Isabel’s Rose is a glasscrafter whose slightly macabre tendencies manifest as some unique goth baubles. Her signature piece is the heart, thousands of which she’s sold through her etsy shop LORiOLA, encased in caresses of swirls, or for the more romantically impaired, stitched up, bitten, or poked through with bones. And glass does not equal light and delicate (and I really need to go back and edit her review) – they’re actually heavyish little suckers that have the potential to take out an eye if flung in a tragic direction. The piece she sent us, above, is coated in iridescent white that lets the clarity of the glass seep through in places, rugged and slightly distressed and nicely backgrounding the drop of blood – but being knitted back together! This is a hopeful necklace. Custom is welcome, and now’s a very good time to hit her shop, because it’s sale time.

Black Corset Candles, a relatively new webshop that aims to inject a little sensuality into waxwork, have actually been at this biz for about eight years and spurn paraffin in favor of soy. Their creations come in a variety of cute packages, and the industrial-chic silver tin pictured above is their “One Night Stand” travel candle. And going from the black raspberry & vanilla blend they picked out for us, the scents are quite delicious when lit up. The travel candles run five bucks a pop, and you can choose the cheaper route of two-dollar votives or splash out on a glass container festooned with tiny handcuffs.

Lipsticks and Pistol Whips blends rocker strut with hiphop ice in their small line of tees, splashed with lipstick kisses, rhinestones, skulls, and gold cursive. Printed on supersoft cotton, the attitudinal imagery is flaunted on babydolls and tanks – the “Hellcats Revenge” top they sent us is a fitted, feminized version of a muscle tee, with a wide neck and cap sleeves that look freshly scissored but have been thoughtfully serged at the edge so they won’t fall apart or roll back. Shirts are available in standard sizes, and prices run between $10-$20 for classic tees to $50 for longsleevers.

A few weeks ago we welcomed Seraphemera Books to our directory, and noted the Houston enthusiasm around their comic Polyglot and Spleen. A charming meander through a goth perspective that doesn’t take itself too seriously, the first issue is “How I Met My Spleen.”

This introductory story focuses on the poetic wanderings of Polyglot, the gentleman of the pair, and ends with the sudden appearance of vampy Polyglot. There are a couple of fashiony pinups at the back, as if to make up for her absence throughout the story, and it looks as if she’s a trickster type.

Reality is never far away from these characters, but it’s presented as more laughably absurd than depressing, with sillier and sillier stuff appearing in the background – a mysterious labyrinth outfitted with restrooms and a souvenir stand, a nineteenth-centrury gambling hall transforming into a game show. It’s a nice deflation of the pervasive, outdated “mopey goth” stereotype, while pointing out the ludicrous balms of the mainstream.

Always feeling like there’s an arched eyebrow lurking in the background, Polyglot and Spleen looks fun to follow if you dig dressing up, nightclubbing, and pondering a dark existence with a sense of humor. Issues run five bucks, and #2 will appear in March 2007.

Mandrake Apothecary is a pagan-run perfumerie that specializes in cruelty-free, handmade scents. They first appeared in the Chateau back in November, and they recently sent us a surprise package full of dabbables.

First of all, a moment for the care taken in the packaging. An almost clothlike butterfly tissue…

…cocooning a meticulous arrangement of samples. You gotta love it when a merchant puts your merch together like this.

I love what happens when the underground reinterprets traditional beauty packaging. (Ridiculous tangent: A few months ago, a salesperson in Macy’s bombarded me with a yelp of, “would you like to try HEIRESS?” Good gods, why don’t you just ask me if I’d like to try on a spritz of formaldehyde?) Here we have the little sample dram nestled booklike between an ingredients list and explanation of the name.

So what have we here? The Natural Perfumes are artisan scents, such as Asherah, a blend of grapefruit and florals named for the Queen of Heaven. Anima reclaim the feminine aspect: Medea, which features ginger lily, pink lotus, and blood orange, Sophia, where the frankincense and myrrh of her biblical background is sweetened with vanilla, white lotus, and orange flower, Lilith, who’s made of sage, three kinds of frankincense, and a distillation of baked mud from the Ganges in sandalwood, and Jezebel, a pairing of jasmine and leather. Spiritus is a line of autumn-themed oils and includes Pan Dulce, “sweets for the dead,” in homage to both Day of the Dead and the origins of trick or treat in Ireland, Cafe y Cacao, chocolate warmed up with coffee and cinnamon, and Ofrenda, a meditational oil for All Saints Day blending Mexican copal, fir needles, and tonka beans. A couple more scents that I didn’t see on the website but were thrown in anyway were Nyx, flowers with musk ambrette, and Tisane, darjeeling mixed with rose. (which, now that I’m reading the site again, is part of a new tea-themed collection.)

Samples run $4 apiece, with discounts on volume ordering. Overall, quite nice between some unusual ingredient combinations and the gift-wrap presentation.

New designs from Sick on Sin, which are all about zombies and zombie animals, served in oversized matchbook packages.

This is about as dark as they get, as the rest of their imagery trades on unabashed cute. A good way for horror-lovin’ parents to gently introduce the Romero world to little ones.

November Fire is a webshop that specializes in all sorts of dark-themed tees, and within their pages of politics, Halloween, occult, and general outlaw shirts, they’re particularly good for b-movie horror imagery and Olde Witchcraft engravings. Even better, they have a variety of styles to print them on – in addition to the classic t, there are girls fits, longsleevers, strapped, oversized hip-hop 8XL, and hoodies. And their name is derived from a kickass Samhain album, which is what prompted us to list them in the first place ;)

Above: The Girl’s Spaghetti Strap is printed on American Apparel Classic Girl. The image is Coffin 13, from their Everything Else page. Skull, wings, coffin – yep, everything’s present for a decent goth tank top.

And look, it’s available as an emboidered patch! Yes, there’s a page of wearables for your jean jacket, again with a good range, from sacred hearts and Celtic dragons to poison labels and pentagrams.

The Girl Cut tee is also printed on Classic Girl, and this little guy can be found on the Halloween page. Yep, even through you’re warned not to come in unless you’re over 18 – they really don’t want to be bothered with people complaining about offensiveness – there are some pretty cute things for younger goths, even if they don’t technically carry kids’ sizes.

The Escutcheon of Death hoody combines righteous imagery from 1538 (death as a dispenser of justice, according to the catalog) with modern, comfy streetwear. On a Hanes no-shrink Beefy-T, no less.

A close-up of the righteous imagery.

And if you’re always in the market for new shirts, this site’s worth bookmarking – new designs are added about every 2 weeks.