I may be alone here, but in Magie Noire I smell a sister to Caron's wonderful Yatagan. There is the same vegetal quality (which I generally do not like) that evokes decomposing pine needles in Yatagan although it is handled very differently in Magie Noire. Both go completely against the grain of current trends and are all the more compelling for it. Far and away the best scent that Lancome has ever produced, it has all the mysticism of an oriental but is really a chypre, festooned with fruits, flowers and honey and with a serious line up of basenotes: Patchouli, Castoreum, Civet, Vetiver, Musk, Oakmoss and Benzoin. While it is totally unlike Sortilege, they both do share a bewitching quality and are both aptly named.
1) It's so weird that you're unsure if it's actually supposed to smell like that or if your sample has gone off.
2) There's a good chance that it has gone off, because it's not a fragrance that seems to preserve well.
3) It was reformulated so many times even before the real heavy-hitting IFRA restrictions of the 00s that each iteration of it smells wildly different.
That said, I've owned roughly seven different bottles of Magie Noire over the years from many different eras, so I feel like I have a pretty good handle on it. The really good stuff, that preserves the best and smells the most expensive, comes in the original orange and black bottle. It is a mind-blowing trip and should be smelled in 3-D under the influence of marijuana for maximum effect. It smells evil, and it's not just the marketing. It is disturbingly vegetal in the way that Yatagan is, but draped in feminine opulence-- stewing vegetables in an evening gown. Every real animalic in the book is present in large quantities, creating a rude honeyed dog foot effect. There is an addictive industrial gasoline cast to it all, like something it's unhealthy for you to be smelling.
Magie Noire wasn't considered that glamorous or highbrow a fragrance in its day, which seems unbelievable to us now. It was common for suburban mothers to smell like this (what I'd give to go back and inhale that air...). It was sort of a knock-off less expensive Opium that places the resins and spices and musty mystery of that fragrance on the framework of the more prevalent sour green chypres of the 70s. It borrowed Opium's image of oriental languor and added to it a satanic angle, with dark, ghoulish, wonderful advertisements and a package design that incorporated foreboding hieroglyphs. Considering the recent ubiquitous popularity of putting satanic imagery and goats and pentagrams on everything, even clothing for unremarkable hipster good girls, Lancome was ahead.
The subsequent formulation with the black plastic mushroom cap is still excellent but seems slimmed down and cheapened. It is more peppery and conventionally woody, but still disturbing in its vegetable sourness. There is also a weird formulation packaged in a black plastic flask; do not buy this. Because of the cheap packaging, none of them have kept and they have all gone completely off. You will see reports of this anywhere there is talk of vintage Magie Noire.
After this it was briefly discontinued and brought back in a still-interesting version in a clear bottle that smells not unpleasantly like a drugstore knock-off. It's all sneezy black pepper and sour rose and, like everything else from the 80s that's still in production, doesn't have base notes to speak of. This version is still easy to come by and gives you a hint of what the real stuff was like, and it can be appreciated as a sort of "If you like Magie Noire, you'll love Sexy Magic" body spray.
As with Aromatics, I once thought Magie Noire was my signature scent. I spent untold dollars amassing vintage bottles of it on eBay to wear for the rest of my life. I quit wearing it cause I smelled like a lunatic. It makes an exciting appearance in Working Girl, the perfume-lover's dream movie. Melanie Griffith is sitting at Sigourney Weaver's vanity and applies extrait from the black and orange bottle.
Edit 10/2/15: This is the most beautiful thing I've smelled in my life. I'm talking about the current one.
Have they improved it or was I just ungrateful 6 years ago? Did I receive a "French formula" bottle? This was manufactured March 2014 and says "L'Eau de Toilette" instead of "Eau de Toilette." It smells exactly as I remember all the old bottles I had smelling. There is nothing else that smells like Magie Noire. There are other rose chypres, other orientals, other animalics, but none smell like Magie Noire, and this is it.
Don't bother paying for "vintage"--MN doesn't keep well and needs fresh top notes. The current stuff is wonderful.
