The Last of the Spirits

[dawndie]

THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS
The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached. When it came near him, Scrooge bent down upon his knee; for in the very air through which this Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery.

It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand. But for this it would have been difficult to detach its figure from the night, and separate it from the darkness by which it was surrounded.

He felt that it was tall and stately when it came beside him, and that its mysterious presence filled him with a solemn dread. He knew no more, for the Spirit neither spoke nor moved.

“I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come?” said Scrooge.

The Spirit answered not, but pointed onward with its hand.

“You are about to show me shadows of the things that have not happened, but will happen in the time before us,” Scrooge pursued. “Is that so, Spirit?”

The upper portion of the garment was contracted for an instant in its folds, as if the Spirit had inclined its head. That was the only answer he received.

Although well used to ghostly company by this time, Scrooge feared the silent shape so much that his legs trembled beneath him, and he found that he could hardly stand when he prepared to follow it. The 70 Spirit paused a moment, as observing his condition, and giving him time to recover.

But Scrooge was all the worse for this. It thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud, there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, while he, though he stretched his own to the utmost, could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap of black.

“Ghost of the Future!” he exclaimed, “I fear you more than any spectre I have seen. But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart. Will you not speak to me?”

It gave him no reply. The hand was pointed straight before them.

“Lead on!” said Scrooge. “Lead on! The night is waning fast, and it is precious time to me, I know. Lead on, Spirit!”

Blackcurrant, myrrh, and vetiver.

Wet: stinky (slightly skunky) vetiver

On skin: dirty vetiver and dusty myrrh are duking it out

Half-hour later: ah, this is much nicer. The blackberry has appeared to sweeten things up a tad

In conclusion: this is a moody and reflective blend, dark and appealing. The vetiver isn't stomping all over everything, and I really like the myrrh in this one, it's assertive and self-righteously wrathful like an evil preacher. I liked this a lot more than I thought I would.

[strahlend]

In my imp this says - "hello, I'm vetiver. I'm not the normal char-smoke-root vetiver you think you know. I'm a kinder, gentler vetiver. Let's talk."

On my skin the myrrh says - "Ya, that's me, I'm the one balancing out this vetiver rascal. We make quite a good pair, yes?"

 

And I say yes. Yes they make a great pair. The myrrh adds some sweetness and depth and keeps the vetiver contained to merely a woodsy base note instead of being all in your face.

All in all this ends up being a mainly resinous scent with extra oomph - which works great for me because some resin blends are a bit too mild for my liking.

 

I don't hear from the blackcurrant as such at any point, and that's fine with me. Generally speaking fruity smells are not my favorite.

Edited December 2, 2010 by strahlend

[cfrancesca]

This start of as mostly dark vetiver with the myrrh and hints of sweet blackcurrant in the background. After about 20min. the myrrh amps over the vetiver. It's a dark, smokey blend with a touch of sweetness.

Edited December 7, 2010 by cfrancesca

[EdenIris]

Wow, this is a potent one. (Must remember to test unknown oils after taking kids to school so as not to scare other parents.)

 

In the vial: Medicinal.

 

Wet and drying: Medicinal with a little dust. Oh, there's the myrrh, with a vengeance.

 

It took about 20 minutes for this to calm down on my skin, but when it did, it was very nice. This is not a bitter, burnt vetiver. It's more like the green, steamy-jungle vetiver in Anathema, and it gets along beautifully with the myrrh. The blackcurrant is in the background adding just a touch of tartness.

 

I like this a lot.

Edited December 10, 2010 by EdenIrisMae

[Incendiare]

Now that's a lot of vetiver. This smells so thick and heavy in the vial. I have never come across such bitter vetiver until now. Wet, it's still very heavy on the vetiver. Alright, thirty seconds in, the vetiver is calming down a bit and the myrrh is peeking out. The particular blend notes now reminds me of a chain censer and transports me back to funerals that I've attended. There is something about this blend that evokes sadness from me.

