Magdalene

[valentina]

A stirring yet gentle perfume. The scent of love and devotion mingled with an undercurrent of heart-rending sorrow. A bouquet of white roses, labdanum, and wild orchid.

 

Magdalene, in the imp, is a very strong rose, but with a darker, spicier smell underneath. When I initially applied it, I got a strong hit of rose and wondered how long I'd be able to wear it, since rose is just a monster, and a none-too-kind monster, in combination with my body chemistry. However, I was happy to discover that the rose in this blend (white roses, I believe) is a drier, cooler rose that doesn't amp up as intensely. In addition, the labdanum gives the blend a nice dark, spicy background. I can't really pick up a lot of the orchid aroma in this blend, for I believe the rose has shoved it out of the way. Over time, scent doesn't morph a bit and it has great lasting power.

 

While I'm still not a great fan of rose and floral scents, I do have a large stash of dried rose petals that I've been wanting to turn into potporri. I'm keeping this imp to use for that purpose, because to me, it's a beautiful, spicy, Victorian rose smell that would be absolutely perfect.

 

I think for anyone who loves to wear rose fragrances but doesn't want it to be terribly sweet, this would be an ideal scent.

[Meg]

In the bottle: Very green orchid.

 

Wet: A lovely sweet orchid and rose, with a rather heavy honeyish note from the labdanum, lovely.

 

Drydown: Green rose, deep honey and soft orchid. This isn't the heavy heady orchid and labdanum of Medea, but subdued and sweeter versions. It's ends up being dominated by the rose mixed with subtle orchid and resin.

 

Overall: A very beautiful, gentle scent, sophisticated and deep whilst being simple. It's the rose sister of Medea or Premature Burial, and something that I'd easily wear in the summer, as it's fresher than the other orchid blends. Very beautiful.

[Alchemy21599]

In the vial: Sweet powdery floral.

 

Wet: Very strong sweet powdery floral. It was so strong that it gave me a headache and I had to wash it off.

 

I was very surprised that this scent did not agree with me since orchid scents are among my favorites

[neuilly]

At first it smelled like roses...and something bitter? Not sure where that's coming from.

 

The bitter edge faded quickly but the roses still overpowered everything else. A faint hint of orchid, but mostly rose. This might not apply to all people though because I'm starting to think my skin chemistry may simply amp rose.

[themerrybaker]

At first Magdalene is dried rose petal with an undertone of what I thought was frankincense or hyssop (must be the Lab-danum). The orchid turns up much later as a sweet, powdery note. This is a fine floral for rose/orchid lovers and after a long while develops a romantic mood appreciated by even an anti-rose person. Just not a favorite but very nice indeed.

Edited July 29, 2006 by themerrybaker

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

in case there's any question: valentina rocks.

 

but as for Magdalene...

 

impsniff: dirt and orchids (YUM!)

 

skinsniff, wet: orchids and roses

 

skinsniff, dry: the evil BPAL rose and something violet/honey-ish... and soap.

[hologhost]

I don't get rose out of this at all. Soap - hotel soap.

 

Off to the swap pile with ye.

[fairy]

This one smelled like stale flowers to me.

[storme]

In the imp: chemical roses and greenery.

 

On me, wet: hmm, faintly spicy orchid and powdery rose and a lot of acrid herbal ivy-ish greenery.

 

On me, dry: the labdanum is turning my stomach, beneath the soft florals. This smells like a box of long-disused makeup on my skin - slightly rank and with a hint of dried greasepaint.

 

Verdict: I suspect this would be nice without the labdanum, but I really should avoid that note in future.

[strangemusic]

I thought instantly of Mary Magdalene upon seeing this imp. She is one of my favorite biblical women of all time, and I was glad to see she'd warranted a scent from the Lab-meisters.

 

Thanks to Shadow Witch Orchid, I can tell the note-- oh, it blends well with white rose. Dusky sweet, youthfully sweet, plumply musky, voluptuously round, enfolding and encircling a nestled, yet generous orb of labdanum. I love me some resins, and labdanum (aka rockrose, or cistus) smells wonderful to me-- suppressed grief, greatly bitter, but yet bearing hope of future joy. To my nose, slightly thick, plum-colored, a tad velvety, yet moist-tasting as I roll it around the bowl of my tongue.

