Morgause

[batsy]

Earth sorceress and mother of Mordred, she is, in essence, the harbinger of King Arthur's doom and the downfall of Camelot. She is a sister, or sister-self, to Morgan Le Fay. A bouquet of five night-blooming flowers deepened by dusky violet, purple fruits and the barest breath of medieval incenses.

In the vial: Incense with a hint of purple fruity-ness.

On the skin: Oh there's the violet. At first I was thinking 'plum?' but it's violet. It's very much a floral; I've already lost the incense. All flowers and violet. Oh well. It's pretty in its own way. Edited September 26, 2009 by bat

[Usagi]

Imp: jasmine, and either violet or lily.

Wet: More like ylang-ylang than regular jasmine; muted-- as though someone took the highs and lows out of the scent.

Dry: Really light ylang-ylang.

 

Not for me, but definitely try if you are a floral or jasmine fan.

[isisonearth]

Imp: The first breath is very purple! Floral and juicy with a green finish like violet leaves. I'm also getting a powdery sort of musk.

 

Wet: Almost a single note violet on me like old fashioned violet water.

 

Dry: Pretty but so very faint.

[starfish327]

lab fresh imp

 

imp: dark florals. i have no idea what florals, definitely dark and definitely not white.

 

wet: same

 

dry: still just dark florals, just lighter than in the imp.

 

it's a nice floral...but it's very floral on me and florals and i don't normally get along (and they make my partner sick) so pass.

[KesHiro]

Frimp in one of my orders.

 

In the vial, I get off florals; they are pretty but also smell a little sweaty. I was really hoping to get that "purple" scent, but I could smell only the night blooming flowers. Once on, the violet begins to emerge and it is absolutely lovely! Now I can smell that regal purple! Unfortunately, it turned a bit perfumey during the drydown and once dry, it became violet scented candies. It is by no means a bad scent; in fact, it's quite nice. But I was hoping for the fruit and incense to come out and round out the oil.

 

Lovely, but not for me. I imagine that this one would have a powerful, royal, and feminine aspect when worn by the right person. Sadly, that is not I.

[SophieCedar]

In Imp: light white rose acidity, moonflower, and sweetpea mix.

 

Wet: this totally changes when on skin. The flowers open and permeate to become this lush deep bed that you just want to toss yourself into (if it existed in real life). Whatever dusky violet is, I'm into to!!! I usually detest violet. BPAL has changed my convictions by only trying 2 imps!(violet ray and this) Smells like sugared rose and sweet resin incense on me.

 

Drydown:

Sweet and gentle. The flowers are lovely and soft without powder. Just fresh and sweet. I wouldn't call this a green freshness. More like if you picked all the petals off of them and tossed them in a bowl with fruits. The fruit isn't syrupy or overripe smelling. It doesn't really hit you in the face by any means.. Slight incense in the background giving it a hallowed ethereal feel.

 

A wonderful contemplative perfume.

Edited January 30, 2010 by SophieCedar

[othelloperrello]

 

I'll call it to my mind's nose rose, violet, and jasmine. Though it has become clear to me that there is, in fact, no rose in here to my way of categorizing the slight musk underlay fulfills the same function for me which is to give it a dignified floral scent, refined yet real.

 

I feel it was caught best when it was said,

"Sweet and gentle. The flowers are lovely and soft without powder. Just fresh and sweet... Slight incense in the background giving it a hallowed ethereal feel.

 

A wonderful contemplative perfume."

 

I'll keep her.

O

 

 

[donnatron]

Imp: A thin, plummy jasmine. A hint of white floral that reminds me of several other blends--be there angel's trumpet here?

 

Wet: Morgause goes on thick and takes a long time to dry down on my chemistry. Wet on the skin I get a bright, tart fruit that smells like plum with something else--maybe currants, maybe blackberries, maybe both. The jasmine sort of twines through the whole thing doing it's usual, jasmine-y things on me (good things, I'm actually quite fond of jasmine). Faint hint of incense and violets.

 

Dry: All those separate scents blend together into a really lovely purple incense sort of scent. I don't know what the incense stick would be called, just that it would be purple (and this is also an ideal world where you don't get the dry dustiness from burning incense). I wonder if there is a touch of nag champa in here? It feels like it--might be the incense. It's very pretty and while it's not delicate it is more reserved than I would expect it to be. Smells very ritualistic.

 

Throw: Moderate.

