Lancôme launched Magie Noire in 1978; Gérard Goupy composed the formula. A dark oriental, at once green and animalic, it now opens, according to the house, on bergamot, blackcurrant bud and Bulgarian rose, before a heart of jasmine, narcissus and ylang-ylang and a base of amber, sandalwood and patchouli. Its slender yet massive bottle enhances a gold-colored juice.
Slender yet massive today, the Magie Noire bottle enhances a gold-colored juice; the 1978 original was the work of Pierre Dinand.
The original bottle is the work of Pierre Dinand, who counts Magie Noire among his creations, alongside Yves Saint Laurent’s Rive Gauche and Givenchy’s Ysatis. Elena Vosnaki of Perfume Shrine says it was inspired by the alembics of medieval alchemists.
She describes it as covered with cabalistic signs standing for bismuth, verdigris, sulfur and gold. The bottle changed several times: black in the 1980s, in line with the advertising of the time, and burgundy in the 1990s.
When the fragrance was relaunched in the late 2000s, Lancôme simplified it into a column of solid glass topped with a metallic-looking cap. The house now speaks of a majestic bottle, at once slender and massive, that enhances the gold-colored juice.