This World, Where Death Reigns

[Numanoid]

Myrrh and black roses.

Usually floral notes are just SO NOT for me, but I was very curious about black rose...so here goes!

In decant: sniffing this, I certainly get a dark, heavy rose note. The myrrh is sort of there....kind of detect it, but I get mostly that heavy rose. This isn't a soft rose either....hence the blackness of it!

On: The myrrh comes out a bit more on the skin. The rose is still very much there, but I tend to amp florals, so at the moment, it is all rose, but it isn't too bad. This coming from someone who can't do rose notes!!

Drydown: This just seems a nice balance of both notes. This smells like something you would wear to an old gorgeous stone cathedral.....for mass possibly! If you like rose notes, get this.....if you are afraid of the incense part, don't be.....it isn't overpowering, but has a nice throw as well!

[macabre_fae]

This scent is SO gorgeous.

 

To be honest, I love rose but most of the time the rose scents I try are just too flowery and leave me feeling like a grandma. This one however...

 

At first the myrrh completely dominates and it's just resinous and sexy. After a little while as the myrrh mellows out the rose just comes out in full bloom and it is sweet and gorgeous and dripping with distinction. It makes you feel powerful feminine and sultry. I love it.

[Haltija]

There is no way this should of turned bad on me! NO WAY

I love myrrh and I love rose and this should of been a huge winner. Alas, it turned into instant headache and I am so disappointed ):

 

Going to give this a re test though in a few days because this may just be a crappy skin chemistry day.

[Myria Jean]

The wet stage was strong rose and powdery myrrh. Dry, it's now myrrh, some rose, and I swear that's the same beautiful amber as in A Bright Flame Between Two Jacinths. I think there is dark musk too.

It's like a dark sweet rose in a beam of sunlight.

Edited December 22, 2014 by Myria Jean

[lady_pandora]

I told myself I could have one Phoenix oil, and the one I settled on was This World, Where Death Reigns. I love rose/resin combos, and it has a simple note list with no death notes in it, so it seemed a safe choice.

 

It actually takes about an hour, on me, to really start behaving nicely. Right out of the bottle, I got...a cleaning product smell? Noooo! I couldn't imagine what was causing this, and was so bummed.

 

About ten minutes later, it seems to start getting a few things figured out, but still doesn't smell like rose and myrrh. If I didn't know what notes were in it, I'd have guessed some kind of bitter wine note, or maybe raisins? It had me scratching my head.

 

Oh. But. After about an hour it's amazing. It's definitely rose and myrrh. Very simple, very beautiful, and a little mournful in a way that reminds me of O Love and Time and Sin. And it doesn't really morph after that point either.

 

I normally don't like oils that are annoying in their wet stage, but this is just so lovely once it dries. I'll just have to remember to put it on a little while before I need to be somewhere. I'm really glad I took the chance on this.

Edited December 24, 2014 by lady_pandora

[poofie]

For me, it's what it says on the description: dark rose and resinous myrrh. They balance each other nicely and the result is a sexy, simple blend. It's a very wearable rose for me.

[theseagrows]

strong, dark rose with myrrh that comes in and dampens the rosiness. this is not a sweet soft or dried rose, it's definitely blackened rose and i think i tend to amp rose, so it's sort of happening here. black rose with resins backing it up, but it goes a bit sour on me. i absolutely LOVE rose, and some of bpal's rose blends are my favorite, but that's the thing, it has to be the right rose and usually has to be blended with more notes or it tends to go weird or sour on me. whip does the same thing, it's like my skin hates the more simplistic rose scents but loves the ones with more notes (gypsy queen). oh well, i love the imagery of it and had to try it, but i thought there was a 50% chance it wouldn't really work with my skin chemistry and i was right. off to the swaps with this one, sadly. i love a resiny rose when it works!

[zankoku_zen]

Black, murky roses and myrrh. This is a dark rosy myrrh. Not so much roses that it's a potent rose floral, and the myrrh warms the roses up a bit. This stays pretty close to my skin, and has an average wear length.

