Magie Noire (1978)
by Lancôme

Just received a small bottle of vintage Magie Noir. I think I may have smelled this when it was first released but I was young and it didn't appeal to me. I am loving this perfume now. It's so dark and lush. On my skin, there's not a lot of floral, just a bit with the dark fruits and that mysterious base.

Definitely one of a kind.

20th December, 2011.

In the same vein of Opium and Aromatics Elixir this very dark oriental  is a dusty, misty, harsh and animalic twist of flowers, spices, amber, animal notes and incense conjuring  chandeliers, tapestries, sumptuous stairs, purple ambiences, occult lasciviousness and  mistery all inside high medieval palaces surroundend by great courts framed by torches in the winter night. Blackcurrant, rough spices and ylang-ylang darken utterly the juice while the intense bulgarian rose and jasmine enhance the Victorian general atmosphere and the nocturnal esotericism. The sweetness of flowers, amber, dark fruits and benzoin is toned down by sharp spices, stark patchouli and incense in the way the scent, lacking   of particularly  mellowing and brewing notes, turns out severe and dreadful. A touch of final dissonance and sourness is the mirror of some animalic or leathery insertion of notes as civet or castoreum. Mystery and stiff elegance at high level.

20th September, 2011. (Last Edited: 6th January, 2012.)

From reading about the evolution of Magie Noire from 1978 until 2011, I think that it has always been a grab-bag of a perfume. Early versions sound like they emphasized different facets than this most recent one. It sounds like they used to bridge the dark floral chypre to the spicy oriental via some old-school animalics.

While I like it, I’d have to categorize the current version as a tight-assed woody floral. Not a lot of amber, not a lot of moss. Civet? Castoreum? Nowhere to be found. But you know, some days a tight-assed floral is just the right thing. And as many before me here have noted and per my own equation that men’s fragrance = (women’s fragrance – the interesting parts ) x 0.75, Magie Noire is an ideal men’s fragrance.

5th August, 2011. (Last Edited: 14th August, 2011.)

This fragrance surprised me. I didn't actually recognise this fragrance because it was bottled in a green rectangular-shaped bottle. The way it had been packaged made me assume that it was going to be a citrusy/green scent. I was truly amazed when I discovered that it wasn't.

Magie Noire is a soft, slightly musky and pretty floral fragrance. The scent is oddly fresh and clean, yet warm, powdery and comforting. This makes me think that this would be an excellent fragrance for all seasons.

This fragrance was naturally going to be a hit with me since it contains so many of my favourite notes; raspberry, honey, tuberose, jasmine, ylang ylang and lily of the valley.

Strangely enough, I think this would make the perfect bedtime scent during those warmer nights. It's soothing, delicate and luxurious. It actually reminds me slightly of D&G for women in its powdery softness of the drydown.

I think this fragrance is an excellent choice if you want to go with something that isn't necessarily what everyone else wears. It's casual and delightful without being too overpowering. It's perfect.

27th April, 2011.

When I was a teenager, I had a friend who wore Magie Noire like it was going out of style. That is to say, she wore this decidedly formal-nighttime-evening gown fragrance whenever she pleased. During summer days in her stirrup- pants, riding her moped. She had "discovered" it herself at some perfume counter and it was safe to say she was the only one wearing it. So for me, Magie Noire is her. She passed away in 1987. I never smelled it again. Seeing that Lancome has more or less relaunched it, I decided to revisit Magie Noire the other day at my local perfume counter. The adorable Lancome salesman got the tester and handed it to me. "It's very distinctive..." he said. Talk about an understatement! But the top notes were completely different. Lancome has lightened up the top and midnotes for (I'm assuming) a more modern and easily scared off new generation of ladies. As I was driving home and sniffing my wrist and ruminating on how strange it was for a seventeen year old girl to want to wear such a heady concotion (and sad that that was not what had come out of the bottle)--suddenly the Magie Noire I remembered came flooding back. She was there again in the basenotes, unchanged, and the memories of my friend came flooding back. As long as Magie came back, like being fashionably late to her own party, I could forgive the new notes. In fact, maybe they're an improvement. Magie Noire as I remembered her, sort of hit you over the head with a hammer. A purist, I hate when classic fragrances are tinkered with. It's usually a disaster. But not in this case. Now Magie Noir works her magic more subtley. But thankfully, she's still magic.

19th April, 2011. (Last Edited: 20th April, 2011.)

Not quite neutral, but more on neutral than on the thumb up side. Although I respect it's status, on me it's nothing legendary - just incense and incense and incense. I feel like a walking cathedral when I wear it (same thing happens with another legend - Samsara).

21st March, 2011.