The Lantern Ghost of Oiwa

[moosue]

Black tea, cherry blossom, ho wood, calla lily, rice wine, and white mint.

In bottle: Oh dear God, this smells like the dentist. That gritty crap they polish your teeth with. You can even smell the latex, like the technician's gloves. I was so hoping to love this one, it sounded so pretty.

Wet: Okay, it's still dentisty, but now it's tooth polish, latex gloves, AND toothpaste (the mint, I guess). Also something vaguely floral, must be the cherry blossom. The tooth polish fades a bit. Good.

Dry- top notes of cherry blossom and sweet mint. Nice, still reminiscent of the dentist, but surely a vast improvement from the bottle smell. Thankfully this one becomes reasonably nice within about 15 minutes or less.
I never get the tea, although there's a slight sweetness that may be the rice wine (it seems to sweeten the mint), and I definitely get the cherry blossom. The wood note may be there as well. This is well blended and does round out nicely once it's dry, as long as you don't have a serious dentist phobia.

It's January and grey and cold out, and I don't think this perfume will be nice until spring. It'll have much more appeal around March or April, I suspect.

ETA: Yep, in late April, this is rather lovely. Not so dentisty, more of a cool floral mint. There's definitely the rice wine in there sweetening this up. I also suspect this may have needed some aging to get rid of the astringent edge. Brand new, it was almost unbearable for the first hour, but now a few months later, this is pretty almost immediately after application.

ETA again, almost a year after last ETA: Holy lord this got beautiful. All astringentness is gone and whats left is a sweet, cool cherry blossom scent. Wood isn't present. Dominant note is cherry blossom, followed by sweetness from the rice wine (smells more like just sweet rice), and a whisper of mint. Doesn't smell minty at all, just cool, which is probably the mint. LOVE, SO glad I didn't get rid of it.

[reynardine]

This one started off as a kinda run-of-the-mill tea-based Asian scent, but on the dry-down, the mind kicked in and WOW. This is absolutely gorgeous. I’m getting a bit of the florals/wood but mostly tea and mint. Beautiful scent!!!

[sirensea]

This is a very nice, clean floral that has a hint of creaminess in the background. It stays close to the skin and doesn't seem to morph much from the time I put it on to the time that it dries. Very pretty, but my chemistry doesn't do much for it, unfortunately!

[joyellen]

A sweet forumite gifted a tester of this to me. This is my first review ever. Hope I do a good job!

 

In the imp: It smells very soft. I can pick out the cherry blossoms and a hint of mint. Definitely a subtle mint.

 

Wet: At first I was worried this would be too strong for me. First impression was very sweet air freshener. Too sweet usually spells nausea for me, but something told me to stick it out.

 

Drydown: Oh, wow. The initial sweetness dialed down and I'm left with a really ethereal, almost misty scent. It's evocative of a misty grey afternoon spent in a tea garden. The mint has all but disappeared. The black tea and ho wood are grounding it and keeping it from getting overly sweet or floral. The cherry blossoms and rice wine are in the forefront, and I think I might be getting a whiff of calla lily, but to be honest I'm not very familiar with that note. This scent stays very close to the skin. I can't smell it while I'm typing. Only when I lift my wrist up to my nose can I detect it, and my wrist is pretty much plastered to my face now.

 

I tend to gravitate toward softer scents and this is perfect. It's feminine without being overly sweet. I'm definitely going to finish this tester and am seriously considering a bottle. This is a really lovely perfume.

[cinnamonster]

So I recently found a half full vial of this i must've had a for a very long time and just put aside thinking cherry blossom was a bit er...kinda lost for a word here, like a pastel poodle? for me. OH MY GOODNESS WHY???

 

I love this, it starts off with three mingled scents, mint, rice wine, and cherry blossom. The rice wine and mint recede a little quite fast and the resulting scent has more wood, a little tea, but it ultimately ends up as a sweet, creamy, woody cherry blossom that I can't help sniffing over and over.

 

I started carrying the vial around with me but it leaked, leaving me with a yummy smelling bag that offers wafts of scent up occasionally. It might be a soft scent but it's fairly tenacious.

 

I'm pretty sure the waiter in Yo Sushi sniffed me as he leaned past me to place soy sauce on the bar when I was wearing this

[SophieCedar]

Wet: black tea, cherry blossom, something creamy..heavy cream! Uhmm.. Where? Uh..not on the list. I can smell the rice wine too. Not familiar with ho wood but I see it's similar to rosewood... The mint is there too but only the middle notes of it. There isn't any sharpness. I'm seriously perplexed as to why I smell cream. The only suspect is rice wine.

