Russian Musk II

Addendum: I'm wearing it today in April. So good. Wanted to note, Lime is the main citrus according to Areej.. Pine is the predominant conifer. This is fresher than Siberian Musk, can be worn in warmer climate. I just received my Russian Musk II. I was hoping to find Siberian Musk, but near impossible. This has the green conifers and pine which makes it a top 2 fragrance for me. The pine could have been stronger here, it is subtle. The gents from "Wafts from the Loft" YouTube channel compared this to Siberian Musk. He said Siberian was more vivid and raw, like you were in a Pine forest. Russian Musk 2 is softer and more composed, not so vivid. Russian Musk II is a finely blended subtle fragrance. I get a little Russian pine in the background. That's what I was hoping for. As I'm on the hunt for great Pine fragrances. Lauder for Men (vintage) is the best. Epicea by Creed, the pine is similar to this. The conifers here are mostly pine and cypress. Not so much fir. Everything is well blended. In that nothing stands out dominantly. The oud is in the background. The natural musk gives it a beautiful smoothness, yet does not overwhelm. Warm spices of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg are perfect. This is great. It smells like an old vintage vaulted fragrance. It is begining to evolve. I am getting a crisp sharp cypress, that I thought was a pink pepper note. I love that this has a balance with the sharper green notes. Bortnikoff ouds are a bit too smooth sometimes. I'm glad I got a Russian Adam fragrance to know his style. He's more classic I think. I purchased Musk Khabib recently by Bortnikoff. It's great, and has more projection. The musk is similar to this. I like Russian Musk better however. It's a somewhat understated masterpiece. PS: A bottle of Siberian Musk II did come up on eBay. It came in yesterday and I wrote a first impression comparison review. Siberian Musk is more of a beast. While Russian has the same notes, yet it is more mannerly and composed. I like Siberian better, but it will be a matter of preference. One is not better than the other. PS: Wearing this in 2024, I want to mention how good the citrus notes are. Great, quality bergamot, lemon and orange blend harmoniously with the conifers and musk. Rating: 10/10 God bless. John 3:16

Wearing this more I’m discovering how this scent plays in terms of over time maturing of the scent and in the sense of how to wear this scent and even what it does to my skin. I wore this recently while moving about and shuffling through the day it hits me. This scent evolves when sweat comes into play it’s almost as if Russian Adam intended for a deer musk scent work best when we’re sweating 😉 it is at that point where the scent takes on its subdued animatic form. I was told by someone while wearing this I smelled “sultry” “oriental hierarchy” and I get it. It really engulfed a luxury experience from another time long before mine. The second part of this review will briefly mention how Russian Adam’s work matures overtime and by and large improves the composition making the scents richer and deeper with time. Which is what slowly began happening with Russian Musk II. I’m excited to see what it’ll be like in a years time and onward. Back up bottle required. 10/10 true luxury

A beautiful, heavy, coniferous green chypre with lavish deer musk. Sharpened up with plenty of citrus brightness. The musk is stunning. After opening bracingly with lemon, orange blossom and pine, the main accord develops and the green chypre elements take over: bergamot, fir, thick, bitter galbanum — as in vintage Vol de Nuit or Chamade Extrait , I'm surprised the note isn't voted higher — and moss, all blended with that deep showcase musk. A streak of tonka in the heart gives some sweet, grainy comfort, complimented with sandalwood & cinnamon. The cypress note becoming smokier and stronger as the perfume develops. It lasts forever and the longer I wear it the more I appreciate it, though It takes a while (11⁄2 to 2 hours) for the heaviness and those conifer notes to settle into something soft and beautiful enough to wear out.

After owning Ensar Oud and Areej Le Dore I'm not sure how one could go back to anything else... really struggling to pick out which out of three classic collection releases I like most. They are all amazing and really trained my nose in classic ingredients and styling. Russian Musk II is a musk perfume through and through though I do get the fresh/forest vibe slightly in the opening. For me this is all about the powdery, clean and very slight animalic edge. Once you smell the natural musk in this and you compare it to a synthetic musk frag you will not want to go back. Blue pill/red pill shit

In my opinion, Russian Musk II is an upgrade from the original one. While I like the original Russian Musk, I found it to be a bit too linear and simplistic in terms of blending. Russian Musk II has the depth and complexity that Russian Adam talked about. The composition is also more robust and grounded than the original. Besides the bright and evocative citrusy opening, the pine and greenness come alive during the middle of the scent development, before settling to musky and woody base. It's a beautiful fragrance, perfect for the sprint, summer and early fall.

