New things!

In case you missed it, we had a fantastic debut from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab this past month: a gorgeous collection of Montreal-themed perfumes!

The announcement from the Black Phoenix Gazette says it all. :-)

We also have a lovely little collection from Arcana, inspired by the Song of Songs:

SOAPS

Song of Songs: Winter is Past
My beloved spoke and said to me,
Arise my fair one and come away
For, lo, the winter is past--
The rain is over and gone.
Hot ginger, sweet mint, bergamot,
clove, and cedarwood. Made with organic coconut milk, Tussah silk, sweet almond oil, & organic oats.

Song of Songs: Honey and Milk
Honey and milk are under thy tongue.
The scent of honeycomb, sweet cinnamon, cream, emmer, nutmeg, peppercorns, and barley. Made with local, organic honey, finely ground organic oats, fresh goat milk, and a swirl of ground cinnamon.

Song of Songs: A Thread of Scarlet
Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet.
Exotic tuberose, lavender, fresh lime, pomegranate, gardenia, lily
of the valley, heady jasmine, and red currant. Made with organic coconut milk, Tussah silk, golden cocoa butter, and macadamia oil.

PERFUME OILS

Song of Song: Honey and Milk
Honey and milk are under thy tongue.
The scent of honeycomb, sweet cinnamon, cream, emmer, nutmeg, peppercorns, and barley.

Song of Songs: A Thread of Scarlet
Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet.
Exotic tuberose, lavender, fresh lime, pomegranate, gardenia, lily of the valley, heady jasmine, and red currant.

Arcana - Shiver Ensemble

The "Shiver Ensemble" is a series of four perfumes that play on the mystery and magic of words, evoking the movement from winter into spring as the cold and darkness falls away to reveal new life. And as a symbol of that life - honey, a note all of these perfumes share.

Shiver Perfume Oil (Limited Edition): An armful of pale flowers: tuberose, royal jasmine, jasmine sambac, white osmanthus, gardenia, muguet, and narcissus; honey, chilled peppermint, and smoky frankincense.

Hiver Perfume Oil (Limited Edition): Ruby grapefruit, French cognac absolute, pink pepper, mirabelle plum, honey, and a drop of aged patchouli.

Hive Perfume Oil (Limited Edition): Honey, wild rose, amber resin, sticky beeswax, milk, and a buzz of rose geranium.

I Perfume Oil (Limited Edition): Rich amber, labdanum, white pepper, black pepper, cognac absolute, honey, cardamom, and red patchouli.

Shiver - I expected to be overwhelmed by the white flowers, or to find the combination of honey and florals too sweet. And this blend is indeed sweet, but not in a remotely cloying way. The lightest touch of mint keeps this a little fresh, and the frankincense grounds it. This becomes a dense, creamy floral that feels as sweet, feminine and cozy as a luxurious white cashmere sweater. Gorgeous, and probably my favorite out of the four.

Hiver - The grapefruit and pepper combine to give this a delightfully astringent top note, that fades into a graceful blend. The patch is a very light note here, supporting the brightness of the plum and restraining any excess the honey might be prone to. The cognac is, to me, undetectable.

Hive - Absolutely beautiful rose and honey blend, with the milk note barely there but softening everything up. It has a faintly "dirty" note that is probably the amber, and keeps this from being too pretty. It feels like something ancient and female, like it would be equally at home on a 1940s vanity as it would anointing a priestess' hands. For someone who doesn't wear rose easily, this is a rose perfume I would reach for without hesitation.

I Perfume - A textured resin blend, that is gentler than I would have expected from the notes. The spices are there, but well balanced by the honey. This dries down, like most resin-heavy perfumes do, to that kind of deep, warm, powdery finish that leaves you snuffling your wrists throughout the day. And if you normally find patchouli too dirty or 'thin', red patchouli will be a pleasant surprise.

All of these are currently available on our site.

Holiday Collections

I'm so excited about the new things coming in this week! Check out our Winter shop for the selection.

We received the China Glaze 'Tis the Season nail polishes earlier this week, and they're already a hit. If you haven't seen swatches for these yet, I highly recommend checking out those featured on All You Desire or Scrangie's blog. A great mix of classic and whimsical shades.

We're also now featuring OPI for sale to our online retail clients, as an extension of our in-house service. We still have a bit of both Burlesque and the Swiss Collection left.

The Villainess winter items are juuuust around the corner. Literally. They're sitting in the Montreal postal sorting center, and I was expecting them to be delivered today, until I realized that all services are closed due to it being Memorial Day. They should, however, be in by tomorrow. If you want to have an advanced peek, they are listed on both the Winter page and the Villainess LE page.

EDIT (Nov. 12): And they're in!

I am personally really looking forward to Just Desserts - it smells like a vaguely malicious Dreamsicle, if soap could have ill intent. ;-)

No teasers yet about the Arcana holiday update, but we'll let you know as soon as we know. =)

Arcana Early Autumn Collection

With snow looming here in Canada, I feel like a brief reminder of days gone by is called for.

Which brings me to the this collection - two lovely soaps and three perfumes, evoking the bittersweet nature of the last days of the Summer season, and the dawn of Fall.

1816 - Shivery peppermint, Madagascar vanilla, white sugar, creamed butterscotch, snowy fondant, fog, sleet, hail, and a tiny bite of silvery fir.