Drydown: even creamier! The calla lily is notable now. black tea is still there, there's a soft warmness to it..mint still there, rice wine still there.. a whisper of cherry blossom. I never thought I'd get black tea and calla lilies soaked in heavy cream and rice wine with a cherry blossom breeze. Completely bottle purchase inducing..

Edited November 21, 2010 by SophieCedar

[CitizenBree]

This is tea and mint, with mint being the stronger scent. I guess there's a touch of cherry blossom making it slightly floral, but very subtle. the mint isn't overpowering, but it is the most prominent note. This is a really light scent.

[Gin]

I knew I was taking a risk with The Lantern Ghost of Oiwa, but I was fairly confident. My confidence was misplaced. Mint, yay! Backed up with wood and lily, boo. Where is the tea? The cherry blossom? They make themselves known eventually, faintly, but I think this is just too light and too woody for me.

Edited May 18, 2011 by Gin

[Incendiare]

Latex and lily, you say? That's what I get directly out of the imp. I reminds me of balloons more than anything else. Wet, it's kind of the same. The latex dies down a bit but now my nose is picking up on dry dirt. Perhaps that's the ho wood rolling in. The mint tingles my nose a bit but it's not a prominent mint.

 

I should give it some credit for calming down a bit, though. I bought this nearly eight months ago, and when I smelled it then, I got nothing but latex from it, so at least the florals are slightly palpable. As it's drying, I can detect a very faint tea note. Despite the flowers and tea making an entrance, I still nonetheless find that this primarily smells like latex. Perhaps a bit more age will get rid of that once and for all.

[distracts]

This is possibly the most amazing BPAL scent I've ever tried. It's immediately in my top ten, if not number one! I would bathe in this stuff if I had enough of it.

 

When I put it on not knowing the notes, I thought it was honey with some anise and an edge of mint. I thought, "wow, an anise scent I actually like!" Of course, it's apparently not anise at all! I think it's the cherry blossom that is tricking my nose into smelling that, or possibly the ho wood. Anyway, maybe because I don't know what most of the notes in this smell like, I can't pick them out, but it's an intensely gorgeous scent and I luuuuurves it. The mint is very faint and not overwhelming at all, which is how I like my mint.

 

It's a light kind of scent, but it lasts quite a while on me and has good throw, so that when I move I'm constantly going "wow, what's that amazing smell? Oh, it's ME!" But because it's so ethereal, I think it'd still be appropriate for work.

[orata]

Very creamy black mint tea scent with pretty good throw. There is this prominent note that, unfortunately, having read the reviews, I can only identify as rubber. Maybe the rice wine + anise (or licorice or whatever smells like it in here) + lilies? I really liked it until I came in here and started reading reviews; now I keep thinking of uninflated balloons.

[Aviatrix]

This is oh so light on my skin, but I will try and describe it as best I can anyway

 

There is definitely cherry blossom, and a slight astringency from the black tea. There might be lilies as well, but it seems to be mostly cherry blossom in the floral department. There is a very comforting and light mint permeating everything, and a teensy bit of booziness from the rice wine. Not sure about the ho wood, but it may be lurking in the background?

 

I like this one a LOT, and am a little sad that it's so faint on my skin.

[LiberAmoris]

The Lantern Ghost of Oiwa is a black tea and creamy cherry blossom blend on me, with the mint making it smell fresh and white at the edges. The calla lily is present but doesn't push past the cherry blossom. The rice wine gives the scent something tangy and a bit starchy. It sounds like it wouldn't work together, but it does. I'm slightly addicted to Beth's black tea note, so I'm guessing the inclusion of that note (which smells like anise to a lot of people but smells just like black tea to me) is what's making me enjoy this so much. As it dries down, the mint burns off and I miss it—my favorite stage is wet, when the mint swims about with the other notes.

[porcelina]

lantern ghost of oiwa is a subtle, clean, close-to-the-skin, delicate sort of scent. my bottle is quite old and there is almost no mint note left. it's soft and does not immediately come across as floral, but the floral notes are there, grounded by the wood and black tea. i think this is a particularly nice blend for spring.

[doomsday_disco]

This starts off strongest on the black tea on me (which doesn't have a touch of anise here, thankfully), backed by the cherry blossom and the lily, with a splash of the rice wine adding some acidity. The floral notes gain strength with wear, but it remains a floral and tea scent, sometimes more tea, sometimes more floral. I was not able to detect any of the white mint, but I think perhaps that note may have aged out of this scent.

 

I'm not sure I'd wear this over other tea or cherry blossom scents in my collection, but I'm glad I got to try it!