As the days get shorter and colder, people are encountering the smells of the season. The burnt odor of a dormant furnace starting up, the reek of cheap whiskey off the mall Santa, and the sour smell of desperation from shoppers trying to find the last Wii on sale. This is assuming that your nose isn’t stopped up from the cold.
It is indeed fortunate that the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is here to provide some holiday aromatherapy. For that kid in all of us who wants that Christmas sugar buzz there’s Sugar Cookie 2008, for the adults there’s Butter Rum Cookie 2008, and for the very adult there’s Lick It Like You Mean It. Black Phoenix would like to remind you that Lick It Like You Mean It is meant to be smelled, not actually licked. Just remember that there are plenty of places where you can put your tongue to good use.
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And before people start complaining about this being too secular and the whole “War on Christmas” bullshit, Black Phoenix offers fragrances being on The Magi‘s offerings of frankincense and myrrh and the Midnight Mass, based on a traditional Roman Catholic sacramental incense.
And before some other people start complaining about this being all Christian-centric, Black Phoenix has plenty for you. For Hanukkah, there’s the scent of candles and oil for Hanerot Halalu and a mix of cocoa and golden amber for the traditional gift of Gelt. For the pagans, there’s the aroma of the dark forest, the beasts of the wild, and the old magic of the Germanic goddesses Frau Holle and Perchta. Even the classic pantheon is represented by the dark flowers and herbs of Larenta, the Roman goddess of death and silence, whose festival, Larentalia , is naturally celebrated in the dead of winter.
Black Phoenix has interpreted the various aspects of the stark beauty of the frozen winter landscape gets plenty of representation. The fun to be had in a winter wonderland is well represented with the snow-bright scents of Rose Red 2008, Snow Bunny 2008, and Snow White 2008. The dark woods and the harsh chill comes through in Shelley’s Lines Written Among The Euganean Hills, the romance of the long nights and all their mystery is distilled into Rilke’s On Darkness. and the bittersweet nostalgia and memories of things now dead can be found in Dickenson’s There’s A Certain Slant Of Light.
And if you want to get really dark, there’s the cold calculating evil that comes from the dark fragrance of The Winter Of Our Discontent. And the ultimate in icy desolation comes in Nuclear Winter 2008, a lively scent. Must be the high energy fallout.
With that pleasant thought, Merry Christmas.
- These scents can be purchased in the Limited Edition section of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.
