Eee! Yules! (Part Two!)
My thoughts on the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Yule update, part two: miscellany...
++ THE MISKATONIC VALLEY YULETIDE FAIRE -- my general impression of this section of the update is that I don't think most of these would work on me, but they're intriguing nonetheless. I'm looking forward to seeing the reviews!
The Adoration of the Mi-Go - Luminous, otherworldly wet and piquant odors mingling with black incense, the pitch-stench of Yuggoth, and fungal lichens. Hmm. Folks who sniffed this one’s prototype at a recent Lab event (they have these sorta open house-y things called Will Calls on the full moons) called it fruity incense, I think, so much of this description came as a surprise to me. Do I order a decant in hopes that “the pitch-stench of Yuggoth” actually smells good to my human nose, and that “fungal lichens” don’t smell like sweaty feet? (Not sure why that phrase makes me think of sweaty feet, but there you are.) Mmm… yeah, I think I probably do, ‘cause of the name, if nothing else.
Mother Shub’s Spiced Lait de Chèvre - Nothing warms the cockles like a mug of Mother Shub's egg nog! Goat's milk egg nog with coffee liqueur and spices imported from the Crimson Desert! Curious to sniff, but not, I think, for me.
Mother Shub’s Pfancy Pfefferneusse - Fit for the finest oblation -- and your holiday table, too! Sugar-sprinkled pepper nuts with a bit of cinnamon, a bit of clove, a little cardamom, and a hint of nutmeg. Trying to figure out how much I want to order this because I actually think it’ll smell good on me versus how much I want to order this because I love the name. Split the difference and get a decant, I’m thinking…
Mother Shub’s Toothsome Banketstaaf - A treat sure to please even the most finicky cultist! Tubular pastries oozing with spijs, glazed with apricot jam, and dotted with glace cherries. Nope!
Mason & Jenkin’s Port Jelly - Red and sticky! From a genuine Old Salem recipe! Nope!
Old Man Ackerman’s Instructional Toys - Educational toys for tots! Learn non-Euclidean calculus, catoptric theory, quantum physics, and the mysteries of Elder magic the fun way! An ancient baetylus floating within an array of bizarre trapezoidal figures, glimmering tubes, rusting spheres, and whirling gogs formed from peculiar metals, glowing tektites, strangely suspended lead mirrors, and eerie driftings of meteoric dust. Hide the protractors! :D I have no idea what this would smell like, though surely it’s got a metallic base, which means it’s pretty definitely not for me. I can’t wait to see people’s reviews of this one, though!
The Smilin’ Servitors’ Hyperdimensional Holiday Hits - A discordant scent, silvery and strange like a lunatic's tinsel garland: freesia, eucalyptus, and yuzu, with sicilian lemon, massoia, opoponax, night-blooming jasmine, white bergamot, and copaiba oleoresin. Nope!
Pet Magah Bird - A prism of scent, an explosion of multi-colored feathers: blood orange, black plum, sugar cane, guava, frangipani, coconut, pimento berry, violet, caramel, and pear. See, really, the more I think about it, the more I think that the thing about the scents with multiple fruit notes, like this, is not so much that I’m underwhelmed by them than that I just don’t wear them. So I’m going to pass on this one, even though part of me is going, “eee! Guava!”
The Black Temple Burlesque Troupe - Straight from the pits of black, lightless N'kai: the voluptuous bat-winged vixens of the Black Temple Burlesque Troupe!
Cacao, black musk, and tobacco absolute. Hmm. Probably not for me, but I’m quite curious about it. I’ll wait for reviews, then see if I need to frantically hunt down a decant before January. ;)
++ 15 PAINTED CARDS FROM A VAMPIRE TAROT: THE MAGICIAN
They asked St. Germain's manservant if his master was truly a thousand years old, as it was rumored he had claimed.
"How would I know?" the man replied. "I have only been in the master's employ for three hundred years.
Burmese rosewood, olibanum, benzoin, turmeric, currant leaf, and oude. Safe from another one! (13 more to go, and I don’t think the odds that none of them are going to end up appealing to me are particularly good, but that’s okay…)
++ THE DISTRICT
Lavish bordellos and shady cribs, dazzling jazz, and swinging saloons: bounded by Basin, Iberville, Robertson, and St Louis, Storyville, known to locals as the District, was New Orleans' legal red light district from 1897 to 1917.
This is a charitable, not-for-profit venture. Proceeds from every bottle go to Habitat for Humanity: New Orleans. Habitat for Humanity builds houses in partnership with sponsors, volunteers, communities, and homeowner families, whereby families are empowered to transform their own lives, and aids in eliminating poverty housing in the New Orleans area while serving as a catalyst to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.
