A few years ago I could have sworn I smelled butterscotch in out house and we never found a source. It was driving us nuts trying to figure out what it COULD be. And I say that knowing we have a place near us that makes chemical scents (in summer the butter smell can be overwhelming), but we are certain it wasn't from that. If you figure it out, let me know.

I've read it's usually roses for ghosts, or maybe that's for saints? Some apparition is supposed to smell like roses.

I have no idea what that was, I was rushing through the room to get upstairs and there was a clear beginning and end of scent, a cold 'cloud' - as I passed through it I suddenly got the "hang on, this is significant - what is that smell?" feeling so by the time I reached the stairs I had slowed down to slow motion and was turning around looking puzzled at the nothing there. I've sniffed around and found nothing with that scent anywhere nor in that spot again. Was a strong sweet scent the closest I can describe it is butterscotch. The fact that the scent had a clear border was weird. Here, smell, here, no smell!

heh, this was fun. Googling brought me a new term: Perfume ghosts. Looks like butterscotch is a rather common one, along with roses and other flowery scents. Great now I'll go to bed and not sleep! I'm scared / martyr. ;P

Sweet dreams! :-P

Instead of a nightlight, you could sleep with a fan.

Or some Febreze...

In Twin Peaks, spirits always smelled like burning motor oil. Other than that, I got nothing.

Butterscotch is a pretty common "vague rotting smell" - so is roses. I don't know why some foods start to smell sickly sweet when they are rotting in small quantities.

I've read it's usually roses for ghosts

I've never heard that, but I do know the one time I swear I encountered a ghost I could smell roses.
so huh.

I think I've heard about it (the rose smell) mostly for ghosts of female relatives, especially mothers, or Virgin Mary apparitions. Very female, intimate-relation encounters.

But I tend to freak out easily while reading or hearing about ghost stories, so it's not like I've got tons of research on that.

Oh, huh. We had a perfume ghost in our last place... drove me nuts trying to figure it out. In the summer I rationalized that the updraft and open windows were conspiring to waft someone's walk-into-a-cloud-of-perfume technique up to our place, but then it also happened in winter when everything was shut up. We had a closed heating system (radiators, no vents and our own boiler) so it wasn't coming from something like that. I never solved the mystery, and now we have no ghosts of any kind. I miss her. :)

Here, smell, here, no smell!

Mine was like this, too.