Blood Rose

[Elrianra]

Sensual, robust, and silken: voluptuous red rose bursting with lascivious red wine and sultry dragon’s blood resin.

Ohhhhhh, urngh. That's pretty! In the bottle it's sweet and thick and soooo very smooth; roses and dragon's blood dirtied wine. Dark and decadent, this has candlelight and fancy dinner with a french waiter doting out the champagne written all over it. Wet on my skin, the dragon's blood seeps out and trickles along my veins, tracing its sticky sweet way up my arms and curling around me in a velvet-petals gown of darkest reds, pouring a heady wine into my palms for me to drink up and delight in. I'm also picking up a musk - not black but darker than the ones in Aglaea, I'll guess a heavy red musk then. As it dries, the dragon's blood gets a little spicy and the wine leaps to the front, giving me a heady spicy dark-wood-aged wine with enough kick in it to fell a horse. The roses smooth the wine a bit, tame the dragon's blood mildly and generally soften this from a "vicious" to a "seductive" scent. Thick and direct, but just gentle enough to skate by as proper - this is a distinctly elegant rose blend, high class is the best words I have for this. This one lasts several hours in a vague hazy blend of roses and bloodied wine that is at once intensely spicy and throaty and delicately genteel; near the end of life, there's a bit of a powdery faze that subtly dusts off with a final kiss of rose petals and then it's gone.

[mirutai]

On me, this starts incredibly sweet and sticky, like rose-flavoured bubblegum. Over time, it fades down to a rather lovely damp, juicy rose... but I'm not sure I can sit through the initial OMG SWEET! blast to get to the end result!

[The Perfumed Ferret]

If there was one scent I wish I could afford to douse myself in this would be it. Bright red cherries, sultry dragon's blood, and just a hint of musk.

[Brianne]

In the vial:

Smell that wine!

 

On me:

The wine is very apparent on me. In fact, I didn't know what was in this blend (it was a freebie in a swap) but as soon as I put it on, I thought "Wow that is just like a freshly opened bottle of wine". It doesn't take long for the rose to come out though - a little more subtle than usual (ie not quite headache inducing for me). The dragon's blood resin is very in the background on this, I was a little surprised at that. It just adds a sort of powdery floral note to this.

 

Final note:

Pretty blend - very feminine and what I would call "romantic" (red roses and wine of course!).

[tidesong]

In the Bottle: Hm. Sickly sweet, with a lingering sourness. Almost nauseating.

 

On Application: Gah. I don't know what this sour smell is in this. It's not attractive at all. Luckily, a little bit of rose is coming through, but not enough to hide whatever it is that I perceive as being sour. Sour roses, that's all I smell. I wonder if it's the 'red wine'.

 

On Drydown: Ick. Artificially sweet, syrupy rose. This is really not pleasant at all.

 

Comments: Nothing else to add.

 

Verdict: Swapporama.

[gloom bear]

This started out a sweet rosey smell, not perfumey at all. But I'm a rose lover and was dissappointed that the rose in this didn't work on me. In 5 minutes this started smelling like sweet kleenex.

[rosetta]

Alas, this is one of my least favourites... I wouldn't have thought I could dislike anything with 'rose' in its name, but so it was. (Won't try anything with 'blood' in its name after this...)

 

In the vial, it was very strong & crisp, and somehow almost nauseating, I felt I could almost smell blood... Yuck. (No roses whatsoever, unfortunately.)

On me, after a while, it got just a little bit better, but not enough for me to like it.

[oedipa]

Frimp from the Lab. And I don't know if it's the heat or what, but the lid on this poor lil' guy broke and so it's currently being held together with tape and aluminum foil. Must...save...the preciousss...

 

Wet on wrist - Woah there, red wine! Let's let some of the other children come out and play, shall we? I'm overwhelmed by the wet smell of grape-y booze and some of my co-workers are eyeing me suspiciously. I suspect my boss may take me into her office to discuss my drinking habits.

 

10 minutes - I am generally not a fan of rose scents. Not at all. I love actual roses, but rose scents make me think of musty attics full of lacy, moth-eaten clothes. So not my thing. However - wow, I love this rose! After the wine backs off a bit (yah! yah! back, you!) I can smell it in hints and wafts, along with the now-subdued wine smell and a sharp undercurrent I can only assume is the dragon's blood. I'm only familiar with the latter from incense, where I wasn't terribly fond of it, but it makes a nice pairing here.

 

30 minutes - A very warm pairing of all three major scents with none overpowering the other.

 

This lingered on me all day and well into the evening - quite the staying power! Overall I don't think it's something I'll buy a bottle of, but I might very well purchase an imp if I can't manage to keep my current one from spilling all over the place.

[edenssixthday]

Blood Rose was one of my favorite BPALs I got my very first order of 20 or so imps. I loved the rose scent combined with the dragon’s blood, and I found it would stay with me all day. However, I have since discovered several other BPAL rose scents I like so much more, and so Blood Rose just doesn’t get much wear time at all. The oil has an outstanding level of throw and really good staying power and when I wear it, I feel like I’m wrapped in a veil of beautiful dragon’s blood and rose. However, there are BPAL rose and dragon’s blood scents I enjoy so much more than this one, so it’s moved its way down the pile of scents I wear often and has given its formerly honored slot up to other roses like Whip and Kurukulla.

[The_Merf]

In the imp: Cherry wine? I absolutey get that cherry chewables scent from the imp, but there's a liquid quality to it (however, it is not cherry cough syrup).

 

Wet: This blows up as children's chewables on my skin and it is very cherry. I wonder how closely related the wine note in this scent is to the wine note in Lady Macbeth, because the two oils have a similar reaction.

