Sweet William's Ghost

[forspecial_plate]

Is there any room at your head, Willy? Or any room at your feet? Or any room at your side, Willy, wherein that I may creep? A scent of unendurable grief and longing: pale orris root and honeyed white lily chilled by wild carrot and cognac, pulled into a winding sheet of white jasmine, tobacco flower, tuberose, and patchouli.

First impression: strong white floral, reminds me of the little bathroom soaps that are for decoration only (soapy, but really nice soap). I didn't like it at first.

After a couple minutes, when I bring my wrist up to my nose, I can smell a very strong booze note, the cognac I suppose, that worried me at first. After a while, the booze faded back a lot, and I get a balanced floral/booze/patchouli combo. I don't think the patchouli is super strong, but I like patchouli and sometimes don't even notice it. It's here but just giving an earthy base to the powdery floral and chilly booze notes. If you amp patchouli and don't like it, there might be enough here to turn you off.

I was hoping for a little more sweetness from the tuberose and jasmine, but it's mostly austere orris and lily to me. I think the tobacco flower is contributing to the soapiness.

Summary: chilly white floral with booze, soapy and a little powdery, with an earthy patchouli base. I wish it was just a little sweeter but it is very ghostly, reminds me of something else from bpal - maybe Sepulcher? But I couldn't wear that, it was just too high-pitched and soapy. This is more balanced, I like it.

[lazymerricat]

I agree with the above about the baby bathroom soaps as a first impression, in the bottle and for the first minute or two on my skin. It's pleasant, but unexpected given some of the notes.

 

A few minutes in, the boozy note comes along, in tandem with a nice earthiness that is coming particularly from the carrot and patchouli. It's a bit like being slightly drunk at the interment part of a funeral: you're aware of the huge pile of lilies on the coffin, the slightly wet earth and grass underneath, the shower you took that morning, and the sneaky nip of brandy half the congregation seems to have had. All of which brought back some interesting memories for me.

 

The very sad thing about this scent though, is that it's really quite linear and doesn't last long at all. Within two hours, all I could detect while huffing my wrist up close was a faint musty-dusty note, like when you open a box of your grandmother's financial receipts from the 1940s. Half an hour later, nothing at all. I would definitely have considered a bottle if it stuck around a bit longer.

Edited October 29, 2015 by lazymerricat

[zankoku_zen]

Soapy jasmine, tuberose and lily. This smells like amazing dryer sheets on me. Amazing. Great throw, great wear length.

[Aviatrix]

This is mainly orris, cognac, and jasmine on me! I am not getting much of the patchouli, and I think maybe the tuberose is drowning in the other flowers. It reminds me a bit of the other Weenie, Le Revenant, which I believe also has the white flowers and the cognac.

It's quite pleasant, and I might get a bottle. It's certainly different from other blends in my collection.

[Argentwolf]

To me, this starts out as a fresh, dewy scent, and then I can smell the honeyed lilies. Very pretty. Over time, it grounds out into something slightly deeper and earthier, though it's not the deep dark dirty earth of patchouli. I can smell some of the cognac, I believe. It hugs the skin and has already faded considerably after an hour. Pretty, though my tiny sample may be enough to enjoy.

[Little Bird]

Soapy and sharply white floral from the lily, tobacco flower and tuberose. I get no patchouli or darker notes. White bar soap and sharp white floral perfume.

[Lucchesa]

I chose this decant for the name, as my younger son is William. Or was -- the name is more poignant now to me since my sweet William is choosing to be Lynn. Tuberose is usually an automatic rule-out for me, but it was not very prominent here. I got mainly soft orris and white lilies at first, but as it started drying down it got actually quite beautiful. The cognac and the honey made it more interesting to me than a pure white floral, and the patchouli helped ground a very ethereal blend. And I was thinking wow, I could wear this one.

 

Then, like practically every other BPAL with the word Ghost or Phantasm or (insert synonym here) in the title, it faded into nothingness about an hour later. Sigh.