Spirits of the Dead

[Rhowan]

*~ SPIRITS OF THE DEAD ~*

 

A shuddering white scent, of ghostly breath and stony silence: dry tea leaf, linden blossom, papyrus, orris and coffin wood.

 

In the bottle: I am getting almost a citrusy scent with a floral undertone - hmmm?

 

Wet: I am still getting citrus - there is no citrus in this so I am perplexed. It is a tangy citrusy scent with a bit of sweet floral in the background.

 

Dry down: I am still getting the citrus - no woodiness, no tea, just a bit of sweet floral in the background but mainly citrus. It isn't overpowering citrus but an almost ethereal, dare I say, spirit like scent!

 

Conclusion: Beautiful and Ethereal are the words that come to mind. A light ghostly scent that I think Beth aptly named. This is exactly what I have been looking for to wear in the spring and summer.

Awesome throw without being overpowering - just enough for people around you to breath in and sigh. Great wear to! It is very long lasting on me.

 

I only have a couple of days to order this before it is discontinued. I think I need a couple of bottles as this is the "signature" scent I have been looking for!

Edited February 7, 2006 by Shollin

[laochodia]

In the imp- Citrusy, almost, and very dry smelling. I can see why people compare it to embalming fluid.

Wet- The lemon dissapears. Tea and spicy flowers. Rather, tea made with spicy flowers.

Dry- There are the woods! Papyrus, some light wood notes, green tea powder (have you ever been lucky enough to smell the real stuff? Fresh from the scoop? This is it, on my wrist.) and a light sweet, spicy floral note. If this is linden, I'm going to have to grow some in my garden.

 

I'm so glad this is the first DIMV I tried on. Amazingly amazing.

[ChupaChup]

I had not intended trying any of the Demon in my View scents - they mostly sounded too floral or had specific notes in them that hadn't worked on me in the past. For Spirits of the Dead, orris was the suspect note - it has always been too dry on me and then with the promise of the other dry notes - dry tea leaf, papyrus and coffin wood - I was sure there was no way this scent would work on me.

 

Boy, was I wrong! tempete ( ) generously sent me her DimV decant set to try and I am so grateful. This is hands down the most hauntingly beautiful scent I have ever found, it almost makes me cry it is so pretty. Before BPAL, my favorite perfumes were Bulgari Green Tea and then Bulgari White Tea and this is so similar but SO much better. All the negatives are gone, there is no alcohol smell, no funny chemical after-scent in the drydown and it actually lasts on me while those never did. It is fleeting the first time I put it on but I find the second application layered on top of the first lasts all day.

 

The prominent note in this for me is the linden blossom - it's a light, airy citrus note similar to lime peel. There is also a refreshing tea scent to this, I can't tell if it is green or white. I get a tiny bit of woodiness underneath the sweeter linden and tea notes that keeps the whole blend from being too sweet but never overwhelms or dries the scent too much. This just wafts around me in clouds all day, it gives me a very euphoric feeling.

 

So, after trying the decant I ordered two bottles of it with my Yule order. And I just ordered another bottle today with my Budding Moon order. It's that good. In fact, the DimV scent collection is the most beautiful one I have tried so far, brava Beth. Please bring it back!

[bellis]

At first my skin amps up the linden blossom, and it's mainly a limey citrusy smell. After it dries down, however, it's a wonderful herby dry tea scent. The wood isn't too prominent for me, and something, maybe the papyrus, gives it a bit of warmth. It does, however, pull the same disappearing act that The Dormouse did and is completely gone in fifteen minutes. I'll have to pass this one on to someone whose skin chemistry doesn't eat it immediately.

[perclexed]

In the imp: Damp lemon drop in a pine box.

 

Wet: Smells like a lemon drop. This must be the linden blossom, which I read is so powerful it makes bees fly drunkenly after they harvest the pollen from the flowers. Anything that makes bees drunk sounds like a good thing to me!

 

Drying: I think I smell the tea leaves coming through, with the citrus mellowing. Nothing of the papryus and coffin wood, but I think I can smell a hint of the orris.

