Blood Kiss

[bifemmefatale]

Lush, creamy vanilla and the honey of the sweetest kiss smeared with the vital throb of husky clove, swollen red cherries, but darkened with the vampiric sensuality of vetiver, soporific poppy and blood red wine, and a skin-light pulse of feral musk.

In the bottle, the main notes are honey and cherry, with a bit of the wine note. So far, this smells a lot like Vicks Formula 44D. On, the honey is pretty dominant, with the cherry, vanilla and a hint of the musk hovering in the background. I'm not getting much of the vetiver. It's a nice enough smell, but very foody and not really to my taste. It's also not what I imagine "vampiric" ought to smell like, if that makes any sense. To me, this is rather a teeny-bopper smell.

Half an hour later, the poppy and wine are really coming out, giving the blend an almost dusty smell with a hint of raisins. It reminds me of my grandma's poppyseed kolackys. Yummy, but not something I really want to smell like, nor is it sexy to me. Something with a name like Blood Kiss ought to smell sexy and dangerous. Edited February 7, 2006 by Shollin

[The_Merf]

In the imp: Wow, this smells absolutely gorgeous! I pick up on the honey, vanilla, cherry and wine. I'm quite excited about this, as I love wine scents.

 

Wet: This is unexpected--this perfume has gone "stale food" on me. This is the same problem I have with Grog and Devil's Night, though with DN, the problem goes away. I assume that something sugary--perhaps the vanilla--is causing the problem. (One of the biggest lessons I've learned with BPAL is that there is a drastic difference between commercialized vanilla scents and scents with pure vanilla notes on my skin.)

 

Dry-down and wear: Sadly, I get nothing but the stale food smell--rotting sweets. It smells like someone left candy corn out in the sun for too long. If you like foody smells with a buttery or sugary edge, you should love this. I'm really quite disappointed that I have to move this to the swaps pile, because it is absolutely stunning in the imp. Maybe I'll try it on my hair or something...

[melrose]

I tried this on before I read the description - huh, I can't believe there's no dragon's blood.

 

In imp and on, wet: Super-sweet dragon's blood (or so I thought) and spices. Pretty nice.

 

Near drydown: Spices, woods, and sweetness - Dear God, I'm in love.

 

Middle drydown: Oh, rats. Powder and dirty diapers.

 

Far drydown: Spices, powder, and play-doh. This is the first time I've encountered the play-doh smell other Forumites have posted about, and it's pretty yucky.

 

Verdict: No.

[Lizzie]

In the Bottle mmmm boozy vanilla!! Very strong and soft of....nose tingling.

 

Wet On the honey begins to come out. Mmmm. mmmmmmmm.

 

Dry OMG! This is great! Smells a lot like Lush's B Never!! Lizzie like.

[PirateMaggie]

Yes! Another musk blend that my skin doesn't turn into BO! Look out, Hell's Belle, you have competition.

 

The vanilla and vetiver are most noticeable (my skin loves both vanilla and vetiver, and they compliment each other well: the vanilla keeps the vetiver from getting too bitter while the vetiver keeps the vanilla from being too sweet) with the clove lending a warm spiciness and the cherry giving it a tart, lush undertone. The musk is barely-there, which is refreshing given that my skin chemistry usually amps it like mad. The wine and poppy linger in the background, giving the blend a whisper-soft headiness. There is something in there that gives it a slight bloody metallic tang.

 

Throw is fairly light--this is very much a scent that lingers near the skin and would entice others to come closer. It's quite sexy in a very subtle way. Unfortunately it fades very quickly to just a hint of musk, clove, and poppy, but it's so lovely that it's now one to my favourite femme fatale blends. Yet another future big bottle. My wallet weeps; my nose rejoices.

Edited February 16, 2006 by PirateMaggie

[sthenno]

Whoa, this is sweet. In bottle/wet, I get a strong whiff of almonds... which isn't in the scent description. I assume it's the cherry. I also get a fleeting whiff of chocolate??

 

Dry, it smells like honey and cherries. Very edible. A big no for me, but this would be a great scent for you if you're into smelling like dessert.

[SpinnyRoses]

I'm rather new to the whole BPAL experience, but oh, this one definitely got me hooked.

 

Bottle: I smelled mostly red wine. I love the first sniff of wine, but the alcohol scent quickly overcomes anything else and gives me a headache. I find it to be very sharp in the bottle, and makes me wonder just WHY I love it so much.

