Eau De Magnolia

Walking through Neiman Marcus, I was bombarded with sales people and high-end mass market fragrances before I finally culminated my visit at the Frederic Malle counter. I smelled Eau de Magnolia for the first time and bought it instantly. The fragrances that were sprayed on me before it were very pleasant, beautiful even. But THIS. For the first time in my life, I was instantly transported to a Japanese garden of cherry blossom trees on a breezy, warm, lush day after smelling this. I was someone else entirely. Then I heard Pan flute and felt the bark of a bamboo tree. It was so transporting on every sensory level it literally brought tears to my eyes! To actually experience a smell that instantly takes you to a different time and place speaks to the perfection of Eau de Magnolia. So delicate, so gentle, soooo lovely. It is the most delicately and innocently beautiful thing I have ever smelled. Like a glass ballerina that is so thin and light you can't even touch it for fear of breaking it. Like a rendition of "Fantasie Impromptu" playing in the background as gentle rain falls on white lilies, unfettered by gray clouds. It is so achingly precious! And somehow I just can't separate this smell from Japan, the Japan of a hundred years ago. I feel this perfume would be very popular in the Southeast Asian market in general. This is not just a fragrance, this is a miracle. This is blissful. I have also seen people mentioning wearing white with it and I completely agree-- it just requires a white shirt/outfit and it makes me want to put my hair up and paint a watercolor picture. Just amazing!

I would like to offer an original take on this perfume but I can’t. After spending quite a bit of time with it, and scribbling down incoherent and incomplete thoughts about it, I finally started reading what others have said and I have to give mention to the eloquent Persolaise in his review (https://persolaise.com/2014/07/persolaise-review-eau-de-magnolia-from.html). I don’t know if it took him as long to write his assessment as it did for me to come up with mine, but he nonetheless says exactly what I was thinking and does so better than I likely could. So, please give his review a read. Unlike Persolaise though, I do love Eau de Magnolia because it’s unlovable. The Edgar Allen Poe quote “there is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness in the proportion” is, of course, correct. But when you encounter beauty with no strangeness? Is it no longer beautiful? Or just not exquisite? Many a philosopher-type have pedantically argued over this. I’m in the camp of the latter: I don’t need beauty to be exquisite. Eau de Magnolia is a superb intellectual exercise devoid of any strangeness to really make it exquisite in some beauty sense, or emotional sense, but it’s a superb intellectual exercise that’s very easy to wear. That in itself, in this era of modern perfumery, is a truly commendable feat. Eau de Magnolia acts like a magnolia cologne, easily wearable by man or woman for any reason or occasion, but, should you want to intellectualize it, it’s fully open and capable of that conversation. Anyone, anytime, anywhere, for any reason, can wear it - and you should.

This fall I gave this fragrance as a birthday present to a chic and feminine friend of mine. She mentioned how she was tired of all these synthetic designer fragrances. She's not into fragrances, but wanted something natural smelling and more unisex. When I bought it for her, I tried it on myself and I loved it! She praised it too thankfully... Eau de Magnolia got me all obsessed on this hunt for a good floral cologne I could pull off myself. Funny thing, the following month I got this little gem as a birthday present from my boyfriend. He had NO idea that it was the same as I bought earlier, and I couldnt stop obsessing about. He's not into fragrances either, but this was his way of trying to impress me. Of all the fragrances he sniffed, he picked Eau de Magnolia. I was impressed. He normally likes masculine designer fragrances. Eau de Magnolia is refreshing citrus at the top, sweet airy florals come out in the middle and a floral earthy base in the ending. It's simple, pretty linear, but not boring. It reminds me slightly of Mojave Ghost by Byredo (similar feel, not notes), only this is more natural and slightly more unisex. As a man, I wouldnt say its very masculine, but it will probably make you noticed in a positive say. At least it has for me. Sillage and longevity very good in my opinion for such a light natural fragrance. Easily 7-9 hours on my skin. Cant't wait to wear this in the warmer months with a linnen shirt and sunglasses :) Edit: it’s wonderful! A 7 out of 10