 

Overall: I like Morgause and I think it's a pretty, interesting scent. It seems to poke at some deep down memory or emotion in me that makes me not want to wear it. It's perfectly lovely on my skin but there's something about it that makes me a touch uncomfortable. I applaud it for having such an interesting effect but I like my scents to make me feel pretty and confident, not uneasy. Maybe later, Morgause. For now we shall part ways.

[shadowdoll]

Oh devastatingly sexy, darkly enchanting - anything that makes men react the way this perfume does must be made of magic! I've literally seen this one cause a frenzied reaction - its definitely not light and airy - I don't think it falls into the catagory of "dark" bpals - it's more a floral with a dark twinge like purple flowers with tendrils of black woven through ...

[cmarie]

I can't be as specific regarding particular notes as some of the other reviews here, but here goes. On me, Morgause started out as a robust floral that had some depth to it besides just more floral -- I suppose this is where the purple fruits/incense must come in. I appreciated this quality, but those other notes dropped out as time went by, leaving a floral that was still purple but faintly old-ladyish on me. Still in search of the perfect violet blend. I'll use the imp though, this would be gorgeous on the right person! If you're wondering about it, you should try it.

[countessmouse]

In the imp and wet on my skin, dark floral with incense, but it also had a bit of a sour note that sometimes shows up when incense is involved that I've since learned to ignore until it goes away. Mostly incense on drydown and then after about two hours it was completely gone. Disappointing, really.

[Monster]

Frimp from The Lab...

 

In the vial this is stinky band-aid flowers. There's something nuce underneath that makes me hopeful though.

 

Yep..sharp headache-inducing flowers. There's definitley incense underneath everything but I just can't get past the sharp, overwhelming floral notes.

 

This dries into floral incense. I like the incense part and that's about it.

 

Must wash off.

[tallan]

As an anglophile, history and mythology buff, fantasy nerd and fan of Arthuriana, I really want this to work on me. Am slightly scared of all the flowers, though.

 

Wet: Very floral. There's definitely jasmine in this. Smoky, quite dark. Oooh, there's the violet. Heavy florals read very feminine in an adult way to me, it's the same feel I got from The Caterpillar. Unfortunately The Caterpillar didn't work for me for that exact reason; let's hope Morgause will turn out to be different.

 

Drying: The fruits are starting to peek out, balacing the flowers. There must be plum in this, I'm reminded of the plum-jasmine combo from Kitsune-Tsuki, only darker, not nearly as sweet. The violet seems to have disappeared completely, replaced by the incense.

 

Dry: Huh. Fruits are all gone, and what's left is a slightly incensey floral. Not as strong as in the earlier stages, but still heavy, almost intoxicating.

 

Overall: Elegant, sophisticated, and a bit mysterious. Aargh! It's not bad at all, it's just not something I can ever see myself wear. BPAL's helping me get over my strong aversion to the very idea of floral perfumes, but this is too much for me.

[Suu4LC]

In the imp, this is sort of a dusky jasmine/violet kind of scent. Purple is a good way to describe. Definitely get some incense in there.

 

When it first goes on my skin it's a bit sharp-the violet pulls out in front of the jasmine, but its very heady. Verrry heady jasminey violety scent. Floral haters, beware! The incense is there, but this is not an incense blend, it is a floral blend that happens to have incense. Not really getting any fruit in this, at least none that I can pick out. This isn't even really a fruity floral to me. It is firmly in the floral category to my nose.

 

As this dried it was a bit more violety I suppose. However, when it fully and completely dried down, it sort of disappeared. Now I can't even remember what it smelled like. This blend just wasn't for me.

[Drarra]

I love the Arthurian legend, so this blend really appealed to me. Plus there's some incense here? COOL! I was very pleased to receive a frimp.

 

In the bottle: The violets are very prominent. I'm having trouble smelling anything else around them.

 

Wet on my skin: Flowers. Violet. And is that jasmine? I thought there was supposed to be incense here somewhere? Did the violets eat it?

 

Dry: Well, we didn't really get to dry. Because violets and my skin don't get along. And I didn't want that anywhere near my skin for a moment longer.

 

Lesson: Violet is a nemesis to my perfume. They do not belong on my skin, they should remain looking beautiful outside.

[gniwle]

Mmm this is nice. I'm a huge sucker for anything Arthurian, so this was one to try anyway. Very much a purple scent. Like, dark, hazy violet. I smell jasmine in the front, and resins in the back.

[elinox]

First Sniff: A light flower, maybe jasmine?

