Blood Rose

[Methos]

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

Ah, this one broke my heart. I got it as a frimp from the Lab with one of my orders. It smelled wonderful in the bottle: Sweet, rose-y and a touch of cherry, with something dark and wrong about it, like the Rose from the Dark Tower series. I put it on, with high hopes, and found... it smelled like mouldering flowers on me. I suppose that's not an altogether bad thing, but it's not something I want to smell like.

[Coldfire]

Imp: Wow…Red wine FIRST and a whiff of the

dragon’s blood

Wet on Me: barest hints of the red rose, and so

far does not smell like spray red rose, still getting

touches of the red wine as well

Drying Down: Rose is mellowing and the dragon’s

blood begins to rise and mingles with the red wine

Dry: well rounded scent. Nothing overpowering now.

Rose, wine and dragon’s blood all equal and balanced.

This is nice but I don’t’ see myself wearing it a lot, so

I think I’ll rehome the imp.

[Dianora]

I got this in a pack of imps while trying to figure out what notes work well with my skin. So far, Rose smells fantastic on me, which I find surprising given that I've never been fond of floral perfumes. This is definitely a full blown floral fragrance, but I am just loving it.

 

In the bottle, it's syrup-sweet, like a thick rose and cherry syrup. I don't know where the cherry comes from, or if it's my nose playing tricks on me, but it's lush. If it were edible, I'd put it right in my tea (it isn't, so don't, of course).

 

Wet on the skin: A blooming garden of roses, with just the barest hint of incense twisting in. On me, it seemed a little faint, so I slathered a bit. Watch out though, within a few seconds the smell had totally bloomed, and I was wearing a very strong, intense scent.

 

Dry: Full, blooming roses and incense. This is the scent I've been scouring incense vendors for years to capture. Beautiful, full blown roses, sweet without being insipid or childish.

 

Later: A duskier smell, like dried rose pedals with the incense. Still heartbreakingly sweet roses, but now the red wine has tempered it with just a hint of dryness.

 

This is astonishingly lovely, perhaps the perfect introduction to rose fragrances for someone who loves spicy, incense-like fragrances. I never expected to like wearing rose, but I'm going to be buying a 5ml of this in my next order.

[obsidienne]

(from last week, forgot to post this)

 

In the imp: Sticky, syrupy cherries and rose.

 

On me: Dragon's blood and me... we don't get along. It smells like cheap maraschino cherries to me. The rose and wine are being smacked down by it.

 

Dry: a little less dragon's blood (aka grossest cherry smell ever (to me)), a little more rose.

 

Far dry: Some rose, some wine, some dragon's blood. Still not getting along with the dragon's blood.

 

This perfume is so not what I expected! A day in this made my nose feel raped. Word to the wise: go lightly on this one!

[naeelah]

Strangely, I get no sense of wine from this. On me, it smells entirely like rich red rose and dragon's blood. It may have something to do with the fact I often amp rose, but I get very little sweetness from this. It's sweet when it first goes on, but that fades as it dries.

 

The dragon's blood isn't as cherry-like as it usually is. It's a little bit sharper and drier than amber, but still smooth and a little powdery. It's more like myrrh. It balances well with the rose so I don't feel like either is taking over. Blood Rose is like a less smoky Rose Cross.

[Indigo78]

In the imp: ZOMG sugar! Sugared roses. HEAVILY sugared roses. Wet, more of the same for the first minute or so before it dries up and gets stemmier & greener. The DB pops out here, too, and it smells like...well, DB.

 

The sugary note (lotus?) turns plasticy and commercial- like those weird gel air fresheners that dry up gradually. Sort of smells like a cousin of the Carnaval's Blood Garden after everything settles, which I guess is the wine.

 

Meh. Not for me. Someone with different chemistry might have better luck.

 

ETA: Update-- This has become one of my all-time favorite rose blends ever. I adore it.

Edited November 7, 2010 by Indig0

[angelicruin]

In the imp, this is a sweet red wine.

 

Wet on the skin, mostly rose and wine.

 

Upon drying, it becomes sweet rose wine. I'm not usually a big fan of roses unless they are tempered with vanilla, sugar, or cream. The Dragon's blood definitely sweetens enough to make this a pleasant scent on my skin.

[crebbsgirl]

This may be the only rose blend I've liked. The dragon's blood resin adds a sweet fruitiness to the rose. The entire blend is very round and warm. The drydown is beautiful, and it seems to last forever.

