Italian niche brand Blood Concept debuts this year with four unisex fragrances corresponding to the basic blood types in the ABO blood group system:
Our four fragrances, A, B, AB, O, retrace the evolution of manhood through time and its record of information, history and mutation, so well kept in the vital flushing of blood.
BLOOD CONCEPT is a mystic ritual with no flowers to be found: deep as primeval Africa in 0, aromatic as the scent of familiar land in A, bold as unpredictable itineraries in B, sharp and freezing as a metropolitan skyline in AB.
A ~ an aromatic with green garden accord, tomato leaves, basil, star anise and metallic notes.
B ~ a spicy woods with apple, black cherry, artemisia, pepper, pomegranate, black tea, patchouli, teck wood and metallic notes.
AB ~ a mineral fragrance with aldehydes, aluminum, slate, pebble, water, cedar and metallic notes.
O ~ a leather fragrance with thyme, raspberry, cyperus esculentus, rose hips, leather, birch, cedar and metallic notes.
Blood Concepts A, B, AB and O will be available in 40 ml dropper, concentration unknown. (via press release)
Hm. Interesting concept, though creepy… I’ve read that blood typology is very popular in contemporary Japanese culture. I wonder if this was designed with that particular market in mind?
I thought of the Japanese market too.
Popular in what way? (I believe you, I just don’t get it!)
personality traits are matched up each bloodtype, kind of like with zodiac signs.
AB sounds the most like me but I don’t know my real blood type.
Aha, gotcha.
Here’s a weird-but-cute primer to the Japanese blood type trend:
http://www.phlebotomist.net/japanese-bloodtyping
Hopefully the juice itself is not red?!
I hope so too!
I was thinking the inside of the dropper is glazed in red. The idea fragrance itself being that shade of red is unsettling: Serge Lutens Chypre Rouge is an alarming enough shade of red (nothing like that, though) that I was thoroughly disturbed the first time I sprayed it from an opaque sample vial.
Not because I happen to be type O do I want to try the O: I love the idea of a raspberry leather scent.
Very interesting. All the fragrances have metallic notes. Blood has a metallic smell. The “A” also have tomato leaves, wich also confers a metallic soul.
Yes, I think the metallic base is supposed to be common to all 4.
Because blood is laden with iron, and has a sort of coppery olfactory quality? It’s all I got.
The page with “Perfume in the magazines, April 2011: Allure, Details, Elle, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar and W” is not working for comments. Where on the net can I find the ediotorial coverage from W magazine?
I just left a comment there and it appears to be working, and the info for W is at the bottom of the article. (or do you mean can you read those articles online? I have no idea)
Hi Moore, I find that sometimes this site won’t let me comment on threads (it keeps redirecting me to sign in when I already am), and I find the best way to fix it is to reload the website, or, after signing in, to go back to the homepage first, and then go back to the thread and reply.
Thanks, Meg. I’ll try it.
Strange…
If I want to smell like blood I can just go pick up metal shavings at the shop (ow! can you tell I just had one of those run-ins? Shavings always win
I saw these somewhere recently (online), and I can’t decide whether to roll my eyes and dismiss them, or take them seriously and locate samples. I do want to know more, that’s for sure!
Does anyone else feel like we’re scraping the bottom of the “theme” barrel here, or is it just me?
That was my first thought. Now we’re running out of concepts.
Ooh, ooh! New game. . .(old game that I missed?) Name the NEW fragrance theme!
. . .hair color-based scents? (seems so obvious, has it already been done?)
. . .Peanuts (not the food, but like Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, etc.)
. . .classic heroines of fiction? Dorothy Gale, Jane Eyre, Scarlett O’Hara. . .
Actually, seems like there’s still A LOT of options out there!
I think the hair-color concept has already been done. Several of the old Patou scents were supposed to have been designed with women of certain haircolors in mind: Que Sais-je for blonds, Amour Amour for brunettes, and Adieu Sagesse for redheads.
Yes, that one seemed too obvious not to have been done. We stereotype hair color so readily! I guess it makes as much sense as pre-judging based on proteins on our hemoglobin (blood type) or the day we were born! Well, here’s me, I just got my hair done today, and I had some lovely blue streaks added! Is there a scent for THAT in the JP collection?
Has anybody done eye colour yet? Scents for blue, green, hazel, brown, albino, grey….
I want there to be a pair of scents, one for people who can curl their tongue into a scroll and those who can’t.
