Blood Amber

[twilighteyes]

Slivers of warm, pulsating blood forever crystallized in golden amber resin.

This is very much a sister to "Blood", which is all cherry on me with maybe a teeny hint of reinsy-spice. But the amber makes it a pit powdery. I tried this on one arm and Mouse's Long and Sad Tale on the other, and I keep thinking this one must be Mouse, because it almost smells like sweet peas. Sweet and a little spicy. I've been sniffing it all day and might need a bottle.

[VioletChaos]

in the imp: dragon's blood with a tiny bit of cherry candy

 

wet on skin: the cherry fades and the amber peeks out in it's place, with the Dragon's Blood still being the strong note.

 

dry down: the amber has faded

 

in all: i *love* BPAL's dragon's blood and i *love* all sorts of amber. this became more of a stright shot of DB, which is fine, but i'm not feeling it as a mix of any kind.

[sadtomato]

i'm in love with blood amber.

in the imp smells like a lighter, sweeter dragon's blood.

on my skin, the amber really starts to come through.

once this dries out, it's such a gorgeous, rich, sweet and regal scent.

warming and resinous.

this is going on my big bottle want list, for sure.

[donnatron]

Imp: Wow, this is RED! I have stained hte label with it, and during its journeys, the lid has acquired a crazy red hue to it. This is one of the reddest oils I've noticed, and I am an avid DB collector. Another random side note before I continue on my review: My iTunes just decided to play Chad VanGaalen's "Red Blood" as I tested this. CREEPY/AWESOME!

 

Smell: Dragon's blood with a tinge of amber. Lives up to its name.

 

Wet: Whoo, DRAGON'S BLOOD! Super sweet, delicious dragon's blood. Cool and all, but... will this become delicious amber-y dragon's blood?

 

Dry: YES! The amber warms up, lends a soft sweetness to the dragon's blood and this settles into a gorgeous, resinous scent. There's a touch of soap, but more a clean-skin scent than a rinse-it-off scent.

 

Throw: If you want to know how delicious this is, you will have to invade my personal space.

 

Overall: I tried this ages ago and my skin just ate it up. This time it is beautiful. I love this and may wear it excessively during the summer becuase it is sweet and sultry without overpowering. Delicious!

[Aldercy]

This is just a profoundly fun scent. Blood Amber surprised me a lot because its description gave me a sense of the ancient, the heavy, maybe even the foreboding. But it's much, much more alive than that. To me this oil is fruity and even slightly candy-like, without being cloying and while still being recognizable as dragon's blood resin and amber. I get a rather childlike pleasure from it.

 

I'm also unreasonably delighted by its pale candy-apple-red color. I know that doesn't affect the smell at all, but it's really enticing.

[theauth]

I really want this one to work!

 

First off it smelled kind of masculine, then it smelled kind of fruity and spicy. And perfumey

 

It smells like an old wooden chair covered with red velvet that has cinnamon sprinkled on it.

 

I'm afraid it's going to go away in the swap pile. I'll give it one more go another day I guess.

[couscous]

How could I have not reviewed this one? Bad couscous!

 

Blood Amber was one of my earliest BPAL loves. It will be some time before I can wear it again, but I'll always, ALWAYS love it.

 

I had just gotten into the obsession, and I was extremely enthusiastic. I adored the Dragon's Blood series (still do), and Blood Amber was simple, syrupy sweet in the best possible way, and drop dead sexy when it dried. It was one of the scents I'd suggest for newbies who are trying to identify notes and figure out what they like, since Blood Amber's listed notes are surprisingly easy to identify, and it was one of my first 10ml purchases.

 

I loved Blood Amber. I love it so much, in fact, that I almost stopped working through thre bpal catalouge right then and there, convinced that I'd found my signature scent.I wore this everywhere. With many applications. Many heavy handed applications.

 

Within a month or so, my nose had gotten so used to Blood Amber that I needed to bathe in it just to get my "fix". I went through a 10ml in about a month, applied it 4 times a day, must have reeked to High heaven, and have been too saturated to go back to it since.

 

Heed my warning. Keep a light hand with this one, but enjoy it! It's such a wonderful addition to the DBR family.

[inurbanus]

I was a little bit worried about Blood Amber, because dragon's blood always turns to plastic on my skin, but I love amber, so I figured I had to try it. The good news is that the dragon's blood in this did not turn to plastic; the bad news is that I don't actually like the scent of it anyway. Still, this was an interesting (in a good way!) blend to try. It's very decadent and reminds me a lot of red musk -- in fact, when I first put this one on, I thought it was Scheherezade! I'm sure this is fabulous on those with dynamite chemistry, but unfortunately I'm not one of them.