 

Drydown and wear: The rose does an excellent job of taming this scent affter a few minutes. There is still a heathery scent of cherry on the edges, but the rose really stands out. I'm surprised that I'm not getting more from the dragon's blood note in this oil. I like this as it dries down--it is very sophisticated, and one of the more striking BPAL rose oils I've tried.

[illyriajem]

I got this in a newbie pack, so I tired it without even how it was supposed to smell.

 

In the Imp: Eww, bad smell upon opening. I think it was the wine that stuck out to me.

 

However

Application: As soon as it hit my skin the rose smell appeared. Very nice, I'm not sure how to otherwise describe it. But I definitely liked it.

[Alchemy21599]

I received this as a frimp from the Lab

 

In the vial: spicy rose.

 

Wet: please, please don't turn to baby lotion already.

 

Dry: This is the one BPAL rose scent that works on me. Hooray!

[hologhost]

On me it's grape koolaid and rose. I guess I'm not ready for the grownups table. Swappity swap!

[gypsybaby1]

in the vial, it was... odd. I could definitely smell the rose, and it worried me. I had visions of it going on a rampage and me winding up praying upon the altar of the porcelain god due to the nausea headache.

 

imagine my surprise when I sniffed it and got fruit!! it's a sweet scent, not at all what the name conjures visions of. definitely have to give it another try another time to formulate a solid opinion.

[Luhtarian]

I really like this. I'm not getting as much wine as some of the other reviewers have, I can mostly smell just dragon's blood and rose ... and yet I can tell that the wine is giving it an added complexity and depth. Really nice and very sexy!

[storme]

In the imp: cherry wine and dark, damp rose.

 

On me, wet: lots of boozy wine, lots of cherryish dragon's blood and deep red rose. This is a very heavy, sultry, almost sweaty scent.

 

On me, dry: a light, but still very alcoholic rose-and-cherry scent. A bit powdery and slightly sour with wine.

 

Verdict: Interesting, but not grabbing me enough to make me want to keep it.

[wanderlustlover]

Omg. My second favorite scent now. I was in love from the moment I picked up the imp, the scent of a real rose bursting through the plastic even. On my skin, it's a robust, thick scent of roses and sweet, fruity wine. Given time it smoothes out, adding the dragon's blood in as the sparkle of enrichening warmth.

[sarahj]

Blood Rose

 

in imp: dragon's blood and wine

 

wet: rose starts to take over

 

dry: mainly rose, but fades pretty quickly

 

verdict: this is a nice scent, but not a favorite

[Meg]

In the bottle: Red rose and wine and - blegh - red musk.

 

Wet: Rather sour red wine - very realistic actually.

 

Drydown: Hmm, an interesting, weird mix of red rose beneath very tart wine and dragon's blood (that I'd mistaken for red musk at first). It sort of takes turns at smelling like wine, then like lush red rose petals, with a dragon's blood undercurrent. It gets pleasantly sweet, a bit candylike.

 

Overall: It's a rather interesting blend, very strong and rich, warm and sensual. I'm still not a fan of dragon's blood and I still find that the overall result is a bit like red musk, and the wine really is sour and unpleasant, but at the same time it all works together. Just not on me.

[Punkylarue]

I just tried this for the first time and I think I must be wierd because I don't smell rose at all. The scent reminds me of the store Spencers or a Halloween shop in the fall complete with candy and Autum air. I can pick up the dragons blood and a hint of the wine. It is warm and slinky. Very sexy. I really like this one although I will probably only wear it in the Autum, or for a nighttime excursion. This is a go out and have a magical, naughty, riot of a time, all night long scent. Wet this one was a bit strong and I wasn't sure if I would tolerate it. After the dry down (about 20 minutes) it softened and is lovely.

[wanderlustlover]

Omg. My second favorite scent now. I was in love from the moment I picked up the imp, the scent of a real rose bursting through the plastic even. On my skin, it's a robust, thick scent of roses and sweet, fruity wine. Given time it smoothes out, adding the dragon's blood in as the sparkle of enrichening warmth.

[indicolite]

I can smell the rose and the blood. Not the wine, and thank the Excolo for that, for wine generally is an annoying scent to me. But it does have a very heady flavour to the scent.

 

I think I like Black Rose better, but this is nice.

[valentina]

In the imp, I smell Dragon's Blood and rose, but very little wine, at least not to the extent that I smell wine in scents like Wanda or Urd. Once it's on my skin, I do smell all three elements, a first the wine and blood, with rose in the background. When it dries down, the rose does its monster thing on my skin and takes over the scent -- damn my body chemistry and rose! I was hoping that the Dragon's Blood and wine might muscle their way in, but this scent stays predominately of rose with a bit of Dragon's Blood (and just a bit) in the background. Once th rose finally burns off, there's very little of the Dragon's Blood or wine remaining. I am simply not a big fan of rose scents, but I think anyone who enjoys rose and whose body chemistry could hold the balance of this scent, would enjoy it greatly.

[kunoichi]

This is a rather dark scented, yet somewhat sweet scent in the vial; the sweetness coming from the dragon's blood resin if Dragon's Milk is anything to go by. On my skin I can detect a vague rose-like scent amongst the dark sweetness - it reminds me somewhat of what a rose scented dark, sticky lolly would be like. After a few hours on my skin it starts to lighten but otherwise stays sweet with a hint of rose as it fades.

[ceej]

Interesting. Pleasant. A rich, thick rose scent, with a lot going on underneath: wine and blood. Feminine in an older, self-assured way. I feel like I should be wearing silk when I put this on, in dark jewel tones. Certainly not jeans and a t-shirt. Like it fine, but it doesn't match my self-image, so skipping for now. I'll keep the imp in case I ever need to get dressed up.