 

Skin: Oh yeah. Because it goes very sweet on me and not in a alignment-good way. I smell a little vanilla, but there is honey and wine and definitely something smelling of blood. This is the sweetness of the cute little demon girl before she rips your face off.

 

There's not much of a throw. It sticks very close to your skin. I've had a hard time keeping my nose away from my wrist whenever I wear this.

 

I love this so much!

[Rhowan]

I have been looking so forward to try this one! In the imp I can smell lucious cherried and vanilla - maybe a hint of the clove and sweetnesss of honey (Yay! yet another honey note that agrees with me!)

 

As Blood Kiss dries down, the vanilla, honey, and cherry that made this so innocent when first wet begins to fade. The musk, red wine, and clove emerge to make this a very dark, rich scent - very sensual! In the back ground is the vetiver giving it just a tad of woodsiness.

 

I have to elaborate on the vetiver - if you have had problems with vetiver that has been kind of stinky or overpowering in the past (Like I have) the vetiver in blood kiss is nothing like that- it's what I think vetiver should always smell like - woody, but not overpoweringly so. This vetiver is just beautiful!

 

At complete dry down, everything blends so well that there is not one note that you could really single out. Blood Kiss is a very dark red/brown scent to me - sweet red wine, an undercurrent of poppy? in a dark paneled room where a midnight kiss of the vampire is delivered!

 

In conclusion, Blood kiss dries down to give you the image of it's name sake. For me it has an okay throw (about a 5 out of 10) and not a very good wear - it lasted for about an hour on me. Blood Kiss is lovely but with the okay throw and wear, it doesn't really deem a purchase of a 5ml....

[Becky]

this is one of my all time favorite scents! I tried it at first because I thought it sounded kinda different from what I usually get, but it is exactly everything I like in one! its sweet and a bit spicy, soft and powdery, and slightly dark and mysterious. it smells kind of strong on me at first, but mellows out to a sweet dark scent. I usually alternate this and Snake Oil as my 'going out' scents.

[jarvenpa]

Blood Kiss came as a freebie from the generous lab (I did order an imp of Blood Amber, and lots of other goodies, but not this one). I loved the red, red color.

 

But when I opened it I found the rush of cherry--if that's what I was smelling--was so overpowering I couldn't bear it. It was sticky and cough syrupy and just too much.

 

Thus, I will confess I handed it over to my pretty 20 year old daughter, who does well with fruit scents (I don't seem to do well at all) and she scampered away with it, coming by yesterday wearing it: it was complex, spiced, fruity, and very very lovely on her (I am having slight regrets, but not many). She reports that her boyfriend, who was initially put off by the cherry rush, really liked it and kept moving closer to sniff. On her skin it also has good throw and lasts well.

 

Thus for those who like their scents with spice and fruit, I think Blood Kiss is a winner.

 

And if I can ever borrow a swipe of my daughter's, I might well try again too.

[konekoshadow]

In the bottle, Blood Kiss smells sweet and sharp. A little spicy too. On me, the sweet surges forward for about half an hour, then fades to nothing. It's a spicy, slightly sharp scent on me, not at all what I was hoping for. I think I'll try it as a room scent, but, not on me again.

[LittleGreyKitten]

Holy crap, how did I overlook this??? I'd somehow put this into the "tried and meh" pile of imps- somehow methinks I actually didn't try. Because if I did, my nose must have been busted to not fall head over heels for this.

 

My imp is aged I think- it seems like it anyway, it has the honey-thick droolicious yumminess of a perfectly aged Snake Oil. There is some aspect of this that makes me want to put in into the Snake Oil family, possibly the same spicy vanilla perhaps. It's by no means identical or even that similar, it just has a note that relates them strongly in my mind.

 

There's a heady, delectable spicy aroma that I feel is almost swirling around my body. It's major strong and it makes me want to nuzzle it. The honey is, as it always is on my skin, amazing; however instead of being mostly honey, like most BPAL blends with lots of honey, this one has plenty of components that stand up to the potent honey note. Vanilla, yes. Poppy, I'm pretty sure, is one of the spicy sweet components in there, but it's not remotely floral. No cherries, yay! Clove is noticeable but good- I was not sure how I'd feel about clove. It's nice though, it adds a good dimension to this.

 

Vetiver is speaking up in this one, it has a lovely woody base note going on.

