Let me preface this perfume review with the following note: anytime I read the word "Moor," be it in the context of Shakespeare's Othello or Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, I can't help but think of The Bubble Boy episode of Seinfeld. Therefore, much as I'd like to get into an analysis of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's perfume Othello as its composition relates to the play and racial stereotyping and gender performances and blah blah blah, I cannot trust myself not to write "Moops" throughout the review, and so I'll stick to telling you about its soft, rose-tinged goodness instead.
Price: $17.50 for a 5 mL amber glass bottle of perfume oil with polyseal cap.
Samples: Available for $4.00 or as part of a 6-pack for $22.
(More details about price and shipping can be found in our Company Overview post about Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.)
Description from the website: "Arabian musk with two roses and a bevy of Middle Eastern and Indian spices."
Some perfumes take some getting to know before you can appreciate them; for instance, Arcana's Alec d'Urberville is one I disliked initially, sold, and then repurchased when I couldn't stop thinking about it. Some perfumes take some time to dry down and interact with your skin's heat before their true beauty comes out. However, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's Othello is one of the rare perfumes that I liked from the very first moment it hit my skin.
Othello is a very gentle rose perfume suffused with Arabian musk--a musk that is mild and soft, almost creamy, lying somewhere between the laundry-fresh sharpness of white musk and the powderiness of black musk. The rose is clearly rose, untempered with other floral notes, which may strike fear in the heart of rose-phobic perfume lovers, but don't be afraid. I find it very wearable--not sharp or overly strong.
It has a slightly fruity quality to it and gives an impression of being clean and sweet, though not so sweet it falls directly in the "women's perfume" category; I think it could be worn as a unisex scent.
It's not a challenging or very sophisticated perfume, mind you--it could easily be a functional fragrance, used to scent a dryer sheet or fabric softener. I don't really smell the spices listed in the scent description, honestly, but something, possibly those spices, gives it a sense of being layered and somewhat heavier than the flower-and-musk combo might suggest.
Othello is lovely and it's a perfume I would definitely recommend to someone looking for a floral scent from the BPAL general catalog, but actions speak louder than words, so I must disclose that this is also a scent I've never had the particular urge to buy a full bottle of, or even to stockpile imps of. So I would categorize it, for me, as a perfume that works, and is lovely, but doesn't turn your head and make you obsess over it and dream about it. Let's call it a girl-next-door type of scent rather than a femme fatale?
MOOP OUT. PEACE.
Note: this scent is vegan.
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