[Iceblink]

I love Sloth and at first this is basically Sloth plus currant--heavy, a little smoky, a little fruity. As it dries it takes on an herbal note that makes me think the vetiver here is a different variety than the one in Sloth, though. It's almost an evergreen sort of smell. Nice but I think I preferred the early stages.

A simple blend and one vetiver fans should certainly try!

[angelicruin]

All three notes are fairly evenly matched on my skin. Even the vetiver is not taking over like it usually does on my skin. Dark, alluring scent, but not too harsh.

[starfish327]

this starts out being definitely a starfish-type* scent. it's very heavy vetiver (loves me dirty vetiver) with a sharpish edge to it- i get that from resin/vetiver blends sometimes.

 

while drying, it sadly morphs into something flat and stale. i almost wrote this one off, because it doesn't play well at that stage.

 

fortunately though after about 30 min- 1 hour it starts sweetening up and the black current starts coming through. the vetiver takes on the slightly incense-impressiony vibe that i get from the lab's vetiver.

 

while i have heavy blends that i see myself reaching for more often, this does actually, scarily, sort of smell like how i see myself.

 

 

*my mother refers to me as the ghost of christmases yet to come. i'm just as easy to hold a conversation with.

[SophieCedar]

I love black currant. I love myrrh. I mostly love vetivert. The 3 together is great. Very dark, sweet black currant with an overshadowing of myrrh and discomforting vetivert. Simple and great. Smells like like grim reaper cologne for sure. Add oppoponax, a touch of dirt, and black musk and I think this would be even better.. wait I think I have something like that.. this will be good for mixing!

[Little Bird]

I've worn this blend a lot over the past couple days, trying to decide if it's a keeper or not. I'm still not sure. I get the similarities to Sloth at first (which is a blend that I enjoy), but I think that this is more vetiver-heavy on me where Sloth's sweet myrrh note takes over more fully on my skin. The Last of the Spirits is sort of like dying grass, dark earth, and a hint of smoke, sweetened up with the myrrh. I can't pick out any fruity tones in the vial or on my skin. As it dries down, there's something almost green and herbal lingering underneath the sweet resins and smoky earthiness. It's a very heavy scent, with a good dose of sweetness on me. I think that I have vetiver and myrrh blends that I like a bit more than this one, though.

[Teaotter]

In the imp, all I can smell is the vetiver -- thick and evergreen and slightly medicinal.

 

The first few seconds after putting this on, it smelled to me like greenery on fire -- only the vague hint of smoke, but mostly just that hot air smell that comes off of candles.

 

Shortly after it dries, thought, I get this beautiful throw of myrrh and sweetness. The vetiver drops into a background note, a deep green which melds with the dark fruit of the black currant. The myrrh keeps this warm and toasty, not cold at all. This still smells fiery to me, something too hot to touch. I love love love it!

 

The throw is moderate -- which makes it pretty much perfect for me -- and it lasts forever. Definitely a winner!

[zankoku_zen]

Medicinal vetiver. It's dark, smoky and a hint of dark fruits.

 

Not my style at all.

[edenssixthday]

The Last of the Spirits - Myrrh is one of my favorite notes. Vetiver, once it dries down, does amazingly lovely things on my skin. Black currant smells like cat pee 95+% of the time. So I was curious how this blend would shake out on me. Turns out, it's remarkably ... boring. The myrrh isn't warm and sweet and spicy as it typically is on me. The vetiver isn't nearly as warm and earthy as it tends to be on me. And the black currant does not turn to cat pee, oddly enough, but neither does it lend a juicy depth that I expected. The scent is just kind of dusty and dull on my skin. It's definitely got more of a masculine vibe to it than I expected, but it's not one I would want to smell on my husband, because it just doesn't have that intrigue about it that makes you love (or hate!) a BPAL. It's just really dull and bland.

[thekittenkat]

In the decant: Vetiver, but with a slight tart fruit note from the black currant, and a hint of incense and resin from the myrrh.

