Review of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Perfume Oils

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (BPAL) sells a unique line of perfume oils. They elevate fragrance to a lifestyle, not just a mere component of your beauty routine. Their oils all have names and meanings rooted in literature, dark fascinations, mythology, and even voodoo.

If that appeals to you, you're certain to be enchanted by their site, which has detailed fragrance descriptions and appealing design. For instance, the line titled Mad Tea Party includes oils named after Alice and The Cheshire Cat. There is a great deal of care put into designing the fragrances and matching them to their name-sakes.

It is a good idea to find out which notes you like and look for fragrances that contain those notes. I am more inclined to select a name I like, such as Snake Oil, and then not like it as much as I thought I would. There are a lot of oils I wanted to like because of their names, but in practice they didn't do it for me. For instance, the (now discontinued) oil named after my horoscope sign wasn't a winner for me. Once I put some more thought into it, I discovered that I love amber, and was able to find a fragrance with that note and a fun title. Bastet is a lovely warm golden scent that is "me", and it refers to cats, which also makes it fit who I am.

You can order sample sizes - called "imps". There are also BPALforums where you can buy, sell, and trade your imps.

After trying about 20-30 different oils, I came away wishing I liked this product more. I did find another that I love, which, interestingly, was described in reviews as being similar to a department store perfume. I spent some time on the BPAL message boards and did a few swaps, and found everyone to be about the friendliest I've ever dealt with online. If only I liked the product! The wait time is a dealbreaker for me, but it's not like it came as a surprise. It is clearly stated on their site what the wait time is. Even though I only fell in love with one fragrance, it was just plain fun to read about the scents and try them out. It was fun to see what freebies I got and try them out. I tried really hard to like what I sampled from, but I admit I was underwhelmed.