Eau de Magnolia is nothing short of stunning. It opens with the prettiest, most natural sour lemon note—bright, crisp, and mouthwatering, like slicing into a perfectly ripe lemon on a sunny morning, juice fresh in your fingertips. But the real magic begins as this sparkling citrus softens into the heart of the fragrance: a truly beautiful magnolia. What makes this special is how delicately the white florals are woven in. The freshest, most ethereal magnolia blossoms kissed by morning dew, delicate yet vivid, with a faint zesty brightness that ties seamlessly with the opening citrus notes. It’s both floral and slightly green, capturing the natural freshness of magnolia petals rather than an abstract or overly perfumed version. As the scent develops, the magnolia takes on a subtle, velvety texture, feeling soft and almost weightless, as though you’re standing under a magnolia tree in full bloom, the petals drifting down around you. The jasmine here, rather prominent to me, is whisper-light, almost tea-like, lending a soft floral depth without stealing the spotlight—rare for an often heady and overwhelming floral. The calones give the composition a refreshing, airy quality, while just a hint of clean, earthy warmth grounds everything, creating balance and elegance. This fragrance feels so real—full colour, full natural, totally effortless. If magnolia had its own dewy, golden hour moment, it would smell like this. Easily one of the nicest scents ever crafted.

For reasons I can’t quite explain, I’ve always perceived this fragrance as something far more than just another fresh summer scent. To me, Eau de Magnolia is summer poetry, an exercise in abstraction rather than a simple olfactory refreshment. I imagine a summer night by the sea. A luxurious hotel room with the windows thrown wide open. A large bed dressed in white, slightly crumpled sheets, positioned right next to the open balcony doors. Outside, a sleeping beach stretches beneath a star-filled sky. Long white curtains sway gently in the warm breeze. On the table nearby, a half-finished bottle of champagne rests in an ice bucket, cold, sharp, almost serpentine. While it may not be my absolute favorite “fresh” fragrance, it is undeniably special and it always will be. There’s an elegance here that feels effortless yet deeply considered, refined without ever becoming stiff or sterile. Carlos Benaim is a big name, and his work for Frederic Malle speaks for itself. Eau de Magnolia stands as one of those creations that quietly demonstrates mastery rather than shouting for attention. For me, this is a perfect ten a fragrance that transcends the category of freshness and becomes something far more emotional, evocative, and artistic.

This perfume is just stunning and it really does smell just like magnolia flowers, which is a feat for a perfume! So few perfumes with the magnolia note in them ever smell like magnolias. (Gucci's Gucci Gorgeous Magnolia and Estée Lauder's Beautiful Magnolia are pretty dire examples of perfumes that are meant to smell like magnolia trees that come to mind) Eau de Magnolia is almost a perfect soliflore! I honestly can't smell any of the other notes in this, which suits me fine. The only thing I will say is, is that this fragrance did seem to open with a slightly strange artificial scent in the opening for the first 5 minutes or so and I also feel that this perfume lacks some of the creamy feeling you get from actual magnolia flowers. This only makes me like this slightly less. I got a good medium projection on my skin from this perfume and a wear time of about 9 and a half hours on my skin, which is actually just right for me. I get a lovely spring-like feeling from this too and find it oh so feminine. What is my score for Eau de Magnolia by Frederic Malle? An amazing 8.5/10, of course! This stuff is quality, for sure.

I have been hunting for a magnolia fragrance that specifically smells like the beautiful southern magnolia, which is not actually one of the magnolia species used in perfumery and is obviously then a little harder to pin down than other magnolias. Eau de Magnolia is the closest I’ve found so far and it’s intoxicating. The citrus notes are crucial to giving it the quality of a southern magnolia and its heady-yet-light, sunshine-in-wax, completely intoxicating aroma rather than the somewhat powdery and generic white-floral scent that many magnolia fragrances take on. Even still, I’m quite sure that I’ve smelled other citrus and magnolia fragrances but they don’t capture the same magic that Eau de Magnolia does. Smells exactly like inhaling a face full of a dinner plate-sized *Magnolia grandiflora* in peak bloom on a sunny May day, and just like the real thing, I can’t stop smelling this fragrance.

