Pearl Diver

Pearl Diver is a Villainess scent. Villainess makes primarily products for facial and body care, but they also have a small line of oil based perfumes and my friend jarvenpa sent me some samples of these. I was very curious about another one that I shall discuss some other time because when I tried it the first time it was too sweet for me. The next day, which was the 22nd of June, I tried Pearl Diver, another one I was rather curious about. 

A delicate play of bergamot and jasmine, orchid and violet, over a sensible wash of sandalwood, and salty kelp.

Very interestingly I recognised immediately a type of scent I usually do not like, yet this particular variety I found myself liking. I liked it enough to reapply when it wore off. Although two days later when I picked up a piece of clothing that the scent had rubbed off on, I did not as much like the remains. It was closer to those scenst I do not like.
I can not yet say what makes this scent different. I am not very willing to test a lot of scents that I usually don't like, only for differentiating purposes. And I don't like the Pearl Diver enough to want a bottle of it. Not yet, anyway. But I'll wear her again as long as the sample goes.


The Pearl Diver, if you did not recognize her from the picture, is the Ama, the Japanese woman who dives without any diving gear or air tanks, to gather oysters and other sea food, but they have become famous because of the pearls that can be found in the oysters. Amas can continue their diving job well into old age and in fact the older women can stay submerged longer than the younger ones. But they usually have another job as well. It is believed that women are better equiped for this work, because the way body fat is distributed  on a woman's body better protects her against the cold of the sea water.

The Apothecary

An Apothecary Grinding Herbs, from The Illustrated Library Shakespeare,

published London 1890 (litho)

This I should have written on June 21st. I am way behind. June 21st was when I wore The Apothecary, of which a bottle arrived together with Smoky Moon.


The Apothecary comes from the Illyria series, scents based on characters in plays from Shakespeare. This is the apothecary in Romeo and Juliet, the one who provided Romeo with the bottle of quick-acting poison he asked for, so that he could 'die with a kiss'. I think we all know the drama of that story.


The lab description of The Apothecary is:

Tea leaf with three mosses, green grass, a medley of herbal notes, and a drop of ginger and fig.

This newly bought lab-fresh bottle did not smell quite as I remembered the probably very aged imp that I once had smelled. It was (how surprising) a fresher green scent. I remembered it to be darker with the mosses, but I am sure it will get this quality with time. Most of the green scents I have tried lately had a very light, fairy-like quality (which wasn't surprising as they were Fae and Leanan Sidhe, to name two). The Apothecary is much more grounded. And then it has the ginger note! I have found that I much enjoy ginger notes and in this scent the ginger gives a nice fresh-spicy twist to the mosses, tea and herbs of the apothecary. I am not sure what the fig note is. I would have to compare a couple of scents with fig notes to figure that out, I suppose. Or just wear The Apothecary more often.

Smoky Moon

The Smoky Moon must be a name only used by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, because I can not find any other sources on the internet using the same name for a certain moon of the year. The only concept the expression  is used for, is the moon viewed through smoke or fog. At Black Phoenix the Smoky Moon seems to be the full moon in the first week of June. I think this, because there have been two Smoky Moons: one in 2009 when full moon was on the 7th and the one we just had which was on the 4th.

Light-winged Smoke, Icarian bird,
Melting thy pinions in thy upward flight,
Lark without song, and messenger of dawn
Circling above the hamlets as they nest;
Or else, departing dream, and shadowy form
Of midnight vision, gathering up thy skirts;
By night star-veiling, and by day
Darkening the light and blotting out the sun;
Go thou my incense upward from this hearth,
And ask the gods to pardon this clear flame.

This is how the Smoky Moon is introduced this year. I found that this is a poem by Henri David Thoreau, called Light-Winged Smoke.  

Aged champaca, golden amber, guiac wood, dusky patchouli, twilit oudh, and feathery orris, with a touch of grapefruit, davana, and elemi to help lift it to the heavens.

Although there are enough notes in this scent that I like a lot, like champaca, patchouli, oudh!, grapefruit and elemi, it was not so much the description as some intuitive reaction to it that made me buy this unsmelled. Since the Moon scents are only available during a short period around the full moon, one has to order these unsmelled. Oak Moon had not disappointed me, so I did not hesitate and answered the call of this Smoky Moon. Although if there had been tobacco in this one as there was in the Smoky Moon of 2009, it could have called all it wanted but I wouldn't have bought it. Any amount tobacco in a scent makes me smell like I have been rolling in wet sigarette butts.