 

Wet: Smoky vetiver and not much else.

 

The dry-down: The currant come back, but it's very tart now and just serves to round the vetiver out. My beloved myrrh has packed its bags for another scent, obviously. I didn't think that this was goint to be my thing, and I was quiet right, but I had to try it for the myrrh and currant.

[Mellifluous]

In the Bottle: Dark, smoky, and interesting.

 

Wet: I'm totally getting vetiver.. and just vetiver. Maybe, waaaay waay back in the back, if I imagine hard enough I can maybe get a hint of the myrrh. But thats it. I'm hoping the notes will balance out as they usually do...

 

Dry: Well, Mr Vetiver is very persistent! He ultimately does balance out a bit, about 4-5 hours in. At this point, I do really like this scent. Its dark and intelligent, and mysterious and just really nice. Its just a bummer you have to go through 5 hours of smelling very strongly like a one-dimensional vetiver single-note, to get to the good stuff. Since I'm pretty new to BPAL stuff, I'm not sure of all the ins and outs of aging.. but Maybe the vetiver will simmer down some if given some months.. or years ;P

[melange]

Wet, this scent strongly disagrees with my skin. It's not the vetiver, or not just vetiver, because often vetiver and I do very well together; I think the black currant and myrrh take it too far in the wrong direction.

 

As it dries, though, it begins to blend and balance more, until it settles down into a warm skin scent on my left hand (if slightly more sour on my right). It's like crushed velvet with a waft of incense.

[milo]

Wet, lots of vetiver. Dry, the same, but not as strong. I don't usually like vetiver, but this is kind of nice in the dry phase. I am a big fan of myrhh, however, and the two together are quite lovely, though a bit too masculine for my tastes. Nice to try though!

[surf-tormented]

I aged this for a year and it comes up more mushroomy than it was and it's separated into layers...with what I think it the vetiver at the bottom. Weird. The berry dirt of this used to be stronger, now it is more of a myrrh blend. Still good and earthy, I just didn't think aging it would make it so different. It's more fresh mushroom than dirt now!

[ApothecaryScribe]

This is quite unlike, say, The Red Queen, in which the blackcurrant is strongly present from the first. The vetiver and myrrh dominate for the first hour--a thickly incensey, pronouncedly masculine, slightly smoky, and vaguely frightening/quasitoxic start. I think it may even share some notes with RPG Mage and the BPTP atmosphere spray Unspeakably Evil Temple. It has a minatory and funereal vibe befitting the Dickens reference. While I wear moderately masculine/epicene scents more often than conventionally feminine ones, this one is a bit much for a wearer with no Y chromosome (and fewer pheromones of any kind than average).

 

The blackcurrant is a base note here and I couldn't even detect it until the more-volatile incenses had burned off somewhat. The longer I wore Last of the 3 Spirits the currantier it became; I liked the middle and drydown more than the first impression.

[firefae]

I'm experiencing this for the first time ten years (!!) after release, so don't have an experience with its younger self to compare it to, but wow this IS an experience. It's definitely separated in the bottle, and once given a gentle shake it comes out a murky black-brown, one of the darker BPAL oils I've seen.

 

The scent starts out on some shaky ground for me. (Pickles? Am I smelling pickles and smoke? What's happening here?) But there's enough deep, dark promise behind it for me to stick with the ride and I'm so glad I did. The first hour or so isn't bad, exactly, but it's unsettled. Yeah, there are occasional pickle-and-smoke vibes, but I also do get vetiver and resins, which are loves for me and make the inconsistency of the early dry down not-intolerable. But then! Oh, wow. I'm about four hours in now and the dusty richness of the myrrh is tangled up so sweetly in the grassy shadows of the vetiver and it's just very much my jam.

 

One other note: I would never have guessed there is blackcurrant in here--not sure whether age or my skin chemistry are the culprit, but not even a wisp of it has shown up.