 

We begin with that resinous orb, spreading liquidly, creating a base for the lightest, most gossamer folds of white rose to rise, billow, and catch themselves on delicate spikes of labdanum; the orchid floral is too heavy to join the dance, but its musk blends with the resinous pad underneath to create a dire, bitter, dolorous accord, close-held yet sleek as bengal kittens. At its end, the faintest thread of rose come forth.

 

The romantic in me imagines this as the scent the women used to anoint Jesus after removing him from the crucifix at Golgotha, their sorrow dripping into the funerary attar. This is a very distinctive scent-- not common, not easy, but so very, very lovely.

 

C&P from my LJ, dated 17 July 2006

[faded_stranger]

Wet, this scent is such a strong, sharp, green floral that it smelled almost herbal to me. Once on the skin, however, that sharpness faded into a pale floral, dominated by a rose that's gentler than most of the BPAL rose scents I've tried. Magdalene is delicate and feminine, but firm. It goes soft very quickly on me, but it's a pleasant, wafting softness that stuck around all day and into the evening.

[Phaedra]

Wet this is sharp, bitter orange or neroli mixed with sweet honey (funny to see that none of these notes are listed in this blend!). When first on it's still bitter and sharp and has that "alcohol perfume" smell. It reminds me of the Jean Nate perfume my mom wore when I was a kid. The bitterness fades after a few minutes and it smells like a soft, sweet honey, close to the skin scent. This doesn't really change much on me. This is okay but not one I need to keep.

[supremegoddessofall]

Very weak. Roses.

 

Score: 3 out of 5

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

As always, I love Beth's interpretation of the theme--that she ignored the reputation Mary Magdalene has gotten over the centuries and stuck with her original story, that of a beautiful woman with a lot of courage and a lot of devotion. Plus, I just love roses! However, I must say that the orchid and other notes about drown the rose here--I smell wistful paper-whites and just a hint of rose. I don't think I need this one, considering how many rose blends I already have, but I'm glad I got to try it.

[The_Merf]

In the imp: I think the rose is the dominant note, but unlike Black Dahlia, where the other florals drowned out the lovely spiciness of the orchid, I can also detect the orchid in this blend.

 

Wet: You know, I've been doing the BPAL thing for nearly a year and a half...and I'm just now getting around to the realization that white roses are one of the notes that I amp up...right now, this is all roses on me.

 

Drydown and wear: The orchid does mellow the rose out, but white roses are sharp to me (moreso than tea roses and red roses at any rate). This is a very evocative scent, and it does an excellent job of combining the sacred and sensual in the rose and the orchids, but it just doesn't work well enough with my skin for me to keep the imp around.

[PilotKitten]

O_o... sniffing this on me wet almost made me have a coughing fit. It smells like rotting vegetation. I'm not sure if that's the laubdanum or wild orchid but... ick

[phedre]

This one scares me, as my skin usually amps orchid to an unholy degree.

 

in vial: sweet tobacco leaf and a touch of floral rose.

 

wet: orchid amps up immediately as usual, but the tobacco leaf quality stays. This might be an orchid scent I can actually wear!

 

drydown: I'm being overwhelmed by tobacco leaf. I can't believe it isn't listed in the notes! Even orchid, my nemesis, has been swallowed up by it.

 

This is interesting, but not something I love.

[madeleine]

First sniff - cigarette smoke. I'm not even kidding, that's exactly what it smelled like to me. And not in a muted way either, it almost turning me off the perfume. I was terrified of what it would turn into on my skin.

 

On me - first, just the cigarettes. Then it started to mellow and sweeten, so it ended up smelling sort of like coconuts or sunscreen. There was still a hint of the cigarettes but I kind of liked it. (Theoretically, at least.) I guess the florals were coming through. Definitely getting more of the florals now, at first that was really worrying me because it seemed like it would be turning into the eyewatering, sharp rose scent that I can't stand. Now even that's mellowing out and I'm getting the coconut again, but only in the background.

 

I'm wavering. I wanted to love this, because Mary Magdalene is my patron saint and her story has been terribly important at various parts of my life, but I really don't think this is working. Sigh. I guess I'll have to put down the money and try a whole bottle of The Penitent Magdalene. Maybe that will work better. Or maybe this will work out better for me next time I try it.

[Naamah_Darling]

This is gently floral in the bottle, with a hint of resin. On, it expands to a cool, pale rose, and the damp scent of orchids. The labdanum is an incensey, crystalline sweetness swirling in and around the florals.

 

It's beautiful, very subdued, and not terrifically powerful. A somber, lovely scent, not sexual at all, like a virgin dressed in mourning. It's very light, very soft. Lovely.

