By Dane
Musk is one of my favourite notes, but finding the perfect musk is tricky. Options are hardly limited, so I find it easiest to break them into 3 categories, figure out which category suits me best, and start digging.
The heavy-hitting musks are for the hardcore fans. Dark, beastly and raunchy. The ideal example of this would be Serge Lutens' Muscs Koublai Khan or CB I Hate Perfume's Musk Reinvention. Middle of the road musks still have some of the animalic elements, but are smoother and easier to wear. Something like Kiehl's Musk fits in here perfectly. Clean, white musks are the third category. These are the musks you find in many detergents, and fragrances like The Body Shop's White Musk, or CkOne.
I love the raunchy stuff, but its not always suitable to wear everyday. The white musks serve their purpose, but often come across smelling too clean to me, which in itself almost defeats the purpose of wearing a musk in the first place. The middle-tempered musks suit me to a tee, which brings us to M+G's Synthesized Musk.
SM is a very simple, likeable musk. Not too clean, not too dirty...a perfect compromise. A little bit of citrus and a smoky note overlay the body of the scent. Both are subtleties to enhance, but not cover up the star of the show. A perfect balance is achieved between vanillic-warmth and transparency. Overall there is nothing groundbreaking at all about this scent, I just happen to like it. Its barely there, almost imperceptible, but accentuates your own skin's smell...exactly what a musk is supposed to do.
M+G recommend layering their Musk with other offerings in their line. I'm not a layering person...I figure its just a way to get you to buy two bottles instead of doing the obvious and combining them to make one solidly-crafted scent.
Side lesson - all musks used in perfumery these days are synthetic (yes, even in Creed). Natural musk is obtained cruely through the extraction of a gland from the Musk Deer, located between Bambi's tummy and naughty bits. Poor little guy would have to go the way of his mom if the musk-pod was to be extracted, so the Musk Deer is now a protected species. Various other animals have similar glands, like the muskrat and even a musk beetle, however, the smell of the Tonkin Musk from the Musk Deer is most prized.
Synthetic nitro musks were first introduced in the late 1800's, but have since been disallowed for use in perfumery and cosmetics in many countries. The musks found in today's perfume are macrocyclic or polycyclic. Various synthetic musks go in and out of style (ie - Galaxolide, originally used in L'Artisan Mure et Musc and used in great quantity in Lancome's Tresor), so you never know exactly which synthetic you're smelling. Vegetal musks are the final category, found in things like angelica root and ambrette seed.
Many people are anosmic (can't smell) to various synthetic musks, so a trick perfumers use is to combine several synthetics in hoping that you'll be able to smell something. Besides being used as a featured note, musks are often used as fixatives to enhance other ingredients and to prolong the life of a scent. Synthetics musks are also used as flavourants for various foods, candies, gums, and even toothpastes to enhance the taste.
Year: 2005
Notes: Lemon, Palma Rosa, Patchouli, Musk
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