Black Rose

[hkhm]

Exquisitely melancholy. The background scent to an ancient exequies. Heavy, dark and floral: a blend of roses, with a touch of amber and musk.

imp: i smell the amber and musk but i don't smell any rose...

wet: the rose is dreadfully soapy in this blend, the amber and musk are making a valiant effort but it's gone to soap.

dry: i tend to amp amber, musk and rose so the drydown is pretty strong... and soapy. it's almost headache inducing. sadly, not for me.

(edited to add scent description) Edited December 31, 2008 by hkhm

[femmefatale]

Ew. Old lady and rose soap. Not for me.

[Tinose]

Weirdly, I couldn't smell any roses in this. It was all about the musks and the amber for me, neither of which I'm all that fond of. On my skin, it's starting to mellow down into something slightly more rosy, but either the musk or the amber (my nose kind of sucks so I'm not sure which of them it is) still overpower it. Bah.

[thekittenkat]

In the vial: very musky--that must be the amber and the musk working together. Where's my black rose?

 

Wet: there's a sharp note here, and a dark rose scent, which is very much in the background, a bottom note, perhaps.

 

The dry-down: the rose amps up a little, that sharp note has gone away, but this is slowly fading into a powdery amber, but with a little sweetness left of the rose, almost like a red wine note, and a little creaminess from the musk.

 

Note: on the first try, the dry-down was just musky amber, after about six hours. On the second try, the wine note of the rose seems to be lingering a bit longer, but at the four hour stage now. A lovely smell, but not what I was expecting. Rose scents usually do well on me, though.

 

In short, after a couple of tries, I don't think that this is really working for me, and I so wanted it to. At least it isn't the rose scent that my grandmother wore. It's not a bad scent at all, I just wanted it to have more rose in it. It's more like a rose at the end of summer, all dried up on the vine or bush, or rose leaves which have been left to dry for potpourri. A soft but mature rose.

Edited January 16, 2009 by thekittenkat

[Usagi]

Imp: roses and something sweet; almost cloying.

 

Wet: faint rose, and overwhelming sweetness.

 

Dry down: Rose and powder, with something underneath that's a little off.

 

Conclusion: I'm guessing it's the musk at play, giving it that strange, foreboding sweetness. Not for me, but if you like rose and musk, give this a try.

[wonderfinch]

In the imp: I'm definitely a floral girl, and I have an admitted fear of musk-- but, since this is supposed to be a rosy scent (and since it was a freebie from the lab), I figure I'll give it a try. It just takes me about a week before I can work up the courage to put it on-- the scent from the imp isn't rose at all, it's just musky, with virtually no rose scent in the background.

 

Wet: On my skin, the musk tones down a little bit, but there's still not much rose. Instead, I smell like incense and greenery: dark, evil greenery, like the thornbushes around Sleeping Beauty's castle. I can catch a tiny whiff of rose every now and then, but it's not the focal point of the scent. Not at the moment, anyways.

 

Twenty minutes later: The greenery is starting to tone down a bit, too, and it's blending gorgeously with the musk. I'm really starting to smell the rose, now, and even though I'm a huge fan of traditional rose scents, I love the dark, cloying scent of this rose. It's delicate, yet dark and almost foreboding. Not the type of rose you'd ever want to pick out of a garden, that's for sure.

 

Several hours later: The roses have come out even more, and the musk has retreated almost entirely. I am definitely enjoying the combination of roses and dark greenery.

 

Overall: Even though I was a little afraid to try this one, I really like the way it smells wet-- I've never had a perfume that smells of greenery before, and I must say that I was rather pleasantly surprised by it. Not to mention that I LOVE how it smells when it's dry-- the roses really come out, but in a pleasantly unconventional way. I'm normally a fan of more traditional rose scents (Two, Five, and Seven was my previous favourite), but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this scent. I'll probably be upgrading to an actual bottle sometime in the near future.

[TheOneTheyCallLuna]

I love roses...I mean, really, I could wear (and have worn) a high quality rose essential oil as perfume. This is a really strong, dark rose (a, er, black rose...ahem) Unlike others, I get MOSTLY straight rose, slightly tempered by musk and amber. Really nice and gothy. I'm not sure exactly how rose + musk + amber = this deep, dark, gloomy rose scent, but it does, and I likes it.

