Let's talk about musks

[DeathArrow]

Anything about musks. White musks, black musks, clean musks, dirty musks. What musk fragrances do you own, what musk fragrances do you like.

My first musk fragrance was Jovan Musk, which I acquired a bit more than a year ago. It was followed by Ted Lapidus Pour Homme, Jacques Bogart One Man Show, Boss Number One, Karl Lagerfeld Classic, YSL Kouros, Jacques Bogart Furyo and Kiehl's Original Musk.

I like both clean and dirty musks but I enjoy the latter the most. I kind of liked all most dirty, animalic fragrances I came across, so liking musk fragrances is natural for me.

What are your favorites?

 

[hednic]

What musk fragrances do you own, what musk fragrances do you like.

Own so many and like all the ones I have. One i particularly enjoy is Musc by LT Piver.

 

[thrilledchilled]

Narciso Rodrigues for men. Love it.

 

[Schubertian]

I like your idea for a thread. Personally I can't work out what "musk" smells like... 😕 I mean, almost all perfumes have musk in them, don't they? From Chanel No.5 to Vol de Nuit to Amouage Lyric... I just have no idea what the musk contributes to the scent, besides perhaps a kind of textural fuzzy, slightly corporeal feel ?

I do know I dislike the modern "clean laundry musk" style. Most of them I just can't stand at all. The only one in this style I quite like is Bulgari's Tentation Patchouli. The Narciso Rodriguez line never worked for me, though I find the black bottle EDT the best of those.

Examples of musks I like would be the Fare rancesca Bianchi style: I have Lost in Heaven, a decant of Tyger Tyger and The Lover's Tale, and liked most of the others (Unspoken Musk is like a more wearable TLT). Papillon Salome, one of my favourite perfumes and the dirtiest that I can bear, apparently has no musk - I could have sworn it did have some! I also enjoy Marlou Carnicure, which to me seems a bit like a "lite" pared-down version of Salome. I did try Muscs Koublai Khan recently and whilst it didn't go completely unwashed Mongolian horsemen on me, it was a bit much to wear. (Edited to add: actually MKK smelled to me exactly like the musk in Salome - only in Salome there are other things besides. And I like Zoologist's Musk Deer - to me it's very cozy, furry musk, not too clean but also not dirty. Human-animal.)

 

[hollywoodforever]

I love musks, but still find them hard to describe. For me, musk is not an identifiable note so much as a feeling in a fragrance. I always think of musky fragrances as having a "nuzzle me" quality - where I just want to bury my nose where it's sprayed or snuggle up with it under a blanket. Some musky fragrances I've tried are:

• Royal Muska by M. Micallef
  
  • Probably the best "musk dominant" fragrance I've tried. It really does smell like a warm human body, up to and including some brief moments of *almost* dirty underwear. It also has rose, ylang, some fruit. This house is much underrated.
• Original Musk by Kiehl's
  
  • Pretty similar to Royal Muska above, but with no dirtiness.
• Musc EDP by Bruno Acampora
  
  • Everyone raves about it, but it skewed heavily toward patchouli on my skin, very masculine, not my cuppa
• Thundra by Profumum Roma
  
  • Starts out tingling, cooling mint choco-chip ice cream, finishes with cozy warm musk. Really nice
• Chanel No. 5
  
  • The civet and nitro-musks in older bottles make this legendary perfume irresistibly addictive
• Narciso Rodriguez for Her EDT (tall black bottle)
  
  • Modern chypre with scads of musk. Quite possibly the sexiest perfume ever
• Under my Skin by Francesca Bianchi
  
  • Smells like the top of someone's head. Beautiful.

 

[Schubertian]

I love musks, but still find them hard to describe. For me, musk is not an identifiable note so much as a feeling in a fragrance. I always think of musky fragrances as having a "nuzzle me" quality - where I just want to bury my nose where it's sprayed or snuggle up with it under a blanket.

You described it very well.

I'm trying to get hold of an old bottle of No.5 extrait for that reason...

 

[Schubertian]

Oh, I forgot to add - there is also a "vegetal musk" that comes from ambrette seed, as far as I know. Is this something you enjoy?
I'm not sure I like ambrette, myself: Le cri de la lumière has lots of it and didn't work for me at all; Chanel's No. 18 was not a hit either.

 

[_Nicolas_]

Are musks the same as animalics?

EDIT Ah, I think I get it now, musk is one of four animalic bases!

https://takeonethingoff.com/blog/2021/11/24/musk-perfumery-profiles-ethical-alternatives/

 

[Bavard]

Boss No. 1 smells animalic to me, but some of that is from jasmine, I believe. I’m not really sure, but to me it smells like intense natural components were used. Ho Hang Club has a similar animalic to Boss.

Bal a Versailles is a reference animalic, which has more of a musk-specific feel.

JHL and Sybaris are a couple others.

 

[Franco65]

Kouros vintage was pure animal, dogs in the streets went bersek....

 

[thesacredsaguaro]

Eo2 by Ensar is probably my all time favorite musk scent. It’s made with deer musk but the spices are what brings out the rich, pheromonal qualities of the musk. It’s very primal but overall a great incense and spice scent. A friend said it smells like a dog grooming facility. It’s very warm and furry.

Mriga by Prin is one of the best non animalic musk accords I’ve smelled. It’s easy to sample, vintage in aesthetic but also modern.

Civet de Nuit by Areej le Dore is just pure, musky, ambery, goodness. It’s like a vintage time capsule of incense, florals and gorgeous civet. Nothing funky or overly animalic either. Lots of powdery musky qualities and also warm furry musks.

