this is the perfume graveyard page

this is where i archive all the perfumes i once had but no longer do

antikythera mechanism - black phoenix alchemy lab - july 2024 (gave away)
teakwood, oak, black vanilla, and tobacco.
*** might end up giving this one to my boyfriend or somethin. don't get me wrong, it's good, i just like it on him that much more. very woodsy, very vanilla-y. smells like someone rubbed vanilla pods up against their oak desk. smells like sticking yourself in a vanilla-aged barrel or something. in short, i like the wood notes a lot, but not as much on my skin, which i probably should have expected in retrospect. it's almost too dark academia-y and woodsy (say it ain't so) for my taste, but i can understand why this is such a popular fragrance of theirs. ** gave to my boyfriend!

aelopile - black phoenix alchemy lab - january 2025 (gave away)
amber, citrus, labdanum, verbena, cedar, oud.
*** a delightfully fresh and yet warming incense-like scent. it offers heat and warmth and yet it smells like the outdoors somehow too. it almost reminds me of drying lemons in the oven. this is a very unique and strange blend, but man does it work. worth checking out if you like incense but get headaches from the stronger incense-y blends, especially if you tend to opt for more 'clean' fragrances. ** i gave this to my boyfriend because it's very up his alley.

scarlet kiss - alkemia - dec 2024 (gave away)
strawberries, rhubarb, cream musk, white tea.
*** the strawberry in this is still reminiscent of strawberry shampoo to me, however the tang of rhubarb offsets it enough to reel the scent back in. soon enough the musk and tea work to the surface, making a creamy but tangy, juicy scent, giving me a sort of strawberry milk tea vibe. i don't see myself getting a bigger bottle of this one, but i like this much more than the other strawberry scent for sure. i feel like this would be quite popular with a larger perfume audience since it has enough musk and tea to blend the scent into your skin while offering a juicy, indulgent element as well. would be nice for summer! ** gave to a friend who loves sweeter scents and was talking about wanting a perfume with more berry elements to it!

oyster! - poesie (gave away)
this was a free sample i gave to a friend the day i got my poesie stuff since it wasn't really my vibe-- a fresh, aquatic, almost cologne-y scent with a little somethin' 'different' to it. the friend i gave this to has since gone through like 3 bottles of the stuff so it's very beloved by him at least.

boheme - madame scodioli (gave away)
vanilla oak.

blood kiss - black phoenix alchemy lab (gave away)
vanilla, honey, clove, cherry, vetiver, poppy, wine, musk.
*** in the bottle this smells exactly like sweet cherry with a little dark somethin' somethin' to it--and it smells like that for about two seconds when i swipe it over my skin before it almost immediately dries down into something almost smoky with the lingering touch of a cherry. it really gives me vibes of the femme fatale in a noir playing with her cherry in her now-empty drink in the worn-down bar she has invited the detective to. and of course, she has to be wearing a deep red lipstick. ** gave to my boyfriend because i liked how the wine note smelled on him more than on me!

mouse's long and sad tale - black phoenix alchemy lab (gave away)
vanilla, two ambers, sweet pea, white sandalwood.
*** in the bottle this smells surprisingly floral. it smells very similar to cloven, the scented balm i carry with me, probably on account of having pretty much the same notes except for the addition of the sweet pea. which i really like! it brings a sort of cool edge to the scent. it's still largely a 'warm' scent but i do like the slight cool floral the sweet pea brings into it and almost makes it feel like it brings 'fresh air' into the scent. i will probably end up using cloven more just because the balm is easier to travel with, but this is a nice sample. also, out of the bpal scents i've tried thus far, this one has lasted the longest on my skin. ** idk where this went but i'm not too pressed about losing it, i barely wore it.

snake oil - black phoenix alchemy lab (gave away)
patchouli, vanilla, musk, spice.
*** this is a really nice scent. i can definitely understand why it's bpal's signature. it's a "dark" vanilla that slowly dissipates into a spicy, sweet musk. i can see this really appealing to people who like 'not a perfume' sort of scents with a darker edge to it. it feels like a perfume that is really designed to bounce off your body chemistry and if you're into these sort of darker, witchier, mysterious vibes that bpal caters to, this is definitely going to be a perfume to get. buuut i'm not intrigued by the 'not a perfume' perfumes and i like mixing and matching based off what i'm feeling or if i'm going somewhere specific or want to feel a certain way. so even though snake oil is a lovely scent, it doesn't really feel like it has much of an 'identity' beyond that. that said, i love the hair gloss that i own in this scent, and will likely repurchase that even though i can't see myself buying the perfume in a larger size. ** i ended up giving this to my boyfriend who likes to wear the perfume more in exchange for more of the hair gloss!

