The Blood Garden

[motdakasha]

THE BLOOD GARDEN
Vast open tents have been erected further down the lane. Ornately carved wooden poles support swaths of drooping black lace and blood-crusted burgundy velvet. Grapevines and ivy creep over the beams in the tent and curl like cocoons around bodies that hang upside-down in the caliginous gloom of the tents. Within the shadows, pale figures recline on divans covered in moldering, frayed fabric. As you pass, a feral, white-haired man hoists a tall-stemmed crystal glass of deep red liquid in a toast to you.

Blood accord, bitter clove, English ivy, Tempranillo grape, red currant, oak, leather, blackberry leaf, and ginger lily.

This is my first review. Hope this thread doesn't already exist somewhere..?

In the bottle:

Rating (1-5): 5
Notes: blood accord, Tempranillo grape, red currants
Comment: It's slightly metallic and very fruity, which I absolutely love. I like it when I smell edible! Everything else is underneath those. I'm very partial to the sweet notes which is probably why I notice those first.

Wet on skin: After 5-10 minutes.

Rating (1-5): 5
Notes: Bitter clove, oak, leather
Comment: The clove is now noticeable, but somewhat faint which is unusual for me. The other more masculine notes (oak, leather, etc.) have now balanced out the strong sweeter notes.

Dry on skin: After 1 Hr.

Rating (1-5): 4
Notes: Tempranillo grape, ginger lily, blackberry leaf
Scent Intensity: 2
Comment: Smell has faded considerably. I really wish the intensity of the first 30 minutes would last longer like others do because it's a really fantastic scent. You can only notice it if your nose is directly on my skin. Because it doesn't last as long as others I've tried, I may have to get a backup bottle for this so I know I'll have enough to last a while!

Misc:

Duration: 2-3 Hrs.
Keyword(s): Gourmand; metallic fruit
Color: Maroon
Smells like: Coagulated blood wine.

[sarada]

My eyes lit up when I saw the notes for this one. First, I am a sucker for anything with the words "blood" or "garden" in them -- and here's a blood scent without dragon's blood listed (which has a tendency to drown out other notes, I've noticed).

 

The combination of ivy, wood and leather made me wonder at first if this would be a fruity cousin of The Black Tower -- while the dark luscious fruits brought longtime favorite Blood Countess to mind. And with a bit of clove in there as well, this is an exciting combination to contemplate.

 

I know I always call things "incensy" when I like them, because that's my go-to word for anything that I just really like, but that's my first impression as it dries. It is also surprisingly fruity -- rather like a big box full of mostly fruity-scented incense, with the scent of dust and some dry woods mixed in. Leather and wood give it a nice, strong, long-lasting base. I don't smell clove, oddly, and I don't get a lot of the ivy or green notes, which is a shame, but those might come out in a locket better. I also don't get a lot of the metallic blood scent, because the wood and leather creates such a strong impression of dusty warm incense. I think this one might vary greatly depending on your personal chemistry and how you wear it -- wearing it on incense-amping skin, on very hot days where I'm always applying sunblock, I might not be getting some of the subtler notes. I think that as we head into fall this will create an entirely different experience, and the more subtle notes, or the ones that burn off quickly, will be able to fully emerge.

[Brianne]

This goes on like very grapey wine, but quickly changes and gets much darker. The leather and bitter clove become much more prominent and makes this scent seem "dark brown red" in scent, which is certainly appropriate! You can still smell the grape, but now it's really woody and deep also and this scent is a bit masculine now. It's really sexy in a way and all the notes in this blend really well. It certainly evokes the image it was meant to! It doesn't stick on my skin for long though I noticed, but my skin does have a tendency to eat scents :/

[coldandsleepy]

In the bottle: it's like grape bubble yum if grape bubble yum wasn't sweet. It's a pleasant dry grape. However, I'm missing out on, uh, all the other notes on here. This is problematic, because I tend to amp grape like crazy and end up smelling like the Kool Aid man. That would be too sad.

 

On me, wet: oh, hey. There's stuff in there other than grape! I knew it! The grape actually tones DOWN instead of UP on me for once. It lurks in the background adding a gentle sweetness. In the foreground, I get bitter clove and what I'm assuming is the blood accord. Very pleasant.

