Blood Phoenix

[FallDaze]

Blood: expressing passion, will, and a sensual aesthetic.
Dragon's blood resin, helichrysum, burgundy wine grape, red musk, opoponax, red poppy, myrrh, carnation, tonka, almond, mimosa, jonquil, and neroli.

In the imp this didn't really seem like something I would like. It was very rich, spicy, and almondy, but something just didn't mesh with my nose.

Wet the almond was extremely overpowering.

Drydown: This smells almost exactly like Midnight Kiss to me! It brings to mind a rich and dark blood red color. There is enough difference that I can tell the two apart though. Its like a rich, red wine.

Overall, quite lovely, but since I'm trying to limit my collection and this is highly reminiscent of Midnight Kiss, I think this one will be off to the swaps...but who knows! I think I'll have to test this again before making a final decision.

[delicate_fangs]

I'll have to see what this does once it settles down, but the initial scent when it hits my skin is terrifying: it's Ti-D-Bowl! Darned skin chemistry. *mutter, grumble, laugh*

 

OK, now there's incense coming up, and the Eau de Loo Cleaner is fading, but yikes! I sure didn't expect that.

 

I hope there's more grape later. Grape and incense would be good.

[AEris]

Blood Phoenix actually reminds me more of Mme. Moriarty than anything else. This is probably because of the red musk and juicy red fruit.

 

It's a juicy incense-y scent, and I can pick out the mimosa floral if I concentrate really hard. It smells like grape or cherry candy when wet, but once it dries, the juciness becomes a little less distinctive because the other notes rise to blend in around it.

 

It's an attractive scent, and juicy/fruity fans should definitely give it a sniff, especially because it's got more going on than just "grape" (which was what I had expected from reading reviews).

 

Try this if you like Mme. Moriarty, Midnight Kiss, or Bloody Mary ~

 

4.5 out of 5

 

Edit to add: I slathered this on yesterday, and I was sniffing at my wrist the whole day! It's totally delicious. It's still reminding me of Mme. Moriarty - It's like Mme. without the patchouli, or Bloody Mary without the custard. I really really like it!

Edited March 6, 2008 by AEris

[Czarina]

In the bottle: OMGrape. Pow.

Wet: Grape and STRONG bitter almond.

Drydown: the grape and almond start taking a backseat to the dragon's blood and musk. The grape starts to smell more wine-y and less Welch's.

 

However. The longer this goes on the harder and harder it is for me to pick out individual notes. After a few minutes it just smells gooood. This is all that I expected Prospero to be.

 

Above average throw.

[valentina]

I overcame my reticence to try this scent and purchased a bottle, even though I don't do well with many complex scents and Dragon's Blood can often be problematic on me. It just sounded too intriguing to pass by and it had enough things that did work to make it worth a try.

 

In the bottle, I pick out the Dragon's Blood, wine and musk, and understand the comparisons to Mme. Moriarty, Midnight Kiss and Urd. When it hits my skin, I get an initial almond hit, but almond is a problem note on my skin that I always amp. The almond departs in around 30 seconds (yay!) and a spicy-sweet Dragon's Blood and musk emerge. Dragon's Blood can often smell a bit too feral on me (as in, it just flat-out smells like blood), and I think the grapey wine, resins, musk and carnation even it out. I can still smell the almond a bit, and my old nemesis is also helping tame the Dragon's Blood.

 

After an hour or so, I also get a nice little hit from the mimosa and neroli, adding a bit of citrusy sweetness to the brew. The scent is so complex that I can't pull notes when I smell it, but rather, it gives me impressions of things. One one hand, it reminds me of a good Dragon's Blood incense with an almost peppery undertone, but I also think of sangria wine. While this scent is perhaps in the same family as Mme. Moriarty, Midnight Kiss and Urd, I also find it very different, probably due to that citrus note that lilts out from underneath the Dragon's Blood and wine.

 

I am delighted I took the chance and ordered Blood Phoenix, it's complex, unique and mysterious. I'm going to be putting it in my rotation right away!

[Little Bird]

Blood Phoenix wound up being very sweet on my skin. First on, I get a blast of scary almond that smells like hyper-sweet, boozy cherries. Underneath the almond I can pick out hints of the very warm, smooth red musk. I love the lab's red musk, but the almond makes it too sweet and too red. Over time, the almond manages to calm itself down and then the wine grape and dragon's blood surge forward. Dragon's blood often takes on an odd & specific smell on my skin, a smell of sickly-sweet, rotting flowers in a pool of stale water in a forgotten vase. Wine notes often smell like bitter, rotting fruits on my skin, but the grape note here actually smells more like sweet bubble gum (grape bubble tape?). It's floral in a cloying-sweet way and grapey in an artificial way.

