Musk S
S-Perfume (2014)

After cult avant-garde releases such as S-Ex and 100% Love, Nobi Shioya re-launches his S-Perfume line with the introduction of a new packaging, new bottles design and four new fragrances of which S-Musk strikes as the most interesting…at least to me.

Anyone who's into minimalistic / anti-perfume type of things, shouldn't miss the chance to try this hyper-modern musk as one of the most accomplished compositions in this polarizing genre. S-Musk is basically an invisible perfume and, as much as we're all more or less sick and tired of these silly gimmicky tricks, Carlos Benaim was able here to give this genre a reason to exist. The fragrance, while somehow striking as a inoffensive, subtle musky thing with soft ambery-vanillic nuances, it's still able to hold your attention and feel completely nailed and never dull. More than describing how it smells like, I prefer to describe how it actually feels. I find it extremely mechanical and technical yet, somehow, warm and human. In this context, it would make one hell of a fragrance to wear while listening to a Boards Of Canada record. When it comes to minimalism applied to perfume, it's really too easy to fall into *simplistic* territories and, as much as S-Musk is far from being a monster of complexity, it still strikes as the work of a master perfumer.

Now, if your concept of musk goes hand in hand only with stuff such as Muscs Koublai Khan and the likes, you'll most definitely be in for a disappointment. Instead, if you're drawn to the hyper-modern minimalism of Comme Des Garcons, Sissel Tolaas, Andrea Maack and the original S-Perfume range, go ahead.

Quick note on the new presentation: I find both the new bottle and box, to be a bit *cheap* looking. I definitely preferred the aseptic, apothecary style of their previous flacons.