And a scent for people who can raise just the one eyebrow.
How about a scent for people who can wiggle their ears? And a special version for people like me who can wiggle their ears one at a time?
I do believe in the “eating for your bloodtype” methodology, because I find that most of the foods I actually don’t like are the ones incompatible with my A- blood type (acidic foods, cured meats, etc. Pepperoni is the devil, lol.). It’s interesting to read about the history of blood development anyway. But I do agree that this is kind of contrived for a fragrance concept.
I’m kind of intrigued: I’m a B and the notes for that sound the most alluring to me.
I’m not interested by the concept, but the combination of woods and black cherry made me prick up my ears
I too am a bit intrigued. I am an ‘O’ and the notes for that one appeal most to me. Also, I have read a bit on the Blood Type diet and noted with interest that I struggle with foods on the ‘avoid’ list and do well with most on the ‘highly beneficial’ list. Food for thought…HA!
I saw that diet, and it seemed that the “avoid” list for my type (A) included most of the foods that I like. Sorry, but there is not way I am giving up meat and dairy products.
Just had to share that I did the blood type diet several years ago (like, close to ten), and all that happened was I got really fat. Seriously. I then found out from a scientist friend of mine that there is no way it could have any basis in reality. So, you know, if it works for you, great… If it doesn’t and you have to give up foods you don’t want to? Eh.
These do sound intriguing! Any idea where to get them/try them?
So far as I know, they’re still doing the trade show circuit & have not yet made retail arrangements. But I don’t really know!
I recently tried Type O and Type A from http://www.theperfumeshoppe.com. (My awesome new find!)
I did not unlike-Type O – a quiet dry cerdar woods that went to a soft powdery woods. It did have decent silage but the depth was lacking – missed the metallic note. Type A had a start of strong tomato vines then moved to a sickly buttery scent that was very reminiscent of Encens Bubblegum. I got a chance to smell AB in the air and it smelled like a Ozone/Ocean scented air freshener or candle. Not terrible but too chemically to wear. If it counts – I’m blood type O and it actually worked the best with my chemistry than any of the others. Hmmm..
I kind of like the idea as long as the metallic note isn’t as heavy-handed as Secretions Magnifique. I’m ‘O’, but ‘B’ sounds really interesting as well. I’d like to sample these at the very least since, while the concept does seem a bit reaching, the fragrances themselves sound interesting enough.
Interesting concept. I would love to try B!
I think it might be a big hit in Japanese and Korean market.
Interesting! “A” sounds nice to me. I wonder what my blood type is.
Do you think the copy meant to say “retrace the evolution of man KIND…”? The ingredients of all four do sound interesting.
Oh, but I was having fun retracing the history of “manhood” in my mind! :p (OK, dirty mind)
I’ve been bleeding my whole life (on and off, of course), and I’ve never thought of blood smelling metallic…come to think of it, I’ve never thought of blood smelling at all…but, metallic? From these posts, one would think this is a well known fact that I had no idea of
Personally I don’t believe there’s anything in my veins anymore except coffee…
I want a perfume based on your blood concept, then!
My blood is probably mocha!
KRL: A lot of people would say it smells metallic, but I think it only *tastes* metallic. (And I’ve had far too many unfortunate experiences in life that involved tasting A LOT of blood, so that one I know well.) Maybe you and I are anosmic to the smell of blood?
I always think that blood smells like salt or nothing in particular.
Agree with misskitty on this one – don’t think it smells is all, but tastes quite metallic.
I’m most intrigued by AB! I’m really drawn to the idea of a cold scent (or a sucker for the marketing of them, not really sure which), and I’m hoping maybe it could be what “craft” by Andrea Maack failed to be for me.
also: I agree about the bottom-of-the-barrel theme… but the bottle look a little cool, no?
Having just slept 11 hours and had some really weird dreams, let me tell ya… I really thought this was just one more. All I can say is: if these smell great that’s all that matters. I’ll totally overlook the semi-stupid concept. If they don’t smell interesting at all, then it’s no longer just semi-stupid.
hear hear!
Hmmm — not cool right now to say “the Japanese can be so weird” but…condoms based on blood type?
Since 85% of the population is either O or A, I hope they have factored this into their production.
What happens if you wear the wrong one? Death?
Wow! Reading what you guys wrote I realise to what degree I misunderstood the entire concept.
This may be because I am deep into the Sookie Stackhouse novels AND watching True Blood Season 1 (it gets too far from the books for my taste afterwards)