Medea

[crebbsgirl]

Granddaughter of Helios, Hecate's chosen: Medea was one of the greatest sorceresses of the ancient world. She is the embodiment of ruthless power, indomitable will and furious vengeance. Night-blooming cereus, black orchid, black currant and myrtle leaf enshrouded in the incense of Hecate's cypress and myrrh, and the dark rage of magickal labdanum and intoxicating poppy.

Purpley!!!!!! That about sums it up. This starts off a little floraly/herby to my nose. The orchid and poppy are definitely standouts and there is a sharp herbal note here. As it dries, the myrrh comes out and mellows the blend. This is really beautiful. The sharp note fades and blends in with the rest. This is smoky and dark. Deep. The currants aren't overly juicy - which can sometimes happen for me. They sweeten up the scent just a bit. I really like this!

[tajana]

This perfume is complex. The night-blooming florals in Medea give me a headache when I huff them up-close. It's herbal and leafy, but in a poisonous way. The juicy black currant seems similarly sinister, there's a creepy wateriness to this scent, and the poppy (one of my nemeseses!) lends its trademark oppressive smoke. This smells positively evil and witchy. Appropriate for its namesake, but not something I can enjoy wearing! The throw is dark and floral. After some time passes this goes to currant-sweetened night flowers over cypress and myrrh.

[ouch!]

This oil is very Meh on me unfortunaely, it smells very perfumey..a bit headache inducing with a bit of incense. Wish it would have worked though.

I'm gonna send it off for swaps methinks.

 

 

5 Months later...

 

Ok....different imp has come along and we all know how it can change your view of an oil. This is different. This is very predominantly Blackcurranty and resiny. Very different from the last imp I had.

This smells like a more resinous and darker Purple Phoenix. This sort of thing scares me. Coz now I'm thinking...how many other oils have I just had a batch of that I didn't like? *groans*

 

This imp is much more pleasant, still not a knock my socks off scent but..much better than the meh I had before.

Edited August 28, 2009 by ouch!

[Jenn2D2]

I was so excited to get this imp with my clocket!

 

In the bottle: the scent of myrrh surrounded the vial, and intensified with sharp green notes once opened. The incense smell was inviting, but the green asserts itself pretty strongly.

 

Wet: sharp, stabbing greenery! The herbal scent is very high, allowing only the smallest bit of orchid to peek through. If I turn my head fast enough, a bit of distant incense floats by, but is quickly pushed aside by the undergrowth.

 

Dry-down: the green fades fairly quickly to a deep, lush incense, with hints of orchid. I found myself trailing bits of scent for hours - it didn't seem to throw far, but huddled where I had just been. Eventually, after a very long time, the lush incense faded, and just the lightest scent of orchids remained.

 

This felt exactly how I imagine Medea, dark, dangerous, temperamental and intoxicating. I wasn't sure about the orchid notes - I am not a huge fan of florals - but they married so well with the greens and the myrrh that I was just blown away. My skin seems to love this, and it lasts for ages on me.

 

[WidgetAlley]

Imp: Spiced floral, orchid and cereus mostly, with smoky resin underneath it.

 

Wet: Orchid with an almost lavender-like twist, strong poppy, sweet labdanum, resins, and something else that reminds me of the way expensive soaps smell. It doesn't actually smell like soap, mind you, just like the stuff they put in soap, which is much better. Still almost all floral with only bare traces of incense.

 

Dry: A barely-there, spiced white floral. Never got any myrrh, or green things, which is too bad, because without them Medea is just kinda blah.

[catattack]

Imp: Sharp wood and "perfume"

Wet: Sharp and bitter woods and florals

Drydown: This is sharp and head-achy. This is overwhelmingly floral. I can't really pick out any particular notes.

Overall: Why do I do this to myself? Florals and I have a very rocky relationship.

[milica]

this didn't turn out good on me, all floral, nothing else. maybe a bit sour, my guess is that it's black currant, not playing well with the flowers. too strong flowers for me, reminds me of some old school cheap perfume.

[donnatron]

Imp: Cypress, orchid and labdanum. Labdanum is one of those scents I always think is going to be sour or a very pale resin. I'm always like, "WTF? Why so smoky, labdanum?"

 

Wet: On the skin Medea gets a little rank. It's the cypress and the poppy wrangling for control and the whole thing becomes a sort of foresty/molasses-y mess. I can smell a bit of dusky orchid in the background and the labdanum is acclimating to my chemistry.

