description of different musks

[parker25mv]

Hopefully these descriptions will help some of you trying to search for musks with different attributes or smell nuances. This list is not complete or extensive.

Polycyclic musks
The polycyclic musks are generous, round and act as base notes. These synthetic musks are now banned or limited by some major perfume groups, for reasons of accumulation in the human body and environmental protection reasons. These musks are not very biodegradable and they have been identified in small quantities in human breast milk. Despite this, it can be hard to entirely replace some of their effects.

Tonalide or Fixolide (IFF 1967), which is quite woody and earthy.
Galaxolide (1954) is round, soapy and fruity.

Macrocyclic musks
Muscone (Firmenich): a slightly animal note
Muscenone (Firmenich): a powdery note
Exaltolide (Firmenich): discovered in ambrette seed, it has a floral and angelic note
Habanolide (Firmenich): a woody and powdery note
Ambrettolide (Givaudan): from the juice of angelica with amber and fruity scent
Globalide (Symrise): a clean, vaporous fragrance
Musk T (Takasago) or ethylene brassylate: can be used to give a galaxolide effect; Musk T is easy to use, it is round and soft
Dihydro Ambrettolide: fruity, reminiscent of the ambrette
Cosmone: a powdery musk (captive Givaudan) that gives a nitro musk effect to the compositions.

Linear (or Alicyclic) musks
Helvetolide (Firmenich), it is clean, white, milky, fruity
Romandolide (Firmenich) is linen with cotton effect
Sylkolide (Givaudan) is fruity and sweet, somewhat silky smooth in feel

 

[amateurcitrus]

Thanks for posting this. One of the things I’m very curious about with the different musks, and haven’t been able to find anywhere is the fixative qualities of them and how that may vary by the facets of whatever they are being combined with, if it does vary. For instance, which of the musks extends the tenacity of other aroma chemicals in a composition the longest? And is it different for different materials (I would guess so)?

 

[mnitabach]

Hopefully these descriptions will help some of you trying to search for musks with different attributes or smell nuances. This list is not complete or extensive.

Polycyclic musks
The polycyclic musks are generous, round and act as base notes. These synthetic musks are now banned or limited by some major perfume groups, for reasons of accumulation in the human body and environmental protection reasons. These musks are not very biodegradable and they have been identified in small quantities in human breast milk. Despite this, it can be hard to entirely replace some of their effects.

Tonalide or Fixolide (IFF 1967), which is quite woody and earthy.
Galaxolide (1954) is round, soapy and fruity.

Macrocyclic musks
Muscone (Firmenich): a slightly animal note
Muscenone (Firmenich): a powdery note
Exaltolide (Firmenich): discovered in ambrette seed, it has a floral and angelic note
Habanolide (Firmenich): a woody and powdery note
Ambrettolide (Givaudan): from the juice of angelica with amber and fruity scent
Globalide (Symrise): a clean, vaporous fragrance
Musk T (Takasago) or ethylene brassylate: can be used to give a galaxolide effect; Musk T is easy to use, it is round and soft
Dihydro Ambrettolide: fruity, reminiscent of the ambrette
Cosmone: a powdery musk (captive Givaudan) that gives a nitro musk effect to the compositions.

Linear (or Alicyclic) musks
Helvetolide (Firmenich), it is clean, white, milky, fruity
Romandolide (Firmenich) is linen with cotton effect
Sylkolide (Givaudan) is fruity and sweet, somewhat silky smooth in feel

For anyone stumbling on this thread & reading this copy-pasted drivel, these verbal descriptions of what these musks purportedly "smell like" are both almost all wrong AND more importantly provide essentially zero insight into how one might use them in perfume compositions.

 

[Casper_grassy]

Thanks for posting this. One of the things I’m very curious about with the different musks, and haven’t been able to find anywhere is the fixative qualities of them and how that may vary by the facets of whatever they are being combined with, if it does vary. For instance, which of the musks extends the tenacity of other aroma chemicals in a composition the longest? And is it different for different materials (I would guess so)?

What do you mean by fixative qualities?
Like how long it lasts on skin? If so, yes, everything “varies” based on what it is combined with.

Many musks last a long time, some a very long time. There are musks than can be smelled on the top such as ambrettolide and cashmeran, both last a long time too well into the drydown.

Ethylene brassylate is practically permanent.

To make an example, if you make a crappy accord that can be observed in the drydown, then the musks “could” be fairly useless, let’s say you made a fragrance with 3% ambrocenide and 10% galaxolide, the chances of you noticing any galaxolide in the drydown are insanely low, maybe completely imperceptible.

Just because something does something on its own does not mean it will do it with other things.

 

[Pharmacist_Blender]

Hopefully these descriptions will help some of you trying to search for musks with different attributes or smell nuances. This list is not complete or extensive.