Scathach - Highland grass, green apples, almonds, fir needles, and honey-speared citrus.

1816 is beautifully brisk and refreshing, not quite chilly. Scathach is a distant cousin to my beloved Avalon, which doubles as an autumn fragrance for me.

Danced to Pieces - Blushing candy sweetness and an angelic tangle of strawberry, raspberry, red currant, pink grapefruit, and white sugar weave a spell above a flagrantly destructive, self-indulgent base of dark peppery musk, resinous amber, heady cognac, opiate-laced cassis cordial, and the faint remains of a silver leaf.

The Sunflower's Lament - Tears on the warmest, brightest day: apricot, chamomile, opoponax resin, petitgrain, peach, lavender, green cognac, heather, heliotrope, sweet clove, sticky benzoin, and iron-distilled patchouli.

The Moonflower’s Bliss - Happiness under a starless sky: moon vine, heartleaf milkweed, Calla lily, white tuberose, gardenia, and Madagascar bridal veil with creamy butter CO2 extract, pearl musk, white pepper, and a trace of incense.

Three very different perfumes.

Danced to Pieces has an astringent opening, nose-tickling even, as the tart berries and sharp cassis mix with the sugared booze. This phase did not do well on me, but after a bit it begins to mellow, warm and deepen until it becomes a gorgeous, deeply spiced amber. A surprise win.

The Sunflower’s Lament is the perfect resin for folks who tend to prefer foody notes and shy away from heavier blends. Tons of earth notes and resins, yet what comes across is a bright, golden fragrance, juicy and sweet, that softens gently into a musky, lightly powdered finish.

The Moonflower’s Bliss. Oh. OH. A wonderfully luxurious yet utterly wearable tropical floral. Voluptous white blooms with sheer, light counterpoints, and a gentle, creamy drydown. I really hope this one is brought into the general catalogue.

Actually, I hope all of them are folded into the permanent line. In the meantime, indulge in these last bits of early Fall before we’re blanketed by snow.

Shipping Changes and New Things For Fall

Canada Post is many things, but inexpensive isn't one of them. We're always looking to bring you guys wonderful, unique products at affordable prices, and working out the shipping has been challenging, to say the least. (Never mind the irony that it's less expensive to ship very light packages to the States, than it is to our neighboring province.)

Please check out the new rates here.

For international orders, please e-mail us for a quote.

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In other news, we finally have the fall collections from both Villainess and Arcana! Returning favorites and some new yumminess to indulge in. =)

My personal favorites?

Arcana's Holy Terror (soap and perfume) for its beautiful, heavy resins and beeswax sweetness. EDIT: Wow, we're officially out of Holy Terror soap!

Cobwebs from Villainess - possibly the most gorgeous-looking and seasonally apropos soap ever. It's also available in some experimental sizes and formats - a 2ml corked dram bottle of perfume, and a ceramic candle. This is not a sweet, foody fragrance (which abound in both collections), but rather something that encapsulates the darker aspects of the season.

Site update - Infos pour le site web

The website is steadily coming along. I have a few days of work left on product cataloguing and photography. But I'm very excited by the prospect of going live towards the end of next week, quite probably.

I also just got a preview of what Arcana has planned for the Early Autumn release and it sounds delicious! Definitely original, but still very much in the spirit of classic Arcana.

Le site Web achève! J'ai encore quelques jours de travail pour cataloguer et photographier certains produits. Mais je pense être prête pour la fin de la semaine prochaine.

J'ai également vu ce que Arcana a prévu pour la collection de "Early Autumn" et cela semble délicieux ! Original, mais toujours dans l'esprit des Arcana classiques.

Arcana - An Introduction

I want to introduce you to another of my favorite independent soap companies - Arcana Soaps and Perfumes. Julia makes some outstanding cold-processed soap, using scent blends that owe more to perfumery than traditional soap-making.


These are fabulous soaps with a smooth, creamy lather, though the individual properties of each vary with the specific oils used in the individual recipe (i.e.: macadamia, black cocoa butter, etc.). They feel heavy in your hand and look beautiful stacked on your vanity or arranged in a pretty bowl. (I keep them in a pretty hatbox to conserve the scent, but then again I'm a soap freak and need to hoard a stash to last me through the Apocalypse.) The labels are all unique and reflect the concept of the scent blend, and are so pretty that I often hesitate in breaking one open.

Then there are the scrubs, which are generally only made during the cooler months of the year, in order to preserve the luscious texture during shipping.

These are definitely not lightweight. They are thick and scoop-able like cake batter, loaded with oils and butters and scrubby bits to smooth away dry, crackly skin. I confess that I rarely use them in the summer, but I break them out when the weather starts cooling. I like to stock up for the winter months, and I've found that a little goes a long way, as these are potently moisturizing and quite scrubby.


The scent is strong and beautiful in the shower, but doesn't stay too long on the skin afterward, which I prefer as it doesn't interfere with my scent selection for the day.


And then we come to, of course, the perfumes. Hand-blended from both natural and synthtic essences , they range from the straightforward to the subtle and textured. They also, more than any other perfume oil I've tried, improve markedly with aging. Frequently it's only after a year that they become utterly seamless and more complex, as notes mature and meld together in beautiful ways.


The labels are also darling, both for more limited creations and ones in the regular line-up. This is a small example:

Arcana also offers a small selection of facial care, which I have yet to try.