Wintersong: Parfumerie
Originally published on my old blog on March 30, 2016.
So I’m rather obsessed with Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfumes. I’ve been an avid fan since college, and consider many of their perfumes my signature scents.1 Moreover, I am a huge, huge, huge fan of their witchy goth aesthetic and dream of the day they might take Wintersong as inspiration for one of their lines.
(They already have a Labyrinth line, by the way, if any of y’all are so inclined. As you can see, I have already purchased their Jareth perfume. Beware: you may end up spending a lot of money here. Hide yo’ wallets, hide yo’ credit cards, unless you want to support an awesome woman-owned business who creates amazing vegan and cruelty-free works of art. Just saying.)2
Until that day, I shall have to content myself with creating ideas for Wintersong scents myself. Unfortunately, I have no perfumery skills whatsoever, but in that fantasy world where I do, these are the scents I would create:
Liesl
A subtle fragrance, but one with unexpected boldness. A light floral bouquet of roses, jasmine, and ivy warmed by sandalwood and golden musk.
The Goblin King
Mysterious, mischievous, but surprisingly spiritual. Dark vetiver, holy incense, with notes of soft leather and violet.
Käthe
A bright, pretty, nearly frivolous scent that nearly obscures a strong base. Daisies, sweet pea, Calla lily, and patchouli, with just the slightest hint of strawberries.
Josef
One foot in this world and another in the realm of the fey. An old fashioned fougère layered over oakmoss and dirt.
Goblin Glamour
Sweet at first, until you realize you can no longer trust your senses. Summer peaches, sugared violet, poppy, wine, and tobacco leaf.
The Underground
The scent of sleeping earth. Oakmoss, twigs, juniper, and pine.
Twig
A goblin girl. Cotton blossoms wound around cedarwood.
Thistle
A prickly goblin girl. Sassafras punctuated with sharp lavender, orange blossom, and a pinch of pink pepper.
Goblin Wine
The taste of sin. Blackberry brandy, cherries, sugared rose, and dragon’s blood resin.
The Lorelei
A seductive, ethereal beauty that disguises terrifying depths. A floral aquatic, the scent of still lakes, moss, honeyed grasses, and wild flowers layered over patchouli, vetiver, and oudh.
Changeling
Hard to pin down, a scent that morphs from sweet to dark and back again. Honey and tonka bean, patchouli and red musk.
The Wolf
Wildness and winter kept in check. Cracked ice, pine woods, grey moss covered with the thinnest veneer of amber.
You, Entire
The scent of fullness and promise. Red sandalwood, amber, white gardenia, and star jasmine.
At the moment I wearing Mary Read, named for one of the famous lady pirates of the Golden Age of Piracy.
And no, I am not being paid to pimp BPAL; I genuinely fucking love them. I mean, how can you not love a business that creates a joke line called The Collected Poetic Works of Antonin Scalia and donates all proceeds from every single bottle to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Trevor Project, and the National Center for Transgender Equality?