 

3/5

 

ETA: This has a really great end, where it morphs into cherry incense, so I'm bumping up my grade to 4/5

Edited May 10, 2008 by inurbanus

[mybrainhurts]

In the bottle:

This stuff is strong in the bottle. I wasn't sure if I'd like it when I popped the cap and sniffed it. There's a sharp note to it that I can only hope settles down.

 

On my skin:

Wet, the sharp note is still there. Once dry, it's settled into a rich incense scent. I believe that's the dragon's blood.

 

The scent had pretty much faded away by noon. I love the smell of it and was happy to note that a little bit of the scent had rubbed off on my shirt so I still got a whiff of it occasionally. I'll have to get a rollerball applicator for this one so that I can reapply it halfway through the day. Oh.. and maybe a scent locket.

 

I will definitely buy a larger bottle of this one.

[greenranger]

In the imp, smoke and dragon's blood.

 

 

On me, wet, dragon's blood and smoke. The smoke vanished pretty quick. The dragon's blood is being just it's floral smelling self.

 

The dragon's blood is a light floral scent, right now, clean, sweet, and somewhat airy. Once in a while I think I get a whiff of the smoke again, but it's gone when I sniff for it. Maybe there might possibly be amber in the background.

 

This is pretty much staying just dragon's blood on me. The interesting thing is that it seems to be getting slightly stronger over time, instead of fading. If it is like most dragon's blood scents on me it will also last a long time...but, I'm not looking for a DB single note. I was hoping for amber. I'm washing it off to try something else.

Edited June 1, 2008 by Aerinha

[lilirose]

As they say over here, "It does exactly what it says on the tin".

 

In the imp, it's mostly my beloved Dragon's Blood, and the same on skin, wet.

 

The amber comes out on drydown and makes this smoother and gentler than Dragon's Blood single note. As time passes, the amber amps more and more until it becomes more amber than Dragon's Blood.

 

Another one to add to the wishlist...

[milo]

So I thought I might like this because of the amber. I have not tried a dragon blood scent yet, and was wondering what the actual note smelled like. Someone was kind enough to tell me that it was a florally lilac scent, which is why I probably don't like it. Much too florally to me, don't even smell the amber, but at least I know what db smells like!

[galahad]

In The Bottle

Rich amber with some dragon's blood in the background

 

On Application

Dragon's blood. I smell jasmine quite strongly initially

 

Dry Down

This is fantastic as it dries down. The amber starts to assert some control to make this warm and powdery. Direct sniff from my skin is worryingly overpowering but the overall effect as it wafts around is awesome.

 

Rating (0-5)

4.5

[Stephanie]

Yes, this is amber and dragon's blood.

 

Sounds simple, but it's a gorgeous blend--definitely more than the sum of its parts!

 

This was one of my early loves. It's a sweet, rich floral-like resin scent. It's beautiful--try it!

[smokey188]

when i first put this on it had a real sharp almost metallic note to it after a couple of hours it settle into a nice golden amber but i'm not sure i can handle that first really sharp stage.

[auburnette]

BLOOD AMBER

(appearance: dark, thick, red)

 

In the bottle: Rich, with a sharper top note, surprisingly fresh despite its depth. I can't pick any notes out other than thinking it has a great depth and roundness. Maybe a bit musty though.

 

Wet, on skin: Smells a bit like strawberries have turned! I'm thinking this must be the blood note. There is an 'orange' sort of smell to it - not the fruit, but the colour, so I guess the amber comes across. Close to the skin some of the depth is returning but from a bigger distance it's the sharpness which is coming through. A sweetness is emerging too.

 

Dry, on skin: Takes a long time to dry down. There's a pleasant edge coming from it which I can't link to either the amber or the blood, but perhaps it's the amber. Mmm. Pleasant, but not very 'me', I don't think. I can imagine this would smell very good on a guy. I am also getting wafts of...argh! Talcum powder...but only sporadically. It almost feels like the perfume is fighting to develop -one way it could go lovely and rich and resinous, the other way is...powder. Overall it tips towards rich and resinous, but it's not comfortably there. I think it is the blood which is threatening to go to powder, but not sure; I'll have to try some more things with blood and amber in order to tell.

