Mother Ghost

[roseus]

Love transcending time, space, and death: a cold, sheer white musk gleaming with black orchid, benzoin, labdanum, and blackened amber, and embraced by white rose, tea leaf, and vanilla flower.

In the bottle: White musk, crisp tea, white rose, and something that smells like fresh ginger. It reminds me of Kumiho, but much softer.

Wet: tea, rose, orchid, and vanilla. Beautiful, cool-toned floral tea.

Dry: Cool vanilla tea, with a deep musky sweetness of the amber and white rose. Airy, and cool. A less sweet, less sinister, and more floral relative of Dorian.

[whisperstilled]

In Imp: Cold rose and musk. Oooh.

 

Wet: Initially I thought this one wouldn't work at all, but this is the pale orchid floral of dreams, I think. A little fresh tea, a little vanilla, rose and strong orchid. This is phenomenal.

 

Dry:I have no idea whether this scent is very 'me' or not, but it's totally unexpected. It has a little of the medicinal quality I like in labdanum. I'll be hanging onto my decant for certain.

[queenshaboo]

First ever BPAL purchase so here goes:

 

-Starts off with strong tea and lemon, it's very very similar to my favourite tea Lady Grey (no not Earl Grey, if you haven't tried Lady Grey and you love Mother Ghost you owe it to yourself to get a box today!)

 

-Goes powdery all of a sudden with a waft of rose and soft dry florals. This phase is reminiscent of the "expensive lady like perfume" others have noted; it reminds me a bit of Coco Chanel but much nicer because not so synthetic and aldehyde-y.

 

-The lemon reappears, but deeper, so now I know that it's actually the lemon note of the benzoin that is reasserting itself. It brings up scent memories of my dearly departed grandmother burning raw benzoin resin to purify the mosque at prayer time when I was little and the taste of her leathery skin when I had to honour her corpse with a kiss at her funeral. This is the "cold ghost" phase to me.

 

- The vanilla orchid and musk come out to play; with the tea leaf twinkling in and out at intervals. Mellowing out now, a lot of musk, vanilla and labdanum but so well balanced with the cold benzoin and tea.. oh man I was worried because I got my FB blind but I'm so glad I did because I absolutely love this!

Edited March 18, 2017 by queenshaboo

[celestia]

♔ Mother Ghost

In the Bottle: An airy vanilla-white musk with a bit of a citric kick

 

Wet: I get citrus tea blooming onto my skin, though I much prefer what I got from the source itself. I detect a powdery vanilla, faint white rose, and a lemony, almost crystalline white tea. It’s a very gentle scent, a cold tea but not a cold scent- certainly not reflective of its name. It smells like an embracingly warm scent from a much loved holy figure, rather than a mother. It’s beautiful and elegant…refined and a bit distant- perhaps the conceptual portrayal of ‘ghost’.

Drydown: The powdery vanillic aspect of this scent is turning into a rice flower type scent? Hmm It’s still beautiful and wispy, the lemony component isn’t at all offensive to me and kind of blends very beautifully in the same way that allows me to tolerate Dorian. Overall, Mother Ghost smells a lot more sweet and floral to me than I expected based on the character itself and the manner which she is presented. I don’t detect much of the rose at all which is quite nice.

TL;DR: Crystalline lemon-tinted white tea, powdery vanilla and faint white rose.

Edited February 27, 2017 by celestia

[Cali]

This... This is what sweet nostalgia smells like.
There's the ghostliness in it that the manuscript has, but toned down and it's like a warm embrace. Vanilla, tea, dust. Warm and chilly at the same time? I'm thinking the white rose gives this a ghostly/chilly white veil. I can imagine her smelling this way, as she so sweetly warns her child (...Was I the only one that "awwed" in cinema?).
Just a lovely, dusty old vanilla on me, yet smooth. Like what's been stated before; like a great antique, or a colder, mature Edith.
It's very subtle on me and most of the notes fade after about 1,5hour of wearing besides the vanilla, which is a damn shame, but I'm gonna hold on to this for sure cause it's absolutely lovely.

Edited April 4, 2017 by Cali

[lizabelle]

This is much darker than I expected, probably because I'm amping the orchid and resins pretty heavily. On me there's no tea or musk, and I don't detect any rose, either, but the orchid(s?) more than make up for that. They blend with the resins into something almost plummy. It gives the impression of stillness and darkness: the comforting kind that helps you fall asleep. Unfortunately, after a while this develops a strange tone that reminds me distinctly of nitrile gloves, so I don't think I'll be keeping the imp; I'll have to keep looking for an orchid BPAL for me.

[angelamaria]

In bottle: I really like the bottle scent. It's a delicate, sweet white floral, very well blended. Soft, comforting, if a bit cool. And dare I say it, also the barest hint of menace? Those "black" notes, along with the labdanum, are providing that hint of teeth. I am already heartbroken. While white rose is one of the better roses for my skin chemistry, I think I only have like a 30% chance of this working on my skin.

Wet on skin: UNFFF. This is so pretty. So very pretty. Stays true to the bottle scent. As it dries, I am starting to get the powder, a bit restrained, but we will see. Please don't ruin this for me. In the meantime, testing this alongside Phasmophobia and Victoria, which feel like similar blends based on my hazy memory.

Dry: oh my lord. While dry on my skin, the scent is fairly dusty and doesn't have the almost-tartness of the bottle scent, nevertheless it dries down to this gorgeous white floral that is very wearable. The rest of the scent stays fairly true, with a little more creaminess thanks to the tonka. (And if anyone's curious, Phasmophobia is colder and "greener" because of the calla lilies, and Victoria is more delicate and...also dustier on my skin.)

Verdict: holy cow, why did I wait so long to test this? Keeper.