Like every literary-themed Imaginary Authors fragrance by Portland perfumer Josh Meyer and creative director Ashod Simonian, Bull's Blood tells a story — in this instance, a fictional fiction-writer in Barcelona flees a deadly bar scuffle with sailors, his greatest accomplishment a lurid novella about bullfighting, banned as he is exiled into obscurity.

Originally launched in 2012, and later vaulted for five years, the polarizing Bull's Blood is back in 2023 with a brand new formula. Notably, the hay-like qualities of tobacco have been boosted above dark rose, while a bodacious blend of patchouli, musk and costus take on a rooty, animalic duskiness. Savory, strange and not for the faint of heart, wear with bluster and bravado.

The Story from Imaginary Authors
Devante Valéreo was raised in a dusty Spanish village on the Balearic Sea. He fondly recalled going to the bullfights with his father, an ex-picador, and credited those early experiences with inspiring his most popular novella, Bull’s Blood. The book’s lurid tale of seduction garnered obscenity charges against the author. Though the charges were rejected by the court, a ban on the sale of his works persisted for a number of years.

A fixture in Barcelona, smoking cigarillos and writing in the cafés and bars into the night, Valéreo disappeared as a fugitive in 1967 after a highly publicized bar scuffle with American sailors, one of whom later died from his injuries. “A man who has killed,” he wrote in Bull’s Blood, “is a man who knows passion.”

When to Wear
This is a powerful scent for someone who knows what they want. Bull’s Blood is for those nights when you want to take the bull by the horns.

Perfumer
Josh Meyer

Notes
patchouli, spanish rose, geranium, costus root, tobacco, black musk, bull's blood

FYI
Like all Imaginary Authors fragrances, Bull's Blood is 100% vegan.