 

On me, dry: much the same as wet, except the whole scent is really rich now. I can also smell some of the currant coming out in the background, and what I'm guessing is the ginger lily.

 

Overall, this is really very nice. Probably not a bottle scent, but quite scrumptious, and about as good as grape has ever been on me.

 

Also, it lasts for freaking ever on me.

[iiinterstate]

For some reason, I hadn't expected to it much, or at least not be totally wowed by it, but the Blood Garden is a real winner on me

 

In the bottle, it smelled almost like wine (grapes of course) and I was afraid it might be too boozy for my liking. And at first, it kinda was. A lot of grape and red currant and what I assume is blood accord, although I've never smelled any. Very very nice, but it also smelled like I spilled a glass of (expensive) red wine on myself.

 

After about 20 minutes the oak and leather came out and grounded the whole blend. Not to say they overpowered everything... I still get the fruits, but there's a delicious dark base to everything that keeps the Blood Garden from being a strictly fruity blend. I can also smell the ginger lily in my scent locket (not so much on my skin), and it is a perfect compliment to the rest of the blend.

[savage_rose]

Count me among the ones not expecting much. But Blood Garden is lovely...the blood accord is most prominent, but I can also smell grape. Another sniff...sweet floral, pale and light. Ginger lily? Another sniff...somber greenery, ivy and blackberry leaf. What a lovely morpher! And each part of the scent is so wonderful.

 

And on a personal note...this smells just like college to me. It reminds me of this cranberry potpourri I had, and books, and studying. Being free for the first time. This must share some notes with Chrysanthemum Moon, because I got similar impressions from that.

 

This is just one of those rare blends that combines nostalgia with a really solid, complementary set of notes. This is such an amazing blend.

[euterpe414]

I love wine blends, and this one is particularly fantastic imho. It starts off as a really thick, sweet wine scent but as it dries other notes begin to creep in and make this scent increasingly more sinister, particularly the leather and bitter clove. The end result is a rich currant/grape wine with a serious bite (hah, no pun intended) to it. This is definitely not an overly fruity blend, and does not ever go into grape koolaid territory. It is mature, dark and utterly fabulous. As an added bonus, it lasts for quite a while, perhaps the longest on my skin of any wine/grape blend yet.

 

[sookster]

straight sniff from bottle smellz identical to my fave head shoppe in ptown!!! zomG...love!

 

once applied, a lot of grape and incense...i just adore this...

the tiniest hint of rose this scent remains true thoughout with

a winey edge that only the lab can offer with the utmost beauty...one of my favs of the CD collection

[megank4]

I don't like this one at all. Was barely able to decant into the imps for my decant circle. The blood accord made me feel sick to my stomach. Just too strong.

[slave1]

THE BLOOD GARDEN

 

In Bottle: Sticky and red

 

On Skin: This scent is very dark… red without a doubt. I smell the grape right away, the dominant note for sure. It is sweet and sticky… fermenting slightly. The blood is a dragon’s blood resin to me, it has that trademark scent. The red currant deepens the berry grape note. The clove makes it spicy and even darker and amps the sweetness. The leather and oak give it depth and heaviness. The ginger lily has a perfumey tone but it is balanced well. The blackberry leaf and English Ivy are green and offer a nice slice through the sticky, sweet overtone of the blend. This scent has a medium throw and a long wearlength on me.

[LunaLovegood]

Another one I wanted to love, alas, the love wasnt meant to happen. Leather, I've discovered doesnt mesh well with my skin chemistry, but I'm not sure it is entirely the culprit. It has a slight plasticky understone that just ends up killing BG entirely for me.

[ivyandpeony]

The Blood Garden gives me a nostalgic, old-school BPAL feel although I'm not altogether sure why I am getting it. It does remind me a little bit of Masabakes, but it's much richer, deeper and more complex.

 

For me, there's a lot of wine and deep spicy clove here, and I get a hint of the ivy note, which is a little spicyas well. I think the sweet fruits and the dry notes like the leather & oak are balancing each other, which for me is good. Blends that swing too far in either direction can end up in the swap pile very quickly.

