Blood Kiss

[pigeonheart]

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.

 

I really wanted to like this blend. Sadly, it becomes a sickly sweet mess on my skin.

 

Wet: Holy cherries. Red, juicy cherries--the kind of cherries you top off a cheesecake with.

Dry: Here the cloves and the vetiver come out to play. Sharp and kind of cedar, with a nasal-clearing quality like eucalyptus. There's some deep, musky note underneath it all but it's hard to pin down. The cherries have receded a bit and the combination of smells makes me think of cough drops. Or hospitals.

Drying: There is a hint of honey in there, too, but after a few tests I've come to find that Beth's honey note turns rancid on me. This is truly awful. I smell like a sick person who has been in bed for days with a bag of cough drops.

 

Ended up scrubbing this one off. When I first tried it, all I got was cherry. After letting it rest for a week it turned into cherry cough syrup. No good.

[garbagewitch]

Starts out sharp and sweet, vetiver enveloped in a really lovely, golden sweetness—honey, with vanilla and cherry making it sweeter and brighter, and keeping it from going soft and powdery. It stays sweet as it dries down, but starts to go from gold to red, the cherry coming forward more and maybe the red wine peeking its head out a little? That sharp center is still around, but it’s not so piercing as it was in the beginning—the clove starts tempering the vetiver, making it more of a low rasp than a high-pitched shriek.

Something about this reminds me of chocolate; it doesn’t actually smell like chocolate, but there’s something here that’s pushing one of the same buttons in my head that the scent of chocolate hits?

 

I think it’s the fact that the intensely sweet cherry is reminding me of chocolate-covered cherries, the ones that just overflow with cherry juice and syrup when you bite into them. It's deep red, plump cherries, drenched in a sweet syrup of honey and red wine, and there's every element of those chocolate-covered cherries except the chocolate itself, but then my mind catches that vetiver-clove sharpness and slides it right into the slot a good bittersweet dark chocolate would go in. It's decadence taken almost to the point of obscenity.

 

I absolutely love this scent, but it took me a really long time to figure out how I felt and I think that's partly because of how well-blended it is (it took me forever to be able to pick out any individual notes) and partly because of how intense it is. All that being said, Blood Kiss absolutely lives up to that near-pornographic description.

 

It's the kind of scent that’s so thick it’s almost a taste; it's much, much sweeter than I prefer my scents these days, but the sharpness of the vetiver manages to pin it down and keep it from being cloying, while the vetiver is so sharp, it would be unpleasant if it wasn't illuminated by such a brilliant sweetness. Together, though, they're like an enchantingly beautiful person with a viciously cruel edge—both shocking and alluring in a way that just wouldn't be possible if only one of those elements was present.

 

If it were a person, Blood Kiss would be the woman Lucrezia Borgia is remembered for being (quite different from who she likely actually was): poisonously deadly, but so charming and beautiful that you don't even notice the blade until it's already sliding between your ribs.

Edited August 7, 2018 by conflagrantThief

[fizzbangdangcharade]

Romantically gothic; a fey beast hiding in human form.

 

In the bottle: boozy blood orange. Kind of reminds me of a brandy old fashioned a little actually.

 

Wet: Still boozy blood orange, but as it dries it looses the booze and replaces it with something sweet.

 

Warming: The booze is fully gone, and smells exactly like those Sanpellegrino italian sodas (the blood orange one specifically.)

 

Drydown: The orange is retreating, and I'm getting this super lovely creamy spice. My oh my this smells amazing. Sweet, spicy, and a little bit feral. Definitely the clove coming out (and bringing the vanilla and honey with it.) I'm also getting the faintest hint of what might be the musk. It's the slightest hint of fur beneath the sweet and spice.

 

This one is going on the list of to-buy for full bottles. I love orange, especially blood orange. And the way it's dancing between sweet and spicy is fantastic.

 

Side note: This one belongs to my (male) roommate. On him it starts like orange sweet tarts, mellows into a cherry orange punch, and then nose dives straight into spicy vanilla. While I've got a nice sweet and spicy balance when dry, he goes straight from super sweet to super spicy. It reminds me of this "Venetian Vanilla" bath soap I had for awhile on him - vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg..aka vanilla and pie spices.

[clockworkcrypt]

In Imp: Dried Tart Cherries, much like the kind you'd use in holiday baking. Getting clove as well, and what might be some wine peeking out.

 

Wet on Skin: A cherry base, but one that seems almost artificial. I'm getting a good amount of clove and vetiver backing it up, and something in it is just screaming the candle you burn between thanksgiving and christmas. I do get a sorta blood orangey vibe some other reviewers are getting, but this is threatining to turn december in a JoAnne crafts store on me.

 

Dry-Down: I'm getting cherry candle. Or maybe one of those sangrea candles, all wine and spices, and maybe some orange? I don't know what it is that's screaming candle, but that's what it is. I want a soap that smells like this, but I'm not sure about how it is on me. As it's aging it seems to be going more vanilla, which is a blessing, so we'll see how that goes.

 

Hour or so later. Vanilla! Finally Vanilla! A deep spicy rich vanilla, but still a nice one. I am mostly just getting craft store fragrance off of this though. I'd love this as a room spray or a body wash, and I'd probably love it on someone else, but this one just... Isn't for me.