Dossier
Edition · 000Status · Active. Cult chypre.
A dark chypre with patchouli and animalic base.
- Composed by
- Gérard GoupyJean-Charles NielYves Tanguy
- Founder
- Armand Petitjean
- Country
- France
The pyramid
- Top
- aldehydesraspberryblackcurrantbergamothyacinthgreen notes
- Heart
- tuberosenarcissusjasminelily-of-the-valleyrosehoney
- Base
- patchoulioakmosscivetvetivercastoreummusk
The brief
The trio of perfumers built a dark, narcotic chypre as a deliberate counterweight to the increasingly bright florals dominating the mid-1970s.
Name'Magie Noire' — 'Black Magic' in French, framing the fragrance as occult, witchy, deliberately unsettling.
The flacon
Smoky-glass flacon with a star-and-cabalistic-symbol design on the front, leaning fully into the occult theme.
Footnotes
- Cult favourite of the goth and dark-romantic perfumistas; a defining 1980s 'powerhouse' chypre with sillage measured in metres.
The Curator's Note
A perfume goth before goth was a genre.