[smokey188]

Rose is a very hit and miss note on me depending on the other notes in the blend it can go sweet or rancid. This blend works beautifully with my skin chemistry and becomes a lovely scent just like some capricorn incense sticks i use to buy all the time. It has the sharp blood note that has been sweetened by the rose and wine notes and ground by what seems to my nose to be sandalwood. This is a lovely bright incensey blend which is bright enough for summer but dark enough for winter too.

[mgrazulis]

In the imp, cherry cough syrup. Wet on the skin, dark red rose petals freshly fallen, and dragon's blood. resin, sweet and cloying; dry red wine. The dragon's blood amplifies on me---we do not get on at all. Once dry the wine disappears totally.

 

As much as I love rose, this one just doesn't work out on me. I had hoped that the wine would balance out the dragon's blood resin. I will pass this imp along for someone else to try!

[toomuch]

Very rosey wine, or maybe it's winey rose. I had hoped to find a rose that worked for me, unfortunately this went so soapy on me I had to wash it off.

[xxwednesday]

Wet from the imp, this smells like one of those juice boxes I used to drink in elementary school. Grape juice, with a hint of roses?

 

On the dry down, the rose peeks out and the fruitiness becomes more... savory. Mmm! I think the resin is pulling everything together into a more grown up, sexy vibe.

 

Dry, I can't stop sniffing my wrist. The initial Welch's Grape Juice mellowed out into a fruity wine, and the rose and dragon's blood resin meld perfectly together.

 

I wore this last night, and about five hours after I applied the scent I could still smell the trace of a flower on my wrist, like a dried rose. This one's a keeper!

[binaryfaerie]

Rose + grape popsicle. I don't smell the dragon's blood at all, and the wine is just TOO sugary and grapey. I keep telling myself that I like this, but I think it's the rose that's making me do that.

[KassiK]

In the imp: A fruity sweet rose.

 

wet on skin: All notes detectable with the wine coming out the strongest.

 

drydown: The resin really makes the scent for me. The wine is sweet, rather than dry. And the rose balances everything perfectly though it does go a little powdery, it's not too powdery for me. Definitely a keeper.

 

Hubby says: "What is that? It smells like alcohol over here." (Perhaps the wine is a little heavier to his nose than it is to mine)

[Magpie]

In imp: Sugary rose sweets. I'm not optimistic.

 

On: Sugary, quite light rose. Reasonably fresh, but not nearly as much as The Rose.

As this warms up, it gets freshers, but is still quite a sweet rose scent.

Oop, there's the Dragon's Blood. Slightly soapy. There's an almost fruity undertone. As it dries, Blood Rose fades prettily. It's barely there now, but that might just be nose getting a bit overly used to it.

 

OMGOMGOMG exactly as promised, warm dark red rose, with a hint of wine. So gorgeous. After about a quarter of an hour post drydown, the sweet velvety resin is coming out as well, though the wine's disappeared a bit. It reminds me vaguely of some kind of sweet still, but is beautiful all the same.

 

I also found that Blood Rose had the same, erm, effect as the one quinkel mentioned. It wasn't strong on me and faded pretty quickly, but was pretty while it lasted. Probably not a bottle, but a keeper for occasional wear.

 

ADDED May 18:

 

In imp: Fruity, full-bodied rose-dragon's blood. Yummy, a bit overly sweet, almost cloying.

 

On: Delicious. Close to the skin and quite wonderful. Sweet, fruity, not too sweet. I can definitely smell the rose in there, and it's not the candy-like rose that rose often turns into.

 

It isn't as much of a fruity scent as it was in the imp, and less lush and ripe, but a bewitching, ethereal scent that is just delicious.

[lizardqueen]

I was intrigued to see the variety of reactions to this scent present in this thread, because for me, Blood Rose very much does what it says on the tin -- dragon's blood, wine, roses. When it's wet I get the cherry cough syrup note that I tend to get from dragon's blood scents in the wet stage, but after that? Dragon's blood, wine, roses. Once drydown is complete the dragon's blood is mostly just there to make the wine particularly fruity, so if you're a dragon's blood fanatic, this is probably not for you. If you like roses and fruity wine with a hint of dragon's blood, though, definitely check this one out. As for myself, it's not exactly me, but it's pretty, so I'm going to keep my imp around.

[cinderfallen]

I love smelling this in the vial as it's nowhere near as juicy and sweet-complex on my skin. It's a punch of syrup. You can really smell the alcoholic tinge of the grape wine (not red or white, but grape juice wine, very sticky sweet with that alcoholic fume) which is lifted by the rose, a higher top note. It's a thin, sweet rose, like the one in Two, Five, and Seven, almost like an acidic-sweet berry like cranberry with that characteristic rose delicacy. This is probably because of the dragon's blood, which is the binding note to highlight the wine and the rose and give it that oomph without being showy itself.