 

Dry: The tea is a little bit stronger, but I mostly get citrus.

 

After 45 min: More earthy, and everything blended to a really nice finish.

 

Final thoughts: I would like to get another imp of this. I find myself feeling somewhat invigorated after sniffing my wrist a few times. A bright, clean scent, I'd love to apply it on a late spring Saturday morning. One where I know I need to get out of bed and get some things done, but maybe there's enough time to hang out in bed with the paper, or a good book, and coffee and breakfast. Breakfast with a grapefruit and a croissiant. Oddly enough, this scent seems to be more of a celebration of life than a reminder of the dead.

 

And I really want an Odwalla Limeade now.

[Fefferbella]

Warm citrus and earthy/woodsy notes. Spirits of the Dead is lovely.

 

The warm, woodsy notes mingle deliciously with the crisp fresh citrus. Very unique.

 

I love citrus, but in combination with the wood notes, this is a little overpowering for my tastes. I plan to use it as a room scent.

[oatmealneko]

If you compare Embalming Fluid & Spirits of the Dead side-by-side, they smell incredibly similar in the bottle.

 

Wearing Spirits of the Dead is a lot different. The big difference is that Spirits has an amped citrus note that stays constant - citrus & sour. Very sour. It's not lemon or lime, just a sour citrus note, with tea leaves & light floral note.

 

Hmm...I was wearing this last night & couldn't remember for the life of me what it reminded me of - Kumiho. It's nearly dead-on.

 

(Embalming Fluid has a sweet, juicy lemon with green tea & white musk. Which is completely different from Spirits.)

[LittleGreyKitten]

Dang. I should have got a full size one. It's amazing. It smells very tea and soft citrus (linden blossom I guess) and lingers for a while too. It doesn't change much over time, and my chemistry doesn't alter it too much either. Oddly it reminds me very much of a favorite lotion of mine, White Tea and Ginger by Bath & Body Works. I guess it's the tea- I never got a huge ginger hit off the lotion's smell. Anyway, I do like this a lot, and the boy was a big fan too. It's very crisp and light.

 

I could definitely see the comparison to Bulgari's Green Tea- I liked that scent too, but it did have a weird chemical component I didn't care for, which Spirits of the Dead lacks completely (yay!)

 

I'd give it a 5 out of 5 all the way.

[Imptress]

Oy... this is a perfect tea scent, and I didn't get a big bottle

 

This is so lovely and fresh and wonderful. I'm glad I at least got an imp from a lovely forumite! This would be a perfect summer scent IMO.

 

Hmmm... I still see the DIMV stuff on the website, but I'm guessing it just hasn't been taken down yet. Oh well. Next time I'll have to be quicker!

[kettu]

faint lemon drop

clean, damp mid-spring morning

10am, overcast, cool breeze

time to open the windows,

clear the house of winter's staleness

 

This Is Fresh.

 

 

(and then my skin ate it)

[merebrillante]

In the vial: Light greenery and herbs.

 

Wet: More of the same, only lighter.

 

Drydown: I thought I smelled lavender and oakmoss, but I see now that I was picking up at least the dry tea scent. I'll have to get out my perfume book to know what orris smells like. However, on the drydown it was lightly sweet and fragrant. (N.B.: I didn't know there was such a thing as a coffin tree.)

 

Dry: This goes very soft and light on me, but the tea scent remains. Holiday Moon had tea, but it was much brighter than this perfume. Spirits of the Dead is sweet, soft and green. A very calming, centering scent.

 

In reading over other reviews, I'm surprised, because I never got any citrus from this at all, and lemon is usually the first thing I smell if it's in a scent, as with Somnus and Namaste. Curiouser and curiouser.

[arabella]

First Impression: Strong tea with a squirt of grapefruit.

 

Dries down to: The linden blossom slowly emerges but stays tempered by the papyrus, orris and coffin wood.