22nd January, 2015 (last edited: 02nd October, 2015)
A memorable occasion deserves a memorable scent like MAGIE NOIRE.when you want to return to memories of the 70's you wear this one(holds a lot of great memories).It is an aristocrat that can do as she pleases.Very unique on each ladies,but distinguishable from all other perfumes. Exotic,Ladylike,Mysterious,Nostalgic, Individualistic,Classy,Sensual and Timeless Classic.
Bergamot and cassia blend with galbanum over a rich floral heart of tuberose,ylang-ylang,bulgarian rose, honey and cedar,while the base wraps it all with patchouli,oakmoss,civet,sandalwood and vetiver,which create intense,high class and sensual trace.The scent is so lovely and sophisticated just like my grandmother.A perfume that ultimately takes you along a classic journey of the senses.
MAGIE NOIRE is a perfect signature scent if you want something distinctive that stands out from the usual&modern oriental floral stuff that is everywhere at the moment.It smells like nothing else and definitely is for a classic and self-assured lady.You wear it when you are going somewhere special in the Autumn or Winter.Totally it is bewitch in a classy way.
Sillage?Impressive.
Longevity?Noticeable on my skin.
7.5/10
I started wearing Magie Noire sometime in the early 1990s, when I could no longer get Arpege, the fragrance I'd worn all my life. It was a very good replacement; the fragrance and I got along very well. Then it became hard to find, and what I did find didn't smell very much like what I'd been using. I loved the original, which is what this review is based on - but I can't wear the new version. (When I finally ran out last year, I searched for a replacement, and wound up with Chanel 1932, but the more I wear it, the less good it smells on me; I'm going to have to search for something else.)
It is dark, sultry and I love it. For those who seem to have a level of disdain for the 80's at least you knew what perfume you were smelling. Many of the current offerings smelll the same and offer little to separate themselves from 50 other things on the shelf. It is unique, along with a few others from that time, like Donna Karan signature, and Chanel 19. Nothing else smells like them to me and that makes them desirable to me. Unique, is a word I don't use often with much of the perfume that is considered current today. Yes we all know Opium and Poison when we smell them. But I prefer that to "generic brown bag" perfume which is how I describe many of the current offerings. Nothing unique, except perhaps the bottle design.
It is this balance that makes the scent one of the most original and greatest of the rose chypre type.
Barbara Herman extolled its "narcotic honey, rose, tuberose mix with ripe berries." Turin gave it 4 stars and called it a "dry woody," which is way off base. He also compared this to vintage Rochas' Mystere, which is a truer statement.
Top notes: Cassis, Bergamot, Hyacinth, Raspberry
Heart notes: Honey, Jasmine, Muguet, Tuberose, Narcissus, Orris, Oriental Rose
Base notes: Patchouli, Castoreum, Civet, Vetiver, Musk, Oakmoss, Benzoin
Be certain to obtain a bottle of the vintage, as this has been re-formulated, and not too well at that.
Magie Noire is one of those very few cases (alongside Or Black and Black Aoud) where they got the Noire right. This is indeed a dark fragrance. Luca Turin calls Magie Noire a woody chypre and Michael Edwards calls it a green woody oriental. I fall in with Turin. Magie Noire smells to me like a green chypre even a leather chypre, having a lot more in common with Bandit and Aromatics Elixir than with Parfum Sacré or Bois des Îles. Listed or not, I smell a big mossy base note, while some very conspicuous castoreum and a less obvious civet note may account for the leathery impression. Heck, between the civet, castoreum, patchouli and vetiver, Magie Noires drydown occasionally even reminds me ofYatagan!
Those earthy, woody, and animalic notes completely dominate Magie Noires florals, to the extent that I imagine it working well as a kind of retro masculine. I dont think theres anything girly here to put men off, so much as a weight and an emphatically mossy flavor that read more like 1978 than 2010. Anyone whos comfortable in Azzaro pour Homme or vintage Givenchy Gentleman should be comfortable in Magie Noire. In fact, the largest obstacle to Magie Noires appeal, gender notwithstanding, is that it goes so completely against the grain of contemporary perfume fashion. Fresh, light, clean, transparent, aquatic, and minimalist, are all antithetical to Magie Noire. This is a massive, earthbound scent, of a kind few houses would dare launch these days. Thank heavens Lancôme still sees fit to keep it on the shelves.
