Like Ghosts the Shadows Rise and Fall

[Seajewel]

Indian jasmine, 7-year aged patchouli, sweet vetiver, oud, and amber incense.

[MamaMoth]

baby's first first.  no pressure or anything. 

 

preface: i'm newly converted to enjoying a touch of jasmine in my perfume.  but every other ingredient sounded like very much my kinda thing, so i figured i'd give this one a go, hoping for less jasmine and more everythingelse. my bottle has rested about 5 days. 

 

unfortunately, this is pretty much the jasmine show right now.  i can sense all those other wonderful things behind it, and they're very smooth.  but i can't really get a grasp on anything in particular because the jasmine is a total diva.  i will say it's a nice sweet jasmine.  i'm also getting nothing offensive on the oudh front, but i've never encountered a truly stinky oudh, so take that with a grain of salt. as far as the "incense" goes, i never get any smokiness. 

 

after a little while, the jasmine dials back enough that i can clock the patchouli a little, and an ambery-oudh perfuminess.   jasmine is still out front, but it's taken on an almost lightly candied floral sweetness.  sweet jasmine incense? more incense in the throw, more jasmine close to the skin. i never get any vetiver at all. 

 

so yeah... nice, but a little outside my jasmine comfort zone.  if you like all those notes, but most especially jasmine, it's well done and worth a try. 

 

Edited July 11, 2022 by MamaMoth

[theredkilt]

This goes in the Luna Azul territory, but without caramelization and warm resins. It's a more simplified and straightforward  jasmine supported by patch and amber incense and holding its ground. 

[starbrow]

This reminds me a LOT of The Bindle, a gorgeous Tarot blend from 2018 that featured Jasmine petals tumbled with a panoply of spices, suffused with incense smoke. All of that is true in Like Ghosts. Jasmine is undoubtedly the star. Heady and rich, she is supported by woody notes that only serve to accentuate just how luxuriously florid she is in comparison. This is a jasmine for hedonistic jasmine lovers. Big throw, big mood. I don't believe it's jasmine sambac, but 

 

Over time, the spices and incense come out. The oud is well-behaved but rich as well, and spicy! The amber incense is reminding me a lot of the Leather, Indigo Incense, and Red Amber trio. What kind of incense, you say? Headshoppy, to my nose. This leans a bit nag champa, especially when combined with the jasmine, for a decidedly Eastern atmosphere. I don't smell any vetiver (sads) but the patchouli lingers once the jasmine has finished singing its loudest notes and is only singing at a moderate range  . 

 

Do you need this? If you love indolent and extravagant jasmine incense. It's stunningly beautiful and too much for me at the same time. I would never wear a whole bottle of this, but I'm thinking I want to keep my decant! 

 

[deepquietvoice]

"Oh, that is JASMINE," I said to myself applying a sample.

 

Jasmine-forward, obviously. It's grounded by the vegetal-earthy notes, a gently indolic floral rather than a high white one. I really like the almost vegetal quality this has; it smells like the whole fresh-cut flower, not just the bottled scent. It's very indolic and lush without being at all stinky, to my nose. It's definitely got the vibe of a voluptuous lady in a garden at night. Is she dangerous? Maybe. Are you going to join her anyway? Probably.

 

After a good few hours, the jasmine lets the amber, oud, patch and vetiver notes join in on center stage. It's still a lovely fresh-cut flower, but the earthy and woody notes and the sweetness of the amber have a more equal presence.

 

This perfume has a lot of swagger even if it's not for me. Respect.

[daemonrabbit]

I don't get a lot of jasmine from this at first. It starts out smelling like slightly sweet cigarette smoke. I did not like it at this stage and was prepared to give up. But when dry I think I'm mostly getting the sweet vetiver with a touch of jasmine, and it. Is. Amazing. The smell sticks to the collar of my sleep shirt and I love getting whiffs of it.  It feels unisex to me. I full sized this.

[LavenderCoffee]

This scent is dominated by jasmine and vetiver for me and I'm struggling to find anything else. Skin chemistry fail here.

[theseagrows]

this starts as a very smoky jasmine with the other notes mixed in the background. it stays pretty linear on me...it's quite smoky, but not in an incense way, it's more like true smoke. i think it's the vetiver that adds that element to the incense. i get more patchouli and oud in the beginning than in the drydown. this is a like but not a love...the jasmine gets kind of soapy on me.

[Supertrooper Omni]

On my this is a big glamorous jasmine. To me it's not particularly sweet, the oud, vetiver, and patchouli are support players, which don't really come into play in an identifiably strong way, but as touch of vaguely dark background.

 

 

I am more perceptive of the jasmine plus amber, which to me reads as a big floral style perfume.

 

Like perfume as in what I picture ladies wearing on dates with full makeup and nails did, hair styled, fancy drawers, diva mode. 

 

I'm a patchouli and vetiver lover, so I was drawn in by the patch+vet+oud description, which would probably be a big nope for the people that would most be into it potentially?

 

However it really isn't as intense as the notes listed. I think it might be worth a try for those drawn to sophisticated jasmine, platinum blonde Lana Turner vibe perfumes. Classic floral Oriental with wood.

Edited October 30, 2022 by Supertrooper Omni

[forspecial_plate]

I got this last August, tried it once and put it away to swap.  It was overwhelming, suffocating jasmine with a slightly smokey background.  

 

I happened to try it again today and it's really nice!  The jasmine is certainly strong but now it has calmed down enough to at least let a whisper of the other notes come out too.  Jasmine is still the star but now some of the other notes are humming in the background.  I want to wear this when I'm feeling hippie vibes.  If I could go back in time to Woodstock, I might pick this scent to wear.  It will be great as the weather starts to warm up.  So glad I tried it again! 

[zankoku_zen]

Smoky burning patchouli, incense and a whiff of jasmine. This smelt like smoking floral incense. Medium throw and wear length. 

[Ennikar]

I'm a bit surprised to find I never reviewed this, because it's something of a favorite -- the "I don't wear it all that often but it frequents the shortlist" type of favorite. Big jasmine note, yes, but it's a pretty, soft, slightly sweet jasmine. The patch + incense + vetiver + oud combined are still slightly less strong than the jasmine, but take this away from the "ultrafemme floral bomb" impression that big jasmine can have. I keep thinking it has cardamom in it, which it doesn't... probably some sort of "amber incense" illusion?

Other impressions: "I really like it, but wouldn't wear it. Any guy I date needs to be okay with smelling like flowers so he can wear this". I've had about five other people at least bottle-sniff it, including some who are usually tough sells, and all of them at least thought it was okay to good.