Last year on Halloween Day I featured a fragrance created as an inspiration for a modern, whimsical witch (read my full review of Nobile 1942 Malía here). This year, I picked something different, a classic fragrance I associate to a more traditional witch figure. Mysterious and sharp-tongued, this is a cunning witch dressed in her black velvet cape who casts dark spells unapologetically and uses her supernatural powers to haunt unrelentingly.
Lancôme Magie Noire is the epitome of obscure and mysterious, a fragrance that has haunted me for years. It’s not associated to any particular life moments, but a couple of women I knew as a teenager wore it (interestingly, they were everything but dark and sullen), so I always recognized it as this potent and elegant elixir every time I smelled it in the air. I think my mom had it too at some point, so I sniffed and spritzed it every time I could. I loved intense fragrances even as a younger girl.
Powerful and decadent, Magie Noire is a brew of thick, dark, sultry notes with razor-sharp green ones. Think of a sinuous cat with her shiny black fur and piercing green eyes.
The dichotomy of vegetal, crystalline, even astringent notes laying on a rich, deep, and animalic setting comes through at first spray and never leaves me. The result is a timeless and sophisticated blend that exudes self-confidence.
The sensation of opposites is quite magical: top notes of galbanum, blackcurrant bud, and hyacinth confer a crisp, earthy quality reminiscent of a celery stalk’s aroma. The heart is velvety with floral notes of jasmine, lily of the valley, rose, narcissus, and tuberose, but to my nose this bouquet never quite comes to the forefront and seems to play more of a building block role. The opulent base that blends oakmoss, labdanum, musk, patchouli, cedarwood, and benzoin, among others, conjures qualities of both chypre and amber olfactory families. The feral sensuality is added by animalic notes of civet and castoreum.
In the latest phases of its life, Magie Noire takes the slightly dusty, fusty aroma you might encounter in an antique mahogany closet where old silk scarves and supple leather gloves are kept. Some of these accessories may still be imbued with remnants of a darkly fragrant magic potion…
Both bottles of Lancôme Magie Noire I own are vintage EdT versions and are from my own collection (personally purchased). The juice in the round, dab-on bottle is from the late seventies and has deeper, dirtier nuances. The formulation from the spray bottle is from the nineties and is greener and brighter. The bar soaps are also from the nineties.
Photos by Sarah.
Lancôme Magie Noire are listed as they appear on Barbara Herman’s Scent and Subversion and Basenotes:
Top Notes: Hyacinth, bergamot, raspberry, blackcurrant bud, galbanum
Heart Notes: jasmine, ylang ylang, lily of the valley, tuberose, narcissus, orrise, rose, honey
Base Notes: amber, sandalwood, patchouli, castoreum, civet, vetiver, musk, oakmoss, benzoin
The fragrance was originally composed by Yves Tanguy, Gerard Goupy, and Jean-Charles Niel in 1978.
I have never tried the parfum version or newer reformulations of the fragrance, including the current one. Have you? Tell me more.
Happy Halloween!