I was normally going to buy it, because i really wanted to have a pretty magnolia floral. It is a beautiful hesperidic, green magnolia chypre interpretation : don't expect a lush magnolia, no it opens very citrusy (bergamot, grapefruit) and what you get is an "abstract" almost ethereal magnolia, more the aroma's from the early blooming flower buds, green, crisp, rather than the rich intoxicating scent of full blooming magnolia's. The reason why i changed my mind finally is that it reminded me a lot to Cartier Baiser Vole, even if they don't share at all the same notes, at least on my skin, it sounds weird i know. A very unexpected twist indeed and i ended to buy another beautiful magnolia, the Annick Goutal's "Un matin d'orage" but that is a different story :-). To conclude, it is a very nice fragrance and if i did not have 2 Cartier Baiser Vole family members, i would have bought it.

Wow, the opening is citrus rind. Exactly like when you run a citrus rind over a grater. This is incredibly fresh and woody, and aromatic with a natural vetiver and souther floral magnolia. It’s quite realistic and lifelike. It’s just stunning and I wouldn’t mind smelling like this everyday. It’s joyful, positive, optimistic, photorealistic alive floral and citrus. Someone else mentioned Light Blue which it’s very much like but WAY better. It’s effortlessly airy, chic, breezy, with a slight warmth of something gentle. Like the beautiful outdoors on a sunshiny perfect day. This is probably one of the most unisex fragrances I’ve ever smelled. It simply just smells amazing. Quite frankly it’s one of the most beautiful fragrances I’ve ever encountered.

This has a very sweet and makeup/Barbie doll head type note, which takes me back to the late 90s or early 2000s. You know when magazines used to have fragrance samples on its pages and you had to rub you wrist against glossy magazine paper. It's not unpleasant in any way, I really like it. However, the top notes are fleeting and you're left with a lemon tree - pulp, rind and wood, waxy crushed Kaffir lime leaves. Like a cologne for men. Soapy musk in the drydown, after an hour, it goes back to magnolia, very sweet and pleasant. The more I wear it, the more I love it! One of my favourites! I love it more than Diptyque Do Son, FM Carnal flower, Aerin Lilac Path, Aerin Honeysuckle Mediterranean Honeysuckle Mimosa and a ton of other white florals.

When I want to feel good, calm and relaxed this is my go to fragrance. I love the uplifting fresh magnolia scent mixed with citrusy bergamot. Yes, I agree with some of the comments below, it can smell a bit lemony at times but then the magnolia kicks in and you are reminded of what a high quality floral fragrance this is. Longevity is very good, I can smell it on myself and clothes all day however projection and sillage is moderate. This is a fragrance I wear for myself to enjoy, it's not really strong enough to get noticed and pull compliments unless you're in extremely close quarters with the other person. The price is a pain point for me, yes I love the quality of this blend but I do think it's overpriced for what you get. Overall 9/10

Eau De Magnolia is a beautifully delicate slightly aquatic, soft white floral. It’s gently fragranced like an aromatic pear. It’s crisp, subtly sweet and watery like morning dew in an orchard. This magnolia is alive, velvety, fragile and pure. There is no sour greenness here, only a whisper of a jasmine tea note from the warm rising vapours of it infusing. It’s the most perfect bridal scent in its delicate, sheer innocence. Where so many other white florals scream or screech with jarring synthetics and unnecessary greenery, Eau De Magnolia is living, breathing white petal purity. Simply stunning perfumery and probably the best magnolia scent out there. Steaming magnolia and jasmine green tea.

