Today I visited my friend Shadesong [1] who was visiting her parents in South Florida. Also in attendance were (and for this entry, I'm using their LiveJournal [2] user names) enderfem [3], felisdemens [4] and we_happy_few [5].
Now, I thought we were getting together to hang out.
It turns out I ended up smackdab in the middle of a “BPAL (Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab) greet-n-sniff.”
What is a “BPAL greet-n-sniff?”
Well, BPAL is Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs [6] and they've applied the methods of Magic the Gathering [7] (which is a collectable card card game) to the equivalent of Chanel №5 [8]—in other words, a collectable fragrance line.
[a thousand imps of BPAL right here …] [9] [10]
Yes, the group of people I hung out with tonight are BPAL junkies, sniffing their way through a thousand different scents trying to find the perfect one (or hundred) that will complement their body chemistry. Apparently BPAL has been quite the phenomenon [11] since they started two years ago, driving sales of their perfume line by making limited edition perfumes [12], selling small sample sizes called imps [13] which drive a thriving secondary market [14].
Crazy stuff.
[1] http://shadesong.livejournal.com/
[2] http://www.livejournal.com/
[3] http://enderfem.livejournal.com/
[4] http://felisdemens.livejournal.com/
[5] http://we-happy-few.livejournal.com/
[6] http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/
[7] http://www.wizards.com/magic/
[9] /boston/2006/06/17/thumb.bpal.junkies.jpg
[10] /boston/2006/06/17/bpal.junkies.jpg
[11] http://www.devilducky.com/media/7452/
[12] http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/limited.html
[13] http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/sample.html
[14] http://health-beauty.search.ebay.com/bpal_Other-Brands_W0QQfsooZ2QQfsopZ19QQsacatZ11847
![[9] /boston/2006/06/17/thumb.bpal.junkies.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2006/06/17/thumb.bpal.junkies.jpg){kind=link}
![[10] /boston/2006/06/17/bpal.junkies.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2006/06/17/bpal.junkies.jpg){kind=link}