, Medieval and Victorian formulas, and horror / Gothic-themed scents.” If you have ever been over to Janet’s site when she posts about her newest acquistions from BPAL, then you know how interesting and amazing their products are. Creativity is one thing that is certainly not lacking at BPAL. One of their newest ventures is The Carousel: The Neil Gaiman Collection.
“This series is a tribute to the literary corpus of the inimitable Neil Gaiman. His works have been an enormous influence on our lives, and we are honored to be able to present our interpretations of the characters, locations, and concepts within the worlds that he has created.”
They are featuring scent blends based on characters from both American Gods and its non-sequel, Anansi Boys.
I love it, I think it is a fantastic idea and so amazingly creative. In fact their site is a pleasure to visit just for the imagery that they use to advertise their many products. Others of interest to me:
Mad Tea Party, based on Alice in Wonderland
A Picnic in Arkham, based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft
Carnival Diabolique, as much for the interesting artwork as the scents
Illyria, based on the works of Shakespeare
In addition they sell t-shirts, pendants, key-chains, etc at the Black Phoenix Trading Post.
If only they could somehow figure out a way to transfer scent through the internet to one’s computer this would be a perfect business!
At any rate I applaud their ingenuity. To take something they obviously love, the creation of unique scents, and to marry it to their literary inspirations is genius, pure and simple.
Their scents are phenomenal according to Janet. Feel free to hop over to her site if you have any questions and I’m sure she’d be glad to answer them. Or leave them here in the comments. I may have to get some just to have on hand for the next time I read American Gods!
Cool. You gotta love free enterprise.
Did you know KISS has a perfume and cologne line available now as well?
No, that’s hilarious.
I am intrigued. I never thought about what literary characters might smell like.
That’s pretty interesting. I’m trying to figure out what a horror/gothic scent would smell like.
I know they list the ingredients, or at least some of them, for the scents over there but I honestly don’t know what half of those things smell like and certainly don’t have the kind of scent imagination to guess. I would love to go into a Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab store and sample their wares!
I got a 5 ml bottle in the mail yesterday from the Carnaval Diabolique collect, it’s Mme. Moriarty, Misfortune Teller. The description on their site says: “A colorless woman bursts from an elaborate gold and ruby tent and faints dead at your feet. Soft laughter emits from the dark entrance to the tent, and the scent of musk, black fruits and incense touches your senses. Looking up, you see that the sign hovering above the unconscious woman is adorned with images of the Major Arcana’s Tower and reads:
“Mme. Moriarty, Misfortune Teller. No fate too grim, no future too bleak.â€Â
A tiny woman with floor-length black dreadlocks walks out of the tent, stepping over the prone body. She is clothed in deep red wrappings, and is bedecked in golden ornaments bearing alchemical symbols and charms representing eternity, chance, and wisdom. She pauses, looks you over slowly, and then flicks a tarot card at your feet.
Red musk, vanilla bean, pomegranate, patchouli leaf and wild plum.”
This bottle will be todays picture for Project365, so if you’d like to see the artwork, it’ll be up tonight!
btw…I’d be happy to send you an Imp or two so you can smell some of the scents, if you tell me what scent you might like…
I saw this mentioned on Neil Gaiman’s blog today. Very intrigued – esp. at his mention of possible Stardust inspired scents. The Bilquis scent is quite appealing to me.
Might have to indulge – this is right up my street as it were.
Love their website too – great stuff.
Thanks Janet!
I was thinking as I read the description that you posted that it reminds me of the Peterman catalogs on Seinfeld. Though they were presented as a joke I always found that an inspired way to sell clothing, telling a story. And scents do tell a story anyway so it is such a great idea.
I’m not entirely sure I’d want to smell like a Neil Gaiman character :p
Seriously though, I bet these are pretty neat and actually relate well to the characters. For instance, when thinking of Shadow, a very patchoulli, musky smell comes to mind. I need to head over to the site to see if that is indeed what he smells like.
Not sure they have Shadow, Chris, I think it is more of the gods characters. I don’t remember though.
Just noticed that bottom picture I posted has a naughty nip picture in the background, lol! Only took me about 8 hours to notice. Powers of observation at work!
What? I must investigate! 😉
Black Phoenix has such covetable scents…I wish I had more disposable income with which to test drive them. 🙂
I wonder what a Wodehouse character would smell like?Or a Jane Austen? Possibilities are endless.
They really are Pat!
I would like to think at a Jane Austen character would smell nice. 🙂 Who am I kidding this whole idea is just wacky to me. I wish them the best though and I’m glad to see the proceeds for Neil’s collection go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. I would mind sampling the wares if they had a store. I’m sure it would fun. It reallys is a neat idea. I’m just amazed by some peoples creativity.
oh, wowo. How wicked cool is this? Thanks for sharing the info.
I’d love to know the perfume your wife wears; although this is not the main idea of your post, I am such a perfume addict.
Dream from GAP is my favorite on her and Heavenly by Victoria’s Secret is another I like her to wear.
How sweet are you to respond?! Thanks, Carl, and I surely didn’t mean to be too personal.
That’s not too personal at all Bellezza, no worries.
oh, dear. i’m thinking these guys are about to get a truckload of my cash. in ‘anansi boys’, mr.nancy is basically described as the most charming man ever…so how can i resist “sugar cookies with bay rum, tobacco, and lime”?
Ok so I am a late bloomer. I cant believe I stumbled upon this post. Actually, I can, I mean what is a blog of Carls without some sort of mention of Neil Gaiman at least once a quater. I just finished American Gods about 10 minutes ago. WOW, why did I wait so long to read it. I guess I was a littel intimidated. Oh to have the scents of these people while reading it for the first time. I am SOOO extrememly excited to get a scent. the problem now is WHOM shall I smell like.
Who knows maybe Carl is a god in disguise……