Fresh bergamot opens the composition, followed by a gentle yet remarkably true-to-life magnolia. The effect feels both crisp and soft at the same time. The drydown stays airy and clean, free from any powdery heaviness. Compared with Acqua di Parma Magnolia Nobile, which feels polished and accommodating yet somewhat lacking in a distinct character, this fragrance takes a clearer stance. Frédéric Malle Eau de Magnolia comes across as a magnolia made specifically for summer: floral without excess, focused without rigidity, restrained yet confident. It does not try to cover every angle, but it never feels indecisive either An excellent fragrance overall

I wanted to choose Spring for this, but it’s really got a summer vibe to my nose. I can imagine being poolside wearing this, this fragrance complementing the sunscreen, sipping a colada. (There are no tropical notes, unless Jasmine is considered one, yet it would suit that poolside situation very well) This is a love, but one I can hold off on due to how self indulgent I’ve been this month (and summer is nearing its end anyway) As far as comparison, my experience with magnolia is limited. However, this does smell a lot like a strong, mature version of Gap Heaven to me. It’s in that DNA realm, for what it’s worth!

I just got this from Atelier de Prestige, Icon Siam, and August was incredibly kind and provided such wonderful service. I spent a long time choosing because I wanted an everyday fragrance. I considered several scents, including Meliora, Silver Mountain Water, Acne, and Oriana, but in the end I went with Eau de Magnolia. After the first wear, I was really impressed. The scent feels extremely clean and fresh. It does not last very long on my skin, probably around half a day, so I carry it with me to reapply during the day. No disappointment at all — it smells elegant, clean, and never feels toxic or overpowering.

This scent is beautiful. On me, it starts off citrusy and floral. The citrus is super smooth. Soon, you can smell the woods mixed in. In the dry down, the citrusy, floral, and woody elements all blend together nicely and it becomes more unisex. It's a mood booster for me. Happiness and sunshine. Also, I sprayed this around my dad and he liked it, haha. EDIT: My boyfriend, who is a "basic bitch" when it comes to fragrances and generally does not like my selections, really loved this one. Projection here is above average for the first few hours. Quite nice! :)

This is an excellent, balanced citrus-floral fragrance with similarities in composition to the MFK Aquas -- citrus top, floral heart, musky base -- blended well in a cologne-with-personality-style using quality ingredients. It is great for tropical Manila weather and a perfect unisex scent to use in the office. With above average longevity and moderate sillage, one doesn't need to spray too much to have a lasting, uplifting personal scent cloud for up to 7 hours. Young, modern, and bright, EDM is a scent I hope more will be able to try and enjoy. Try it!

الماغنوليا او المانوليا زهرةٌ تجمع الحسنين معاً العطر الجذّاب و المنظر الخلاب .. هذه الزهرة لها طابع حمضي و كريمي قليلا لذلك ترها في هذا العطر مجتمعة مع البرقموت و نجيل الهند او بما يسمى بالفيتفير .. العطر في بدايته يشبه رائحة الكالونيا ثم لا يلبث حتى تظهر رائحة هذي الزهرة الجميلة لتلتقي الروح بالجسد نعم انها لحظة التجدد و الكمال .. اعشق هذا النوع من الروائح المبهجة و المليئة بالحياة الثبات و الفوحان جيد جداً الجمال ٩/١٠ هذه الدار تهتم حقاً بجودة المكونات .. ملاحظة يستخدم زيت هذه الزهرة في مستحضرات التجميل لما لها من خصائص مجددة للبشرة و النظارة

@marck menke Yes you can smell spice nuances because magnolia petals have a distinct, spicy, gingery flavor, especially when pickled, and eaten raw.In some countries magnolia petals are used for cooking. It can taste lemony and gingery at the same time. I can smell strong gingery and peppery note in Eau due Magnolia too. So you are right there is a spice smell to it. Overall when you Google it it say that magnolia petals can smell like, ginger, cardamom, citrus even chili, depends of a type of Magnolia tree,shrub and colour of the flowers.

A very masterful blending which is fresh, contemporary, bright, mysterious, and surprisingly not particularly feminine! Any man with even a shred of artistic sense will immediately see its value and uniqueness. It would have been easy to turn this into a lady's perfume, but it only shows the mastery of the perfumer in how they have balanced this so very perfectly with green notes and base notes to make it a unisex, maybe even slightly male leaning, perfume. Delightful!