Polycyclic musks
The polycyclic musks are generous, round and act as base notes. These synthetic musks are now banned or limited by some major perfume groups, for reasons of accumulation in the human body and environmental protection reasons. These musks are not very biodegradable and they have been identified in small quantities in human breast milk. Despite this, it can be hard to entirely replace some of their effects.

Tonalide or Fixolide (IFF 1967), which is quite woody and earthy.
Galaxolide (1954) is round, soapy and fruity.

Macrocyclic musks
Muscone (Firmenich): a slightly animal note
Muscenone (Firmenich): a powdery note
Exaltolide (Firmenich): discovered in ambrette seed, it has a floral and angelic note
Habanolide (Firmenich): a woody and powdery note
Ambrettolide (Givaudan): from the juice of angelica with amber and fruity scent
Globalide (Symrise): a clean, vaporous fragrance
Musk T (Takasago) or ethylene brassylate: can be used to give a galaxolide effect; Musk T is easy to use, it is round and soft
Dihydro Ambrettolide: fruity, reminiscent of the ambrette
Cosmone: a powdery musk (captive Givaudan) that gives a nitro musk effect to the compositions.

Linear (or Alicyclic) musks
Helvetolide (Firmenich), it is clean, white, milky, fruity
Romandolide (Firmenich) is linen with cotton effect
Sylkolide (Givaudan) is fruity and sweet, somewhat silky smooth in feel

Exaltolide is found in traces in Angelica and Ambrettolide is found in ambrette seeds. You've got those two mixed up.

And Cosmone is not a captive anymore, its been widely available for a long time.

 

[amateurcitrus]

What do you mean by fixative qualities?
Like how long it lasts on skin? If so, yes, everything “varies” based on what it is combined with.

Many musks last a long time, some a very long time. There are musks than can be smelled on the top such as ambrettolide and cashmeran, both last a long time too well into the drydown.

Ethylene brassylate is practically permanent.

To make an example, if you make a crappy accord that can be observed in the drydown, then the musks “could” be fairly useless, let’s say you made a fragrance with 3% ambrocenide and 10% galaxolide, the chances of you noticing any galaxolide in the drydown are insanely low, maybe completely imperceptible.

Just because something does something on its own does not mean it will do it with other things.

I understand fixatives to be aromachemicals that extend the life of other aromachemicals. I get that fixatives will probably vary in how they affix other aroma chemicals but I’m curious if others have notes this. For instance, does habanolide extend citrus base scents better than florals or Vice versa. How does that compare to other musks? Does that correlate to the general tenacity of that musk?

 

[Casper_grassy]

I understand fixatives to be aromachemicals that extend the life of other aromachemicals. I get that fixatives will probably vary in how they affix other aroma chemicals but I’m curious if others have notes this. For instance, does habanolide extend citrus base scents better than florals or Vice versa. How does that compare to other musks? Does that correlate to the general tenacity of that musk?

I think the term “fixative” can be or is rather misconstrued.

Technically things like DPG and Hercolyn D can work as such, it really is dependent on its level of viscosity and how well it sticks to the skin. Most musk acs can be used in this way, other things like benzoin and labdanum can also do this, however they all have odors which could be wanted or undesired dependent on what you want.

Habanolide will last as long as habanolide lasts. Bergamot will last as long as bergamot lasts. That’s kind of it. Are there acs you can use to help bergamot last longer? Sort of. Are there longer lasting materials that smell like bergamot, yes. If you look at hedione or ambrocenide, upon the opening they “might” help citruses to last longer, but at most we’re talking minutes and even so, they WILL change the overall odor.

Even using something like Ethyl Linalool or
Tetrahydrolinalool can help extend the impression of bergamot or orange and taper off into the heart.

You shouldn’t be dependent on anything to “fix” your formula.

To fake answer your question, why not try it out and see what you come up with?
make a citrus blend with nothing but citruses, study the balls out of it, then make another and add habanolide, see what occurs.

 

[Relitaliano]

Does Ambrette Seed oil provide more projection or longevity in fragrances? From what I understand, it would be considered a natural Macrocyclic musk, similar to “Ambretoliide?! I remember reading somewhere that Musks seem to provide “life” or a diffusiveness similar to Ambergris. Any recommendations on how Ambrette influences a perfume would be appreciated!

 

[Jolieo]

When I add a musk to a formula- I have to add it to see what it is going to do- that’s because I haven’t done this a hundred times- the only way to know in perfumery is to do
that being said- if you show a formula that youwant to rebuild with a musk in it- people here are very helpful at making suggestions to help
projection has to be managed between materials- but materials that project married with others that don’t dampen would have more success than materials that don’t project
you have to use materials that last a long time to get longevity
it has helped me to dilute materials, and wear them- because many things undiluted last , but once diluted they don’t