This year's Smoky Moon however is a good one for me. At first it smelled oddly incensy to me, like there was frankincense in it (which may still be the case although it isn't mentioned). I did not really smell grapefruit, but there was a certain sharpness in the very beginning that might have been grapefruit. The frankincense however was stronger. 
Then, after a while, there was a spicy smell that made me think of the Indonesian shops we have here, selling ingredients for Indonesian food. I wondered if there was galangal in the scent, which I use in my cooking as laos. Again it is not in the description, but it might well be there. Slowly the champaca began to come through. I decided to reapply, knowing that a second application after several hours helps me to distinguish more different notes.
The second time the champaca was obvious, but it was still a rather spicy champaca. Like I was still in the Indonesian shop, somewhere between the incense area and the spices.


Al together this is a strange but very nice scent, different from anything else I have tried, warm and indeed a smoky kind of scent but not in the way of tobacco smoke or wood smoke. It is more like a spicy flowery incensy kind of smoke. It would do well in an Asian temple.

Magnolia Champaca

Rose Cross

The picture above is the rose cross (or rosy cross) as it appears on the back of the cards of the tarot that Aleister Crowley designed and had painted by Lady Frieda Harris. It was my introduction to the rose cross. The symbol is associated with Cristian Rosenkreutz (= rose cross) who was the founder of the Rosicrucian Order in the early 17th century. Later it was used in Freemasonry and of course in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Crowley made his tarot because each member of the Order of the Golden Dawn at some point made their own tarot. Crowley later developed the spiritual philosophy Thelema in which the rose cross played an important part. With this the rose cross had moved from a largely Christian based philisophy to one inspired by ancient Egyptian deities. Arthur Edward Waite however, the man who designed that other well know tarot, in the same period established The Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, which was a Christian mystical organisation.

A profound symbol of an individual’s personal initiatic process, spiritual refinement and evolution, synthesis, grace found as a result of trial and suffering, and the alchemical process by which we transform the raw essence of our souls through light in extension. This is a holy oil, a representation of the triumph of spirit over matter: purest rose with sacred frankincense.

This is the interpretation of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab of the Rose Cross. And indeed this is exactly what they say: rose and frankincense, in that order. The scent starts out with a stately rose (I dare say that I find it stately because of the frankinsence beneath the rose, but it is rose what I smell). Then after about an hour and a half the frankincense has (almost) completely taken over. I was wondering if I should re-test Seraphim next, as this scent too has both rose and frankincense (but also ample rosewood although it is not mentioned as a note). I did not. In fact I later went to wear King Cobra, because the king has frankincense too. But he deserves his own page and I shall write about him when he is the one I start the day with.

The Rosy Cross Lamen as worn by Adepts in the Rosae Rubae et Aureae Crucis, 

the inner order of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Blood Rose and Black Rose

I have quite a few rose scents, but most of them came with my very first imps and I haven't worn them for quite some time. So today I wanted to smell them again and I could not choose so I am testing two at the same time. I have Blood Rose on the outside of my wrists and Black Rose on the inside. And that, perhaps, was not a very good idea because now the smells mix before they reach my nose. But when I lift my arm to my nose I can choose which side to smell.


To begin with Blood Rose is quicker to reach my nose than Black Rose. Perhaps because she is on the outside of the wrist. While I am typing that is the side that is upwards. But the scent is also more volatile I think. I think both have rosewood as well as rose.

Blood Rose: Sensual, robust, and silken: voluptuous red rose bursting with lascivious red wine and sultry dragon's blood resin.

Black Rose: Exquisitely melancholy. The background scent to an ancient exequies. Heavy, dark and floral: a blend of roses, with a touch of amber and musk.

I have more scents with a wine note, but the wine in Blood Rose smells more like red currant than like wine to me. It is a sweet fruit note and I think it is a little too sweet for me.  So perhaps it is not red currant, because they usually don't strike me as being sweet. 


Black Rose too seems to have a note I do not see described, I think I smell violet here. There is a powderyness too, which makes me prefer the Black Rose over the Blood Rose. But they are both nice. 


Interesting is that although they both have the word Rose in their name, neither scent is in fact a strong rose scent. Two, Five and Seven has a much stronger rose in it. So does Lucy's Kiss. And Elisabeth of Bohemia too. So I am not smelling like a rose garden today, in spite of the fact that I am testing two rose scents.

