Fall has finally arrived here in Florida. Our high temperature was only at the low 70s. Of course, whether it stays we will have to see. Fall tends to fluctuate around here. But the (temporary) chill in the air does help with getting in the mood for the Black Phoenix Halloween perfume lines. So gather around my Halloween people–November or not, it is time to explore the frightening fragrances and supernatural scents from the olfactory occultists of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.
[ad#longpost]First off, there is a scent that will delight our Candy Coated Princess of Darkness and Anne of Green Gables fangirl, Kim. Anne waxes poetic about the colors of autumn. But Black Phoenix celebrates the scents of A World Where There Are Octobers and thus celebrates autumn in Green Gables with fallen leaves and maple boughs. Another scent that is inspired by fall is Autumn Fancies, a light nostalgic fragrance with the crispness of drying grasses and amber for the waning light of the season. When the light finally wanes into night, you have the poem September Midnight, with its amber chypre made darker with myrrh and Persephone’s favorite fruit, the pomegranate. The perfume, like the poem, contemplates the relief autumn gives from the summer heat but knows that winter is coming.
From the season to the reason for the season, we have scents that speak of Halloween and all its permutations around the world. We have plenty of old favorites with the fresh flowers and leaves of the cocoa and tobacco plants from the Bolivian festival of Day of the Skulls 2013, the heady spices and the dangerous nectar of the agave of the ancient Aztec death goddess Mictecacihuatl 2013 and the spiced pumpkin and apple of the pagan Samhain 2013. As a contrast to these dark scents is Flor de Muerto, the orange marigold which has been associated with Death since the pre-Columbian era. Their bright yellow-orange petals remind the dead of the sunlit world and give some happiness to those who dwell in the dark.
Since this is also the time for tasty treats, we have Dark Pumpkin Mead made even sweeter with honey and maple. It’s the kind of drink where it goes down so easy and it isn’t until it’s far too late that you are saying and doing terribly inappropriate things. Then there is the Goblin Market, where their selections of fresh fruits are sweet and juicy but the price for their wares may be too high. Ooky is a sweet dessert of spiced pumpkin cake with marzipan filling and butter-cream icing with a little lemon zest for a bit of bite.
A useful techniques to treat phobias is systematic desensitization, where a patient is exposed to the subject of the phobia and is thus helped to lessen the impact it causes. We also know that smell is a powerful sense and has connections in the brain with memory and mood. So Black Phoenix has developed a course of olfactory treatment called Phobos to help those poor benighted souls that are afraid of the various aspects of Halloween. For instance, there’s Achluophobia (Fear of Darkness), a powerful overwhelming scent with black patchouli and black musk with tobacco absolute and opoponax that will envelop you in its dark embrace. On the other side there is Phasmophobia (Fear of Ghosts) with its light touch that seems to come from nowhere yet chills you to the bone with a pale shroud scented with calla lilies, white sandalwood, snow rose, white amber and iced wine. Those pitiable wretches who have Samhainophobia (Fear of Halloween), they can inhale this fragrance with the graveyard earthiness of Haitian vetiver, oakmoss, and patchouli and the eerie ceremony within with balsams, clove, and bourbon geranium as offering to… something Other.
I could go on and on about all the the perfumes available as well as all the candles, atmosphere sprays, bath oils, and hair oils available at The Black Phoenix Trading Post. But I fear we would enter Too Long; Read Later territory. And that is The Undiscovered Country for bloggers. So I will simply say Happy Halloween. For many of us, it’s always Halloween in our hearts.
