The Magpie

[Lycanthrope]

Claude Monet

A tiny shadow on the snow: black currant, sandalwood, and violet leaf against a white winter backdrop.

This is surprisingly foody on me - more so like the vanilla-snow note (Kind of like Waltz of the Snowflakes), mixed with a hint of berry. The currant is not strong, but the overall scent does read a bit as 'soft snow berry tart,' which is wonderful. I think the sandalwood is adding the kind of crusty note that makes me think of pie. The violet leaf is not strong. This is soft and close to the skin, but would be great for anyone who enjoyed the soft vanilla-snow type note Beth uses.

[rainbow]

This smells exactly like Lush's The Comforter bubble bar on me. I love that, as I love the Comforter. On me, this is an earthy, relaxing, non-sweet blackcurrant. I almost feel like I smell some lime in the background. While blackcurrant is the most prominent note, the scent has a distinctive, earthy background. Normally sandalwood is a no-go area for me, but in this scent it seems to work, and it smells like actual wood on me (not b.o., which is what it usually smells like). This is a delightfully complex and relaxing scent. I will be getting lots of wear out of it.

[joopjoop]

I have to agree with Lycanthrope, this is surprisingly foodie. I think it must be the 'white winter backdrop' which is very sweet and smells almost boozy on first application to the skin.

 

The blackcurrant is definitely there but paired with the snow it is like pie filling rather than fresh tart berries. Once it warms up, the blackcurrant does blossom on the skin and makes a nice compliment to the sweetness.

 

After a couple of hours I can detect a little sandalwood when I sniff closely, but the throw is all what I assume is the sweet snow with a side of currant. I'm not sure what violet leaf smells like, but I'm not detecting anything distinct.

 

Frankly I wish I got a little more of the sandalwood to cut the sweetness - it is just on the edge of cloying to me, and I'm not much of a gourmand lover.

 

This painting is a particular favorite of mine, so I'm a little disappointed, but I'm not quite ready to give up on this one just yet. I'm going to tuck it away for a little while and see if it gets a bit more balanced and earthy after resting a bit longer (basically I want the scent that rainbow describes above!).

Edited January 6, 2017 by joopjoop

[Allumina]

Magpies is...really weird on me. The first time I tried it was straight out of the mailbox, and I got an overwhelming single note of expensive lipstick/cosmetics. It wasn't a bad smell per say, but lasted for hours and was a weirdness that made me feel slightly nauseous with the scent memory. A few days later, it has settled down a lot. The lipstick note threatened to emerge for like a minute, but quickly faded away. I was really excited by the blackcurrant, but I get zero of it- on me it's powdery (maybe the sandalwood?) violet leaf over whatever that winter background is. It's elegant and faintly sweet. It's definitely more put together than it was when fresh, but I think this one needs a lot of aging to see what it will be like.

[zankoku_zen]

Oh man, I get black currant, violet, a touch of sandalwood and something that smells vaguely familiar and comforting. It does remind me to Lush's the Comforter bubble bar.

 

If you love that scent, this one is for you. Medium throw and wear length.

[Jenjin]

Oh yah~ fun and flirty, this is all full of blackcurrant candy fruitiness and creaminess from the sandalwood and vanilla snow note. This is definitely a mood lifter, and kinda snuggly, like hugging a great big, fluffy stuffy. As it dries down, it does become more velvety and smooth from the sandalwood note warming up with an elegant, blackcurrent woody vanilla finish. I can almost see the magical bubbles~ I slather this one!!

 

Edited January 23, 2017 by Jenjin

[izile]

I'm beginning to think I might amp sandalwood. Fresh, it was all sandalwood and some blackcurrant trying to fight through, maybe some violet leaf in the background, maybe, and nothing "wintery" feeling. By the time it dried down, no violet, still no winter, very dubious about any blackcurrant (which I love) and ALL THE SANDALWOOD.