Memoir Man by Amouage to my nose is essentially a green, minty musk and incense scent. Love it but it’s very musky on my skin.

 

[Ken_Russell]

Among the ones did test, especially but not only: Extase Musk, Acca Kappa Muschio Bianco, The Body Shop White Musk.

While among the ones do happen to own, again in to particular order: Bronnley Original Gentleman's EDT, Bogart One Man Show Gold Edition, Jovan Sex Appeal, Halston 1-12 and Z 14, certain aspects in the EDP concentration of Boucheron PH as well.

 

[hollywoodforever]

Adding on...

Things that are actual musks: deer musk, civet, ambergris, castoreum, beeswax, Angelica, ambrette, costus (not cistus), spikenard, ambroxan, cashmeran, galaxolide, etc.

Things that can "feel musky" to me: tuberose, narcissus, hyacinth, vetiver, sandalwood, potatoes, carrot, clary sage, "bread ingredients" (wheat, rye, caraway, yeast, etc.), sea salt...

 

[chypre]

Musks are some of my favourite notes. I love almost all kinds of musks, from clean, white musks to dirty, feral musks. I do not like laundry musk, though. Like hollywoodforever, I also feel that "musk" isn't so much a definable note (because there is so much variation) as a feeling. I recognise it as a warm, semi-sweet, tenacious note that has a rounded skin-like feeling. White musks are sheerer, animalic musks are furrier and warmer, but they are all tenacious and round.

I admit I haven't kept up with the sampling in recent years, so houses like Zoologist, Francesca Bianchi, Prin and EO are still on my to-try list. Of the artisanal houses, I have and love the warm, furry quality of the musk in ALD's Siberian Musk, and his earlier musks. DSH makes a refined honey-tinged aldehydic, animalic musk scent using African Hyraceum called Le Serval, which has a vintage-styled roundness, but with a slightly more modern subtlety. There are fewer animalic musks in commercial brands, but Tom Ford used to make a fantastic one called Urban Musk, which I missed out on, sadly.

Of the cleaner musks, I love the retro styled Kiehl's Musk, Diptyque's Fleur de Peau, Bruno Acampora's Musc Essence. Fleur de Peau is especially nice in summer, when the musk warms up and project more. I also adore the white musk and ambrette blend in Mugler's Over the Musk, but that's another one I tragically missed out on.

 

[thrilledchilled]

Eo2 by Ensar is probably my all time favorite musk scent. It’s made with deer musk but the spices are what brings out the rich, pheromonal qualities of the musk. It’s very primal but overall a great incense and spice scent. A friend said it smells like a dog grooming facility. It’s very warm and furry.

Mriga by Prin is one of the best non animalic musk accords I’ve smelled. It’s easy to sample, vintage in aesthetic but also modern.

Civet de Nuit by Areej le Dore is just pure, musky, ambery, goodness. It’s like a vintage time capsule of incense, florals and gorgeous civet. Nothing funky or overly animalic either. Lots of powdery musky qualities and also warm furry musks.

Memoir Man by Amouage to my nose is essentially a green, minty musk and incense scent. Love it but it’s very musky on my skin.

I like your choices here. Also I greatly enjoy Musk Khabib by Bortnikoff, and his Musk Cologne.

 

[Zenwannabee]

A very interesting and enlightening discussion. As I haven’t seen it mentioned, I wanted to add Aqua Velva Musk, as it’s the one I wear most. And for an aftershave it has nearly nuclear sillage… 🙃

 

[Dothraki]

It’s interesting. Musk was a perfume ingredient that was used for thousands of years up until the late 1800s when they stumbled on the ability to synthesize organic compounds. That, along with price and availability…then ultimately the Musk Deer was listed as endangered, caused mostly all perfume to contain synthetic musks. I think it was around this time that everyone was throwing “musk” on the bottles to make sales. Over time it became a very common theme and synthetic musks were all that was left, with all sorts of variations of notes and accords trying to approximate the natural scent of the deer musk. Now, there are still a small handful of excellent noses using real deer musk.

The same thing happened with oud. Although you can occasionally find a ”high end” perfume special release with real oud…it’s usually of the lowest quality and is in such a small amount you wouldn’t know it’s there.

Anyway, my first experience with Musk was Tigerlust by Ensar Oud. The effect the Musk had on my brain when I got that first whiff was incredible. I’ll never forget it. After that, I was hooked. Oud came shortly after.

Favorites off the top of my head:
Tigerlust - Ensar
Siberian Musk - ALD
Musk Lave - ALD
War & Peace II - ALD

 

[Dothraki]

Btw… if you go down the path of real deer musk & oud, approach with caution, it could ruin your whole collection. It happened to me.

 

[Monsieur Montana]

Moschus its almost everywhere as an ingredient.
At our house moschus comes in the form of Narciso for Her in all iterations and smells sexy and opulent.
That was the feminien part though.
The masculine includes a lot of perfumes like (again those are the perfumes i find they are mainly musc centered and not just containing moschus as an ingered:
Narciso for Him
Musc Faberge
Boss
Russian Musk II
Musk Lave
Helmut Lang
Furyo
Monsieur Givenchy
Givenchy Gentleman
Giorgio For Men
Boucheron pour Homme
Rapport
Marte
Marbert Man
Ungaro pour L' Homme
Vetiver de Puig

 

[StylinLA]

Bortnikoff Musk Cologne and Keihls Musk top my list.

I love Musc Ravageur, but I don't really relate to it as a musk which is odd I'd say.

At around $50US, I think Basenoters are crazy to not have the Kiehls. Just a great scent and very unisex.