Ghosts

It is that time of the year in which BPAL addicts think, talk and dream about weenies, more precisely the newly released Halloween themed scents. Some know exactly what they want and order bottles as soon as they new release is available, others are more cautious or less wealthy, or perhaps both, and order decants in one or more of the decant circles that sprout up in numbers unknown for any other release. This year just about all decant circles are delayed because one of the new scents is on back order. Knowing that I shall have to wait several more weeks before the precieous will arrive, I started to try again some season themed scents. 

The first one was a General Catalogue scent, The Ghost. I remembered I liked it a lot when I first got it (a gift from my generous friend Voodoocat if I remember well). It is one of the scents that come with a poem:

Softly as brown-eyed Angels rove
I will return to thy alcove, 
And glide upon the night to thee, 
Treading the shadows silently.

And I will give to thee, my own, 
Kisses as icy as the moon, 
And the caresses of a snake 
Cold gliding in the thorny brake.

And when returns the livid morn 
Thou shalt find all my place forlorn 
And chilly, till the falling night.

Others would rule by tenderness 
Over thy life and youthfulness, 
But I would conquer thee by fright!

This, I found, is one of the many translations of a poem by Baudelaire, Le Revenant. Which is all the more interesting as among last year's weenies there was a scent named Le Revenant, based on the same poem bit in a different translation! This is the original:

Le Revenant

Comme les anges à l'oeil fauve,
Je reviendrai dans ton alcôve
Et vers toi glisserai sans bruit
Avec les ombres de la nuit;

Et je te donnerai, ma brune,
Des baisers froids comme la lune
Et des caresses de serpent
Autour d'une fosse rampant.

Quand viendra le matin livide,
Tu trouveras ma place vide,
Où jusqu'au soir il fera froid.

Comme d'autres par la tendresse,
Sur ta vie et sur ta jeunesse,
Moi, je veux régner par l'effroi.

— Charles Baudelaire

The Ghost has a scent description that is different from Le Revenant. I can not compare the wto as I only have tried The Ghost, but I expect them to be indeed different as Le Revenant had a gardenia note. This is how The Ghost is described:

A thin, sinuous, creeping chill, the scent of glee-filled undeath: white iris, osmanthus, Calla lily, tomb-crawling ivy and a coffin spray of gladiolus, lisianthus and delphinium.

I like lily scents and I like osmanthus, but somehow this scent is too much of a white floral to me and although I used to like these a lot, my taste seems to have changed. However, last year I still liked them and I did choose another white floral from last year's weenies: Ghosts in Love:

GHOSTS IN LOVE
"Tell me, where do GHOSTS in love 
Find their bridal veils?"

"If you and I were GHOSTS in love
We'd climb the cliffs of Mystery, 
Above the sea of Wails. 
I'd trim your gray and streaming hair
With veils of Fantasy 
From the tree of Memory. 
'Tis there the GHOSTS that fall in love
Find their bridal veils."

- Vachel Lindsay

It is easy for me to remember why I chose this scent to try. It must have been the oudh note: 

White sandalwood, tobacco flower, lily of the valley, white carnation, and magnolia blossom with tea rose, labdanum, and oudh.

This scent too I tried again and obviously it is another white floral. However, although it isn't mentioned there seems to be a musk note in it, or if not it must be a combination of the other notes that gives it a slight muskiness. This gives Ghosts in Love a little more body, so to speak. Although that would be a strange thing for a ghost.