 

Overall, I like this, but perhaps not enough to keep it. Will try once more before it goes to swaps.

 

After 1 hour: okay, I didn't leave it long enough. The drydown takes ages! Now it is super sweet and the blood is really coming through, with a lovely spicy amber underneath. Yum. I will keep after all. It's delicious! I'll just have to remember to apply well before going out as I don't really like the smell of the dragon's blood when wet...it reminds me of rotten strawberries! Bit concerned that it's super strong though, I can really smell it wafting around and I don't think that I put that much on.

[OhioSky]

Wow, is this a wonderful scent! I've been dying to order this for a while now, but you know how it is trying to narrow your order down to 6 imps... well, it finally drew itself to the top of my list and I am glad!!

 

Wet, this is a wonderful bulging, thick, sweet, cherry scent not unlike Dragon's Blood. As it dries down, a little of the amber comes out and I can smell some sort of very light, subtle incense as well, but I have to look for it. Without sniffing at my skin, I still get the cherry scent very strongly. It's only been on my skin for a little over an hour, but the throw is pretty decent so far.

This is definitely my favorite Blood scent so far!

[Methos]

I should love this one. I adore Dragon's Blood and Amber... but this broke my heart.

 

In the imp, it doesn't smell too bad. Its mostly Dragon's Blood and a hint of amber in the background. Then, I put it on. Dragon's blood and... new plastic. The plastic note doesn't go away, but the Dragon's blood fades to close to the skin.

 

This one goes off to the share pile. D:

[sqwook]

Wet: cherry / rose?

 

Dry: the cherry-rose-floral lasts a long time. Do not like. Drat, I think my skin chemistry does not get along with the Lab's Dragon's Blood scent.

[crebbsgirl]

I really like this one. It's sweet but warm and a little earthy. I don't normally go for sweet but this is just mesmerizing. And a little familiar smelling at that, but I can't place it. I'm rather surprised at this scent. I wasn't expecting to like it very much and I think it just became one of my favourites.

[Juushika]

In the vial: Dragon's blood resin, backed by a hint of amber. My imp has aged almost two years, and has quite a stunning appearance—both the oil and the imp cap are bright orange-red.

 

On me: The dragon's blood remains predominant. It's bright red, slightly sweet, almost juicy, although it tempers a bit during wear. The amber is far secondary, but it amps a little bit over time—rather than crystalline, it is soft, warm, and slightly powdery. The total effect is a slightly sweet, fruity red DBR grounded by a background of subdued golden amber—more powdery and dragon's blood-heavy than the description implies.

 

Verdict: This isn't my favorite scent. On me, it's not more than the sum of its parts—so while I love both DBR and amber, I wish the combined scent were more complex. Nonetheless, it's quite pleasant and the boyfriend loves it. Lively and yet comforting, warm and smooth, a good scent for dragon's blood lovers. I don't need more than my imp, but that imp gets a fair bit of use.

[tacey]

Much as I was prepared to love this blend, I've become convinced that I cannot wear Dragon's Blood. It completely took over the blend, indistinguishable from any other DB-containing scent I've tried. Despite my love for amber, this was pure red DB. Over-ripe, over-sweet, over-strong. Too bad.

[AEris]

I was expecting something juicy, golden, and warm. What I get is more powdery and incensey than I prefer.

 

It's very nice, but I would have liked more amber in this. Maybe some vanilla to cream it up a bit.

 

My bottle of Dragon's Milk is superior so I'm sticking with that!

 

3.6 out of 5

[stillalive]

Lovely, sweet, and sort of... foody/musky??? It reminds me a LOT of Blood Pearl and Black Opal... I'm not sure what it is going so sweet and powdery on me, but I like it, except that I fret it makes me smell like an old lady.

[Vespar]

In the bottle,all I smell is thick dragon's blood and the faintest hint of red musk

 

Right on my skin,it's exactly the same scent I get out of the bottle.Not impressed really,my nose only picks up plain dragon's blood and that's pretty much it.

 

About 15-20 minutes later,it turns into Lust on me,thick myrrh and tangy goodness is what I get.

 

About an hour or so later,this is very,very soft,almost powdery and barely there.Sadly,it vanishes pretty quickly and after two hours,I only get a tiny whiff of dragon's blood if I stick my nose to my wrist.

 

I'm pretty sure I'll use up my imp,but it's not something I'd fall for.

Edited November 3, 2008 by Vespar