Magus

[Deliciousness]

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

 

In the imp: Soft woody scent with a hint of sweetness.
Wet on skin: Why does this smell like dry patchouli? It's turning very wood shavings-esque on my skin.
Dry: Wood shavings with a cord of wood thrown in for good measure.

My skin tends to amp wood type of scents, so I need to be careful with cedar/sandalwood/patchouli combo's. I'm not surprised this scent went straight to wood shavings on my skin, I'm sure those with different chemistry would find this blend a bit more nuanced. I would say, if you like frankincense and or woody blends, give this a try!

[anaengel]

I know I like resin blends. They normally play nice on me. This one is no exception. I got it as a lab frimp (or a post frimp, but either way) and will keep using this.

When it starts, it is very sweet on me, but also a little hint of wood. Mostly, it is a sweetness that isn't sugary.

As it dries, I mostly get fresh woods. For a couple of minutes, but not long at all, it's like breathing in mothballs. Then, it goes to a pretty fresh shaved woodshop scent.

After a while, the herbs come out and mingle with the wood.

This is a pretty close to me scent. I almost feel like I was in my grandfather's workshop, while everyone else was making the wooden windcatchers, towards the end of it's drying. It's a nice and quiet scent for me.

[bulletslc]

Cedar, sandalwood and frankincense in a complex dance with the other notes providing backup. I like this. Maybe nnot enough to get a bottle but this scent makes me feel grounded and calm.

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: Ah, now this is what I was looking for in Mage! Smoky, incense-y, mysterious, and powerful. I get the image of smoke swirling around and half-concealing the mage (magus?). Mmmm.

 

Wet: Takes a sharp turn into Plywood Territory. Yup, that's fresh-cut cedar right there, and nothing else. Luckily, something warmer, sweeter, and less dry works its way back in over time (oddly enough, it's especially notable the farther my nose is from my wrist) and turns the whole thing back towards sexy, mysterious incense.

 

Dry: A more standard incense - frankincense and sandalwood both looooove my skin (at least in terms of wear time), so it's not surprising that everything else burns off, but these two remain.

 

EDIT: Apparently something in here is reacting badly with my skin - I get the same raised red welts that I got from Voodoo, although I'm pretty sure that clove was the culprit there. Unlike Voodoo, however, these ones actually itch. High john essence is the only note I'm unfamiliar with here, and I know that my skin gets along just fine with all the other components, so I'll have to add high john to y list of death notes. *sigh*

[Veronica]

Something in this goes vetiver on me--it might be the cedar(?). Woodsy and slightly dank, very masculine but not something I would want on my guy.

[stubbornfire]

Oh! Hm. Fresh on this was lip balm. Plain, maybe beeswaxy, lip balm. I almost stuck it un my pile if stuff to frimp. But it's settling some, and I'm finally getting....well, cedar, a bit. And I think I can recognize the sandlewood now. It's... Well I'm not sure. Very light. It's very.. Clean. Not in a "freshly showered and slapped on some cologne" way like my buddy Bram, but just..just freshly showered. Light, fresh, just a touch of incense. I'd cuddle the heck out of a dude that smelled like this. I'm just not sure if I'd wear it myself!. HM..

[DoktorDandy]

In the Imp: Weird crooked aftershave scent with a hint of something like.. bubblegum? What the...? I'm going to stop smelling the imps one of these days- they're always so odd...

 

Wet: Another one that seems to stay wetter on the skin longer than other oils. Gentle poof of pencil shavings. Hamster cage. Very, very cedar with nothing else so far to speak of. Good thing I like cedar!

 

Dry: Slow to change. Something sweeter, less of that greenish-blonde pencily cedar note as it turns. Sap-like, and the greens fall darker and darker. Now it's a creamy, creamy sandalwood soap? Heading to a sweeter place, a sweet, unburnt incense place.

 

Overall Impression: Cedar then creamy sandalwood soap, yep. Faded pretty quickly, and that's sort of a pity as I liked where it was going. The end is a little too far in the sweet/creamy direction for me, and too faint. I'm undecided on this one as to whether I should keep the imp or not, even.

[HighlyBell7]

In Imp: Bright yellow. Sweet cologne and sunflower seeds.

Wet: Sharp sweet lemon

Dry: Honeysuckle? And another flower. Jasmine? Gardenia.

Later: Fades to Egyptian musk

 

[theseagrows]

got this as a frimp from the trading post!

 

it starts off with a lemony-floral note and then quickly turns into dusty-woody notes. the holy trinity of pencil shavings in BPAL land for me is included: frankincense, sandalwood and cedar. there's a reason i passed this one up, but glad i got to try it anyway. the lead-ness dies down a bit and i get something kind of sweet/floral. maybe galangal? i don't know what that is. anyway, it's kind of intriguing, just not something i'd want to wear on my skin. seems like it'd be a good room scent.