 

Dark, rosy, myrrh.

[Magycmyste]

In the imp: Dark rose.

 

Wet on skin: Dark, dark rose. Very deep.

 

Dried down: As it dries, the myrrh is starting to come out and play. This is getting prettier by the minute!

 

Throw: Not too strong, at least at the moment, but I'm wearing a lot of different scents. Plus, I think if this one was really strong, it might give me a headache.

 

Verdict: **** 1/* It took some waiting, but once the rose blended with the myrrh, this was beautiful!!

[EphemeralFey]

In the bottle: Beautiful rose and myrrh, with something a little spicy at the end.

 

On me: A spicy scent that is very reminiscent of freshly baked gingerbread, though it is not going foody sweet. After a little bit the rose peaks out. Has an average throw.

 

After a while: Goes between being heavy on the rose or being heavy on the myrrh. On me it never really settles on one, just keeps switching. The gingerbread vibe continues, though not as heavy as when the blend was freshly applied

 

Thoughts: Not sure if it is a skin chemistry thing, a blend thing or a mixture of both but the gingerbread scent never really left. I'll keep the bottle for now and hopefully some aging will tone down or remove the gingerbread bit.

[sprout]

preconceived notions: I really wanted to skin test this as I know rose can be a problem note for me, expecting it to be really good (I like myrrh usually) or really overpowering rose

imp: mostly myrrh

wet: and HELLO rose, very perfumey resinous myrrh in support

drying: ROSE, diva that she is, starts on a high note and continues on an ascending scale. Myrrh, usually no wall flower on me, takes a back seat and pretty much just adds powder to the rose

drydown: ROSE amping like a MOFO. I may have to scrub this. I really cannot tell this "black rose" from other rose and my nose is not savvy enough to distinguish between types of roses, except I am pretty sure this is a tea rose variant, as it smells of SN tea rose with a powderous resin background, just really smelling more like rose scented talc powder to my (relatively unsophisticated) nose

Late drydown: I have no comment, I am going to scrub it off before I get the chance to find out, I cannot stand the overwhelming floral tea rose note and it is giving me a prescription strength headache.

 

Final thoughts: Just, NO. Not for me. If you rightly fear the rose because your skin amps it, well I strongly recommend a decant before you commit to a bottle purchase, because my skin amp'd it like gangbusters. It was ROSE!!! in extremis for me. Which is fine if you like rose single note, however, I really have found I need more complexity for me to like the rose--like some spice or foody accord (Rose Red has worked for me, likely due to the "green" note, Whip works due to the leather, and Othello works, due to the spice, so I don't hate ALL rose blends, promise, but I am very wary of them because of this amp thing that happens, more oft than not. I have to face facts and Rose is usually my KILL note). I was hoping the myrrh would temper things a bit, but this rose is too diva-esque to share the spotlight. This is going to be a scrubber for me. I won't even bother to layer or try to make it work. To be fair, this has not aged at all and maybe the myrrh would develop it some and reading through other reviews, I am the only one who got the extreme rose powder, so it could just be my skin chemistry and YMMV. I am not sure I am brave enough to re-test and I don't have enough in my decant to retry at a later date, so maybe other reviewers can chime in after their oil has aged somewhat. My plan was to test before the bottles became unavailable on teh Lab's site, and as is, I will not be ordering any more of this one. More for you rose lovers, I expect you folks will be tickled pink.

Edited January 15, 2015 by sprout

[milo]

Rather strong and resinous. It becomes sour after awhile, which I'm assuming is the 'bad sour rose', that bpal puts out. Morphs between something like a resinous sour rose, and something savoury/foody, like bbq sauce made out of some kind of syrup. I love a resinous rose once in awhile, but this one is got that weird foody note, and the rose is just a bit too sour.

[d0gbones]

In the bottle: Sweet myrrh

Wet: Just myrrh

Dry: Mostly myrrh, but the roses do peek out in the mix. Probably my favourite myrrh BPAL.