 

The interesting thing about this scent is that it smells siginificantly different from a distance- I absolutely am entranced with the smell it throws from my wrists at a distance, and I do love the nose-plastered-to-wrist scent too. It's a strong scent on me- one I'd feel uncomfortable wearing a lot of at work- but it is so damn good I might and just say screw it to anyone who was annoyed. It lasts well, as well as anything does, on par with Snake Oil/Charmer etc.

 

This will be a full bottle; ASAP too, so I can age it! For me this is a full on 5 out of 5. I've really been having spectacular luck with the catalogue scents I've tried over the last couple of days. There've been some amazing ones I've just found.

Edited March 12, 2006 by LittleGreyKitten

[batsy]

In the vial: cherry and wine, lots of wine

 

On the skin: It's really funny how scent triggers memory. This one triggered my childhood trips to the pet store. No, I can't explain that at all. I'm assuming the musk and cherries did it. I'm just not big on cherry. Oh well, it was worth trying though!

[Celestyna]

Wow! All the scents in the description actually came out and stayed on me. It has a musky sort of base that blends it all together. Very honey-creme. Really love this one. Definitely something you would want to use near your netherparts on a particularly good night in bed.

[sarada]

I would never have sought this one out because it has cherry in it, and cherry equals a huge almondy headache for me usually. I also rarely like anything with vanilla and honey together in it, because it becomes too cloyingly sweet and foody, which is not my thing.

 

But OH MY GOD, Blood Kiss. Thank god for frimps!

 

Just like the wild naked romp I had with Perversion last year when I tried it for the first time after expecting not to like it, I am completely blown away.

 

Thick, rich, sultry, intoxicating...a dark rich tobacco with a hint of clove. Wait, tobacco? Yep, that's how my nose interprets the dark, sweet, earthy vetiver and the musk, paired with a tiny hint of sweet luscious dark red cherry (the kind so dark red they look like little black hearts), a hint of clove and all luxuriating in a bath of smooth, softly sweet nectar.

 

I could drown in this. Sweet and dark without striking me as foody, and still pornographically lickable.

 

I hope it's not just a one-night stand with me and this scent, I can't imagine not ever loving it, every time I pop open the imp to take a sniff. That vetiver is the glossy, polished, dark wood that it becomes at its best, and now that I know what happens when clove and honey meet (see also: The Masque) I am hooked. I didn't even realize this had red wine in it! Another note that I just utterly adore. Anything that has red wine in it smells drinkable to me (note: I do not drink, in real life, and never have!).

 

I am really curious to see if this becomes the first time I go through an imp before I get my bottle. I NEED this. Now I have to try every single thing I missed in the catalogue, to see what else I am missing out on!

[bookishgrrl]

Blood Kiss was an Imp from the lab. I am still not very familiar with what different notes smell like (vetiver, what? dragon's who?) so I didn't know exactly what to expect.

 

In the Imp: Honey! And lots of it. My initial notes were, "Honey, honey, honey." There is more sweetness under it, but honey is the main thing I can smell.

 

Wet on skin: Honey! But this is not a typical innocent honey. There's a kind of a syrupy dark liquour, smelling a bit like cherries underneath, smutting it up. Dirty!

 

Inital Dry: The honey has stepped back a bit, and cherry has come forward to share the spotlight. They seem very nicely balanced. I feel like I smell sticky, syrupy sweet, but verging closer to delicious than cloying.

 

Later: About 45 min to an hour into it, the magic which is musk (i think?) blooms on my skin and ties everything together. Now I smell (from strongest to weakest): Musk, Vanilla (Hello! When did you get here?! ), Cherry/Honey, and maybe the tracest bit of cloves (though I may be wishing myself into smelling that, as I really like cloves and am hoping they'll come out... ;-) )

 

Blood Kiss lasts a couple of hours on me (though the traces of afterglow of spicy musk and vanilla last a few hours past that) and has an average throw. Normally that would make me sad, but you know what? This isn't a scent I want to wear to work all day. It makes me feel smutty and sweet and beggin' for some naughtiness. It lasts the perfect amount of time and has the perfect throw for calling in sick and spending a debaucherous afternoon in bed with a lover. ... jewelbug described it earlier as "Blood Kiss = Smex" and I have to say I wholeheartedly agree.

 

ETA: The more and more I wear this, the more it has become my absolute favorite BPAL scent. LOVE! I've found it layers excellently with Snake Oil, too...