 

Dry: The trick with Medea (for me at least) is to let her sit on the skin for about half an hour or so. It's a long drydown and I'm not sure it's worth it, but the resulting scent is very elegant and sultry and makes me feel like a grown ass woman. I keep a mental list of scents I enjoy wearing for kicking ass and taking names purposes and Medea definitely falls into that category. There's an almost wine like bouquet to the ingredients. I get a dark orchid over a touch of myrrh and currant. The poppy is there but it's not the usual heavy, opiated molasses scent I get from it. This is dark, complex and very, very wicked.

 

Throw: Moderate.

 

Overall: I dunno. I have a kind of morbid fascination with Medea and I really like the eventual drydown of this perfume. The actual drydown is a bit pungent and overbearing. I'll run through the imp, ruminate on it and then make my choice. It's a fascinating, complex scent and I really love how it actually comes together. If nothing else Medea is certainly a work of art.

[caitilarkin]

In the imp: Gah. Lots of bitter cypress.

 

Wet on skin: The cypress amped for a bit, then faded to provide backing for heady, sweet florals.

 

Dry on skin: This morphed into a lovely blend of mostly orchid and currant, backed by poppy and labdanum. I never did get any myrrh and the cypress retreated after about an hour.

 

I didn't expect to like this but I really did.

[moon_lemming]

Nooooo, night-blooming anything is the kiss of death for an oil on my skin. Medea is no exception. In the imp, I smell sharp woods, which is another bad sign since my skin amps wood.

 

Wet, there is the familiar too-high detergent smell of florals that aren't going to play well with my nose, with a smish of berries -- the currants, I guess -- trapped underneath.

 

Half an hour after applying, Medea is about the same. The florals aren't as headachingly sharp, but they're still in the fabric softener/laundry detergent family. I am surprised the myrrh doesn't stand out more, as it usually takes over scents that it's in on my skin. The wood only shows up in the imp.

 

I really love the hint of juicy currant underneath that floral mess, but I'd rather have it in a blend that didn't have the floral overtone, or had florals that I enjoy wearing.

[Diva Urd]

In the imp, I primarily get a dark, woody scent - most likely the cypress.

 

Right after application, it smells of cypress and orchid, but the wood actually retreats into the background upon drydown. The resulting floral fragrance is so integrated I can't tell anything apart anymore. I quite enjoy it.

 

Alas, Medea is gone after a relatively short time, and not so enjoyable that I would want to reapply multiple times a day. A miss for me, after all.

[rayvn1]

I was really looking forward to this one because I've always loved the Medea stories and operas (Cavalli's incantation scene in Giasone is amazing!). This even had several notes I love like incense and poppy. Luckily I get a good dose of dusty poppy enhanced with dry incense. Smoky scent with minimal throw. Very nice, but not bottle-worthy so far.

[Aldercy]

I can't really pick out a single individual note in here. It's completely seamless. I think the imp is rather old-- maybe it's really blended and mellowed with time.

 

At any rate, Medea is a really sultry, sweet, smoky-bedroom-eyes kind of scent. And black. Super, super dark. Wine and opium and secret sex. That's what I think of with this.

 

So pretty yummy!

[Muppetk]

imp: fresh AND dark with a slight undertone of burning!

 

wet on me: same as in the imp. I *think* I like it. There's something in it I can't quite decide on yet...

 

drying: and there goes the fresh! IT's definitely getting deeper, rounder, and I'm definitely getting the orchid and currant to stand out a bit over the more general bpal-basenote-fuzziness. (yes, this smells like and orchid and bunch of currants are sitting on top of my bpal imp box.) This is nice. Well. No. I like it. But "nice" is definitely the wrong word. The burning note is gone, but I'm not sure that's a good thing...

 

Dry: And it's all melded together and smells like the inside of my imp box. Y'know, the one with about 100 imps in it. I'm amused.

[muteddragon]

Uh, it smelled liked strong booze to me. Gifted.

[Venneh]

In the frimp, I get a similar scent to Anathema, only with a bit stronger vetiver note. Once on my skin, it's a very similar scent to Anathema, again, only with a bit sharper green note and maybe a hint of woods in there. Yeah, I think the labdanum and the poppy are combining with the orchid and cereus to give me a similar scent to the opium and honeysuckle in Anathema; between the two, though, I prefer Anathema. Medea will stay, but as an imp.

Edited October 16, 2009 by Venneh

[Leopard403]

Herb-y and head shop-y. Way too heavy for me.

[Stormslegacy]

In the imp: Pleasant, but a little herbally

 

Wet: a little bit of the fruit comes forward, and there's tiny bit of florals in the background.

 

drydown: The currants fight with the herbs and poppy, and get whiffs of smoky incense in between. It can't seem to decide what to do.