 

Overall, Blood Phoenix just goes too sickly sweet with my skin chemistry. It starts off with a strong boozy-cherry-almond and dries down to smell like rotting flowers and grape bubble tape. The undertone of smooth red musk keeps it interesting for me, but I probably won't ever wear this one. I do like the red and purple picture that it paints though. I'll probably keep around my decant for aging, because the reviews on this one are so varied and I'd like to get the incense that others have mentioned

[Zirah]

In the bottle: Grape! Yeow! And blood. Like, animal blood - metal, tang, sweet, sticky.

 

On the skin: I smell like I've just butchered a cow and rolled in the blood. I was tempted to run for the shower but resolved to tough it out for the sake of scent-ology.

 

Dry: STRONG red wine with an undertone of metal and exotic (strong) spice.

 

1 hour: Faint tang of metal.

 

Overall: Clearly this was not meant for my skin chemstry -- unless perhaps I was trying to smell like I imagine Jack the Ripper might smell (and not in the sex, romantic way).

 

This bottle was swapped with my girlfriend for a bottle of Green Phoenix. On her the Blood Phoenix smells like the most sinfully decadant opium den EVER, with an undertone of blood and danger. What a difference chemistry can make...

[aleciarivas]

OOOoooooooooooooooo I have been wanting a dragon's blood scent for so LONG I have tried most of the Ars Draconis, to no avail.... They all turn icky. But this!!!

 

This is richly-scented, exactly what I would imagine a Red Dragon would smell like, warm and basking in the sun. Spicy, resiny, and oh-so-yummy musky. This is a warm and passionate scent on me that I will now hoard....

 

Edited to add: FallDaze's review made me realize- this DOES remind me of Midnight Kiss!!! I LOVE Midnight Kiss on my SO but it smells blah on me. But this- this works for me!

Edited January 23, 2008 by AleciaR

[PurringPulsar]

Blood Phoenix

 

In the bottle: grape flavoured sweets. Not wine or sweet grape juice, but purple grape flavouring.

Wet on skin: now I smell almonds, and with the red fruitiness, get a strong impression of cherries.

Dry on skin: cherries, marzipan, and a gorgeous fruity red dessert. A moment of Fruitcake, but no more grape sweets. This reminds me of Bordello but richer and more jewel-like in tone. I think I can smell the resins slowly peeking out as the almond fades. The grape scent has now matured into a sweet red wine, and I can smell the carnation, and maybe tonka as well. No flowers though.

After a while: now I can smell the musk! And also, a little bit of the dragon’s blood, but it’s not the kind of DB that amps on me, it’s the one from Scorpio and Red Moon that I really like. But the scent now has become very, very, very sweet. And I mean SWEET. Now I get a return to the grape sweets scent I got before-though not very artificial, it is very sweet, almost toothache-inducing. Though the sweet wine is reminiscent of Haloa, which I love, this is a lot sweeter, maybe because of the tonka? It reminds me of the sweet cherry sugar scent of Bloody Mary, which I found too much to handle. It’s a shame really because I catch hints of gorgeous resin and red musk and carnation under all that sticky sugary fruit.

The sweetness (which is almost caramelised and sometimes nauseating) does seem to tone down a tiny bit and that’s when the musk shows up a lot more. But at other times, the fruity sugary sweetness returns. It’s odd, because normally wine scents don’t turn cloying on my skin, but this smells almost like excessively sugared berry pie filling to me. But it seems to fluctuate between red musk and myrrh (love) and pie filling every so often, so I’m confused as to whether or not I like it! It does seem to settle into a floral red musk scent after a while, like a darker version of Red Moon 07.

Verdict: this is lush, rich, deep and complex, and I was hoping to love it…but sadly it isn’t really my thing. It starts off almost foody, like some kind of decadent cherry and wine based dessert, but then the musk and resins kick in and it becomes really luxurious and dark. I should love this, but I don’t…because it is much too sweet and foody. Normally I love wine notes but a couple of recent wine/grape scents have become much too sweet on me-Prospero and this one. It smells not like wine or even grape juice, but like a really sweet, almost caramelised cherry pie filling, like that of Bloody Mary. I really do smell cherry sauce here even though there is no cherry note listed. But it’s too cloying, it almost makes me feel nauseous. Maybe it’s the combo of the grape and tonka and dragon’s blood? It’s a shame because I love the musk and resins in here a lot, but can’t handle the sickly sweet pie filling scent. There are other similar scents I prefer where I can get boozy, red musky incense goodness without the overly gourmand tones.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? Not sure. Probably not-there are other wine scents I prefer.

