Magazine Street

Strange Invisible Perfumes is one of my favorite houses! They are quite unique and the quality of ingredients is just a cut above the rest, in my opinion. This perfume is no exception. I find it beautiful, lasting (about 8 hours), and unique. I do get the New Orleans reference - the sweetness and beauty alongside the grubby darkness. This perfume is smokey, earthy, slightly bodily, with a soft sweetness in the background. I get ambrette and especially vetiver most strongly, with the vanilla becoming more prominent in the dry down. I'm not very familiar with Magnolia but I do get a whisper of something floral throughout the length of wear. Perfect for a vetiver lover like me, but if you don't share my love of it then this perfume might not be for you.

It started out smoky and had a weird mustiness to it that I did not enjoy (ambrette). This subsided with time, and I got far more vetiver from this than vanilla. It was like 90% vetiver and the rest was all the other notes. I really liked it! The woodiness was so real, like a freshly cut piece of wood. That's what I noticed for most of the time I was wearing it. The strong vetiver translated into a slightly masculine scent on my skin, but I liked it that way. So while I was at first "disappointed" that this was not the rich, creamy perfume that Fire & Cream was, I was still impressed and would definitely consider purchasing. I found that it was a soft perfume, but it lasted at least 8 hours on me. Men should consider sampling.

I love this unique, strange, impossibly beautiful fragrance, and I love the New Orleans of my memories, which will always be recalled within the sillage of this magical scent. This isn't just fragrance, it's a potion that influences you to see differently through your own eyes. This scent does things to places you go, and people around you. It's powerful, puzzling, and intriguing. Balahoutis uses just the right amount of witchcraft and raw talent, to ensure stunning creations will be noticed, and not easily forgotten, if ever.

Keep in mind this is a natural perfume with no synthetics, so it behaves differently than regular perfumes. Mag St. is sharp in the opening, but it does soften in the drydown. It is enjoyable and reminds me of my beloved hometown.

This is in my top 10 favorite perfumes. While I'm not ready to do a proper review, just yet... I must say this is a hundred times better dabbed vs. sprayed. It loses a lot of the creaminess upon spraying.

Definitely reminiscent of New Orleans, spicy floral that's a bit dirty too. Not much sweetness, more rum. Finished the bottle but moved on to Une Nuit Nomade's Jardins de Misfah, which makes me happier.

This is another SIP creation in which ambrette dominates. It’s there from the first whiff, along with a slight floral note that must be the magnolia listed in the notes (Is it Magnolia grandiflora? Where did she get the EO for that? Or is it Michaelia alba?) In any case, the combination of vetiver, “magnolia”, vanilla and ambrette does a good job of evoking the hot, humid, greasy, slightly raunchy odor of streets in the French Quarter of New Orleans, overlaid with whiffs of the occasional flower. As it dries down, the ambrette recedes into the background a bit, allowing the other notes to come to the fore. As the scent dries down, a sweet vanilla musk scent takes over, and it’s on that note that it fades away to oblivion. Sillage is moderate, and the scent lasts 2-3 hours but leaves traces of ambrette on clothing for longer. A nice variation on "botanical musk", definitely worth sampling.

Like a lot of naturals, this takes longer than the average fragrance to settle into the skin. Once it does, it's an interesting experience, mingling a humid, slightly oily vetiver with the muskiness of ambrette, the rounded sweetness of vanilla, slashed through with a touch of jaggedly pungent white florals. It's a bit smoky and swampy, but appealingly so. This is not a refined scent, but it is an evocative one that smells damp, a bit dirty, and alive. I enjoy this very much.

Thank god these fragrances aren't very strong since they are not that good. This one again, like a couple of others reminds me of herbal bug spray. If you want an all natural brand w/ great fragrances try Gather perfumes, Providence Perfume Company, Hiram Green or Abel.

Strange Invisible Perfumes MAGAZINE STREET smells rather rough-hewn in the way that organic perfumes sometimes do. But this one is also somewhat greasy, sharp and unpleasant to my nose. I'm not really enjoying it at all, though I love ambrette in smoother presentations of that note. Here it's dirty and musky and mixed up with patchouli. Needless to say, this perfume would not be an appropriate choice for those who have become smitten with the shampoo/conditioner fragrance movement. I agree with Doc Elly, that this scent does effectively evoke the feeling of the somewhat seedy streets of New Orleans, so in that sense, I'd say that the perfumer has succeeded. But this is not a perfume which I would choose to wear. It's more like one of those wild rides chez Le Grand Serge. In fact, come to think of it, this perfume might have been a Lutens launch! It is definitely unique, and I'm sure that some would like it, but it's not for me.

This is the most interesting of the bunch so far. Still not a fan though. :( It opens with a smoky/tar like tone and something dusty. It's dark and rich smelling and like it's been put through a bonfire. Interesting! It's very rough in the opening and makes me want to cough when I smell it. The vetiver is running the show when it's wet, it dominates over all of the other notes, and this smells masculine. Once the rich magnolia and vanilla start making an appearance this completely changes character. It smooths out a lot more and the harsh rough firey-ness calms down. The darkness from the vetiver is still there underneath but it's much nicer now, although still not something I'd wear or spend $350 on!!! This one stands out as being better quality than the others I've tried. I like it!

It is very creamy, sweet due to the strong overload with ambrette and vanilla. does not turn sharp on my skin, very similar to me to the other Strange Invisible, i.e. Fire and Cream, although that one is a little smokier.