Grandmother of Ghosts

[galahad]

Mania, Roman Goddess of the Dead, Matron of Madness, Governess of the Ancestral Spirits, Bestower of Divine Frenzy. Her scent swirls with a high-pitched tumult of laurel, stargazer lily, splintered woods, peony, mandarin and white musk, and is spiked with pale pepper.

In The Bottle
Faint musk and lily

On Application
High-pitched, indeed. White florals and woods

Dry Down
The flowers fade leaving the woods. Quite soft and dry. This ends up smelly like quite a grandmotherly floral. Not for me

Rating (0-5)
2.5

[Coldfire]

Imp: somewhat green with ghost of pepper

Wet on me: More woods now with the peony

and that pepper ghost whisper

Drying Down: woods and the good parts of

pepper now…lovely.

Dry: This is finding your grandmother’s favorite

shawl or throw and wrapping yourself in it. This is

wood, and a touch of the peony floral and a wee tad

of the pepper. Luckily the lily does NOT show up at

all here. Keeper for the memories it brings.

[Seismogenic]

Mania, huh? Madness and frenzy? Sounds just about right for the beginning of the new school year! (Though, perhaps, more suited to finals, but I'm not going to wait that long to test this.) Another frimp from the lab, and I'm pretty intrigued by how "shattered" can be manifested in smell.

 

In the imp: Predominantly wood, with a little bit of pepper. I'm not getting any of the flowers yet.

 

Wet on skin: Still pretty dry and woody, maybe with a little bit of lily, and still some pepper. I'm not entirely sure what laurel smells like, so I couldn't tell you if it's there or not, but the other stuff definitely isn't yet.

 

Drydown: Freshly dry, the peony shows up, which sweetens the woods and pepper, but does not overpower them. There is also the slightest edge of citrus, but it's fleeting. An hour later, the peony is definitely the predominant floral, though it is kept from becoming overpoweringly sweet by the woods and pepper and possibly the laurel. Kind of a psycho peony!

 

Five hours later: The florals are gone, and what's left is spicy (mostly peppery) wood with a bit of musk.

 

End of the day: Gone.

 

Overall: This is really really nice. It is a high-pitched and peculiar mix of notes, but it is not overpowering and works really well. In the psycho peony stage, it reminds me of Tenochtitlan (though the actual notes are pretty different): something very warm and sweet mixed with something sharp and spicy. The woods, pepper, and laurel keep the flowers from being too floral or too feminine. For the latter reason, I'm also glad this faded to woods and spices rather than florals. This imp will definitely get more use.

[tacey]

How, how, how does this not smell floral?

 

Not that I'm complaining -- I just don't understand how these notes can smell like this! Grandmother of Ghosts has piqued my interest in the more 'manic' scents -- because this is fascinating. There's a touch of pepper, and a big boquet of flowers that combine to be...I don't know, but it's quite non-floral. Very nice, and quite baffling!

 

I suppose it's really just a complex floral that my in-experienced nose can break apart...but the effect is not at all what I'd expected from the notes.

[hkhm]

imp: musk anf something spicy. probably the pepper.

 

wet: this is very musky... there is only a faint hint of florals and a nice sprinkle of pepper.

 

dry: light perppery herbal musk, the musk is quite tame.

[donnatron]

Imp: Sweet woods with lily and peony.

 

Wet: This is really, really light. I can barely smell it but what I do smell is dry wood with lily trying its hardest to trample over it. All the other notes are not interested in joining this power struggle and have decided to take off.

 

Dry: Faint wood with the faint sweetness of lily and peony in the background. It's very, very dry. It reminds me of my deck in the summer. But it smells more like dry wood in the sun with a faint tinge of florals rather than a lovely scent memory. It's not unpleasant, but it just doesn't work for me.

 

Throw: Close to zero.

 

Overall: Eh. I'm glad to have tried it but it's really not what I was expecting. Once again I am clobbered by the woods.

