Agar Musk
Ramon Monegal (2009)

A decent fresh and spicy woody – but is that what one really looks for from an oud? I look for something hypnotic, that gives me at least a hint of a head rush, a touch of delirious sense saturation… Too much to ask?
I find Agar Musk an alright stab at ‘man cologne' territory, somewhat bleached woods (a cedar-sandal mix to my nose), cool vetiver in the non-earthy, non-gutsy manner, some nutmeg and leather also rendered in suave, smooth mode. The whole thing seems to be on auto-pilot, getting you there safely but with no sense of risk. A bit like M7 with the interesting bits edited out and by the time of the drydown just a faint sweetish woody thing. I ran through my 1.5 ml sample in a day with little to show for it; even sniffed the t-shirt I had been wearing the following day to check the traces and see whether I hadn't become anosmic to it – nope, this stuff is just, in the immortal words of Kajagoogoo, ‘too shy'.

A blast of bitter medicinal oud with pepper, nutmeg and vetiver. Non sweet, dark and slightly green, slightly leathery. A berry accord comes through. Dries down to a spicy-aromatic wood.

The name quite reflects the scent at the first sniff, as Agar Musk opens in fact with an oud note on musks, cinnamon, pepper, something floral, a resinous base. Not that different from dozens of other oud scents, apart from the slightly more complex frame of spicy-sweet flavours which embrace the dark dryness of oud. I also smell vetiver and a subtle amber accord. As minutes pass the vetiver note seems to get more prominent, so it all tends towards a softer woody scent, still peppery and spicy (nutmeg also). Basically a light, warm, gentle woody-oud scent with spices. In my opinion a bit light, flabby and short-lived.

5/10

This is a high quality and extremely well balanced woody spicy fragrance. I don't see anything oriental here!
The opening is strong yet mild peppery sandalwood with some frankincense and oud in the background and well amount of musk.
The sandalwood does not listed as the note but I can smell it and there is a strong dose of nutmeg right beside it that give the scent a peppery aroma, something like black pepper.
The oud note here is very smooth and lighter against sandalwood (at the start only!) and it has an oily feeling (not too much)
The scent is always like a cold breeze and there is no warm and sweet feeling in it to make it oriental.
The musk note is detectable but it's not very strong. it's just there more as a supporting note.
In the mid the scent is almost the same, except now I can smell more oud and less sandalwood with that peppery feeling and some musk.
Projection is crap and always close to the skin and longevity is around 3-4 hours on my skin.
A great and quality fragrance but it's something that I've smelled before and unfortunately projection and longevity is very bad.

Like the opening... I like the unusually sharp, slightly astringent woodiness in opening of this fragrance. But after about an hour my nose perceives it as a linear turpentine, becoming tiresome and headache inducing for the next 8 - 10 hours.Pros: good longevityCons: too linear"

Authentic oud and a black forest Finally, an authentic-smelling oud fragrance! This is not the screeching, synthetic chemical oud typical of a Montale. No--this is deep, round, and dark-dark-dark. I find myself returning to the point of application to get a noseful every few minutes. Will it last? How well does it project? Not sure. But is a marvelous scent. Note to potential buyers--if you're looking for a musky-heavy fragrance, this probably isn't your best bet. I get plenty of woody vetiver, spice, and of course agarwood (oud). Maybe even some amber lurking in the background. But no musk.Pros: One of the most natural smelling oud's I've foundCons: Not convinced yet on longevity"

A good fragrance with a lot of personality, basically centered over an almost aqueous (somehow transparent, at least at the beginning) agarwood/vetiver accord with hints of dustiness (may be a touch of incense and probably ambergris) and a musky final just adumbrated smoothness. The concoction which mostly conjures me this olfactory work is Wonderwood CdG, with its easily approachable watery woodiness but also Encre Noir comes to mind and in my opinion the vetiver is a really notable and standout presence in here. The initial combination between liquid agarwood, leather and sweet spices reports me ostensibly in a while on the mind a sort of blackberries aroma which in a while morphs towards its real woody/vetiver connotation. Also Dark Aoud Montale comes to mind, especially after the first blast but the latter is far more stark, dry and dusty/occult with its less approachable and far less sweet status. The dry down becomes surprisingly less aqueous, less vetiver centered, more woody, more mysteriously fruity and vaguely more soft (as well as some balsams were soothing the accords) with a finally more pronounced spicy sweetness (a sweet/spicy woodiness). A more than decent experiment which does not frankly embodies my cup of tea but that is worthy a try for the lovers of these masculine properly woody fragrances.

Thankfully, I can detect Oud! It has a nice presence, but the overall fragrance is too faint. The vetiver is demure. The leather is discreet. The musk is understated. Combined, the experience is underwhelming. With a name like "Agar Musk" I was expecting a beautiful savage, but instead it's just a distant pleasant calm muted scent. I'm not at all thrilled.

I would say it's a fragrance on the fresher side and while it has 3 notes that I love that make up that up leaders of this fragrance, the blend just doesn't scream out at me. It's a good fragrance but not a rock star to me and for the price...probably not. I would say the fresh musk (not animalic at all) makes up most of the composition with vetiver, oud and nutmeg lightly playing along with it. If Calvin Klein were to release this fragrance I would give it a 5 out of 5 in the designer world but in the niche realm I give it a 3 out of 5.

The beauty of quality oud or agarwood lies in its ability to add depth and gravitas to even the most ethereal of compositions. Nowhere is this clearly demonstrated than in Ramone Monegal's Agar Musk. I get none of the screechy woods you find in cheap synthetic blends, just smooth whiffs of clean vetiver on a dry somewhat musky bed of agarwood. No leather though.

Texturally it is airy and dry with a certain coarseness that reminds me of linen. In warm and humid climes it seems to last 3-5 hours on average before receding to a skin scent for the next 3. Projection does not extend beyond embracing distance which in my books is not necessarily a bad thing as it keep things a little more ...intimate?

Paired with a crisp white shirt and jacket combo, it is probably the kind of scent you could imagine on a suave-looking man in his 40s who's got it all together. I've never been a fan of the masculine transparent woods genre but this contender is seriously giving me second thoughts.

I am a huge fan of agarwood (oud) and this doesn't disappoint. The astringent opening of oud is reminiscent of Montale Dark Aoud...but less harsh. The vetiver is present and helps blend the oud and musk. It is a very dry fragrance, which dries down to a dry oud.