 

Additional Comments: I had hoped for the linden blossom to be more prominent since it's one of my favorite florals. When I smell the actual flowers, they're not 'grapefruit-y' at all but I think that's what I'm getting initially. The scent I'm familiar with doesn't appear until later. This is also very "dry" on me. It's nice but disappointing. Overall, though, DiMV has been a pleasant surprise. There were only a couple of them that I wouldn't wear. I'm so pleased I got to try them all.

 

Lasted: A couple of hours.

 

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

[Miss Lynx]

Interesting. This was the one 5 mL out of our order that arrived in mid-January that was specifically for Kettu, not for me, though there were a few that we were both interested in. And ironically, it gave her a headache, but it's the only one of the DimV scents we ordered that comes anywhere close to working for me. Lenore and Alone, the ones I wanted, didn't work on me at all.

 

It's not my usual sort of scent, though. It's very light... sort of dry, wispy and ethereal. Very suitable for its subject matter. It does seem a bit closer to a commercial-perfume type of scent than I usually like, but it's not overly sweet, which is nice. The papery note in it is reminiscent of Clio, which I like, and there's something else about it that's a bit like Shadow without the initial lemon-drop blast. I don't really get much of the citrus note others have mentioned, or much floral either. On me it's mainly light wood and herbal notes, with a very soft touch of floral.

 

And as with most very light scents, it doesn't last terribly long, though it stays nice all through the fadeout.

 

It's hard to decide what I think of this one - I certainly don't dislike it, but it doesn't entirely grab me, either. It's much nicer than I expected it to be, but I'm not altogether certain it's a me scent. I've put it in the swap pile and then taken it out again, a couple of times now. Guess I need to make a decision sooner or later...

 

Grade: B or B-, not sure

[faifai]

Oooh, this smells like a more citrusy version of Kumiho! Same abysmal lasting power, but since I have a bottle, it doesn't matter!

 

This reminds me of iced tea in its "tea-ness". Iced tea with lime or something. Lemony lime? I don't get (thankfully!) any woods. Just something fresh and...dare I say it? Zesty?

 

It doesn't smell shuddering or white or dry to me--more juicy, a vibrant yellow-green, but subtle enough for everyday wear.

Edited February 9, 2006 by faifai

[QueenFae]

This one comes out much more spritely than I imagined it would. I'm not familiar with some of the ingredients, but the tea note is definitely on top. There's a citrusy, effervescent undertone that has an amazing brightening effect. It comes out smelling like an orange berry tea, which is quite delightful, as I'm big on tea scents. A pleasant surprise and a lovely scent, I will enjoy my bottle.

[slave1]

In Bottle: Tea and lemon

 

On Skin: This is very strongly tea scented with a squeeze of lemon or some citrus in it... it reminds me of Lipton Iced Tea. It also kind of smells like Pledge. A very clean scent, but the Pledge note won’t go away sadly. Seriously… maybe the coffin wood adds to that feeling. Cirus and wood… Pledge. I’m hoping it’ll fade but after a half hour all I get is Pledge and tea. Maybe a cup of tea that someone accidentally sprayed with Pledge. This isn’t working on me obviously, so it’s off to the swaps.

[mandragora]

In the imp: Hmm, lemony tea. Curious, as there's no citrus listed on the description.

Wet on me: Still clean and fresh smelling citrus. Lemon-y but not Pledge-lemon.

Drydown: Reminds me of Shangai but with a softer, lovelier citrus and a hint of greens and florals.

Verdict: Very nice and soft. I wonder if I can still find a bottle in the swaps.

[13bodies]

Spirits of the Dead reminds me of a haunted house movie.

 

In the bottle and first on, it's a light, citrusy floral, very bright and happy; like when the family first moves into their new home. The sun is shining through the stained-glass windows and highlighting the interesting crown moldings; we can see that the parents are so very much in love and their child is the standard adorable Hollywood moppet and they're all so happy and have their whole lives ahead of them and isn't is just wonderful?

