Black Rose

[Alchemy21599]

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

I have yet to find my BPAL rose scent, so I was very excited to receive this as a frimp from the Lab

In the vial: velvety dark red rose with a smidge of patchouli.

Wet: heady rose and patchouli.

Dry: The longer I leave this on the more powdery it becomes. Eventually it reminded me of baby lotion. A pleasant smell, but not what I would like to wear as perfume.

[yellowrose]

Another imp that's circulating as part of the General Catalogue swap.

 

Rose. Rose Rose! Oooh. I love the dark notes. This is sort of a headshop rose. Gotta have more! An absolutely different rose. It even made me go back to sniff LitA!

 

Oops. Spoke too soon. It vanishes to nothingness with a whisp of ye olde headshoppe. That is, the ROSE vanishes. The incensy smell actually lasted and intensified a bit hours after posting this. The scent was pleasant, but there were no rose notes ... unless you count the London wafting from the other wrist. Hmmm ... Now that might be a future science experiment.

 

Safe travels wandering imp!

 

Edited for clarity.

Edited August 3, 2006 by yellowrose

[Luhtarian]

On me it's just soap. Soap, soap, soap. I had high hopes for this one, but roses just don't work out on me.

[buzz23666]

The most velvety roses ever. There is no question that these are red, red, red - dried blood red. The amber comes up a bit more as this one dries down on me. I will have to wait and see if it ends up overpowering the roses - as they are competing right now.

 

A fantastic, somber scent. I would love to be able to wear this daily but in the horrid heat and humidity here in the tropics of Southeast Asia I am afraid that I might kill someone with it. This one will only come out at night. But definitely a keeper!!!

[storme]

In the imp: a slightly musky, powdery sweet rose.

 

On me, wet: a weirdly soapy rose, with something furniture-polish-ish about it. Hey, where'd that musk and sweetness go?

 

On me, dry: bitter soapy roses with furniture polish sprayed all over them. Meh.

 

Verdict: I don't know what it was that didn't work on me, but whatever it was *really* didn't work on me. Sigh.

[indicolite]

It is rose and patchouli, yes, but on me it has a fresh undertone that keeps on reminding me of cucumber, though I know it is not cucumber, I do not think.

 

I like it very much. This is my first raid on the Rappaccini's Garden, and I am looking forward to the journey!

[sofiaviolet]

The only amber blend ever to work on my skin!

 

This smells like slightly smoky dried rose petals. I would love to try layering it with other rosy scents, including London (in the hopes that the powderiness is calmed somewhat by Black Rose).

[kunoichi]

In the vial, this smells like a dark, musky rose scent, with a touch of sweetness to it. On my skin this is a dark, musky rose scent that has become much deeper and darker on my skin. After a few hours this is a very dark musky rose scent on my skin.

 

The name, Black Rose, always reminds me of Kurobara no Kodachi - Kodachi, the Black Rose – from Ranma 1/2, but though this scent has her dark streak, it doesn’t have her bright insanity!!

[supremegoddessofall]

Rosey (duh). I do get a slight muskiness to it, but not so much on the amber. In general, this is a "deeper" rose than most rose scents. I like it. Very feminine, in a Victorian kinda way.

 

Score: 4 out of 5

[Medici]

Wet: Musk and roses. Smoked out and somber. Damn, this is gonna be good.

 

Drydown: Awe hell, I'm going to need a bottle of this. It's dark and resinous, the rose taking the backseat to the musk. I dig it. It's much darker than I expected.

[steffanina]

Black Rose-

 

In Bottle: Only a little rose. The rest is something spicy.

 

Wet: The rose comes out.

 

Dry: This is starting to go a little bit sour on me. I'll give it a bit more time though...No, it didn't actually go sour, but it never got more interesting, and was fading quickly.

 

Overall: Not for me.

[Elemcee]

This, to me, is the quintessential 'Goth' scent. It is exquisitely dark and romantic.

 

I'm not much of a goth, these days, but if I were ever to put on a long, corsetted, black velvet and lace dress and make myself up, again, I'd wear this with it.

[undream]

i looove my roses, and this one is no exception. it is a very full rose in the imp, but not at all cloying or overwhelming to me; that hovering sweetness found in lighter, more innocent roses has been rained away, here. this rose prefers the gloom.

 

drying, it becomes very sharp and somewhat spicy, definitely the aura of a darkened rose, and there is something almost strangely fresh and green happening (i can see why indicolite mentioned cucumber!).

 

overall an absolutely gorgeous, haunting - and haunted - scent. i love it!!

 

ETA: ohmygod, i am deliriously in love. about 30 minutes of wear turns this oil, on me, into a strange but very pleasant soap? (and a thing that strongly reminds me of some other time/place, but i can't quite recall when or where!) but an hour of wear and it morphs beautifully into this gorgeous warm, sweet, dusty, calming, almost powdery scent, completely breathing-in-and-eyes-rolling-back delicious; it reminds me of the same warm, dusty, powdery feel of thanatos, which i love madly, and even libertine, which i also wildly adore - i use them both often for bedtime scents, and this, on me, has become their long lost sister. the sleepytime triplets!