[Argentwolf]

In the first stages, this scent is dominated by a dark, lust, full-petaled rose, with the musk and amber lending a peppery sort of undertone to it. As it dries, the other notes come forward, so that by the end of the day a delicious warm aura of musk and amber is left on my skin. A very sexy, seductive scent that hugs the skin and just gives faint wisps of sultry lust throughout the day.

[binkin]

I really, really, really wanted to love this, because I love rose and I love amber, at least from the Lab. Sadly, something in it smells like straight up chemical AquaNet to me, even in the vial. On, it gets even worse as my skin amps the hell out of... whatever it is. The only other scent I've tried so far that does this is Santa Muerte, and I don't see what they have in common (if you know, please PM me and let me know so I don't order it again!).

 

I was so sure I would love this that I'll probably hang on to it and try again just in case....

[magikalbrownies]

in the vial its STRONG but if you give this time, it turnes out lovely...trust meh.

 

on my skin the rose turns powdery and the amber is balanced with musk. its a very dark brooding sort of scent. i mean it took a while to develop on my skin but it turned out well.

 

overall: dont be intimidated by the rose, its not HARSH on me but then again who knows on YOU. its a really nice scent. dark and just lovely. it develops well when warmed up between the wrists. i swear you could smell me down the hall.

 

definately putting this on the wanted list but its not high priority. i'll get one though...

[rayvn1]

Not a bad rose scent, strong and sharp when wet, but dries to a dark and powdery rose. Nice!

[Caerphilly]

In the imp: Dark haunting rose. I can definitely smell the amber. I love amber!!

 

Wet: This is Spellbound, but more rosy. Definite dark rose. I don't generally like black musk, but it works here. Velvet and corrupt.

 

Dry: Again, Spellbound. But now it's exactly the same. Powdery amber, lovely sweet rose, made sexy and dark by the must. Love it.

 

Overall: This smells exactly like Spellbound on me. Not really a surprise as both contain rose amber and musk. Except spellbound has red musk and this has black musk. And I love Spellbound. I might get a bottle of this when i run out of Spellbound, just to change up the label.

[tragedy]

Usually to me a rose is a rose is a rose...

But this rose is different!

At first applied on skin, I was getting the rose, with something that, oh no, smelled vetiver-ish...

I dont know what the hell I was smelling because it went away in seconds and is drying down to this super amped rose/musk.

Rose amps on me, its huge. Im not so sure everyone else appreciates that, but I sure like it.

This rose is amping as well but its bringing the musk along for the ride.

Gorgeous.

[arlith]

I'm not normally a floral kind of girl, in fact I've been avoiding oils with floral notes in them. Until now.

 

I decided to risk it and try a rose scent from the lab-I like roses, but have always hated everything that wasn't an actual rose.

 

In the bottle, it smelled like piles of roses, and I was happy. I wasn't able to catch anything other than rose, but it was a lovely rose and I could imagine wearing it once in a while.

 

But then I put some on and it dried. It became a dark and sexy, with a hint of rose left in it. It's a luxurious rose, with plenty of hedonistic tendencies. I never would have expected a rose to smell like this, its wonderful and I've had my nose pressed to my wrist for most of the day.

 

There is definitely going to be a larger bottle of this in my future-I feel slightly wicked and prowly while wearing this.

[theasylph]

In the bottle it smells like a fresh little rosebud covered in dew.

 

On my skin at first application I smell a true medium bodied rose. I imagine a dark red rose. I smell it's leaves and it's thorns. It smells almost dirty and deep. As it sits more it becomes even dirtier and maybe even citrus smelling. I realise now that I'm smelling a lotta rose geranium coming out of this blend. Maybe even geranium bourbon...

 

It's so wierd. At first I thought the rose geranium was lemongrass because it's a little sharp, citrusy and tangy. It seems to take over the blend and kind of turn it sour. At the end it turns a little soapy and slightly incensey.

 

This is not my favorite rose for sure.

[Suusje]

It smells a bit sour in the imp. I have no clue where it comes from but it smells really odd. Wet on the skin it's very dark, lots of roses and something heavy behind it. And dry on the skin it's still heavy but powdery and I smell a hint of lemon and something 'off'. Nope, this isn't going work on my skin.

