Mriga (มฤค)
Prin (2020)

Ultra luxury vintage meets modern perfumery, with a twist. Mriga is unbelievably smooth. No rough edges. Just absolute citrus woody musky perfection. Aromatic and earthy with the lightest touch of sweet notes. The natural musk is blended so masterfully that it's actually hard to pick out as an individual note. Fir and agarwood are probably the most prominent notes, but it doesn't overpower. This could be worn year round.

Mriga is a friendly, non-obtrusive fragrance, but at the same time, it is not for beginners. The musk here is not overly funky or animalic. The woods, citruses and musk all dance and weave in and out of the limelight early on, with the musk reigning supreme after all the fanfare is said and done and the dry down progresses. 

In fact, the perfume opens briefly with notes of bergamot, fir and grass and proceeds to another brief floral woody heart comprised of labdanum, tolu balsam and agarwood. It settles fast into a prolonged powdery base of deer the musk surrounded by sandalwood, oakmoss, and vetiver.

You can definitely tell the most ingredients are all natural and top notch quality. Once the smell settles, it turns quite sensual and closer to the skin. Sillage is big but projection is closer to the skin. This will stay on your skin at least a day and few days on your clothes. The evolution of notes during the dry down can be described as art.

The best of roses somehow always comes with the hand/paw/hoof that's handled them. Prin's Mriga smells of nature and vintage woods (both forests and old armoires), all concealing somewhere in the heart a single rose that's been depetaled and placed in a sachet for some wanderer to find with enough wisdom and determination. Let's not also forget the civet, which lingers around, filling the room, the space, the Earth.

Some might say this smells like an old man (old soul) but to me that's absolutely fine. I wouldn't mind smelling like this now or then, an instant classic.

I am hesitant to add anything to the excellent review drseid outlined earlier on Mriga, which neatly deconstructs notes and describes the particulars of this Prin Lomros beauty. I am impressed with the combination of tart lime, deer musk accord and green resinous woods that opens the scent and jets into the heart notes which are built around labdanum darkened with wormwood and layered over smokey but smooth delicate woods. Mriga is the most attractive of any Prin perfume with its soaring and searing lime tinged musk and fir and grassy vetiver spruce notes of this opening. The base is relatively quiet but is a solid light peat woods. The big difference between Mriga and a darker scent like Arsalan is the absence of deep rich oud notes here which might have given it more similarity to other famous Siberian Musk scents of the last year. The result is is an outstanding bright, softly naturalistic deer musk scent set upon a complex wood base. Highly recommended!

Mriga goes on with a moderately aromatic and slightly bitter, deep, dark green wormwood and fir balsam focal tandem with sharp woody vetiver support before transitioning to its heart. As the composition enters its early heart the dark fir led green accord remains, coupling with an emergent strong animalic musk that permeates and enhances it, supported by gothic dulled rose and a touch of gauze-like Oud. During the late dry-down the dark green aspect vacates as remnants of the residual musk join slightly powdery amber-like labdanum with an added leathery facet through the finish. Projection is average and longevity very good at around 10 hours on skin.

Going into trying Mriga I had heard that the composition was musk focused. As I tend to dislike heavy animalics, I had a bad feeling the perfume would not be my cup of tea. It turns out, however, that perfumer Prin Lomros has composed a real winner that is the perfect balance of animalic musk with a very convincing dark green fir balsam. The supporting dulled rose adds a very nice additional facet to the composition that is subtle, but extremely effective in achieving the balance sought. It should be mentioned that the musk used here is synthetic, but it never comes off smelling that way, instead rounding out some of the most off-putting aspects of real deer musk, while maintaining the realism of the "good stuff." I strongly prefer it to real deer musk and would love other compositions to follow suit if they can pull it off as well as in Mriga. If there is a weakness to the composition, it would have to be in the late dry-down, as Mriga turns a bit bland with the gentle powdery amber-like labdanum finish that while pleasant smelling, is somewhat of a letdown after a great aromatic open and the balanced musky green heart that impressed so much. The bottom line is the animalic expectations of the $190 per 30ml bottle Mriga may scare off some, but the perfume is actually very approachable and is a "very good" to "excellent" 3.5 to 4 stars out of 5 rated effort by Prin Lomros that is recommended to all but the most animalic perfume averse among us.