 

On my skin, it goes through a lot of changes. The juiciness is gone, though the rose adds a dewy quality to the base, matte wine. Then the rose goes sharp, as roses tend to go on me, as if you were to pulp rose petals along with their stems to make a thin juice. This lasts for a while and thankfully, calms down. Underneath, there is still a slightly sticky sweet quality, also a little resinous (like tree sap) with a faint concord grape quality.

 

Then that, too, is gone, smoothed out and I'm left with a pretty little rose blend that is sweet and pitched "high" with a cranberry/acidic grape sweetness. Girly-flirty and pleasant enough, though I'm not sure it's worth the harrowing drydown of sharp, driven off-kilter roses. This is especially the case when I'm pretty sure the sillage of the perfume is greatest during that stage, and not the more pleasant dry-down.

Edited March 1, 2009 by cinderfallen

[asciident]

Wet: Rotten rose, which stinks so badly that I don't want to put it on.

[BuxomM]

It smells like rose with some sweet cherry and grape. It's mainly rose, a little sweet and fruity and not spicy.

[fairnymph]

Sniffed: Medium-darkish amber-brown-beigey oil. Fruity! Lots of grapey wine with only a hint of booziness, fresh red rose (a la Rose Red scent), and the slightly soapy cherry-lilac of dragon's blood.

 

Wet: A little...plasticky? Still very grape, in a candyish sort of way, with the 'air freshener' note of dragon's blood mingling weirdly. The rose is actually the weakest note, here, despite it being the very same chemically rose note I get from most years of Rose Red).

 

Dry: The wine note is the same as in Lady Macbeth- more fruity grape than booze, very juicy.The rose has amped a tiny bit, but not much, and it's merged with the dragon's blood so I can't really pick it out much. Grape in command, for sure.

 

Summary: Not really a morpher, though the dragon's blood becomes soapier and fades over time, as does the rose. Dries down to juicy grape candy with a hint of soapy air freshener and very faint red rose. Decent throw, fades rapidly.

 

 

 

[Siberia]

Blood rose was a very fruity and sweet rose in the imp, and on me. It did not really change from wet to dry, and while the scent eventually faded, it did not change very much. It finished sweet, fruity, and a little powdery.

[mparker]

I got this imp off a forum sale, and I'm very glad I did.

 

Wet, this starts out as a good, even balance of dragon's blood and rose. The rose is a blend of fresh dark red petals and slightly dusty dried petals. The dragon's blood is rich and slightly spicy, with a hint of sugar.

 

After some drying time, the wine, it must be the wine, comes in. To me, this is a cherry wine, since the note, to me, doesn't smell like cherry, but smells like the taste of fresh, dark, juicy cherries.

 

It's a glorious, luxuriant blend, and makes me want to lounge on red velvet fainting couches instead of doing the real work I should be up to. Whimper.

[Argentwolf]

A rather innocuous rose. The dragon's blood gives it a sweetness that threatens to send it into the same icky rose territory that I amped like crazy in Rose Cross, but it stays okay for the most part. It actually ends up smelling soapy more than anything. Decent throw and staying power, just not for me.

[Venneh]

I got an imp of this that has been aged about a year in a recent swap. I get what I think is a cherry/rose blend, like I did with King of Hearts, in the imp. On my skin, this is an absolutely amazing blend; it's like the first stage of the King of Hearts, but it sticks, and with a bit of Blood thrown in.

[superpopkid]

I've never smelled dragon's blood before, but I know I like rose, so I thought this would be a good intro to a new note. Wet, it seems like this dragon bleeds wild cherry flavored cough drops. It's a very sour artificial cherry scent. I'm not sure if this is the DB or the wine or both. I'm not getting rose. I haven't tried any perfume blends with wine in it - though I know what wine smells like INRL, it may be contributing to the cough drop effect, but I can't pick it out. This stage lasted quite a while, sweetening up very gradually over the next few hours. Now, I can make out the rose, but it blends in very smoothly. This stage reminds me a bit of the cherry blossoms in Kyoto, but sweeter and more strongly floral.

 

This was an imp purchased from a forumite, so I'm not sure how long it may have aged. Throw was mild, despite my habit of slathering new scents. Color impression: dark fuschia. Overall, this is just not the scent for me.