[Monster]

In the vial: This smells a lot like Inez + rose to me.

 

Wet: Mostly a dark, powdery amber with only a hint of rose underneath.

 

Dry: Black Rose becomes really powdery as it dries (in the bad, old lady way unfortunately ) I'm smelling more rose at this point...the longer it's on my skin the more rose I'm getting. Eventually, this ends up a powdery old lady rose scent. The amber in this is very similar to Inez (which I didn't like at all).

 

Overall: Not for me (the amber note ruins it).

[Lorelai1945]

Wow. This one is so strong that immediately upon opening an imp, my boyfriend said "yuck" from across the room. It is very overwhelming, and made me think of something an older woman might wear. I have to admit that I didn't give it a chance to mellow, so perhaps it does soften as others have mentioned, but it was such a blast of sharp, bitter rose to begin with that I couldn't even keep it in the house. I had the same experience with Sophia, and it turns out...it has black rose in it. I like soft, sugary roses, but this one was not for me.

[Venneh]

Got a tester of this with just enough to do a thumb test. It seems pretty straightforward rose here, with a darkening hint of the ambers and musks, I think? A nice scent, but not anything I particularly need an imp/bottle of.

Edited October 21, 2009 by Venneh

[HamletsKeeper]

Ok, well if you ever wanted to smell like a box of Turkish Delights swimming in pounds of soft powdery icing sugar then this is your scent. It's ridiculously sweet on my skin, candy sweet. Not something I'm fond of in perfume. It certainly doesn't smell sweet in the bottle, it smells dark and incensey like dried rose petals and church incense.

 

Revisited - I mixed a small amount of this into a handcreme to see how I liked the scent. The rose note in this one is not a fresh or realistic rose. It's more like a velvet red rose that has been picked, wilted and then left in the sun to stew. There's an over-ripe quality to it. I don't mind that so much but combined with black musk it becomes syrupy and not in a good way, add to it again amber and you've got syrup and icing sugar. A cloying powdery kind of scent. I don't like this one much at all. You'd have to crazy about incensey and sweet blends to really like it and even then I think you'll need to amp rose to have it smell the way it was intended.

 

For me there's far too little rose and far too much sweet powdery mess with it. I've never once thought "old lady" before but I do here. And not nice old lady, prim and proper dressed for church. We're talking old hag who doesn't wash nearly as much as she should and uses a perfume long since past it's useby date to cover up the body smell. This scent smells really unclean to me and just isn't my style at all.

Edited November 15, 2009 by HamletsKeeper

[changeling]

In the bottle: Dark rose

 

Wet: Intense dark smell--this isn't rose I'm smelling. It's dark, powerful musk--too powerful. At first, it seemed more like burnt tobacco than anything.

 

Dry: Thank goodness, it tames down. Now the powdery amber is coming up, but it's still a dark, powerful smell, with little to no rose about it. I'm going to have to wash this one off. Sorry, Lab, this one is obviously not for me. But judging from the reviews, this is not a typical reaction, so read more before you give up on it!

[DeltaCat]

Very heavy tea rose. The husband says baby powder though. He says he also gets mary jane leaves I just get straight up heavy tea rose that on dry down mellows a bit and the amber comes out more. YUM!

[moon_lemming]

Ambers and musks generally suck on me, so I should probably be glad that all I get from Black Rose is a faint, powdery rose, right? All I smell is rose in the imp -- just plain old red rose, but without the fresh goodness of scents like Rose Red. It all but vanishes from my skin within five minutes. What's left behind (riiiight next to my skin) after that is so powdery it makes my nose itch. This is not one I'll be revisiting.

[patina]

This is lovely and I can occasionaly scent a soft, lush rose through the musk- however, the amber turns out to be a razorblade in the candyfloss. It's too sharp on me. This occasionally takes a turn in the hardcore grandma direction. Aww.

 

Had the soapiness/powderiness not come out it would have been exceptionally lovely.

 

2nd attempt: Now it just smells lovely. A little powdery in the background though. I am confused.

Edited March 28, 2010 by patina

[furiana]

Once dry, this begins as pure dark musk and turns into an ambery, musky rose. It isn't my thing, but I've been told that Black Rose ages very well. Maybe I'll like it more once a year or two has passed?