[janelle_hell]

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 love,love,LOVE Black Rose! It reminds me of the haunting smell of roses inside the big,old,marble mausoleum at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. i always thought when i went there, "If they could bottle this smell,i'd buy it";i wear it all the time,i scent my snail-mail letters and even my dolls with it. i just can't say enough GOOD things about this scent!

[roisnoir]

I liked Black Rose, but found that after a few hours, it turned very cloying on me.

[shriekingviolet]

Initial Impression:
Rosy and floral, but not unappealing (to me that is, since I'm not too keen on roses). I can smell the amber and musk in the background. Very nice.


After Wearing It:
Musky and floral. Not gross on, but it doesn't really appeal to me since rose and musk are two things I can only take in small doses. Maybe for someone else but definitely not for me.

Final Thoughts:
Blarg. Roses scents really do nothing for me. I need to come to terms with that fact.

[Nadirah]

I love a good rose perfume... This one is good, on me it starts to smell like candied petals. Very musky and strong.

[Shollin]

Black Rose

First sniff: Yup, that’s a rose! Smells like my rose-petal tea.

Wearing: Yup, that’s a rose! Definitely… a rose. Sweet and flowery and… rosey. Yup. Rose. OK, getting over my Master of the Obvious thing now… It’s not at all powdery, or old-lady-ish, it smells like a rose out in the garden. Or maybe in a greenhouse, because it’s not a sunny outdoorsy garden smell, it’s just a ROSE.

[viciousviolet]

Much like so many other BPAL scents, this one has to be experienced. There is no way to describe it other than this is a black rose. Slightly spicy, slightly musky, this is a sinister rose. This is not a rose you give a loved one, it is a rose sent to your nemesis, or strewn on a casket at a funeral. The amber and musk is so subtle its almost imperceptible, but it gives the rose a husky darkness that I have never experienced before in a rose scent. It is altogether lovely and unique.

[lizzieborden]

First, I love roses. Specifically, I love this rose. I felt it was a black rose as in it had dried to its darkest shade, almost brittle, but entrancing. I rose left in a drawer left to scent it, filled with memories. It made me feel very composed and alluring, not too sexy but still magnetic. I got some compliments on it, that it first hit them as a strong rose but then... "ooo, that's nice". It hadn't completely faded by the time I got to bed, so I just sat there inhaling myself, feeling utterly gorgeous.

[red_jezebel]

This is the first scent I ever sniffed (and wore) of BPAL and I still hold it in great affection.

Initial impressions in the bottle other than the rose, is of a slight chlorine smell! Very bizarre!

However, once on, that chlorine smell goes completely (thankfully) and then it reminds me of the smell of roses in a closed-up musty room, a room with wooden, dusty floorboards and sheets over the furniture. Yes, it is mostly roses (what do you expect with such a name?) but the hint of musk give the scent a still and quiet quality. Truly beautiful and peaceful scent.

Longevity? About average, a top-up may be required during the day.

[sirensongsouth]

This is a very nice floral with a musk base. Wet on me it smelled like, guess what? Roses! Dry it was an interesting deep rose scent that was very nice. I am not a big floral gal, but florals with musk are pretty great in my opinion. This was very nicely done, and I expect I will be using the entire imp's ear of this.

[Donnababe]

When I first put this on I smelled Haunted, then after the immediate dry down, Haunted again with a spicy hint. The rose came through very gradually for me and it's lovely.

I do find this very similar to Spellbound so next time I shall contrast and compare to find my preference. :D

Lastability - Pretty good.

ETA - OMG, this is fabulous stuff! :D This is officially now my fave BPAL rose scent. :D I cannot get enough of this! :P Elizabeth!

This post has been edited by Donnababe: 21 February 2004 - 10:53 AM

[Glitzie]

I really thought that I would adore this, but found it too heavy a rose for me.

I couldn't detect anything else but rose and had to wash it off almost immediately.

[twistygirl]

This is a lovely, dark rose... definitely not the innocent rose of youth, but a rose of passion, a very womanly rose.

[oceandessa]

on me, Black Rose is very dark and thick, and definitely sweeter than i like my roses.

while wearing this scent, i had the odd feeling that i was a fraud, trying to pull off something i couldn't. perhaps the scent was too dark and mature for the flakey day i was having, perhaps i would like it if i was more composed (read: after graduate school), or if i had worn it during the evening than during the day.

i love roses too, but i am not too sure about this one. i think i need to experiment with it more.