[freyasfae]

I was surprised that such a incense-y scent was receptive to me and my skin, but then I looked up what galangal is and realized that was probably it. Galangal is a part of the ginger family, and my skin and my nose love ginger - in this case, galangal gives this incense based fragrance a citrusy element, but that does quickly fade into, and I am left with a mostly woodsy incense-y fragrance that is light and dry...then starts to dry to slightly medicinal. My skin hates frankincense and sometimes likes to duke it out with cedar, so another one bites the dust. Swaps!

[Casablanca]

Mainly a gingery galangal and frankincense, with cedar and sandalwood in support. Once it settles on me, Magus is a grainy frankincense and sandalwood of parched dryness, with a breeze of dusty cedar.

This is OK, but it has the comparatively shallow or hollow smell of many of BPAL's general catalog blends compared with their limited edition ones. It also goes oddly dusty on me.

[Lucchesa]

This is me sitting in a pile of cedar sawdust in my father's wood shop. A powerful and comfortable memory. As it dried down the sandalwood and galangal came into play. I'm not familiar with high John so I can't comment there. Definitely an imp I will reach for again; not sure I need a full bottle.

[LizziesLuck]

Wet: All cedar and sandalwood, all day. It's quite nice. Sweet, smooth, dry. Almost glowing. After a moment, some herbs or something else I can't quite put my finger on starts to come through.

 

 

Dry: This is a lovely, warm, glowing wood scent. Cedar and sandalwood together, you can't tell where one starts and the other ends. It keeps cedar from doing the whole pencil shavings thing. If I ever felt the desire to wear wood scents, this would be a good one. Sadly I just never seem to reach for them. Still, great scent, glad I tried it!

[SparkKisses]

In the imp: Spicy, woody, sweet. Definitely a lot of cedar more than anything else.

 

Wet: Pencil shavings. Dirt and pencil shavings. Not even an aromatic cedar, because my skin hates the things I like.

 

Dry: The overwhelming pencil shavings calmed down into a more agreeable faint cedar. Unfortunately everything else about it is faint too. Can barely get a whiff about 20 minutes in.

 

Overall, I really wanted to like this fragrance but I think anything with cedar is going to be a no-go for me from now on. Which is a shame, since I like wood-y scents. I was hoping I'd get even the faintest sandalwood out of Magus... but alas, nothing. This is going on the swap pile for sure.

[monocainsheresy]

I get cedar and sandalwood only, maybe a bit herby in the background. Sadly, no frankincense. Warm and sweet and magical.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

A generous frimp from a BPALer   Aw, this is a Dumbledore scent! Magical but kind. 🧙‍♂️ Incense with a lot of depth. Floating on top, that slightly citrusy note from High John the Conqueror. On the drydown, a softer resinous incense. Good for when you need to feel wise.

[artisjok]

Magus is a cedar forward scent, though sweetened by frankincense and softened by sandalwood. I’m not familiar with the scent of the other two, yet internet links galangal to ginger, and I can sense a sweet sparkle similar to ginger.
It does have a certain magical feeling, like a wooden room, smooth with age and infused with all the essence of spells and secrets devised within it. 

I’m enjoying the sweet cedar tone a lot. If it works well on my partner, my magician, it’s bottle worthy.

[doomsday_disco]

Magus starts off as a medicinal, spiced resin scent on me. I am not sure what high john essence smells like, but I think that's what is adding a medicinal, yet uplifting quality to this scent, while the galangal is contributing to the spice vibe. These notes are accompanied by the cedar and resins, with the cedar and frankincense being far stronger than the sandalwood. Together, they create this serene resinous scent, which ends up morphing into galangal-infused resins after a few hours of wear.

 

I liked this a lot more than I was expecting to from the list of notes. I wish it remained the way it did during the early phases of the scent, but I liked the early stage of this so much that I am going to keep the imp.  

Edited March 29, 2020 by doomsday_disco

[roseus]

I was shocked I hadn't reviewed this, it smells so familiar I must have tested before. 

 

In the imp: a blast of warm cedar, with a bit of a camphorus edge.

 

Wet: deep warm frankincense, sweet powdery sandalwood, and cedar, but quieter and smoother. Still a bit of an almost medicinal edge (probably the High John and/or galangal?)

 

Dry: I think this is just so familiar because of that magical frankincense, cedar, and sandalwood combo. Once dry those are the main elements on me. Sweet, softly woody and powdery (in a good way), and warm. So comforting. 

[Beary Strange]

Wet: cedar and gingery galangal

 

Dry: cedar and a plywood smell that reminds me of wandering around in the construction material section of Lowe's, which I have to say, is a scent I quite enjoy. There was also a bit of frankincense hanging around in the background, before this scent just sort of...fizzled out on me (which was a matter of minutes). 

 

I really like this, it's a comforting and nostalgic scent; it's something I'd wear around the house to feel at home and cozy. Unfortunately, because it fades so quickly on me, I don't think I need a full bottle, although the imp will very likely get used, perhaps on a lava bead. I wish it had more oomph and staying power on me-I'm envious of the people who mention getting hours of wear out of this.