[MCS4096]

Got this as a frimp in my first order.. upon opening to give a first sniff test I thought PEW! and immediately sorted it into the "no thanks" group. But I'm a good sport, and plan to give it a go.

 

In the imp: PEW! Mostly lilies, peonies and woods, although I also get the musk (in the form of a standard "perfume" aspect) and the mandarin. Makes my nose tingle a bit.

 

Wet: More of the same. This smells very familiar, though I can't quite place it.

 

Dry: Very very perfumey. I do like the woods in there under the florals, but it makes me feel like sneezing (while I unfortunately don't consciously smell the pepper, maybe thats what's doing it). I do like this actually, it's mellowed quite a bit, but I'm still not sure it's interesting enough for my tastes. I'll upgrade it to the "maybe" group

[goblinshark]

In the imp this smells lovely and woodsy.

 

When I put it on, though, I smell like dill pickles. wtf?

[fantasmaglow]

I adore the name and premise of this perfume, and the notes sounded wonderful, but once this perfume touches my skin it smells like pencil wood. I smell like a prismacolor. I kinda like it though .

[windbourne]

You know...this scent is way too subdued on me to have the description be apt. On me, the woods are not splintered, they are neatly chopped up and made into a very charming bookcase or coffee table; the flowers are neatly arranged into a pleasant arrangement on top of the resulting piece of furniture, and the pepper is so pale as to be absent. The mandarin is completely absent as well, and the musk is very pleasant and well-behaved.

 

In other words, I get the ghosts, and I get the grandmother, but the mania is conspicuously lacking. *shrug*!

[Suu4LC]

In the imp, this is far woodier than I expected. Wood with hints of flowers and white musk.

 

On my skin, the pepper note really pops. This is light woods and pepper over white musk. I lose the florals and mandarin almost entirely.

 

Overall, as this dried down completely, it was just a meh light woody blend. Everything but the wood faded very fast, and woods aren't my thing.

[anna1850]

I don't like wood and this is kind of pot-pourrit and wood smell.

 

I hate to say this but it does smells like an old-people's home to me.

 

2/5 It's not revolting but I don't like it.

[tajana]

Lots and lots of fresh "splintered" woods and florals, definitely lots of lily and peony! I don't sense any mandarin, but there's definitely a strong white musk in here... not one I really like. "High pitched" indeed... the scent of a crazy grandmother, perhaps. Well, at first at is. The soapy white florals fade away after a little while. The pepper, after lying in wait for twenty minutes or so, goes crazy and stabs all the florals with freshly cut wooden swords, sparing only the pale, sharp musk and a trace of the laurel. This is a weird one!

[crebbsgirl]

I actually kind of liked this one. The lily and pepper were a lovely and unusual combination here. The woods prevented this blend from getting cloying and the musk added a wonderful depth. The mandarin was most predominant in the wet stages, but during the drydown it softened and contributed a sweetness to the scent.

[Argentwolf]

At first Grandmother and I didn't get along; she smelled like baby powder with a very unpleasant biological crotch-sweat edge to it. Ewww! Over time, however, she mellowed out, did a 180, and smelled like a bouquet of dried flowers that had been saved over the years in a wooden drawer, age and dust giving them a peppery sort of aura.

 

Not really my thing, but I'm glad it had a happy ending, at least.

[bubblefish]

I'm getting florals and musk, almost a bit on the stuffy side with the combination. I wish I got more of the pepper that others are picking up. It stays pretty close to my skin and has only a little bit of throw.

[wldhrsjen3]

In the bottle: a tumultuous blend, indeed. Sweet, spicy, slightly floral, with a bitter woody note in the background. The individual notes seem to compete for attention, fighting for dominance.

