Musk Cologne fragrance notes
Head
- bergamot, lemon, tangerine, orange
Heart
- green tea, lily of the valley, magnolia, tuberose, ylang ylang
Base
- kabarga deer musk, indian sandalwood, guaiac wood
Where to buy
Latest Reviews of Musk Cologne

Then I smelled this. Talk about a beautiful scent!
The way this settles onto skin and gently radiates puts a lot of other scents to shame. It reeks of quality.
Not a lot of projection but you know you're wearing it and that's all that matters.
I could probably be happy if I wore this six days a week. Nothing should smell this good.
But a bit rich for my blood these days...

Anyway, the premise behind Musk Cologne is to be a wearable potentially every day fragrance, an exercise in the classic French style of citrus, florals, and musks, made "the Bortnikoff way" with predominantly natural materials. The name "Musk Cologne" is a bit off too, as this is still an eau de parfum in concentration, but compared to some other things the house has released, might as well be a cologne. the initial envelope is a beautiful tangerine , orange, lemon, and bergamot oil mixture, all natural and devoid of any citral or boosted aldehydes to make it leap in your face. Instead, the citric sweetness and freshness gently wafts into your awareness before an indolic ylang-ylang note enters to add heft. The other white floral component here represent the few synthetic materials present because there is no viable natural source of muguet/lily of the valley, and honestly perfumers have been using stuff to simulate that since time immemorial anyway. The deer musk base is surprisingly subtle, but this is meant to be more about the combination of citrus and white flowers over musk anyway, and meant to be casually worn. The musk pairs with real Mysore sandalwood to create a classic creamy powderiness like you find in some turn-of-the-century fragrances such as D'Orsay Etiquette Bleue (1908), but rounded with the honeyed slightly-smoky edge of natural guaiac wood. All told, the only bit of disappointment if one really looks for some is that Musk Cologne tries to be so rigidly classic in design, but damn if it isn't a good take on what may be to some a "dated" style. Wear time is easily past 10 hours, although sillage is close to skin for most of it. Best use pretty much any time outside when you need something that projects.
Dmitry Bortnikov seems to have much interest in classic composition and innate talent as a self-taught indie perfumer, just as pretty much any other noteworthy player in the indie scene outside artisanal realms, like a Bruno Fazzolari or the late Vero Kern (RIP). It's therefore an unusual treat for me to get my nose on one of his creations, as like with most all-natural indies with a super-small batch release, his stuff is here today and sold out yesterday once superfans buy their backups on day one and scalpers snatch the rest for a good flip on eBay afterward. Luckily, Musk Cologne seems to be one that gets successive batches made of it, so maybe there isn't a specific irreplaceable vintage tincture of musk or sandalwood oil being used, and Dmitry is likely using the closest thing to a "communelle" of these ingredients as he can possibly make given their availability. It's all speculation at this point, but whatever the reason, it seems you can still pick it up reasonably in the short term future from authorized sellers unless that changes. After another rewarding experience with Bonheur (2018), one of his here-today-gone-forever fragrances, I'm convinced he's trying to frame himself as the closest modern equivalent to a pre-industrial 19th century perfumer as you can get, back when they were less chemist and more apothecary. Scarcity and price aside, Musk Cologne shows me that wearable and artistically satisfying experiences where blending is just as important as distillation of materials can exist in the world of artisanal perfumery, and that's exciting. Stylistic exploration may forever be trapped before a certain point in time, just because so many styles developed in the last 100 years are so heavily dependent on synthetics, but I don't think I'll ever tire of smelling a well-done citrus floral musk like this. Thumbs up.
ADVERTISEMENT


I get several hours in longevity with moderate projection, it does stay close to you.
All in all a lovely exotic smelling scent with quality natural ingredients.