All I can say is wow.. I'm in love again. I recently bought Magie Noire, and had it for just two days. I can't stop smelling it. I wore it in the '80s, because a coworker had it on . I must say, it's not the original, but close. The lasting power is maybe 6-8 hours. Not bad, but the original for me lasted until the next day. Just fabulous. I have a hard time describing scents, so I won't try. I can not stand many of the newer fragrances out there. They are so sweet. Geared toward the younger crowd I guess. That's why MN is perfect for me. It still can be "in your face" if applied with a heavy hand. I usually wear it on my legs, so it floats up to my nose. The dry down is what gets me. Soft, and somewhat spicy. I'm back in heaven once again.
This smells a whole lot different than I remembered from about 1993. Then it was more a more complex, smoky oriental. Now it smells more woodsy, mossy, and more distinct florals, with a very strong base. Like it? I bought a bottle and received tons of compliments on it from both men and women. I don't plan on buying another bottle, I'm into other fragrances at this time, but a sales associate from Lancome said if their new fragrance takes off, they will be discontinuing Magie Noire. I can't beleive this, for this fragrance is quite popular and has quite a following.
This is a classic chypre and I would recommend it to anyone who has a chypre obsession. There is a classic 1980s velvet feel to this one, like a vintage thrift store gem you find that somehow everyone else has managed to look over. I'm one of those who saw it and couldn't appreciate it for what it was.
I loved it when my mom would spritz this on me. I was six or seven and it was one of my mom's favorites. It reminded me of the plastic scent of Malibu Barbie's blond locks. Weird, I know. I got a little older and I asked my mom to please stop wearing it. It made me nauseous so she did. I think a major reason why it did and why I still cannot handle the smell of it now has to do with the heavy-handed manner in which my mom and my aunt wore it. It was just too much, like everything else in the 1980s.
Like most chypres MN is very strong. I don't know about the composition of it now but the 1980s juice was strong. It is definitely a spritz-the-air-then-walk-through fragrance. If your skin is wet with MN then you've applied too much. I can appreciate its boldness and its complexity but I still liken it to a Godiva chocolate-covered lobster tail in a caviar sauce--too much of a good thing.
The old formula was my very favorite perfume of all time, this new formula is still nice but lacks much of what made the old fornmula great. I will still buy purchase this an hope that the many pleas to bring back the original will be heard by Lancome.
Magie Noire picks you. Either you love it or you don't. It has been my signature scent since it came out. Now they have discontinued the original version and the new version is a sad replacement 2nd.
Definitely one of a kind.
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: 06th January, 2012)
While I like it, Id 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 mens fragrance = (womens fragrance the interesting parts ) x 0.75, Magie Noire is an ideal mens fragrance.
05th August, 2011 (last edited: 14th August, 2011)
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.
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).
This was my first "grown up" fragrance at the tender age of seventeen; l found it dark, mysterious & intoxicating, & thought this was the way a real woman should smell. Little did l realise how unique this is; there's really nothing else like it. l wore it for a few years, & then we "lost touch" until last year, when l sniffed it again in a store. Lo & behold, it had been reformulated, & although the drydown was similar, the top & heart notes seemed thinner & greener than the original. So l searched out a vintage bottle on ebay, &, like DollyDagger, when l sniffed it again after all these years it was like coming home, like being reunited with a lost lover.
lt's a hard fragrance to describe; l find it diifficult to pick out notes, it simply smells dark, kind of spicy, leathery & animalic to me. The floral notes aren't obvious. lt has medium sillage & good longevity. lt seems there are differing opinions as to whether this is an oriental, a chypre, a woody or incensy fragrance. lt is all of these things & yet none of them, it is in a class of it's own. lt is quite simply my beloved Magie Noire, the fragrance l wear only for myself.