 

I definitely don't smell blood or anything I associate with it, I don't smell leather, and that makes me like this blend much more than I thought I would! I agree with the reviewers who get a grapey incense from this one, that's what I get in the drydown, although a very different grapey incense than I got with Urd - this one is a good balance of sweet, spicy, woody and resinous. This one was a really nice surprise for me.

[dawndie]

In bottle: sweet wine

 

On skin: the wine has soured a bit, but has a sweet cocoa-like edge

 

Half-hour later: dustier wine with the oak and soft leather

 

In conclusion: this definitely has a "classic BPAL" feel to it, probably because it reminds me a lot of Wanda -- one of the first bottles I purchased and a favorite GC blend. I appreciate that this leather isn't the shiny black stuff, but duskier and milder. A beautiful sweet wine blend.

[filigree_shadow]

Add me to the list of people who tried this with half-hearted expectations and ended up with a pleasant surprise.

 

The imp sniff was a sort of bitter, planty dark fruit scent. Intriguing. On, it smells like a dark, leafy fruit scent. More complexity than I expected -- it smells deep. The grape worried me when I read the description, but it's not bad at all. Mostly it just seems to be making the scent smell a little juicy, but not really grapey or like wine.

 

This scent is very BPALy. It seems to be reminding me of other BPAL perfumes I have known and loved. I really like it. Very good throw, too, and long-lasting.

[Indigo78]

A latecomer to the Carnivale, it is hard to decide which blends to try first, since my odds of trying them all before it leaves are slim. The combination of notes lured me in with Blood Garden. Leather? Blood? Wine? How could I not?

 

In the imp I get syrupy wine, it does invoke Urd..which is great for me. On my skin a darker note gives this an almost waxy/paraffin scent that blends seamlessly with the grapes. Drying pools of spilled sweet wine mingled with candle drippings. The resins are just right, creating a seductive aural haze of gah-gah sexaliciousness on me. Getting a bottle, pronto.

 

ETA: Not long after posting this, I realized that the wine Blood Garden was not quite "the thing" on my skin. I never did get a bottle, and swapped my original decant months ago. Will update again if I get a chance to try it before the Carnaval leaves, but right now it isn't a bottle for me.

Edited January 10, 2009 by Indig0

[alicia_stardust]

The Blood Garden is all blood and sweet-sticky grape at first. There's an almost plant-like undertone to it; probably the ivy and blackberry leaf. There is a subtly sweet nuance in there that makes me think of the ginger lily, but it is barely noticeable. What really and truly dominates this blend from start to finish, even with all the other nuances in it, is the slight bite of the blood accord and the bitter clove with just a hint of leather. It's really lovely... deep, red, dark, indulgent.

[fairnymph]

Wet: Medium reddish cola coloured oil. Candy grape first! Darker hints of wood and spice below. There's a nice tang from the currant, and some blackberry too. Very fruity. Evokes dark red-purple.

 

Dry: Slow drying oil (seems to be a trend with the new CDs, or else it's the weather today). More floral (spicy, clean, faintly soapy), less sweet. A bit of the fresh, herbal ivy has come out and it lightens the blend pleasantly. The oak rounds out the blend, providing a smoothness combined with the leather note - but both are definitely in the background.

 

Later: The oak, blackberry and blackberry leaf (I get both notes), and currant have amped nicely and further balance and improve this blend. The lily is spicy in a wonderful floral way, like carnation (maybe that's here too). The leather is well-blended and not going to plastic. No clove, thank god. Grape, blood, and ivy hold. This fits the description so wonderfully!

 

Summary: Sweet-tart grapes, bright currant, ripe blackberries, metallic, heavy blood, clean spicy lily, rounded earthy oaky and soft worn leather, fresh ivy and herbal blackberry leaf, and a deep musk note that emerges to bind it all together. Amazingly well balanced. Sweet but kept vivid not cloying, deep, dark and sexy. Pretty feminine, but I wouldn't rule it out on a man. Decent throw, great lasting power.

 

Getting a partial bottle of this, the only new CD to work me so far, and one I didn't initially order in the decant circle I joined.

Edited May 17, 2009 by fairnymph

[Iceblink]

This one starts out not unlike Blood Phoenix (which I liked but ultimately found too sweet), with the grapey wine dominant. As it dries the oak and leather are coming out and the sweetness is calming down, thanks to them. There's also a hint of green in the background--ivy? The darker this gets, the better it is. Good but I need to test it more.