 

Then the citrus fades a bit. The scent is a bit drier now, not as bright and sweet. The adorable child now has an imaginary friend. Objects disappear and re-appear in unexpected places. Perhaps the neighbors hint that the house has an unsavory history. The sun isn't as bright and the stained-glass windows seem hostile rather than charming. If a pet dog is involved, it begins to act stressed out at this point.

 

The drydown is just that--dry. I don't get any one note, but it's dry and perhaps a bit musty--not bad at all, but maybe on the edge of becoming unpleasant, as though something's quietly awaiting its chance to do something rather nasty. The bright, sunny moppet is now acting withdrawn and spends more and more time with the imaginary friend who by this point is acting most inhospitably towards the grown-up residents of the house. The adults are jumpy but they don't know why. They catch sight of odd movements out of the corners of their eyes, but when they turn to look nothing is there. Usually something important mysteriously disappears or is flamboyantly destroyed at this point in the movie. The music is ominous, and the lighting has changed to create menacing shadows in the corners. The overall mood is uneasy and ominous.

 

Then, halfway through the movie, Spirits of the Dead disappears. It's gone by noon which is disappointing because I was enjoying the movie, even if it was formulaic This is fun to wear, though. I think it will be a nice hot weather scent because it's nice and light.

[Caltha]

Spirits of the dead

Spirits of the dead is a fresh, green tea scent, almost a green grass scent. My girlfriend said "soap", and yes, it may be slightly sharp and nose-tiickling but I really like BPAL's fresh tea scents. I don't get much else out of it.

When it has dried completely on my skin, however, it morphs. The fresh tea note vanishes and instead it smells vaguely sweet, like hot skin with the sweat dried by the sun. And I mean that in a good way, not in a "yuck, sweat" way. Interesting. Hot dry skin and hot dry wood. Today I wear it in my hair though and I only get the fresh green tea note going strong.

[anjimama]

this is one of the first scents i tried, a frimp from a friend. when i wear it i feel like i am inviting the presence of those spirits who are already helping me, but anyone interested might drop by. i also wear the scent when i want to honor those that have passed, so much of my academic work and that of my dept (ethnic studies) is about ancestors, hauntings, ghosts, this scent immediately grabbed me, that tea note sang out to me and does not let me forget that i am never alone.

[klio]

In the bottle: The zest of a citrus rind, newly squeezed into fresh tea.

 

On: A subtle citrusy floral. For the first half hour or so the citrus is at the forefront, but in a sweet, kind, gentle way. Then more of the florals surface, embracing the citrus, all quite light and faint, an echo of living, memories from some other time.

 

Or, to be less maudlin, it smells like a lemony teahouse, with a cabana boy outside cleaning the pool in the sunlight.

 

I don't actually smell the coffin wood. This scent makes me feel alive, though sheltered. Indoors, while the bright, beautiful world drifts beyond the windowglass.

 

Last night, it was strong and lasted at least until I fell asleep. This morning, it faded almost immediately on application, only to reappear after about a half hour and stay strong for another two hours or so. Time to reapply! Aahhh... nice. I will be looking for a second 5ml so I can feel comfortable wearing this a lot.

[Melantha]

Bottle: Mmmmm. Can't really pick out what I'm smelling, though.

 

On: Holy cow! A blast of what seems like citrus, too much for my nose. If I had to make a call right now, I'd say no.

 

drydown: Within a minute or so the too-strong notes fade back, revealing a combination of florals and darker notes that I like very, very much. I only have an imp, but I'll be looking for a 5ml.

[joseybird]

Let me start off by saying that I'm not a fan of BPAL's white or green tea notes; they're just too sharp for me and they make me kinda queesy for some reason ;_; Spirits of the dead is a woody, papery white tea, and it does not work for me at all. Pity...it sounds so darned nice!!

[sookster]

straight sniff from bottle this is citrus and dry wood...

applied this does not change much although the wood note

comes forefront...unfortunately, this one does not last with

my chemisty at all....i had the highest hopes for this lovely

bottle...just not me at all

[brownbear]

This is a good one. I love the combination of notes. It's very crisp and airy and a little cold. It goes citrus as it dries.