Pheromone Midnight

balsamic, weird, unique at first; in the top there is bergamot, coriander, sage; the middle is sweeter and powdery with lots of violet, some ylang and a lot of dusty rose; incredibly lovely and amazing for the price, great blind buy; I do not agree with the other references here to other fragrances. I would swear there is iris and orris root in here. This is like powdery meets resin. I also would swear on benzoin being in here in the base. Just holy Jesus Batman. This gets more and more amazing as it dries down. Not for everyone. It's very modern/niche with a vintage sensibility but has that weirdness of something conceptual. You have to have a hell of a nose to appreciate this one, I think. If all of my friends and family sniffed it, they probably would hate it.

Classic oriental. Exotic and potent. Very similar to Pheromone elixir BY MM (limited edition, 5-10 years ago) but this is sharper. This also reminds me of COCO.

Pheromone Midnight EDP In honor of Marilyn Miglin, who passed away last month (March 2022), I am reviewing some of her fragrances here in the database. I have many of her fragrances—at least a dozen—and Pheromone Midnight EDP is in the top 5. I like it better than the original Pheromone EDP (which I have also reviewed on Fragrantica). But you should know that this is because I am naturally oriented toward sharper, higher-pitched, dry scents (most chypres of the 1960s-80s are my drug) and my bottle of Midnight EDP is much thinner and sharper than the original Pheromone EDP. In fact, after smelling the original vintage Pheromone for 40 minutes and noting again the almost nutty roundness at its core (that bids me consistently bypass Pheromone for the sharper 70s chypres such as Clinique Aromatics Elixir and Lancome Magie Noire), the higher-pitched Pheromone Midnight almost seems acetone-like by comparison. (I don’t believe this is “acetone-like” as in a vintage frag that has “turned/gone off;” although I don’t know how old my bottle of Midnight is, I know what “turned” vintage frags can smell like, and this isn’t it!) Why did MM’s marketing team name a sharper and brighter fragrance “Midnight”? Well, I can believe it of marketers but not of Ms Miglin herself, as she strikes me as someone who was a scent-obsessed, true fragrance enthusiast. Anyway, another reviewer reasonably pointed out below that she or he already has Magie Noire, Paloma Picasso and other classics, so Pheromone Midnight doesn’t offer her or him anything better/more. I agree that if someone already has one or two dry 1960s, 70s or 80s chypres and isn’t a louche philanderer of chypres, he or she needn’t add Pheromone Midnight to the wardrobe. But I (yes, an unrepentant chypreanizer) *do* detect something different—almost significantly so—in Midnight. It’s an aromatic accord that makes me think of warm late spring sunlight bathing the windowsill of a cottage. I think it might be the combined effect of the herbs named in some lists of notes e.g. coriander, sage, but I’m not certain. I don’t think it’s the ambergris, but then, most ambergris-heavy frags with which I’m familiar are more recent compositions with characters so different from dry 70s chypres that it’s hard to make an accurate comparison of notes. Whatever it is, it renders Midnight sufficiently different to other chypres of the late 20th century that a person who wants a stable of subtly-varying chypres should not hesitate to add this to their wardrobe. It is the perfect choice for a day of dry sunshine in any season in the northern hemisphere, although unlike the original Pheromone—which is rounder and lower-pitched and would have trouble penetrating muggy heat enough for *my* taste—I would also wear Midnight in thick humid summer climes. It is a clear, high ray of dry herbal sunlight piercing the darkness—and maybe that, after all was what the late Ms Miglin, in her olfactory wisdom, understood when allowing the name. RIP.

Based off other reviews this seems to be a divisive fragrance. To me, it smells kinda unusual and exotic, but in a compelling way. The bergamot and sage are really prominent, which I don't mind at all because I love both notes. There's some floral and sweeter hints mixed in there as well, but they aren't very pronounced. I can easily understand why this isn't for everyone, because once again, it is a very unusual scent.

I have the Perfume Oil form of Pheromone Midnight and like it very much. It reminds me of Estee Lauder's Azuree. The Ambergris, Clary Sage and Cardamon notes in Pheromone Midnight are especially pronounced. This is a non-sweet, dry, fougre fragrance that smells more expensive than it is. The trailing sillage is lovely.