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Dusty and tangy grapes, spices, and blackberry.

 

Immediately on skin: This scent manages to be dry and bitter and tart and fruity at the same time. It’s odd. I can smell the slightly metallic blood accord and the bitter clove sprinkled over the top, a touch of leather, and the grape, currant, and blackberry. They combine to make this very weird bitter, gritty, fruity combo though.

 

After a little while: When I smell this, it makes my nose tickle like I’m going to sneeze. It smells bitter and metallic now (like I’d imagine dried blood would smell) with a backdrop of grapes, currants, and a very sharp, soapy floral (that note is light however).

 

Overall Impressions: This scent is very intense and deep, with a lot going on. It’s definitely a blood scent, and it smells like a deep purplish burgundy color. The other notes make it a little bitter and very fruity, which adds to the blend’s complexity. This is definitely a sexy feminine vampire type of scent.

[Mishinka]

Mmmm. I certainly don't smell any blood, but this reminds me of what I like in Bess. I smell the grape and currant right away in the bottle, and an herbal background I want to call the bitter clove and/or the ivy. I pick up some leather after a moment, and there's a gentle floral in the background. I want more of this right now.

 

On, also mmmm. The grape turns almost to wine, and the floral--which I guess would be the lily--gets a lot stronger. I definitely do smell the leather and the oak now, but it's a much more feminine scent than I was expecting. The description made me think of an old library in some English manse with ivy growing up the walls, and I was expecting the cologne of the sort of gentleman who lived there, some professor type with a tweed jacket that had leather patches on the elbows. But the floral is actually quite strong and not girly, but feminine. This is a lady's library. She's wearing strong perfume, but she's doing it amid the leather and oak of that old English library.

 

I'd been about to say that the berry scent goes away as it dries, but I still smell it from a distance. I'm wearing it on the same hand as Clémence, who still wants very much to be my friend, so I might be getting a bit of a distortion there. But when I put my nose directly to my wrist after Blood Garden dries, I get almost all floral and maybe a little ginger. But holding it away a bit, I smell that grapey, berry scent and specifically lily instead of just "some kinda flower." I just adore this. Srsly, I have my bank account open in the tab next to this one to make sure I can justify a bottle of this OMGrightnow.

Edited July 16, 2008 by Mish

[tastycactuar]

This is a great blend. It goes on nice, strong and fruity. For about 10-15 minutes there's an odd note I'm not particularly thrilled with - I'm assuming it's the oak and the leather. It only lasts another ten minutes or so, and then it's back to the fruity deliciousness. This has great throw on me and lasts several hours, which doesn't happen for almost any other blend. Other than those couple odd minutes, I love it.

[sprocket21]

This is quite lovely! In the imp, it smells somewhat metallic; I suppose that's appropriate as blood has a metallic tang to it, no?

 

On me the metallic tang goes away. The blood/grapes/currant dominate, but their sweetness is slightly tempered by the oak and leather. It seems to work similarly to Dionysia in that way - fruit tempered with something else to keep it from being that sweet. It's a very red scent; fruit lovers should at least give it a test, though I find that it's not quite strong and sweet enough for me.

[ImperatrixMundi]

Great notes, but as I feared it is very strongly grape and berry fruity. Then it fades away. All the complex and delicous notes are lost. I already sent it off in a swap but now I am a bit regretful because I would like to test it one more time.

[djsiberia]

wet/in imp: wow - purple! reminds me of urd, crypt queen, and purple phoenix. there is something sharp and biting in this that i can't put my finger on.

 

sniffing again i'm getting a light floral scent and lots of grape.

 

on me/dry: interesting. i smell grape cloves. i don't smell the currents, i'm mostly getting grape, clove and a small floral scent. i'm not sure what i was expecting with this and i suppose i might have picked it out because of the title...but, it's now giving me a slight headache and not really working for me. i don't really pick up that this should smell like wine or anything, just grape cloves.

[nekogrrl]

In imp: GRAPE and something else sweet, probably the blackberry leaf.

 

Wet on skin: GRAPE and blackberry leaf.

 

Dry on skin: GRAPE and a little bit of the blackberry leaf.

 

While I do like a good grape smell, this is just a bit much. :/