I was sitting in the classroom while some students did a test when suddenly a dark raspberry entered my conscience.
Had my suit somehow brushed against our patchouli scented walls?
Was it the hints of Champs Élysées still that were lingering on my shirt?
I don’t know, but the Body Shop’s Early
Harvest Raspberry cream, which I had on my hand, when combined with something else, suddenly brought me to Magie and
i thought, yes: a body bathed in raspberry, which forms the
delicious top note in Lancome’s dark spirited genius, then she herself….
i just just wish that one
day I could come
across the vintage parfum at the flea market: a holy
grail I have never been granted ( do you know it? TELL ME )
o and and while we are at it,
fuck this iphone
The Black Narcissus 
There are a few on ebay.
I dream of it. The parfum? ( batteries about to die ) . I know you have a fascinating and complicated relationship with this perfume. But I know you will understand my suddenly craving it, and how
It could just rise up from nowhere, like a spirit.
Definitely.
I like the thought of it mixed with raspberry cream very much though. Have a tiny vintage bottle from the 80s that came as part of a set of Lancôme miniatures (also had mini Fidji, Paloma Picasso, Clandestine, Lou Lou and Anais Anais in the box) and have just dabbed a bit on in your honour. It’s mixing in quite a pleasant way with the Caroline Herrara parfum body lotion I daubed on myself earlier. I’m not sure what my relationship to Magie is actually. I quite liked wearing it a bit randomly one Summer but I remember you sort of warning me off it and saying you felt it was wrong for me, and I do trust your instincts and readings of perfume so I pondered this and did take a step back from it, as I think you were touching on something there, although I couldn’t (and still can’t) see the whole of it. It’s a very familiar and very alien perfume to me in some ways. Definitely relates to a much younger self and to women in my childhood, and I think I told you, I had a dream infused somehow by it that related in some measure to a Cinderella archetype (but in a positive, and not obvious way – definitely something of canny kitchen-dwelling in it pour moi). It’s not something I wear often – it sort of relates to representing others a bit when I wear it think – but it’s something I occasionally reach for impulsively when I want to ponder a particular sort of female energy or circumstance. It is in the same vein as Paloma Picasso for me, also Youth Dew of course. I do love it as a scent though (warming to its soft dry kitchen light beauty on my wrist as I write). But I treat it with some care. I think it is one to have stowed away for random moments.
Exactly. I LOVE having a bottle ( sent by Daphne: what does this mean? Duncan’s mother sending me her absolute holy grail? ) stored away in the perfume cabinet, but I need to twist and turn it, alienate it, add some raspberry here, some patchouli there, even some Kenzo, just for my own satisfaction and also so that Duncan doesn’t feel that he is sleeping with his mother.
And incidentally, my warning you off it gives me a sense of regret. Duncan has sworn me off rose oudhs because he says I smell ‘matronly’ in them, which is as damning a put down as I can think of, and yet others clamoured, practically, for my scent in them.
I don’t know. It’s a fascinating area of
discussion, and a gorgeous way to subvert our own presence.
X
Nina this really impressed a sense of uncanny impulse and atmosphere on me! I haven’t smelled it but I have smelled Paloma…
I don’t think I’ve ever smelled it, but knowing now that it’s a holy grail for you I’ll keep my eyes open just in case one that I can afford turns up serendipitously.
I still haven’t sent off your treasure…..
Forgive me, Father, for my brain is a trash can.
It’s ok. 😀 xo
Are you talking about Magie or Magie Noire? I haven’t smelled any of these two in their original (“vintage”) form. I have a bottle of Magie in its reincarnation for La Collection that Lancôme released for their anniversary.
Definitely Noire: I love it
Magie Noire in the original is absolutely amazing.