Countess Willie - Sophisticated, dramatic, well-traveled, glamorous, and worldly, Countess Willie V. Piazza, owner of the French Studio, was a trendsetter in style and fashion. Countess Willie was an educated woman, a patron of the arts, and possessed an impressive library of rare volumes. She featured many historic jazz musicians in her House, including Tony Jackson and Jelly Roll Morton. Unlike many of her counterparts, she was known for having a kind heart and a generous, loving nature. She was fiercely protective: when a patron of her establishment, the nephew of a prominent New Orleans cleric, committed a heinous act of sadism against one of her ladies, Countess Willie shot him dead.
Chocolate plum musk, red musk, amaretto, candied fruits, and red ginger. Had to include Countess Willie’s description, because even if there weren’t notes in her scent that call to me, her story calls to me. Decant!
Crib Girls - Seven honeys under one unkempt roof, with fiery-tart cubeb and dusty cardamom. Nope!
Emma - Vanilla bourbon, tea rose, jasmine, pink pepper, and patchouli. Ooh. Ooooh. Hmm. Skeered of the tea rose and jasmine, but the other notes sound lovely. I think this got some discussion in the Will Call threads. Must go check those out. In the meantime, let’s call it a decant.
Flora - Sweet, wet fruits, sibilant Eastern musk, apple blossom, tuberose, calla lily, osmanthus, wild orchid, amber, and sandalwood. Nope!
Hilma - Honeysuckle, Bulgarian rose, night blooming jasmine, sweet clove, cedarwood, black tea, and nectarine. Honeysuckle is my note of doom. Nope!
Josie - Heady magnolia and honeyed peaches. Tempting, but I’m leaning in the “nope” direction at the moment. We’ll see what the reviews say.
Lulu - Tobacco flower, white gardenia, bergamot, and bourbon geranium. Nope!
Final tally from this batch isn't so bad: decants of Adoration of the Mi-Go, Mother Shub's Pfancy Pfefferneusse, Countess Willie, and Emma. And then, since I put up the last post, strangemodegirl has talked me into going with The Fruit of Paradise (clearly I made it very hard for her, too ;P ), and I think I might be talking myself out of Evening Cicadas. Must ponder further...
++ THE MISKATONIC VALLEY YULETIDE FAIRE -- my general impression of this section of the update is that I don't think most of these would work on me, but they're intriguing nonetheless. I'm looking forward to seeing the reviews!
The Adoration of the Mi-Go - Luminous, otherworldly wet and piquant odors mingling with black incense, the pitch-stench of Yuggoth, and fungal lichens. Hmm. Folks who sniffed this one’s prototype at a recent Lab event (they have these sorta open house-y things called Will Calls on the full moons) called it fruity incense, I think, so much of this description came as a surprise to me. Do I order a decant in hopes that “the pitch-stench of Yuggoth” actually smells good to my human nose, and that “fungal lichens” don’t smell like sweaty feet? (Not sure why that phrase makes me think of sweaty feet, but there you are.) Mmm… yeah, I think I probably do, ‘cause of the name, if nothing else.
Mother Shub’s Spiced Lait de Chèvre - Nothing warms the cockles like a mug of Mother Shub's egg nog! Goat's milk egg nog with coffee liqueur and spices imported from the Crimson Desert! Curious to sniff, but not, I think, for me.
Mother Shub’s Pfancy Pfefferneusse - Fit for the finest oblation -- and your holiday table, too! Sugar-sprinkled pepper nuts with a bit of cinnamon, a bit of clove, a little cardamom, and a hint of nutmeg. Trying to figure out how much I want to order this because I actually think it’ll smell good on me versus how much I want to order this because I love the name. Split the difference and get a decant, I’m thinking…
Mother Shub’s Toothsome Banketstaaf - A treat sure to please even the most finicky cultist! Tubular pastries oozing with spijs, glazed with apricot jam, and dotted with glace cherries. Nope!
Mason & Jenkin’s Port Jelly - Red and sticky! From a genuine Old Salem recipe! Nope!
Old Man Ackerman’s Instructional Toys - Educational toys for tots! Learn non-Euclidean calculus, catoptric theory, quantum physics, and the mysteries of Elder magic the fun way! An ancient baetylus floating within an array of bizarre trapezoidal figures, glimmering tubes, rusting spheres, and whirling gogs formed from peculiar metals, glowing tektites, strangely suspended lead mirrors, and eerie driftings of meteoric dust. Hide the protractors! :D I have no idea what this would smell like, though surely it’s got a metallic base, which means it’s pretty definitely not for me. I can’t wait to see people’s reviews of this one, though!