 

Wet: I’m definitely getting the night blooming blossoms. I think there might even be a small aquatic note to this, something that makes it fresh smelling.

 

Dry: On the dry down it got a bit of a bite to it, however once it dried completely it was back to being flowery softness.

 

My Reaction: This turned out way softer than I had anticipated based on the description and it faded rather quickly too. I had been hoping for a night scent with some power behind it, something dark even. And this, sadly, was not it. It was more of a Glinda scent than the Wicked Witch.

 

Rating 1-5: 2

[Eemia]

Most of the time I really love florals, but this was just noxious after a few minutes. At first it was a kind of dark, wet, murky floral with something odd in the background. I thought the floral portion was a strong jasmine, which usually works on my skin. But that other scent was just creating this strange wash of pungency that I couldn't figure out. It just seemed like two very separate entities that just wouldn't come together. But I hoped that it would change and settle if I was patient enough. Oddly though it only became worse. I didn't have a skin reaction to it, but I did have a bad fit of sneezing and watering eyes. So there's definitely something in here that I'm allergic too. I had to wash it off in under five minutes.

 

Disappointing, because I wanted it to be another floral love. But I'm putting my imp aside to give to a friend and hopefully it'll work on her.

[Grimwitch]

In the bottle: liquid purple.

 

On my skin: holy allergic reaction, Batman! I had to wash this off almost immediately and still spent half an hour sneezing. Which is a shame, it smelled really nice.

[Alia Kaitan]

I got an imp of this from a forumite.

 

In the imp it's definitely heavy and floral.

 

On wet, whoa flowers. Thick with florals. This is pretty normal on my skin, though, to get a couple minutes of FLOWERS before it calms down.

 

As it starts to dry down I get more the incense than the purple fruits I was hoping for. This is turning into a very dark, dry floral. Elegant and powerful and maybe a bit haughty. Perfect for something like an evening attire affair; I don't think I could live up to this scent on a daily basis.

 

After a little while it is still teeming with the dark purple and crimson flowers, and still dry as incense. There is, perhaps, a little fruit sweetness hovering in the back that I can pick up every now and then. This has better throw on me than most. It is more 'perfumey' than I usually like, but I do like the darkness that it evokes.

 

I do like this enough to hang onto the imp for now, and when I next have a formal event to go to, I will probably consider it. As far as night florals go, though, I prefer the softer musky drydown of something like Nuit to the sharp incense drydown of Morgause.

 

Overall: very evocative of high-class elegance, with a dark bent. Suitable for special occasions only. 2.5 out of 5.

[becca_s]

Morgause starts out with the night blooming flowers and purple fruits ... I'm sure that there is in plum in this, it reminds me of the plum in Blood Countess. It doesn't really change much, except as it dries the incense becomes more prominent and adds a kind of spiciness. It's has good throw, lasts for ages. It is quite perfume-y ... and seems perfect as a night-time or autumn scent. I like Morgause alot, I think that the imp might be enough for now. It will probably be a perfume I would wear for certain occasions.

[whitsunweddings]

In the imp: Jasmine, maybe some fruit.

Wet: Incense and jasmine.

Dry: Incensey jasmine and fruit. Meh.

[PumpkinGuts]

"So juicy sweeeet", as Gollum would say.

 

Luckily, the violet trumps the jasmine on my skin. There are definitely sweet and spicy plums here (I can't identify any other fruits),

and a subtle whiff of incense. I view this as a sister scent to the discontinued Blood Countess. It's pretty, but more floral than I'm

comfortable wearing. Needs moar incense.

Edited August 9, 2014 by PumpkinGuts

[Arden Ivy]

Got this as an imp in a decant circle. 8th BPAL tried

 

It is definitely purple. I'm not sure how I feel about violets, but I think they like me. This was a mostly floral scent, just a hint of incense. Lots of dark purple, juicy dribbling fruit and powerful flowers. It is very pretty, mysterious, and fairly strong. I wouldn't classify this as a wet or dry scent despite the incense.

[kahmiel]

I got this as a frimp in one of the recent packages I got. I dont even know which one, but it was in a bag i took with me recently and ended up trying.

It smells immediately deep and floral in the bottle, and stays mostly the same on me the whole way through, which I like. It is sweet and feminine, with jasmine coming through strong. It almost smells....purple? I love it. Its distinctly perfumey and dark. I would definitely wear this on a day where I wanted a more unique but perfumey smell that stays away from my typical resiny blends.