On first application, this smells (to me) like a ballsy version of Coco, but a couple of minutes in and Magie Noire starts to show its real personality - that of a dark, bitter chypre which, for the first half hour or so, comes dangerously close to being too harsh. However, just as I start to think its not one for me, it warms up and all the components start to sing. It took me a while to love this stuff, but now I think its a bit of a masterpiece. I completely agree that it would make a great masculine - and the body cream is luscious.
I would give this two thumbs up if I could. This is one of my favorite scents ever. I first bought this back in 1982 and wore it constantly. Unfortunately, I wasn't into perfumes then and didn't know what a treasure this was. Otherwise I would have bought many bottles of it since the version they're putting out now is not the same. I bought some vintage on eBay and the first sniff was like meeting an old friend. Dark, mysterious, utterly sensual if not downright hedonistic. Ahhh...I'm home again.
This is absolutely a distinctive, sensual, and mysterious fragrance. A truly exotic scent with woods, incense, musk, civet and deep rose in the base. It's intense and will wear you if you're not ready for it. This is neither for the faint of heart, nor for someone who likes fruity-frosted sugar bombs. No fruit-ozone-marine-air freshener here. A scent befitting a femme fatale, in full possession of her feminine wiles.
Unfortunately, this scent is getting harder to find, Lancome just discontinued their lotion and now only carry the EDT. And the reformulated EDT is not as green or deep as the original. This scent is a masterpiece.
This is absolute Heaven for me! It has a depth & complexity that is sadly absent from so many new commercial fragrances. I have the new version as well as a vintage bottle and have no problem wearing either one. The new version is crisper and not quite as deep as the vintage but is still beautiful. The vintage on the other hand is richer from top to base. It begins with crisp almost medicinal greens morphing into rich, honeyed florals and drying down to dense woods and exotic, smoky incense. Just gorgeous! It is sadly becoming harder to find so if you get a chance to grab a bottle do so before it's gone for good.
Smells old and frumpy and soapy. No.
Magie Noir is warm, rich, sexy, "dirty" wood-rose fragrance. It smells great, especially after it's had some time to warm up on the skin. It is a classic fragrance bargain and should be tried. Men love this, especially after it's reached the dry down and has completely melted into the skin. Lasting power is excellent, sillage is medium strong, and it can be worn day or evening all year. I especially like this in fall and winter though. Wearing it is like sitting near a great warm fire. (This could also be unisex on the right man.)
DH jokingly says this makes me smell like a Satanist: dark, dangerous, sleek and sensual. It suggests to me that it may just be possible to personify a Godiva dark chocolate raspberry cordial with rose syrup.
DH jokingly says this makes me smell like a Satanist: dark, dangerous, sleek and sensual. It suggests to me that it may just be possible to personify a Godiva dark chocolate raspberry cordial with rose syrup.
The Queen of perfumes in my view and, like Climat, an example of how good Lancome used to be before all this new fangled Hypnose-type stuff. I wore this from my teens up til a few years ago. The only reason I stopped wearing it was because a horrible bitchy woman from work who used to liberally douse herself in horrendous 'sexy' power perfumes used to wear it and it completely put me off it! But putting that aside, I do regret giving that last bottle I had away and think I will buy this again soon, it's clever, magical, truly sexy and leaves a beautiful trail. This is not for tweenies or for those who dig the modern perfumes, it's an old-fashioned and traditionally feminine evening perfume and I don't think every woman can carry it off. It's definitely one for the slightly strange Phoebe from friends types, a bit different, a bit strange, a bit hippy, mysterious and truly sexy.
Woodsy, bittersweet & not at all safe or wishy-washy. A scent for evenings only... at least for me, and the name suggests that it's not intended as an 'office' fragrance. Although it's definitely spicy, I'm not sure about the oriental category... it's certainly not heavy & sweet like Opium or Coco.
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Reviews of Magie Noire by Lancôme but in Magie Noire I smell a sister to Caron's wonderful Yatagan. There is the same vegetal quality
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