The Blood is the Life

[zankoku_zen]

Blood trickling through thick, dark myrrh and a rivulet of unholy, desecrated sacramental wine.

[Little Bird]

I really love a sweet, deep red wine note that's sweet, but almost dryly spicy and resinous (Lilith & Sekhmet, Gluhwein, and Mason & Jenkin's Port Jelly all give me this feel), and this is exactly what I was hoping for.  Deep red, sweet, fruity wine (red berries? plums? black currant?) and a deep, thickly sweet, syrupy,  resinous, slightly spicy myrrh.  This smells like it could have been a Yule wine scent.  It's so rich and sweet, and dries down to equal parts perfect wine and perfect myrrh.  Hoard worthy.

[daddy420]

This is a very spicy scent. On my skin I swear there is cinnamon and good cinnamon not pencil shavings. This reminds me of my all time love Og Lilith. Whiny and clovey.  Good throw. Worth a bottle buy definitely.

[starbrow]

Newly bottled cherry wine, whoa! This is strong and unashamed. It's throwing down some bold I Married a Vampire from Planet X vibes, without the clary sage to calm it down. The blood note is all cherry/redcurrant/sour red fruit, syrupy sweet and rich from the myrrh. My nose can't decide if it loves it or wants a break from how brash this sacrament is. To me, there's nothing holy or mystical about this; it's so fleshly and human, raw and frank.

[patina]

In the decant this smells like the Zadok Allen Vineyard mixed with honey. (Except I checked my bottle of Zadok and that one's a far drier wine.)

 

On it turns into a mulled spice wine with a bit of blood. It's not a subtle scent. The wine and blood are practically dancing a can-can to get noticed.

 

Edited November 26, 2019 by patina
spelling

[Casablanca]

Mulled red wine and syrupy myrrh, maybe a drop of cherry blood. This is a dark and heavy spiced-wine blend.

 

 

[zankoku_zen]

Mulled red wine, myrrh, and a whiff of cherry blood. Madrid, is that you? It sure sort of codes that way. 

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Myrrh, wine, and... cherry fruit roll ups. This blend is as classy as I am!

 

Dry: Wine, a touch of myrrh, and cherries. Not doing the cherry fruit roll up thing anymore; the sweetness has calmed down quite a bit. It is... good. Really, really good.

 

I feel like this is something I would be wearing in 20 years when my husband dies a mysterious death and I get caught running off with a handsome stranger with millions hidden away in an offshore bank.  (Don't worry, my husband already knows.)

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is... I like it. This one will probably be a bottle upgrade.

[NoNoNo]

If blood kiss and sloth had a very sexy, naughty baby this would be it.  I love it and it will be incredible with a little age. Hoarding like a dragon.

 

[naeelah]

"The blood is the life!" is a long running inside joke for me and my friends. There's no interesting story there, but it means that I'm all over anything using the phrase, so I was BEYOND PSYCHED to see this in the new installment of Dracula blends. I actually tend not to like the blood or wine notes from BPAL. I don't hate them, but blood is often too vetiver-y, wine too jammy. The way wine/berry scents are designed, they have WAY too much fruit initially, and you have to let them dry. That's just how the components work. But I swear I still amp it. It always overpowers everything else, for my nose. So, how then will a scent that's all blood and wine work for me?

 

It works AWESOMELY! 

 

Wet, this is a blast of super jammy mulled wine. There is definitely some spice there, but it's really soft. Once dry, I lose the sense of any cinnamon or clove. They seem to just give the blend some depth and warmth.

 

On the drydown, dragon's blood becomes apparent. (The oil itself is slightly red--which I love--and is a sure fire sign of dragon's blood.) If there's vetiver in the blood accord, it's such a minor component that it doesn't stand out to me. (Vetiver gives me a headache, so I'm always on the lookout.)  Mercifully, that initial cherry bomb jam blast dies down pretty quickly, so you get some balance to the wine. It reminds me of things like Bob Cratchit's Hearth. It's a warm, sweet, cheering winter wine, not a dry, tannic wine.

 

The myrrh quickly takes over, and for me, it is the saving grace. It's the star of this show. The dry and powdery quality of myrrh is an excellent counterbalance for the rich red fruits, but it has its own dark sweetness that blends beautifully. It prevents the wine jamminess from dominating and making it a gourmand perfume.

 

When fully dry, after 30 min or so, the "desecrated" quality of the wine seems to come out. The whole blends feels darker and drier, which is great. In the end, it is a dark, thick, shadowy, sticky myrrh scent, almost like a black musk, with red fruits and just a HINT of spice. Reminds me a bit of Romantigoth, actually.

 

It's somewhere in the same spectrum as Prospero. They both have a haughtiness. Prospero is like a delicious plum wine being served at a fancy candlelit dinner party where there are flowers on the table. The Blood is the Life is more like Jonathan Harker's first dinner at castle dracula. It's dimly lit and there's an air of menace. You are not sure what you're drinking.

Edited February 3, 2020 by naeelah

[Lecter]

Boozy wine notes were strong with this one, with a light metallic kick in the bottle. Settled nicely and remained boozy on application