 

I will have to make a note about that, I was really hopeful about this scent, but I don't need that much sandalwood, straight up on me.

[Casablanca]

On the wand, this is unexpectedly candy-like for the listed notes, like some other reviews have mentioned. Black currant candy or pie filling, sweet and a little tart, further darkened and purpled by violet leaf, and grounded and given texture by sandalwood.

 

On my skin, it goes less sweet and more tart, but is otherwise the same. As it dries it starts to feel kind of thin, but still sandalwood-textured. An hour later it’s sort of fruit-tart sandalwood, barely there on the skin.

[LizziesLuck]

I love blackcurrant and sandalwood both. Violet leaf always terrifies me - sometimes it just smells green and leafy, other times it actually smells like violet...

 

 

Wet: Mmm! Sweet, creamy, a bit powdery, a bit fruity. Quite gourmand! Way more so than I expected. There's something like eucalyptus underneath - a menthol sensation without actually being minty. Quite interesting, and not what I expected.

 

 

Dry: Sweet and tart at the same time, which I love. The powderiness remains, but I really like it with the currant. This is really lovely. Not quite like candy, but hovering at that line between gourmand and not. I quite enjoy it. Glad I changed my mind about trying it, as I can't even smell the violet leaf one way or the other. The sandalwood and snow only serve as a background for the blackcurrant, which is the star of this on me. Yum.

[Aviatrix]

I think I'm getting a bit of the sandalwood in this, but mainly it seems like.....snowy peppermint! O_o

It's incredibly strong and has a very candy-ish quality to it. It's a bit too much for me, sadly.

[Pyretta]

Bottle: The winter backdrop is mixing with everything else to produce very tart note - someone said lime above and I totally get it. Maybe the violet leaf has something to do with that, too? It has a weird, almost medicinal quality.

 

Wet: It's not quite as sour anymore, but I'm getting a lot of the minty snow note. Sadly no black currant at all, which is what I was hoping would shine here.

 

Dry: Wow, I really don't know how to describe this. The minty note faded very quickly (<5 minutes), leaving behind that note/blend that reminds me of lime, some sandalwood, and finally a little sweetness. It's not distinctly blackcurrant, just a faint berry. This is closer to what I was expecting!

 

Verdict: It's not bad at all, but still pretty disappointing. I was expecting what some other people got, describing it as close to Lush's The Comforter, but I got a tart, limey scent with the minty snow note in the background. It definitely has something to do with my skin chemistry. I'll keep wearing my decant to see if anything changes, but that's it for now.

[Little Bird]

My bottle of The Magpie was very strange and faint smelling. It's like sweet lime soda, even slightly fizzy, and the smell of cardboard. I don't get the comparison to The Comforter or really any currant or vanilla at all. Maybe I got a bad bottle, as I ordered this later into the Yules. Definitely sweet lime candy in the drydown, but so light that it's barely there after five minutes...

[VetchVesper]

This one is kinda weird and yuck at first.  Overly sugary snow musk with a weird menthol burn on the back end.  Sometimes I get a medicinal bite from sandalwood, and that might be part of what's happening here.  Anyways, after about 10 minutes of dry down... magic.   

This becomes a glorious, creamy sandalwood overlaid by rich, dusky black currant with the barest hint of purple floral.  It verges on foody,  like stewed fruit, but the sandalwood keeps it from going over the edge.  No menthol or snow, just something beautiful.  It lasts forever and wafts all over the place.  One of my favorites for winter.  

[bambi]

This scent almost gave me a conniption. In the decant, this smelled like a fizzy vanilla mint. Upon application, it smelled SO FAMILIAR. It took me several minutes of huffing my wrist wondering what in the world the smell could be, when it hit me: BUTTER MINTS. You know those super soft, buttery, vanilla-y mints that come in all those pastel colors? Those. At one point, the violet leaf wafts in, then disappears. There's definitely a background note of blackcurrant, but butter mints is what my skin is giving me.