+ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE
Perfume oil blends. Presented in an amber apothecary glass vial. Because of the nature of this project, imps are unavailable.
350 bottles were created for each scent, and when they’re gone, they’re gone.
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is thrilled to present a series of scents based on Jim Jarmusch’s critically acclaimed film and soundtrack, ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE.
ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE tells the tale of two fragile and sensitive vampires, Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton), who have been lovers for centuries. Both are cultured intellectuals with an all-embracing passion for music, literature and science, who have evolved to a level where they no longer kill for sustenance, but still retain their innate wildness.
Adam, a reclusive underground musician hiding out in the ruins of contemporary Detroit, despairs about human civilization’s decline, and worries about future survival.Eve, who is perhaps 3000 years old to Adam’s 500, takes a longer view of history and is more optimistic. She leaves her home in the ancient city of Tangier to come to his side.
As blood has been tainted by the zombies (humans), the formerly immortal Adam and Eve must secure uncontaminated blood from hospitals or they will perish. Eve’s close friend, Elizabethan dramatist and unacknowledged author of Shakespeare’s plays—Christopher Marlowe (John Hurt), is now an elder vampire who provides Eve with hospital blood. Adam gets his supply from Dr. Watson (Jeffrey Wright), a skittish hematologist who provides safe blood at a price.
Adam and Eve’s precarious footing is further threatened by the uninvited arrival of Eve’s carefree and uncontrollable little sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska). Unlike Adam and Eve, Ava hasn’t yet learned to tame her wilder instincts, and her recklessness concerns Adam.
Driven by sensual photography, trance-like music, and droll humor, Jim Jarmusch’s ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE is a meditation on art, science, memory, and the mysteries of everlasting love.
Jim Jarmusch has long been considered a seminal figure in American independent cinema. His films are often noted for their transcendent minimalism and upturning of traditional genres such as the road movie, western, crime-film, and detective story. Born in Akron, Ohio, Jarmusch lives and works in New York.
Justin –
I bought this scent for two reasons. One, I absolutely love coffee, and two, the reviews were good and mostly everyone says it smells exactly like coffee, one in particular claimed it was just like walking into a coffee shop, and the other stated people around sworn she was holding a cup of coffee. However, I don’t really get a strong coffee smell from it. I get more of a creamy / spice smell. There is a very slight aroma of coffee, but not as much as I would like there to be. All in all, the scent itself smells rather nice.
Meghan –
I must preface this by saying I AM a foodie-scent lover, but this blend goes above and beyond. Coffee – the type strong enough for a thick crema on top – is the immediate note. For the first 10 minutes, people would swear I was holding a cup of the strongest coffee available. But then the dry-down brings out the cardamom and other spices. The coffee is still there – oh yes – but it becomes warmer, deeper, and more interesting. If you want to do something really fun with it, add a drop of pure vanilla (not the floral kind). Bought 2 more bottles as soon as I wore this for one day. A perfect fall/winter scent (or if you are meeting someone at a coffee shop for a chat).
STK –
In the bottle it’s pungent, almost cloying, warm, sweet spices. You’ve stumbled into a tiny exotic café or shop and the air is so thick with the aroma of spices that you get high just breathing. Wet on the skin the spices explode – I imagine this is what Dune’s spice coffee must smell like. Dry on the skin the shisha comes out, a wonderful smoky scent with a bit of a bite from the pepper, and a drop of warmth from the coffee. After a few hours, the spices show up again for me, but mellow … maybe a bit soapy. It’s a much cooler scent on my skin than in the vial. A lovely, complex scent. I can’t stop smelling it. Hmm… Instant favourite!
PidgeyPie –
So good and super unique!
I expected it to be a very foodie scent when I ordered it: and even though the coffee scent is very strong when the perfume is wet on the skin, Cafe Mille dries down to be very smoky and spicy on me. I don’t find it overpowering either. I haven’t really smelled anything quite like it before. Some spicy or smokey perfumes I’ve tried in the past have been either too powdery or too cloying for my taste. But to me this smells like the perfect combination of coffee and cigarettes… but nicer, I promise. Like sipping an espresso in the back room of an expensive cigar shop. Woody, smoky, and sweet.
One of my first buys, and one of my favorites.
Definitely worth a shot if you’re looking for something spicy and a little out of the box!
Velvet Lilly –
This may be unlike any other BPAL coffee scent that I know of, because it’s not foodie. Instead, it’s the very place. It’s the tiny, close, cafe itself and the scent of coffee infused into the room…..the wood…the walls….the cushions. And on me, there is magic. It changes like images flicker when they go in and out of focus. The thick Turkish coffee stays present, but it wends it’s way behind other scents as they bloom on warm skin. I can’t name them, so my brain went…..sarsparilla? Red musk? Warm, comforting, old wood? It didn’t matter, the journey itself of the scent bloom and silage was just too beautiful and unique to care. It is refulgent. I loved every second of it.
boomtownrat –
Cafe Mille et une Nuits is a lot more subtle than I expected, with only moderate throw. It’s not at all heady or overpowering, but it’s deep, warm, and otherworldly. Picking out the individual notes isn’t easy, but I’ll try. First there’s shisha, which is the dominant note on my skin for most of this scent’s long lifespan. It’s much more pleasing than ordinary tobacco smoke and is almost like incense. This coffee note is nothing like the others I’ve tried. It’s an expensive whole bean variety that you have to buy in a specialty shop, whereas the usual coffee note is more like the best stuff you can buy at Trader Joe’s: both are good, but this feels richer in every sense of the word. Cinnamon, which normally amps on my skin, barely sweetens the blend along with cardamom, clove, and nutmeg. Black pepper is just noticeable, giving it a little kick. The scent is extremely well blended and not foodie at all on me. It strongly evokes the place as seen in the film.
Around the corner from my house there are a couple of MIddle Eastern restaurants that double as hookah lounges. While they aren’t nearly as exotic as the images this scent conjures, I find myself wanting to go to those places when I wear Cafe Mille et une Nuits, just for the closest I can get to that experience without booking a flight. I can almost see the residue of shisha. This will be excellent all year round, mostly at night, but not so strong that it feels out of place in the daytime.
Mergekat –
Café Mille et une Nuits:
Simply amazing! It smells like robust, warm Moorish coffee at a hookah café. But there’s also a whispy hint of shisha tobacco in the background as it fades. It makes me think of the local Perc Place coffee, plus Epcot’s Morocco district. It has ambience to it. The only problem is my skin PH absorbs foodie/coffee scents like crazy. I think I’ll need more of this.