Magus

[grashopper8]

An ancient blend, swollen with arcane power: galangal, high john essence, frankincense, cedar, and sandalwood.

All I can smell is the cedar, and it turned to pencil-shavings on me. Oh, well.

1.5 out of 5

[diamondstars]

This smells like the inside of a shed on a hot day..wood wood wood! I do like this one but can't see it as a perfume for wearing; maybe in a burner instead.

[cemeterypolka]

in the imp: Wood. Just wood.

 

on my skin: Wood. Salt. Something warm and golden, like expensive scotch but without the boozy smell.

Mmmmm.

 

dry: This smells EXACTLY like a Manhattan without any type of boozy note. It's a sweet deep woodiness that's kind of warm and golden brown. Very nice.

 

rating: 4/5 I like this a lot. I'm not sure I'd wear it that often, but this is going into heavy rotation in my oil burner.

[sirsaber]

hmm...a hint of sorcery indeed. Very green and at first overwhelming but as it mellows it smells like perhaps an alchemists lab? It invokes memories of the past for me. A surprising keeper.

[auburnette]

MAGUS

 

In the bottle: Oh god, graphite and pencil shavings. I don't want to put this on me!

 

On skin, wet: Wood, and more pencil shavings. Pine forests that must be cedar.

 

Drydown: Takes a while to dry down...sandalwood still giving off pencil shaving smell. Reminds me of something I really can't put my finger on. It starts to sweeten up as it dries down. This isn't what I normally look for in a perfume, but it's a scent I would enjoy smelling on other people. I think I will frimp it to my dad, as the thing it is reminding me of is one of his colognes!

 

The pencil shaving smell is gradually fading away, but there's a sharpness to this which remains (cedar, I think). Something smooth and rich in the base.

 

This was an interesting scent experiment, but not one I'm likely to wear again, so I will swap, sell or frimp it.

[Iceblink]

Wood overload! I smell cedar and sandalwood and that's IT. It's not unpleasant, but it's too manly for me. Another "I wish my closet smelled like this!" oil.

[LunaDragonGirl]

In Imp: Cedar and Sandalwood come at me out of the imp with a vengence...eek! Sharp and scary pencils!

 

Wet on skin: Overpowering scent of (as auburnette mentioned above) graphite and pencil shavings. This is bring me back to first grade when I had the job of emptying out the pencil sharpeners for a month. Oddly enough, I liked the smell of pencil shavings then...and I like the smell of cedar now, but Magus is not okay with me. It's dry and crackly and makes me wrinkle my nose. I'm not getting any of the galangal or high john essence that I'm aware of...and the frankincense is only a soft background note...mostly I'm getting dusty bits of Dixon Ticonderoga #2.

 

Drydown: more of the sandalwood and frankincense come out...mellowing the pencil shavings/graphite dust notes a teenytiny bit, but this never balances out to warmth for me. Still mostly dry, dusty pencil shavings...very two dimensional flat dull yellow, rather than mellowing out into a three dimensional golden warm scent. ):

 

Not for me! Off to the swap/frimp pile!

[Suu4LC]

Hrmph. This is one of those blends that smells like pencil shavings to me in the imp =/ I'll try it out on my skin, but I'm not holding out hope...

 

Oh yeah, this is totally pencil/hamster bedding on me ;_; No thx!

[crebbsgirl]

If you can describe a scent as "sharp" then it is definitely not for me. And this blend is sharp. Very herbal, with frankincense taking the lead. This was a fairly fresh blend, the cedar was a dominant note here as well. As others have noted, it did sweeten up on the drydown, but not enough for me to want to keep it.

[Coldfire]

Imp: oooo old and ancient! I love old and ancient!

Wet on Me: This is an old library. I smell the cedar and sandalwood…

and the galangal.

Drying Down: Cedarwood. This is an old chest you found hidden

away and opened. The scent of the woods and incense andmagick.

Dry: sweet incense, this is old and dusty but not rank. Dried down to something

I’m going to love. I may even find myself wearing these to esbat rituals.

[zankoku_zen]

This one smelled like cedar... and pencil shavings. It's like the base of Ventriloquist Dummy... but without the caramel.

[suki]

in the imp: like being in an autumnal woods- all cedar and dark galangal.

 

wet on skin: same, with a hint of High John peeping through.

 

dry down: miraculously, the High John is preventing the cedar from turning into hamster cage on me. a nice wood has emerged as a result.

 

in all: although not the church incense i was anticipating this is a fine wood-heavy oil that is masculine enough for those that are male identified but neutral enough to be a good day-time grounding oil for anyone.

 

 

 

 

[Indigo78]

Very outside-ish. Red cedar, but not the pencil-shavings or pickle note that damns almost every cedar blend I try. I smell dust and the yellowed pages of books, with herbs lurking way in the background Understated and calm and wise. I'd like it on the right kind of man very much. Nonviolent throw, short wearlength.

[spinsterwithcat]

Jeeezus. In the imp this was SO strongly dry and woody I almost didn't dare apply any. Then I read the note list and thought: meh, there's nothing I abhor in there, lets see how it gets on with my chemistry.