 

Dry: ARG. Amber, my arch-nemesis. My skin generally amps it to the exculsion of all other elements in a blend (the only exception being Blood Amber and Midnight Kiss. ) I hate it, it smells like overly sugared frosting and makes me sick to my stomach. ETA: Huh. It doesn't say amber is in here, but amber is the only thing I've found that does that to me, and i'm almost 100% sure that's what I smell.

 

I somehow ended up with not one, but two imps of it. I want to try it in a locket, because it was pleasant until the amber overtook everything.

 

ETA: I now know that labdanum has the exact same affect on my skin as BPAL's amber notes. That's what's giving me the cheap incensy notes. TOo bad becaue this would be a winner.

Edited December 5, 2009 by Stormslegacy

[levelek]

A frimp.

In the vial: the orchid is jumping out at me.

 

On wet: the orchid is still the strongest note, but much darker and warmer and resiny than at first sniff. I think it's mingling with the labdanum.

 

Drydown: This morphed completely! Now it has a strong salty, almost aquatic overtone. Interesting! The cypress is faint in the background. I seem to have had a very similar experience to the description in the first post by Belladonnastrap.

[SophieCedar]

Purpley is right! Right out of the imp you can smell this one coming.. Strong throw!

 

This is morgause's brazen sister!

[superpopkid]

I was a little apprehensive of how the flowers would treat me in this, but I needn't have worried. They're the first thing I notice after applying. I can't tell cereus from orchid, but there's a nice enough melange of dark florals going on. Nothing super high or sharp, but nothing really grabbing me either. Dry, the black currant makes an entrance. Black currant is a fruit I'm kind of meh about; I think it smells a lot like some kind of fruity tea. As the blend dries, the currants and flowers blend and get mellow. I can tell there's some nice resiny-woody thing happening in the background, but at the forefront are petals floating in strongly steeped fruity herbal tea. It's a brighter and less opaque effect than I was expecting from Medea's description. Excellent throw from a light application. It lasted a good seven hours and might have kept on going if I hadn't taken a shower. Color associations: transparent crimson.

 

There's more shade and complexity to this blend than my description gets across, but I'm not sure which elements are providing it. I can appreciate the beauty of this perfume, but at the end of the day it's just not to my taste.

[milo]

I'm thinking maybe cirius is kind of like jasmine, as this is very similar to straight up jasmine to me. After a bit, the gorgeous currant comes out, so juicy and fresh, but it really isn't enough to save the blend for me. I kind of get a winey sourness here as well, like wine gone bad, but OK for vinegar. Off to swaps

[Gold Dust Kitten]

Pungent aquatic floral in imp and on skin. Like intensely perfumed dryer sheets. Several minutes later...a huge 180 from the initial sniff and application...I smell something like pomegranate, which must be the currants. It's kind of like a more incense-laden version of Lampades now, which is kind of nice. This makes me feel like "I'm nice, but don't p*ss me off". I'll keep the imp, don't need a bottle though.

Edited September 5, 2010 by mxtine

[undream]

on the skin, this is all orchid & currant (which, to those with no idea what that might smell like, to me is a very grape scent married to the spicy yumminess of christmas). it's beautiful, a dark purple scent, though i'm unsure if it's a keeper for me just yet; i do, after all, have a few other bpal oils with the same berry&spice holiday feel that medea is giving me(!) - phantom queen, for instance - but i do love the character of medea, and really, one can never have enough of a beautiful scent(!). we'll see . . .

 

ETA; trying this one again a couple of weeks later, &i'm not getting any of that wild grape note this time(!). medea retains the lovely spiciness of orchid, but rather than any fruitiness, i'm picking up a definite humid floral in the throw, and i cannot believe i missed it the first time around. (chemistry does wonky things!) it is lovely, truly, but i think i will be passing this one on.

Edited September 20, 2010 by undream

[meredevachon]

Frimp from the Lab

 

In the imp: Polished wood and a bit of incense. Dark.

 

Wet: Oh, I like this. Still mostly wood, the first thing the wood aspect reminded me of was Antikythera Mechanism, but it's not teak. Spiced smoke.

 

Dry down: I could get drunk on this, figuratively speaking. The florals are behaving themselves, the wood and incense and smokiness are deep and rich.

 

Dry: This is what you'd expect of a dark, dangerous (mad) woman. Not in the middle of frenzy, but before and after. This is an "I am woman, hear me roar" scent.

 

Overall: Much love for this one. I'll eventually stop sniffing my arm, I'm sure. For a time. Medea was a pleasant surprise, and worked much better on me than I thought it would.