 

It ages, and sadly, the florals sour on me, ripening to a slightly rancid, pickled smell. The rose is still lovely, though, and the overall impression is still one of lightness, paleness. It's quite dry and powdery. Nice overall, even with the pickle smell, but not for me.

[oh_the_horror]

Whew. I don't think orchid likes me. Magdalene turned sharp and powdery on me as soon as it hit my skin. It's a little more mellow now and kind of fruity but there's still a bad floral in there. Just not for me.

[glass_cat]

One of my BPAL-related resolutions for 2007 was to catch up a little on my reviews. I'm actually kind of surprised I haven't reviewed this yet, as it's become one of my staples, but then I acquired this one before I was really in the habit of coming to the forum to post as opposed to simply read reviews.

 

In the bottle, I wasn't sure I liked this at all... and I mean at all. Like someone else above me, I was blown away by a note that smelled a lot like tobacco. There was also something that reminded me ominously of pickles, which are one of my least favorite foods on the planet and just about the last thing I would actually want to walk around smelling like. I could barely smell the flowers I was hoping for, and I was beginning to wonder if I had made a grave mistake in bottling this right away, as I tend to do with scents that I really think will work well.

 

Luckily, it changes drastically once applied. The pickle smell disappeared altogether, and the tobacco leaf faded into the background, enhancing this scent and lending it complexity instead of ruining it, allowing the orchids and roses to take center stage and blend beautifully. Once it dries down, it's a gorgeous, unique rose-based blend that is very feminine without being overly innocent, and it has incredible staying power.

 

Magdalene isn't the blend I wear most often by any stretch of the imagination, but it is one that has grown on me over time to the point where I couldn't imagine my BPAL collection without it. I usually reach for it when I want one of my beloved rose blends, but don't want it to smell too rosey or overly girly.

 

[bryghtrose]

In the bottle: Powdery and dry. It reminds me of lavender and stored linens.

 

Wet on skin: Floral, with a strong rose

 

Dry on skin: The orchid is starting to come out, and the rose goes very powdery.

 

I can't wear soft, light, flowery scents. They disappear too quickly, and just don't smell right on me. Oh well.

[hackess]

What I love about Magdalene is the labdanum and orchid and how they keep the rose down to just an undertone that only comes out in the drydown -- and I love roses, so that's saying something.

 

When immediately applied, sometimes I get slightly greener wafts of the labdanum, sometimes they're woodsy and spicy. Sometimes the orchid is most powerful. The woodsy/spicy notes last throughout the scent's lifetime on my skin.

 

Ten minutes after applying, the white rose starts to come out, but it's not anything like Two, Five & Seven or any other rose scent I've tried. It's somber, haunting, like the scent of a funeral bough. The rose is kept to a very light powder, which would usually have me rinsing my wrists and mumbling something about "old lady," but Magdalene's different somehow. What I like about scents like this and Alice is the combination of a gorgeous soft note with something spicy. Here, it's innocent, frail rose spiked with the exoticness of orchid: the dichotomy of a revered whore?

 

It lasts long enough that I don't feel the need to slather myself in it (which doesn't stop me, of course).

 

It's probably not supposed to be sexy, but I feel like a damned goddess when wearing this one. It was the second bottle I ever bought, and the first one I've kept. It'll be the first one I replenish, too.

[Nimthiriel]

In the vial (initial impression):

It reminds me of my mother's opium perfume. It's strong and vibrant.

 

Initially on (wet):

Opium mingled with "green" bits that I can't make out yet. But it's a lovely scent - so much stronger than I anticipated.

 

Wearing it (dry):

10-20 mins after application, I'm pleased to say that this is a LOVELY floral on me. It has gone a bit soapy, unfortunately, but the orchid is great, and the roses aren't too bad. It's no longer "green" on me, just flowery.

 

20-30 mins after application, it has gone much gentler and softer, and more malancholic somehow. It's pure beauty.

 

An hour later, the scent has faded a LOT, but is also more pleasant than ever - now I get the softness and gentleness I was looking for in the first place. Mmm. Keeper.

 

6 hours later, it's almost gone, but it was lovely while it lasted.

 

Finally:

Keeping!

[Mimicake]

Something in the imp reminds me of strong tobacco, but I muddled through that to try it. It is a very piercing green at first, and the rose blend is one completely different from the other roses I've tried. On my skin, my chemistry revolts against it and I sadly find it is one that I cannot wear.