I've never tried the first release of Russian Musk, so I can't compare them, but this on it's own is an absolute stunner! Now I know what real musk smells like, and how it is supposed to smell in a good composition. To me, musk scents are perfect for warm, sweaty summer nights, so this release came just in time. The atomizer on these new bottles are superb. They make it easy to dose your spray, and have a very solid feel to them. Edit: Next to buying the full Classic Collection I ordered another bottle of Russian Musk II, it's simply that good!

After trying it on skin two times, I can admit it is beautiful. The most versatile Areej I have tried yet. It is very cold, breezy, you feel the pine, the nature. The description Adam gave on youtube was beautiful and one which I can be at peace with. Really good musk scent For it being a freshie, it still remains so interesting. Wish I could own this without paying stupid prices.

I agree with Xpert37's review below, this is more bombastic, muskier, and slightly more challenging than the original, which I find great. It has less citrus in the opening than the original and more pine. Maybe it will change and settle with time and become smoother, like the original.

A body else getting sillage issues? I’ve tried the most to get it to stay with putting on clothes and hydrating my skin etc etc. other than that I love the scent and hope something changes soon.

This is what REAL deer musk smells like. I sprayed this on my arm as soon as I had received it, as I was quite excited to try it. This is my first time smelling Russian Musk, and I was not sure what to expect. I first sprayed on an extremely hot and humid day here in Toronto. I was greeted with a kiss from the most beautiful orange blossom note — a full bouquet of sweet, white and creamy orange florals with a smooth citrusy finish, further accentuated by the subtle, juicy lemon and mandarin notes in the top. The coniferous notes are quite tame, returning some of astringent notes lost from the aging of the orange blossom, and with the oakmoss and musk, it forms a 'vintage' backbone to the composition. I also get the impression of lavender with the subtle sharpness of the pine + fir and the orange blossom. Then, just a few minutes in, I am encapsulated in a cloud of musk. Real musk. Not an accord, not a simulation, not a musk 'narrative' like War & Peace with the addition of other animal and synthetic musk, but the actual musty and distinctly 'eastern' smelling Siberian musk grain tincture! In the heat and humidity, it was quite strong and stuffy indoors, as I tend to prefer my musk in smaller, more processed doses. Though, stepping outside into the shade and in the gentle breeze, this stuff really begins to shine. For me, this scent is to be worn during spring somewhere outdoors, when the Sun begins to warm the surface of the Earth, when the daffodils emerge from their bulbs, when the honeybees come out to play. As the top notes tame over the next half hour, the spices (namely clove and cinnamon) become quite apparent and form a nice, smooth and somewhat incense-y cradle accompanied by the fossilized amber, moss and of course, the sweet musk. Surprisingly, this reminds me of the dry-down of 'Amber Al-Quds' by Anthony Marmin! I don't really get the 'Russian forest' concept with this composition — perhaps an increase in coniferous notes and moss would elucidate that. Regardless, I am really starting to like this stuff. Was hoping I didn't so I could recuperate the pretty penny I spent on this! Though, I have to see how my 'normal' friends find this to see how wearable it is in public settings.

I've been meaning to try this out of a long time, mostly to see how it compared to the first iteration, of which I had about 0.2 mls. Anyway, it's similar to me (in my memory), and distinctly less pissy and uriney, but that was just my first impression. What sticks out for me in this version, though, is the lemon. It's incredibly present and it's much more pronounced. I grew up with a lemon tree in the backyard, and I used to play cricket with my brother using lemons, so, this particular note is INCREDIBLY familiar to me. The lemon brings everything out, the candy elements of the musk, the conifer elements and the mild floral aspects. I like this more than the original, but not enough to actually seek it out. Damn beautiful, nonetheless...

This is amber, cloves and fir. The opening is really good but the animalic musk never stays after 10min. Very similar to ambre soie by armani prive. I want to keep it but really hard to justify the price.

Russian Adam has chosen to highlight the animalic aspect of Deer Musk by macerating both the grains and the skin of the Musc sack. With deer musk, dried grains typically have a smooth minty/fuzzy/chocolatey aspect to them while the skin contains the urinous elements that are found within the opening blast of intense deer musk when spraying Russian Musk II. So let’s talk about the scent! For starters let’s clarify a few terms. RMII is a classic animalic Chypre with a heavy emphasis on urinous musk laden bubblegum florals, pissy lime notes and bitter oakmoss steeped Mysore and Oud in the drydown. Imagine the scent of unwashed jeans where maybe a little bit of dribble runs down your leg after shaking yourself off (this is genderless by the way ANYONE can get dribble on their leg pissing ANYWHERE). Now take those same jeans and wear them for a few days in a row. You’ll have a good idea how the musk note in this fragrance smells. It’s alittle pissy, alittle primal and a little raw. Now that we got that out of the way and have determined what “musk” means in this fragrance RMII showcases a glorious musky bubblegum floral accord of a bygone era. Patchouli lends a dry powdery aspect to carry the musk through the base where we see a warm, furry drydown that feels ever so vintage yet entirely “old world”. Depending on who you ask will depend on old world meaning “old man with pissy jeans” or the old world before deodorant and regular showers/clothes washing was a norm and people doused themselves in aldehydes and oakmoss. Regardless, this is musky all the way till the end baby! I’m sure the folks who regularly dose themselves in animal secretions will be rolling their eyes at my review but I promise you the average person will think you haven’t washed your undies in awhile. Now personally I think this smells great. I love it. BUT it’s been said to smell like urinal cakes so I want to be objective about my love for this kind of perfumery. Someone who’s never smelled this kind of musk might be put off especially if they weren’t expecting something so animalic. However if it you WANT to smell like a deer’s sex secretion THIS is what you want to put on. This is the scent of nitro musk boosted Siberian musk. All the way baby!