 

On my skin: ah! Not nearly as strong as I feared it might be. At first I smell dry wood and the ghost of flowers, sharpened by the spice of pepper. The musk sweetens and blurs the other notes, blending them in a pale cloud. As it dries, a mellow sweetness (the mandarin, I assume) ripens, giving this scent a beautiful hint of pale gold and pleasing depth. I love the combination of lily and mandarin - they balance perfectly, neither too fruity nor too floral. Alas, this stage quickly morphs and I'm left with nothing but musky pepper. Fortunately the fragrance is pale and wispy on my skin - already fading, like the ghost of a scent. I can still catch a whisper of mandarin and florals, but the pepper and musk make my wrist smell like old incense.

 

This was, ultimately, not at all what I expected. It was, somehow, sweeter and lighter than I thought it would be. I'm so glad I had the chance to try it, but I'm afraid the pepper and musk are just too strong for my skin. I know someone who is going to *love* this, though, so I'm looking forward to passing it on and making another BPAL addict!

[HKB]

I liked the initial woodsy smell but it does end up smelling too much like an old lady for me.

[angelicruin]

Inside the imp, wood and pepper notes stand out to my nose.

 

On the skin, woodsy pepper and floral. Hard for me to pick out the separate floral notes. They're just sort of mingled all together on my skin.

 

 

[obsidienne]

This was far lighter and softer than I expected! I'd have to slather half an imp throughout the day to get any sort of smell-o-rama experience out of this. For me it's a light springtime floral -- not particularly exciting, but pretty and feminine.

 

I can especially smell the woods over the subtle, non-cloying (woo!) lily, & sweetly balanced mandarin; white musk almost always registers as a backdrop scent to me, and never really seems discernable from the rest of the notes. The pepper is so faint that I wouldn't know it was there without being told. I have no idea what laurel smells like, but I am sure that the lighter, and, um, pale pink aspect to the floral lily is the peony, adding its charm to the blend. The florals and mandarin fade into the background quickly and it becomes overall a little too woody for my liking. I've had this experience with other blends with woods in them (Calico Jack and 51 come to mind).

 

A ghostly scent, indeed. Just very light and subtle. A good blend for when you know you need to keep a low scent profile, like at the office or a meeting. I'd do it in a scent locket, though, to preserve the florals, and to keep from having to slather repeatedly. I also think this would make a pretty room scent.

[rayvn1]

I tried this with Mania on the other arm, coincidentally. Unlike that oil, this is really subdued. A dusty, wistful scent that's barely there on my skin. Nice, nothing goes wrong with it, but it doesn't really stand out on my skin.

[Veronica]

I'm with HKB on this one, the initial smell is very woody, in a nice way, but it starts smelling kind of "old lady"-ish to me.

[Venneh]

In the imp, I'm getting lily and musk, with a faint hint of something, not quite sure what. On my skin, this is lily for about five seconds before being swallowed up by woods and pepper and laurel. Just, no. Swaps/sales.

[ladypyrate]

Once more an imp I recieved with an order...

 

In Bottle: Overwhelmingly woody to me. I detect no florals at all. Truly it smells like a walk through the ceadar dunes on Sandy Hook.

 

On shin: On dry down the woody scent disappears, but the musk predominates. Again, I get no florals at all.. Nice enough I guess, but I may hand off to hubby.

 

 

 

[impolight]

:::GRANDMOTHER of GHOSTS:::

 

This scent could work equally well for the Grandmother of Ghosts by representing either the specter that has haunted dreams before the ancestors of mankind ceased slumbering in trees, or as a Grandmotherly poltergeist that cannot help but be a reassuring presence in times of melancholic reverie.

There is certainly wood in Grandmother of Ghosts, likely a sweeter specimen of Cedar.

There is a very subtle hint of powder in this formula, and a faint echo of florals that could be Lilac or even Honeysuckle.

Grandmother of Ghosts is the mote of dust whirling in a beam of sunlight; dancing, it seems, in an effort to revive a long forgotten memory gazing at you, hauntingly, from across the coffee-table and proffers a piece of Toffee.

Grandmother of Ghosts is the faded daguerrotype discovered beneath a wedding dress in a dust-covered steamer trunk in the attic.

This is a warm quilt of fragrance that rest in a silent, sunlit room, safe & sound.

Somberly unisex.