If you like this, try: Scorpio, Midnight Kiss, Bordello, Purple Phoenix, Haloa, Philosopher in Meditation, Chilling Cellar

[Jia_Mekare]

In the bottle: This is not just grape, this is grape to the tune of Beethovens fifth. Grape grape grape GRAAAAAAAAPE. Sweet, delicious, REAL grape, as opposed to the fake grape found in so many other non-BPAL scents. They, sirs, fool nobody.

 

Wet: Ladies and gentlemen, you've heard of candied pinapple. You may have heard of candied cherries, and you might have heard of candy apples.

 

BUT! Have you ever heard of candied grapes? Well, you have now.

 

dry: The grape note finally starts to settle down a bit, letting the red musk, myrrh, and ...Carnation? I want to say carnation-come out and make this oil a bit more....perfume-y as opposed to foody.

 

Verdict: Not something I see myself using a lot. I really need to get into trading...

[scarletgenesis]

In the Bottle, Blood Phoenix smells very much like grape and cherry candy. There's something a bit darker there though (probably dragon's blood).

 

Wet, once applied: This is all cherry cough drops on me. Or maybe a mix of grape and cherry. It smelled that way ALL day in the scent locket. I don't want to smell like cough drops.

 

Dry: This disappeared totally from my skin within an hour and a half of application. I'm disappointed b/c I love all the notes. My skin just didn't like this (first with the making of the funky smells, and then with not even sticking around.

 

Oh well, can't win them all. And I LOVE Mechanical Phoenix, so maybe I can swap for another bottle of that.

[Esmeria]

In the bottle, it reminded me immediately of Delphi. I don't know what the two have in common from the top of my head, but I wasn't keen on it (even though I did originaly like Delphi).

 

I tried it on a couple of days after getting it, and I don't get scary blood (contrary to the name ) or musk from it, I get a strange mixture of berries and cake. In a word, this is GORGEOUS on me. I can't get enough of it.

 

I'm the kinda person to forget that I'm wearing anything, so every few minutes I get whiffs of it and it's just to die for. I'm already on the hunt for back-up!

[SarahScent44]

In the imp, the fruitiness of the almond and the neroli are backed by the dragon's blood's spiciness and the round sweetness of the grape.

 

The grape comes WAY out on my skin - to the exclusion of almost everything else. I think I get a whiff of almond way back.

 

When it's dry, the grape with just a hint of dragon's blood spiciness, the lightest touch of the carnation, and the dryness of the myrrh. It's nice, but not for me.

[QueenFae]

Gorgeous!! The hubbie was sooo jealous that he couldn't have this one!

 

It's a sweet dragon's blood with strong, fruity undertones of wine grapes. Very red, deep, bloody, and enchanting! Reminds me a little bit of Blood Countess on the dry down. Strong but soft, with a masculine beginning and a feminine ending to it. It sweetens up even more on the dry down, and becomes a powdery soft grape with a musky, red incense undertone. Very, very lovely and long lasting.

 

I love it!

[robozwil]

My first impression out of the bottle was cherry cough drops. Not the strong kind like Halls, but more the candy type. My first thought was "Crap - back out the door with this one". Then I put it on.....

 

Initially it didn't do much more for me than smell like cherry cough drops - but as it dried down the dragon's blood and red musk became more evident. These are two of my favorite scents so I was very pleased. The end result is a lovely combination of musky and resin with a tiny bit of floral (carnation?) mixed in. I am so glad I gave this one a fair chance. It is absolutely gorgeous on dry down!!

[Ajila]

In the bottle – Sweet almonds, with a hint of red musk and dragons blood resin

 

Wet on me – Faint, but with a kind of spiciness that I can’t quite put my finger on

 

Dry on me – It takes on a sweet, candylike texture, with just a hint of pepper

 

Overall – I liked this, but I expected it to be much more robust

[persianmouse]

It does smell a bit like cough syrup in the bottle, but once it hits my skin, it smells like a lovely sweet musky cherry. And I normally hate all cherry scents, since they don't actually smell like cherries (I had a cherry tree in my backyard growing up, so I know what they smell like), but this one is gooood.