Edited April 24, 2006 by bookishgrrl

[Delight]

This was one of the first imps I elected to try. I had never purchased anything from the lab before and this one just sounded like something I'd wear. I was a little worried when it mentioned musk since it tends to add a lot of strength to a scent.

 

In the bottle: Strong, with an incense aftershock. I am unfamiliar with the scents of vetiver and poppy so I assume it is one or both of them that I'm smelling.

 

When worn: I get a spicy, cinnamon type smell at first. Then honey and vanilla layered over the clove.

 

I don't really smell the cherry or the wine in this. Kyoto smells like chocolate-covered cherries to me and Blood Kiss doesn't really compare to that at all. Blood Kiss is a very warm smell, something you'd wear when you are looking for love in all the wrong places. The scent of willing debauchery.

[blu°]

Blood Kiss is not a scent I can wear, as far as my first testing shows.

 

I, too, get tobacco from this and/or chocolate. Both have the tendency to smell like stale cornflakes on my skin. Dry, dusty, bland, pretty unpleasing. Chocolate more so than tobacco, and this is closer to chocolate than to tobacco. Very dusty and stale.

 

This first impression is then followed by a rush of cherry (topnote?). Not a black juicy cherry, but a candied bright red one, slightly artificial smelling to my nose.

 

The cherry is quite strong for a short while but fades back. Later on, if I try hard, I can identify honey and red wine, but that's about it.

 

The weird stale chocolate/tobacco/cornflake stays throughout wearing, unfortunately.

 

I can see that this would be nice on somebody else, but alas, not on me.

 

If you are among those who have similar problems with tobacco and/or chocolate notes, chances are you get the same problems with Blood Kiss.

I very much suspect that it contains notes used in chocolate bouquets (probably clove, vetiver, vanilla, honey?) and am wondering whether tobacco notes are actually bouquets as well.

[Naamah_Darling]

The descripition of this scent is more pornographic than some porn I've written.

 

What with all the ranting and raving about this one, I'm curious to see what it turns out to be like. The oil itself is a pretty golden-amber. I open the bottle and . . . let's see . . . oh, my. That honey scent is perfectly true. It doesn't smell like honey, it is honey. I smell the clove, and just a tingle of the vetiver. There might be a little cherry in there. My, this is syrupy. I'm not so sure about it.

 

On my skin, I can close my eyes and see honey melting over bread. The combination of clove and honey and cherry is a lot like chocolate at first. I don't smell the vanilla, but that doesn't mean it's not here . . . more as a general warmth than as a note. There's a rough throatiness to this one that it shares with O, a very sexual, skin-close smell that is quite redolent of the scent of recent sex. And the cherry's there as a kind of candylike, fruity sweetness.

 

Like kissing someone, and getting a nibbled-on chocolate-covered cherry for your pains. A sugar snowball. Naughty, sexy, swollen. Vampiric? I don't know. But I once theorized that if vampires couldn't eat real food, they'd probably come to thoroughly enjoy kissing someone who just had. And that's what this is like. Kissing a randy teenager who's just been having bread and honey. One of you – both of you, now – is wearing cherry lip gloss. There's a little perfume at the nape of the neck, but mostly it's the smell of heat and honey. A thigh-grinding, passionate clinch of a scent, but so sweet you're just sure it has no idea what you're about to do to it. Or maybe it does. There's nothing worse than a sexy young thing who knows the deal, and this is a scent that could have you wrapped around its little finger.

 

It quiets down after a while to a pleasantly spicy clove and vetiver scent that is sort of intellectual and bookish and a little noir, and the sweet backs down a little, into the next room. Still, in case it hasn't hit you yet, this one smells SWEET AND SUGARY out of the gate. If foody, sweet smells aren't your thing, you might want to avoid it. Also, if your chemistry does weird things with honey scents, approach with caution.

 

Bottom line: Like O's tease of a little sister, who pops her cherry bubblegum in your mouth while she goes down on you. Then she hangs out with you in the library for a couple hours, because she's actually a pretty cool little chick. I'm hearing Fiona Apple's "Criminal" in my head, perhaps my most guilty-favorite bad-girl song, with its combination of ersatz sophistication and twitty sullenness. Like a girl playing dress-up with her slutty sister's clothes. This is definitely the scent of a bad, bad girl who "would break a boy, just because she can."

 

Whether she's really bad, or just playing, well, that's up to you.