library - cherrykas trunk (gave away)
leather, books, rain, tea.
*** as you might have gleaned from my other pages i love the idea of smelling like i live in a bookstore. this one comes pretty close! on me the tea scent shows up a bit more than the paper notes do, but this just makes it a little cozier for me. it feels like i'm inside on a rainy day pouring over the stuff i have to sort with a cup of tea steaming into my face. i'm still on the hunt for something that will smell more like old paper and bindings, but this is a really nice scent, and probably more wearable thanks to the tea note. unfortunately my skin eats it up pretty fast so i have to reapply this one pretty often, but at least that means i'll probably actually get through the sample size i ordered. ** i ended up giving this away to someone who would wear it more than me!

unreliable narrator - cherrykas trunk (gave away)
oakmoss, fern, lavender, musk, black pepper.
*** i was worried this one would be too similar to restless dreaming but the black pepper somehow makes a big difference. there's an edge to this scent that the pepper draws out, which accentuates the restlessness an unreliable narrator might feel in their situation. i opt for restless dreaming over this one, probably due to my personal association with silent hill, but this is still good! ** gave it to the same person as the above!

old demons of the first class - black phoenix alchemy lab (gave away)
siberian musk, black clove, opoponax, tonka, black pepper, neroli.
*** not sure what to do with this one. in the bottle i wasn't particularly happy with it but tried wearing it for a day - the drydown is much more bearable, but i think i liked it mostly when i could barely smell it on my skin so it gave a sort of resin-y smoky after-scent to my skin. i even tried layering blood kiss on top of it to accentuate the smoky notes in both perfumes while hoping the cherry and lighter notes of blood kiss would offset all of old demons of the first class's notes but...no dice. i'll hold on to it and see what it does after a little while of resting, but i'll likely get rid of it. this is a very incense smoky-scenting perfume imo, but without any of the 'sweet resin' scent incense tends to have. it's a sophisticated blend, but much too harsh for me to like it.

** ok so i gave this one away to my friends and had a little fun experiment where i made the three of them all try it on. and it was really fun how different it smelled on all three of them. on one it went from tobacco-y to very vanilla, on another it got very clove and pepper-y, and on another it stayed rather incense-y like it is in the bottle. i liked smelling it on all three of them a lot so i'm glad that i could appreciate the scent while still managing to get rid of it bc there's no way i'll be wearing it myself.

baba yaga - fantome perfumes (finished)
black and red musk, a smoldering cauldron, cracked bone, cardamom, hanging animal skins, burning mugwort.
*** i only finished this one because i accidentally spilled a lot of the sample size i got from them. oops, lmao. but it smelled really good! kind of witch's cauldron-y. been a while so i can't really say more than that but it did really smell like what the notes advertise (to me).

red rock canyon - cherrykas trunk (gave away)
chaparral, pomegranate, rose, dhatura, sage, honey, spring water, rosemary.
*** yeah this one didn't do it for me :( i obviously really like this store's scents and recommend their stuff, but on me the perfume ended up mostly smelling like dirt with honey drizzled on top of it. i gave it away to someone who really liked it though, and i'm hoping she gets more wear out of it than i did!

spirit medium - paranormal perfumes (gave away)
calla lily, fern, teakwood, bergamot, patchouli, vanilla musk.
*** this was the sample i received with black moon milk. i actually really liked this scent but i have two cats and the store mentions she works with natural oils where she can/is feasible to do so. since one of the main notes in this is calla lily and it's extremely toxic for cats, i decided to give it away just in case that was one of the naturally-derived notes.

golden sandalwood - body oils by brenda
*** this is a single-note sandalwood scent, which is my favorite note and something i think is sort of a 'signature' for me. it smells quite good and i recommend it if you're also a sandalwood enjoyer, however it's worth mentioning that at least on me i have to reapply it really often if i want the scent to last. so i probably will not be repurchasing even though it smells creamy and delightful and not peppermint-y like a lot of single-note sandalwood scents seem to do.