Widge’s note: Ladies and gents, please welcome to the podium: Rox of Spazhouse, our resident artist and advocate for more lighting.
Phoenix Alchemy Lab has created a very large selection of scented wonders based on themes and holidays over the years. Such themes run from gothic to the very intriguing Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett perfume oils. These perfumes are oils, which which have a more concentrated scent than colognes, which are diluted with alcohol.
As the Need Coffee’s Steampunk aficionado, I am happy to review two samples of Phoenix Lab’s Steamworks and Research Facility perfumes. Airships, linen, velvet, gears, mechanisms, and of course goggles are some of the accoutrements to the world of steampunk. The perfume names and descriptions invoke a times and adventures that occurred in the unlimited expanse of your imagination.
First up: The Coil.
[ad#longpost]The Coil’s written description invokes the effects of a mad scientist’s experiment full of power and energy. This perfume contains a delicate mixture of ozone, eucalyptus, mint purple orchid, passionflower, white ginger and purple lotus.
Reading the ingredients I would first think that the scent would be heady and perhaps too flowery. Upon opening the 5ml amber Alice in Wonderland type bottle. I was pleasantly surprised to notice that the sharp clean smell of the perfume, I believe that could be from the initial mint and eucalyptus. While drying, the perfume has a cloying layered scent. At times one can smell the white ginger, which is a very light scent, offset with the ozone like charged air. This is a very subtle perfume that stays with you all day, and you catch different notes while wearing it.
I have worn it to work where I am in contact with some scent sensitive individuals and most have liked the scent as it was not overpowering. I recommend this for anyone who likes a cool clean scent while wearing your crisp linen on an Indian Summer day.
Second, The Antikythera Mechanism.
The Antikythera Mechanism give you the sense being in a busy workshop of polished gears and polished wood.
The ingredients: teakwood, oak, black vanilla and tobacco. This is a much headier and stronger scent than The Coil; when opening the bottle you get a waft of smokiness with a bit of sweetness from the black vanilla. The vanilla is not overpowering, as the oak and teakwood have their own layers that come to the surface when the scent is dried. The perfume invokes a feel of a warm refined adventurer’s club or gentleman’s workshop, this worked extremely well as I tried this scent while traveling on a cold Greyhound bus. I enjoyed this scent very much, but if you are around scent sensitive people use it very sparingly, as it is a richer scent than Coil.
I recommend both these scents for your next airship adventure, steampunk soiree or simply puttering about your workshop.