This post has been edited by oceandessa: 17 March 2004 - 03:58 AM

[Paintsnked]

Hmmm... This is just right! Not to rosey or too inoccent. I love the rose with darkness behind it. I find it very alluring! Must be the musk that gives it the dark feeling. Delicious!!!

[loulou]

I love the heavy, dark rose scent of Black Rose, however after a while the musk became a little overpowering on me. Its beautiful, though.

[Sistinas]

What can I say about Black Rose that the previous posters have not already written?

My first impression from the vial is that of a strong rose scent. As it dried on me, that same scent remained and I found it very appealing. It smelled rather nice
and sweet, but not too sweet. I think I am surprised at how much I do enjoy the smell of roses, but maybe it is the amber and musk that make this scent more
enjoyable for me, even though I do not really detect them. Black Rose remained true to scent and stayed with me throughout the entire day. I can see myself
ordering more of this, it is just lovely.

[Witch Baby]

First Sniff: Very strong and incense-y. Not bad, but something that I'd want for a room scent (like a ritual room) not a fragrence for myself.


Wet: Oooooh! It's soo very spicy and floral all at the same time. Its super yummy! :D


Drydown: Nooooo! Its sharpened and gone sour on me. It smells like insecticide mixed with baby powder.

Darn it, because wet is smelled divine. . .

Up for swaps. :P

[Jettgurrl]

I found black rose to be unexpectedly pleasent since I am not a big rose fan( got it as a freebie with my first order). I love the way it smells on me when it dries... a rose that is slightly sweet and powdery!

[TygherRayn]

What is it with me and rosee scents? So many of the one I want to be yummy on me just turn into either old-lady perfume, or Jezebel rose-scented cigarettes. *sighs*

In the bottle: This is rose with something sweet undertoning it. I think perhaps this one might do alright on me if that sweetness stays.

First 10 minutes: Grrr. The sweet, whatever it was .. is gone. And I'm left with roses. This one isn't as bad as Old Rome was .. which smelled exactly like those rose-scented cigarettes I used to smoke at games .. but it's still an overpowering Rose I can't quite settle on. Maybe .. hopefully .. it'll settle down.

Drydown: Well .. something of the sweet came back, but i'm just not certain this one is for me. It's still a heavy rose .. good, if those sort of scents appeal to you .. and I'm sure this isn't a bad scent for those people. I just have to learn that no matter what my silly brain thinks, I smell old-lady-ish with heavy rose scents.

[FireInCairo]

This is my signature BPAL fragrance. I cannot live without it. It makes me feel rather stately when I wear it. This is a must have!

[GothicMissManners]

First impression: My goodness! Roses! A whole boquet of them, right in my face! I like roses, but that was a little overwhelming.

5 minutes later, the rose scent has lessened its overpowering grip on my senses, and I can now pick out the underlying notes of amber and musk, which add a lovely shadowy depth to it.

By mid-day, the rose has blended completely with the musk & amber into a dark, complex scent. A blood-red velvet gown worn at twilight sort of scent. I *really* like it, and I'm usually not filled with love for rose perfumes.

(sniffs wrist again)

mmmmm. yep, I like this.

-Jilli

[Astarte]

Wow, this is an incredibly dark scent. The rose is the dominant scent here, later the amber-musk scent comes out to play.

Although I really like this scent, its just not me.
:P

[isyche]

On me this smells exactly like the name/description - roses, but darker/more sinister than normal roses - shadowy, dry, and not too sweet. I really like that extra darkness.
It's quite heavy and not something I'd want to wear every day (it seems to demand a certain level of drama), but I'm definitely hanging on to the imp I have.

This post has been edited by isyche: 21 June 2004 - 11:13 PM

[twilight_glitter]

I'm not sure if it's the fact that I used to wearing tea rose oil before discovering BPAL, but I can't seem to smell roses in this at all once I'm wearing it. In the bottle, it smelled strongly of roses and musk, with an undertone of something spicy - almost like black pepper. On me, it smells mostly of musk, although I can still detect the sweetness of the amber. The roses seem to have completely dissapeared. :P

[Ishtar]

I usually love rose scents, but this one did not quite work on me. The dreaded rose-scented bug spray curse strikes again...

The smell on the vial and wet was lovely. Like other posters said, it is definitely a dark rose, not a cheerful nor "pretty" one. It is actually a bit sinister, but seducing all the same.

After 30 minutes, it unfortunately turned a little sour and chemical-smelling on me. Not to the point where I had to wash it off, but not the most pleasant scent either.

Thankfully, the sourness went away after drydown, but by that time Black Rose had turned into a rather unremarkable, almost generic rose scent. Rats. Oh well, there are soooo many more to experiment with!