 

WELL. I'm glad I did, because it was an interesting experience if not a wholly pleasant one. Truly the lab's genius knows no bounds, for they have managed to bottle the smell of Primary school PE class. Distinctly sweaty but lacking any trace of adolescent pheromone; its that curiously clean, unisex, childhood sweat, layered over the polished wood of gym floors and wallbars, plimsoll rubber, canvas kitbags and beanbags, thick ropes with their ends dipped in wax, and right in the background sits a suede-covered vaulting horse.

 

Perhaps Mr Magus was the name of Beth or Brian's gym teacher at school; I can think of no other reason for it being so named, Nor can I imagine wanting to go about smelling like this but I might keep the imp for sniffs and giggles.

[magikalbrownies]

le'sigh...

 

i smell like woodshavings, is that the sandalwood? the frank gives it a little resinous kick but man...yeah cant get over it. very masculine. very WOODSY...

 

no.

[autumnal]

Ok. I've (believe it or not!) never done a review. Not so good at picking out notes, you know? But Magus came up on the new posts and... well here goes....

This was the very first BPAL (of 300 -ish now) I ever smelled Ahhh, first loves.... Noted that in the imp it smelled rather sharp, probably sandalwood (?) But in the drydown, it brings a vision. "I am in a room with an old unfinished wooden floor, old furniture and books. Very old fashioned and calmly studious feeling." That's what the notes say. It truly does smell as one might imagine the study of a magus to smell._ I LOVE this scent._ There's just something very grounded and always right about it. My car thinks so too! While I love it, it is not a scent I tend to wear, but it is sublimely perfect in scenting a space. Like the car! Or a room. Just very grounded yet mystical.

 

[donnatron]

Imp: Dry cedar and sandalwood. Very faint frankincense.

 

Wet: So much cedar. The sandalwood is aiding and abetting.

 

Dry: So it may just be because I'm taken in by the name, but I really like this scent. It's certainly not an every day sort of scent but there's something very dry and regal about it. It smells like annointing oils. The cedar dominates and kind of takes away from my enjoyment but the sandalwood and frankincense are present enough for me to know I'm not wearing straight up cedar oil. I have no idea what galangal smells like and I don't smell that weird body odour funk I get from high john. It's very woodsy, very dry.

 

Throw: Strong.

 

Overall: I think I actually don't like it but I love the word "Magus" enough that I'm pretending I do. Keep the imp, don't bother with a bottle.

[caffinatedangel]

After reading the other reviews, I feel like my imp is wrong somehow . For me, I could hardly smell anything at all. I was huffing and wafting my wrist and it was just a no go. There was something dark, close to the skin, maybe musty. It was a bit dry. Had really little to no throw. I think sandalwood just doesn't do anything on me. Or turns to paper? Maybe I already smell like wood so it had nothing to do. It was amazingly boring, and just added some mustyness to me, which made me smell like a man. Hm. Will certainly trade this off.

[tajana]

Freshly applied on my skin, I'm all YESSSS because I love cedar, but cedar is typically a bit shy with me (it's a stellar supporting element in a lot of perfumes I try on, but it never really takes over for me). Magus, though... it's a blast of dry cedar! Well, the waft is all cedar and frankincense when it's wet. If I huff it, it's a lot of cedar, but also a lot of churchy burning frankincense, with a bite of galangal and an underlying sweetness. After it settles down on the skin for a while it's almost medicinal and camphorous smelling. Very odd. I'm not exactly sure what high john essence smells like, but I'm guessing that's adding the weird magical potion feel. As the minutes pass by the waft remains spicy and cedary, and it's really only when I lift my wrist closer to my face that I get the full effect of the wizardy potion smell. After it rests on the skin for a while it's less cedary, more sandalwoody, with residual frankincense and subtle, chilled herbaceous notes.

 

I can't imagine wearing this just, out and about, unless I'm going to a creepy ancient library or off to watch a Harry Potter movie, but I feel like I want to keep the imp just for the scent experience. It's kind of comforting, in a weird way.

[topazphoenix]

This is a lovely strong note of cedar and something slightly herbal-y. If you like smelling like fresh wood you'll love this one

[Calligrafiti]

This is lovely, from the cedar and sandalwood in the bottle, to the herbal greenery on my wrist. But it's not really what I think of as "me". Still, I'll keep it for days when I feel the need to smell like someone else. My first keeper—yay!

[Schmoozy]

 

Love this. Dry, dusty cedar and sandalwood mingle with frankincense and high john essence. It's herbal, and woodsy and masculine.

[DeltaCat]

This brings back such a scent memory for me. it smells like my grandmother's cedar chest. There is a little something more and I honestly can't tell if it is the sandalwood for the frankincense. I probably will not buy a bottle of this, but I will definitely keep it around for the scent memory.

[surf-tormented]

Reminds me a lot of Valentine of Rome except with cedar in the mix and very little throw.

[Deiicide]

First thing that jumps across my wrists is Ceder! Freshly thrown ceder and wood chips, I can feel the tingle of the wormwood but the ceder is dominating everything else. The ceder finally calms down but unfortunately, it still dominates everything. The ceder has calmed down and now the other notes are coming out to play and it's quite pretty, but the beginning stages is a bit too rough for me. I'm glad I tried it, but cannot see myself wearing this again.