Black Roses

I've recently received a sample of this from a friend who knows I like my roses. To me this belongs to the soapy subgenre within roses and musk is very strong as well. Oud in here is relatively tame compared to arabian offerings. given there's no sweetness to it, think it is easily unisex. It reminds me of some mainstream rose frag that was marketed for men, maybe Habit Rouge but sadly can't compare side by side.

I should have bought their Forest Rose. They sent me a vial of it and it's got that deep intriguing roses with spruce "golly-I-never-thought-of-putting-them-together-but-it's-so-right" quality to it that's sending me back to their website. Black Roses does not have that quality. Black Roses is dark and intriguing, but it has some scary edge to it that brings on a sort of fear. Just what can that odd odor be, it says? Looking at the notes tells me nothing. And it hits right away too. I'd like to say it settles in later but so far I've never gotten to "later." I've always put something on over it within 10 minutes. So not a success.

At first this smells like.. smarties candies? It's very synthetic and cheap smelling overall. Like many other Alkemia oils I tried this easily gives me a headache and nausea. I get much more musk than anything. Mainly a sweet rose-tinged musk. This is plain and boring, and I do not really find it to be a dark scent. Attar Bazaar's Sudanese Black Rose is entirely better IMO.

This is REALLY musky and oud-y. Despite the name, the rose is a minor player here. I was hoping for something more rose forward, so this is a miss for me. It does last a long time, but since I don't care for it, longevity is not really a positive!

I had this one and I liked it but I didn't find it wearable enough. Very oudy indeed. The rose had a silky quality to it probably because of the musk. In comparison to other rose-ouds (not that I'm an expert or anything) it was fairly "oily" smelling and very very dark and femme fatale like. No sweetness whatsoever. Kind of sexy and definitely strange, but not a pretty perfume. Too weird and strong for the office. It's for night out.