[tartsquid]

The first time that I tried this I was immediately turned off by it. The notes that I made on my spreadsheet say that it smells like "dirty cherry cough drops", and I do remember that it was very sharp and unpleasant to my nose. However, I pulled it out of the box and decided to give it another try tonight, and I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised.

 

I can smell the faintest hint of cherries and wine covered by a mix of vanilla and clove that almost smells like cocoa to my nose. It reminds me of a sweeter Tell Tale Heart. The sharp, medicinal note is completely gone and the scent that has replaced it is sweet yet with a touch of something deeper and mysterious. I can tell that, when worn at a time when it works with my skin, this will definitely become one of my favorite blends.

[draconix]

In the bottle: Honey... clove and vanilla are most prominent at the first sniff. I smell a bit of the poppy, but not too much. This is oddly (or maybe not-so-oddly if I think about it) sweet in the imp.

 

On my skin: Wet... um... gross. Cloyingly sweet. And it's not getting better as it dries. It's just way too sugar.

 

Final Thoughts: When I looked at the description for this I had a feeling it would be bad and almost didn't try it. Vanilla and honey are not my friends. But since it was a frimp, I figured I might as well. Unfortunately, I was right, this is another one that just doesn't work on me. This actually reminds me almost exactly of White Rabbit... which was equally bad on me.

[Christine Daae]

In the bottle: Mmmm, mostly honey?

 

Wet: Honey with a bit of wine. Hmmm.

 

Drydown: This gets a bit sweeter, but I don't smell any of the vanilla. There's the muskiness (which I'm not too fond of), but I don't smell any floral at all.

 

While wearing: Hmm. All the notes listed in this made me want to try it and love it, but it's just too...dark? for me. It must be the musk or the wine (or the vetiver, because I'm not sure what that smells like). Honey, vanilla and cherry are generally right up my alley, but this one is a bit on the "rawrrr!" side for me.

[miss_rynn]

Imp sniff: Sweet and musky - BAM! Temple-throbbingly sweet and musky. Cherries bathed in animal musk. It is so syrupy that it seems to slide into my lungs and not want to come out again. And the musk… it seems like it is going to be too much. It is definitely man musk, not girl musk. I will try it, but with trepidation.

 

First on skin: SO MUSKY. It has to be the vetiver. Shortly thereafter, sweetness comes through, and some of the cherry scent. It is like honeyed cloves; sweet, but stingingly bitter with a hint of sharpness to it. A kind of woody note. And then, a bit later, the throat catching fragrance of honey. Settling down, definately honey and cherries, with clove thrown in for spice and a hint of a musky base. It is actually quite beautiful once the musk quiets down. I can't stop smelling it.

 

A bit later: Way sweet. It smells just like honey, with the barest hint of cloves, amber and musk. It packs quite a punch, too - I had to wash off the majority of it, because it was threatening to give me a headache. It is a very nice scent, it is just a very heady, cloyingly sweet one. I suspect a little will go a long way.

 

An hour later: While it is still undeniably a honey scent, little whisps of cherry and vanilla are sneaking in. It has an almost woody tang to it, with the faintest hint of orange. It is quite a complex fragrance, but a truly lovely one (even if I did have to wash off some of it).

[gwyllgi]

This is a scent that goes through quite a few phases for me. In the imp, it's meh, and wet is much the same. The drydown stage goes through various phases of omgburningeyesdie, but after half an hour, this blends into a lovely, decadent scent. It smells like dark seduction - cloves laid over cherry wine, the air still heavy with the scent of spent passions. (I love vetiver.)

 

Ultimately, I find that the final scent is well worth the drydown stage, especially as the final note of poppy emerges - it smells vaguely peppery as it filters through the other notes.

 

This isn't a day scent. This isn't even a classy evening out scent. This is a scent for the hunt and all but demands a collar and red lipstick. It's a reckless scent, very powerful, and one of my favorites.

[kakiphony]

Application point:

Right wrist.

 

Wet:

Cough syrup and ashtrays.

 

Early Dry Down:

Cherry Swisher sweets.

 

Late Dry Down:

I think that for some reason my chemistry is turning musks smoky today, because this scent is also very smoky on me. As it dried down, it lost its sweetness and took on a bitter note, laid over a fruity tobacco. It's like being in the inside of a pouch of cherry pipe tobacco. I think that for someone who loves it, this is distinctive enough to be a true signature scent. Unfortunately, that person is not me.