Medea

[BetteNoire]

This is one of BPAL'S underrated masterpieces. Medea is dark with a sense of vast space and air, like being outside at dusk surrounded by oddly menacing flowers. There is an almost wine-like aspect, but it isn't a wine note at all. The cypress and myrrh ground the florals so beautifully, and I much prefer them to any musk.

 

This is so perfect for it's inspiration, it smells like Medea's garden, and has a vague aura of menace that's really fun to carry around in the world.

 

For all that it draws compliments regularly from non-witchy folks, and is one of the few scents I can wear in the hottest days of summer when I don't usually want to wear my skin, much less a perfume. Love love love.

[IoPan]

After reading all the reviews touting the dark character and incensey notes in Medea, I was so excited to try it. Unfortunately, I didn't find the oil's performance on my skin to be as dark and complex as others have experienced. On me, it's all floral with a slight ozonic or green undertone. It's a beautifully balanced floral without any of the cloying or wispy characteristics I so often find in floral perfumes, so it's undoubtedly one of the best florals I've ever worn. But personally, I don't prefer to wear floral-forward scents. They're more feminine than I prefer. I like to smell masculine and earthy. I think I'll keep the imp for those rare moments when I want to smell softer and more feminine, but I doubt I'll end up going for a full-sized bottle of this one.

 

[Hesper]

Oh, this was one of my out-there choices for myself, an experiment—the fruits and heavy woods scared me, and I wasn’t familiar with labdanum enough to imagine how this would smell.

 

Now that I've tried it, I am obsessed.

 

Medea starts wet as dark, rich pine resin, sharp and deep, touched by a carefully light hand of sweetness that just illuminates the dark. Labdanum’s honeylike, leatherlike aspects, earthed by myrrh, blend incredibly well into the pines: like a candle borne through the dark forest, making one’s way to the rite. Myrrh earths it all. Dark, but never bleak. Cool, with flashes of purple fruits on the offering plate that never turn jammy or cloying; the body and complexity of this scent is gorgeously intoxicating.

 

As it dries, the florals emerge like gathered herbs, never becoming overly sweet, never fighting back against that masterful hand that bore them here. The resins thin out to a wispier scent, incense clouds trailing up to heaven as the darkness gathers round you, sweet with power, dark with rage.

 

This is a scent to throw Selene from the sky with, so that she can’t witness your wicked works.

 

I LOVE Medea, as I really should have expected given my love for the sorceress herself. What a gorgeous, witchy scent.

 

Edited April 22, 2021 by Hesper

[FebruaryOwen]

Received this as a free imp with an order.  

In bottle: floral and patchouli-y. Definitely earthy.

On skin: Kind of one-dimensional on me, but can't quite put my finger on the dimension.  Floral for sure.  

After a few hours: it got kind of watery and weak; I didn't feel terribly impressed with how this worked on my skin.

I will be swapping or giving away the imp

[scentedbythesun]

This starts out weird but dries to a lovely cucumber melon scent somehow. I might even pair it with squirting cucumber or a meal interrupted. It's really beautiful and I look forward to wearing it in summer. 

[asoursweetsixteen]

~~frimp review~~~

 

medea starts off very heavy, dark, and forboding. smells like a rained-on garden or forest, wet foliage and soil. very herbally and floraly, kind of teetering on the edge of the dreaded grandma's perfume smell. i'm going to play a match of fortnite then add more about the drydown.

 

alright, back. we won lmao. this perfume is not very much of a win on me though. very floraly in a grandma way, but the flowers are still very pretty. smells almost beachy? like sand and sunscreen and ocean spray. it's pleasant, but not something I'd wear often.

Edited September 5, 2023 by asoursweetsixteen