Vixen 

(and some tests)

I started the day testing O, one of BPAL's best loved scents together with Snake Oil and Dorian. Although when I recently read people's lists for newbies, they all mentioned O because it was supposed to be one of the best loved scents, but they all mentioned they did not personally like it. I am afraid that the same goes for me: I do not like O. I never thought that I would, but because of its fame I thought I should try it. So when I had a chance to get it through a swap, I didn't hesitate. The description of O is:

The scent of sexual obsession, slavery to sensual pleasure, and the undercurrent of innocence defiled utterly. Amber and honey with a touch of vanilla.

I am not a great fan of honey scents to begin with, unless they have a good balance with something else like Harikata does. O is simply too sweet. I might have enjoyed the amber and vanilla without the honey. I might even have enjoyed the honey and vanilla without the amber. But the three of them is just too much. After 15 minutes I could bear it no longer and washed O off. 


I took a break of about half an hour trying to decide what I would smell next, something else new or something familiar. I decided to try Delirium.

Non compos mentis, indeed! A contrary, conflicted scent, bubbling with merry madness. Contains apple, rose, and lemon.

It smelled nice and fresh in the vial, but once on my skin it almost bit off my nose! I really must have been out of my mind trying this! Or if I wasn't when I put it on, the scent was trying really hard to get me out of my mind. It was a very very sharp rose-and-lemon cutting into my olfactory senses like a knife. I have tried over 250 scents now and this was the first one that really seemed to be trying to give me a headache. The apple that was so nice in its poisoned variety (see yesterday's post) was only there in the vial, on my skin it had completely given way to the razor-like lemon-rose. I had to was if off, very thoroughly.


After that there was only one solution: Vixen, earthy non-sweet and trustworthy, although the description would make one think otherwise.

Lascivious, flirtatious, and vampy as hell. A true heartbreaker’s perfume. The innocence of orange blossom tainted by the beguiling scents of ginger and patchouli.

Of course the inspiration was not Jánàček's Vixen, it was the popular meaning of the word. But I enjoyed both the performance of De Nederlandse Opera (picture above) and the Dutch version that was performed outdoor by Opera Animous (below the picture from their poster). This scent would have fitted Jánàček's Vixen well.

Poisoned Apple

The queen stepped before her mirror: 

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who in this land is fairest of all?

The mirror answered: 

You, my queen, are fair; it is true.
But Little Snow-White with the seven dwarfs
Is a thousand times fairer than you.

When the queen heard this, she shook and trembled with anger, "Snow-White will die, if it costs me my life!" Then she went into her most secret room -- no one else was allowed inside -- and she made a poisoned, poisoned apple. From the outside it was red and beautiful, and anyone who saw it would want it. Then she disguised herself as a peasant woman, went to the dwarfs' house and knocked on the door. 

Snow-White peeped out and said, "I'm not allowed to let anyone in. The dwarfs have forbidden it most severely." 

"If you don't want to, I can't force you," said the peasant woman. "I am selling these apples, and I will give you one to taste." 

"No, I can't accept anything. The dwarfs don't want me to." 

"If you are afraid, then I will cut the apple in two and eat half of it. Here, you eat the half with the beautiful red cheek!" Now the apple had been so artfully made that only the red half was poisoned. When Snow-White saw that the peasant woman was eating part of the apple, her desire for it grew stronger, so she finally let the woman hand her the other half through the window. She bit into it, but she barely had the bite in her mouth when she fell to the ground dead. 

The queen was happy, went home, and asked her mirror: 

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who in this land is fairest of all?

And it answered: 

You, my queen, are fairest of all.

I suppose most people hear the story of Snow White  at some time during their childhood. The fairy tale became well known through the version that the brothers Grimm collected in 1812, although two centuries later most people see in their mind the image of Snow White that Walt Disney created in 1937. In fact when I was searching for images of the fairy tale it was very hard to find any that were not made by Disney or inspired by his famous animated film. But I am a stubborn person who thinks Disney's Snow White is a far too popular remake. Which is not completely fair, as fairy tales have always had as many variations as they had story tellers.

A perfect, lovely, gleaming red apple whose sweetness masks a swirl of narcotic opium, oleander, and hemlock.

I have to admit that this scent smells as much as apple as I could ever expect an accord of essential oils to do. It is almost like a real apple, perhaps what makes it less real is that it is stronger than a real apple. And... warmer? At first I thought it was like cooked apple, but on second application I had to come back to that. Not like cooked apple, almost like fresh apple but... My scent-friend Voodoocat suggested it smells like poisoned apple. Since I never smelled a poisoned apple, I can not say if this is true. But I do know that this is a lot more comforting than anything poisened should be. Or perhaps that is just the trick with a poisoned apple: that it is so comforting one would not expect any harm to come from it. 


Oh dear, perhaps I should not wear this too often?