[SilverSerenity]

Very very sweet, juicy, fruity scent. When I first put it on, first thing it smelled like was grape cough syrup (my little sister told me I smelled like Skittles). But as it dried, it morphed into a slightly spicy grape (still very purple in my mind), and then over the past few hours turned into a gorgeous musky wine scent. Very deep, very red, and still very sweet and juicy and fruity.

 

Also, I've been wearing it 7 hours and it's only just now starting to fade.

 

Love this one a lot.

[donnatron]

Bottle: Spicy dragon's blood and amaretto touched with a grape juice scent.

 

Wet: Dragon's blood is very excited to be hear and lets me know so. The wine goes BOOZE! HELLO I AM BOOZE! I know it sounds unpleasant, but it's actually very nice, if not a bit overpowering.

 

Dry: Like others, I understand the comparison to Midnight Kiss, although it lacks the luscious cocoa note that Midnight Kiss sports. It's a very sweet, almondy and grapey dragon's blood touched with some resinous spice and a whisper of floral. Very, very complex and heady. Absolutely gorgeous, though.

 

Throw: Good.

 

Overall: I adore it. It's a perfect dragon's blood scent; it allows the dragon's blood to take centre stage, but it's well buffered by the other scents and everything comes together to create a perfectly blended and beautiful perfume.

[mspixieears]

I don’t think dragon’s blood really likes my body chemistry which is a shame. The almond at first wasn’t pleasant but it gets nicer in the blend. There are too many notes in this blend for my liking, it’s a bit of sensory overload but as it dries down all I can pick out is the dragon’s blood. A bit later it gets all berryish and winy.

[Lamia]

I heart this scent lots and lots. It's juicy, and reminds me a tad of Frumious Bandersnatch (which must be the carnations)

[SultryWolf]

Holy heck, this is fantastic!

When I bought it, I liked it, but for whatever reason didn't end up giving it a real test drive. Last night, on a whim (which is the way I like to pick going-out scents), I grabbed it and put some on.

Wonderful. Sweet but not syrupy; somewhat reminiscent of Smut without the overt booziness. Sexy and confident. No one note seems to dominate: red musk and dragon's blood blend together seamlessly, the florals weaving in and out, while the myrrh and almond provide a touch of earth.

Throw was gentle and complex, and the scent lasted pretty well. There's still a bit of lingering musk if I huff my wrist today.

[ouch!]

I think I've finally found a Dragon's Blood blend that isn't completley dominated by it!!

 

Wet this is grape, strong in your face grape, like grape sweets or fizzy drink. It also has this..dark edge to it..like it's been burnt or something. That's hard to explain but that's what i'm getting.

 

As it dries the strange burnt side of things calms down a but but.it's still got a major tang! A sharp tang that's overtaking the grape...I have a feeling though that the grape will hold on for as long as possible considering that first kick!

 

A bit further along...whoa this is changing alot.. grape? it's almost non existent, how wrong was I? It's now very very sharp..and tangy all by itself.I'm guessing this could be one of the flowers..mixed with the neroli...

 

Once this stage has passed it's back to grape again, but much sweeter this time...maybe it's the almond sweetening things up, my chemistry tends to amp sweet things. It's all fusing together and becoming a very rounded scent.. and I seriously haven't got dragon's blood from this at all..it's very strange!

 

It's deep, red...and a constant morpher...

[juniperus]

bottle: a very sweet red wine. (reminds me somewhat of Puck) Whew!

wet: ooooohgods, it's even sweeter. this might be a good time to mention that I have a history with neroli.

dry: well, the sweet stopped amping and is somewhat less painful (a relief, it was really getting sharp, as in stabbing me in the head sharp). I can identify the myrrh and carnation and musk clearly, but the other notes are either waaay in the background or muddy enough to be indecipherable.

later: no mellowing, growing muddier by the moment. just sweet wino-ness with a side of headache. drat.

[filigree_shadow]

I waited a while to try a decant of this because I wasn't sure about the wine grape. I'm not usually friends with grape notes. But in this, it doesn't smell like grapes to me. Maybe slightly, but mostly it's wine. Not too strong, either. Also, usually dragon's blood amps rather unreasonably on me, but it's not doing that here.

 

When I first put it on, it had kind of a stingy cherry quality to it, but that faded out when it dried. What's left is that wine scent. It's not a dry wine, though, it's kind of juicy. It blends very well with the floral notes, and the red musk and resin notes are exquisite with it.

 

This is really very pretty. It's my favorite Phoenix so far!