The Smilin’ Servitors’ Hyperdimensional Holiday Hits - A discordant scent, silvery and strange like a lunatic's tinsel garland: freesia, eucalyptus, and yuzu, with sicilian lemon, massoia, opoponax, night-blooming jasmine, white bergamot, and copaiba oleoresin. Nope!
Pet Magah Bird - A prism of scent, an explosion of multi-colored feathers: blood orange, black plum, sugar cane, guava, frangipani, coconut, pimento berry, violet, caramel, and pear. See, really, the more I think about it, the more I think that the thing about the scents with multiple fruit notes, like this, is not so much that I’m underwhelmed by them than that I just don’t wear them. So I’m going to pass on this one, even though part of me is going, “eee! Guava!”
The Black Temple Burlesque Troupe - Straight from the pits of black, lightless N'kai: the voluptuous bat-winged vixens of the Black Temple Burlesque Troupe!
Cacao, black musk, and tobacco absolute. Hmm. Probably not for me, but I’m quite curious about it. I’ll wait for reviews, then see if I need to frantically hunt down a decant before January. ;)
++ 15 PAINTED CARDS FROM A VAMPIRE TAROT: THE MAGICIAN
They asked St. Germain's manservant if his master was truly a thousand years old, as it was rumored he had claimed.
"How would I know?" the man replied. "I have only been in the master's employ for three hundred years.
Burmese rosewood, olibanum, benzoin, turmeric, currant leaf, and oude. Safe from another one! (13 more to go, and I don’t think the odds that none of them are going to end up appealing to me are particularly good, but that’s okay…)
++ THE DISTRICT
Lavish bordellos and shady cribs, dazzling jazz, and swinging saloons: bounded by Basin, Iberville, Robertson, and St Louis, Storyville, known to locals as the District, was New Orleans' legal red light district from 1897 to 1917.
This is a charitable, not-for-profit venture. Proceeds from every bottle go to Habitat for Humanity: New Orleans. Habitat for Humanity builds houses in partnership with sponsors, volunteers, communities, and homeowner families, whereby families are empowered to transform their own lives, and aids in eliminating poverty housing in the New Orleans area while serving as a catalyst to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.
Countess Willie - Sophisticated, dramatic, well-traveled, glamorous, and worldly, Countess Willie V. Piazza, owner of the French Studio, was a trendsetter in style and fashion. Countess Willie was an educated woman, a patron of the arts, and possessed an impressive library of rare volumes. She featured many historic jazz musicians in her House, including Tony Jackson and Jelly Roll Morton. Unlike many of her counterparts, she was known for having a kind heart and a generous, loving nature. She was fiercely protective: when a patron of her establishment, the nephew of a prominent New Orleans cleric, committed a heinous act of sadism against one of her ladies, Countess Willie shot him dead.
Chocolate plum musk, red musk, amaretto, candied fruits, and red ginger. Had to include Countess Willie’s description, because even if there weren’t notes in her scent that call to me, her story calls to me. Decant!
Crib Girls - Seven honeys under one unkempt roof, with fiery-tart cubeb and dusty cardamom. Nope!
Emma - Vanilla bourbon, tea rose, jasmine, pink pepper, and patchouli. Ooh. Ooooh. Hmm. Skeered of the tea rose and jasmine, but the other notes sound lovely. I think this got some discussion in the Will Call threads. Must go check those out. In the meantime, let’s call it a decant.
Flora - Sweet, wet fruits, sibilant Eastern musk, apple blossom, tuberose, calla lily, osmanthus, wild orchid, amber, and sandalwood. Nope!
Hilma - Honeysuckle, Bulgarian rose, night blooming jasmine, sweet clove, cedarwood, black tea, and nectarine. Honeysuckle is my note of doom. Nope!
Josie - Heady magnolia and honeyed peaches. Tempting, but I’m leaning in the “nope” direction at the moment. We’ll see what the reviews say.
Lulu - Tobacco flower, white gardenia, bergamot, and bourbon geranium. Nope!
Final tally from this batch isn't so bad: decants of Adoration of the Mi-Go, Mother Shub's Pfancy Pfefferneusse, Countess Willie, and Emma. And then, since I put up the last post, strangemodegirl has talked me into going with The Fruit of Paradise (clearly I made it very hard for her, too ;P ), and I think I might be talking myself out of Evening Cicadas. Must ponder further...