 

sooo beautiful.

Edited October 27, 2006 by undream

[phedre]

in vial: musk and rose, a bit astringent.

 

wet: musk and amber, rose is fading

 

Drydown: Heavy on the rose, but not a nice rose like London. This is a rose past its prime, overblown and slightly rotten.

[Browneyes]

Imp: I can smell all three components easily

Wet: Rose predominates

Dry: Musky rose, slightly on the powdery side, but very realistic nonetheless. The rose is fully mature and open - tomorrow it will start to go droopy

Very nice, I will hang on to this imp!

 

ETA: I hardly every wear this, so I am swapping. It's too heady and powdery for me to really love. My #1 rose scent so far continues to be Harlot.

Edited March 20, 2007 by Browneyes

[filigree_shadow]

This is a strange rose blend to my nose -- it smells almost metallic. It has a kind of stinging quality to it, the sort that I normally associate with "perfumey." It does smell like a very dark rose scent, and Black Rose is a fitting name.

[emzebel]

This is a very dark, heavy rose scent - I can definitely scent out the musk here. Amber I'm not so good at. Either way, this would be a beautiful blend for rose lovers. I like rose, but usually the lighter variety, so this is a touch heavy for me, but as others have mentioned, it definitely does hep channel the Victorian Goth within...

[Tess]

I don't tend to like rose scents much at all. That said, the idea of a rose with musk and amber is just too tempting for me.

 

In the vial - A really green rose. Hrm.

 

Wet - This really is a very wet, green and commercial rose scent.

 

Drying - Uh, hello? Musk and amber? Where are you? There's just something off about the rose, too. It's sour and soapy. So far, I'm really not liking this.

 

Dry (2.5 hours) - So, it's a soapy rose with powdery amber. It's soft and pretty, but the stage just before this was terrible. Rancid, sour rose. Ick.

 

Overall - Not for me. I'm just not a floral type of person.

[dorothy humbird]

This is the second BPAL rose scent I've tried, the other being Wanton. As such I'm going to do some comparing...

 

Black Rose is indeed darker feeling than Wanton; Wanton, by comaprison, smells sweeter and fresher. The rose of Black Rose smells headier, and the musk underscores that headiness. I can't detect the amber with the musk and rose overpowering it, but that might come out in drydown.

 

As it settles on my skin it becomes more powdery (this could be the work of the amber). It's mellowed quite a bit in only a few short minutes, but... while I like the idea of rose scents, and I love smelling a fresh rose in a garden or even a flower shop, Black Rose is too heady for me to consider wearing.

[xoe]

black rose really doesn't work on me. metallic, soapy, babypowder is not good.

[ariosa]

Roses and I don't really get along in scent form, I'm sad to say. I will try every rose blend that comes my way in hopes that it will be different each time, but apart from London (and even that one is touch and go for me!), I still have yet to find a blend that has predominant roses that I like. Love the amber. Love the musk. The rose? Not so much. Into the swaps pile it goes, though I'm glad I got to try it!

[Meg]

In the bottle: A very dusty, dark, slightly bitter rose. Hmm.

 

Wet: This smells like rose and dark smoke and something very bitter.

 

Drydown: The bitterness subsides a little bit, and rose peeks out, but it smells different, rough, dark. I still can't tell what this darkness is, because it's not like musk or amber, it's more like smoke, opium or something.

 

Overall: It's definitely a different rose blend, and perfect for its name - a musty, dry, dark rose. However, it's not really the kind of scent that would see myself wearing, pretty as it is. An intriguing blend.

[Silentlover]

In the Bottle: Rose, but a bit of a "fake" rose. Sort of that talcum powder sweetness. Although something in there is dark and lurking, almost "sour".

 

Wet: Very talcum powder, but not so "fluffy" as it usually smells. It's more of a "mature" smelling talc, if that makes sense. It's a very sharp sweetness that says, "What other notes? I'm the only thing here. Isn't my lovely innocence captivating?" but I know it's a lie. I smelled something dark in the bottle and I know it's hiding somewhere.

 

Dry: Real rose that barely peeks out because it's afraid to confront the imposter talcum scent hehe.

 

I won't wait for my "Later" findings as I waited much longer between the wet and dry than I normally do and I'm fairly sure the scent will remain the same. If not I'll change it but for now it's staying.

 

Final verdict:

 

Pretty if you like the "fake" rose scent. I like it for rooms and such but not on my body.

[bryghtrose]

In the bottle: roses with something else

Wet on skin: roses with a sharp something else

Drying: soapy roses

Dry: roses and baby powder

 

I'm not getting the amber and musk at all. Just "plastic" roses and baby powder.

[bulletslc]

Dark, heady rose in the imp.

 

On wet--roses with a deep musky background

 

Dry Down--Musk and amber with a faint whiff of rose.

 

I love musk and amber and I love rose....but this wasn't spectacular enough to warrent a big bottle for me....the rose pooped out too soon and I have other musk/amber scents that I'm more partial to. I'll keep the imp though.