If the deep hypnotic note that defines Russian Musk II is the musk, it needs some discussion, because some of the reviews below strike me as a little... excitable. Each to their own of course, and doubtless we're all aware of animalic and indolic notes, but at the risk of disappointing some seriously niche tastes, I did not detect a single hint of incontinence, urine cakes, dirty jeans, dribbles of any kinds, furriness and/or public latrines. If I did, this would be a very different review. No, there is a blast of spices which give a distinctly unisex impression and from which some very unexpected notes emerge; incense, chocolate verging on the liquorice though that hovers and disappears quickly. There's amber, oud, patchouli, sandalwood, all old favourites. But in the end, after all the oriental spicery what remains is almost a classic floral with rich rounded soapy musk tones, to engrossing result. On me this perfume seems to last forever. I sprayed just once at 11 yesterday, then, to test it as a night time perfume I sprayed again at 4. It's 8.30 next morning, and the ghost of RMII is still distinct. It works well for day and night, but it really comes into its own as a winter night time perfume. Still, it is not for me, simply because if I spend a lot of money on a perfume, I do so because it is a luxury product and I want it all; the gorgeous scent, the longevity, the bottle, the glamour, the feeling it gives me, that's the real story of fragrance to me, like a book of dreams on my dressing table. So I want the lusciousness of musk scent without a feeling of loss or sorrow, because there's enough of that in real life. I worry about musk deer populations, and my worry reaches my purse. I don't buy this; I look for something with synthetic musk which can emulate the smooth sensual depth of it but doesn't make me feel guilty. And I find it too. A lovely tester but I can find something gentler on my soul.

I recently had the opportunity to acquire a bottle of Areej Le Doré's coveted Russian Musk II, and I must say that it left a pretty good impression on me. This fragrance is a beautiful, heavy, coniferous green chypre that is lavishly enriched with deer musk, and the musk is truly gorgeous. The opening of Russian Musk II is a tad bracing with the lemon, orange blossom, and pine notes all sharply jumping off the arm. As the fragrance develops, the green chypre elements take over, with bergamot, fir, and bitter galbanum taking center stage. The mossy notes blend beautifully with the deep showcase musk, which is truly the star of the show: having tried a bunch of other true deer musk fragrances, this isn't as remarkable as people make it out to be, but it is still pretty damn great. The heart of the fragrance is given some sweet, grainy comfort with a streak of tonka, and sandalwood and cinnamon complement the overall composition. As the fragrance develops, the cypress note becomes enveloped in deeper and richer smoke. Russian Musk II has incredible longevity, lasting for hours on the skin. While it does take some time for the sharper citrusy and mild coniferous notes to settle down into something softer and more wearable, the wait is worth it. The fragrance becomes truly beautiful and comforting as it wears on, and the musk only becomes more luxurious and enveloping. Overall, I recommend Areej Le Doré's Russian Musk II to anyone who appreciates complex and luxurious fragrances, although because of its fomo production, and the culture of scalpers, I would likely reccomend something else. The legendary status isn't quite deserved. Although I have to say that the blend of coniferous notes, green chypre elements, and stunning deer musk creates a fragrance that is beautiful despite itself.

Wow. Might be just me, but I couldn't smell any other notes except the thick, natural, beautiful, hypnotic musk. Or maybe all the other notes were blended so well they rounded out the edges of the musk and together they all form this impression of this gorgeous furry animal lurking deep in a snowy Russian forest. It's like Zoologist Musk Deer but about 8,624,970,513 times better. But do I want to spray this on all the time? No, if it's between this and let's say Roja's Musk Aoud, I'd still pick the Musk Aoud. Musk Aoud has a similar, beautiful musk, but with more of other notes that make the whole experience a bit more wearable.

I compare it to a Muslim shrine's (Data Darbar) main room aroma. All the different things and incenses mixed together have made a specific smell and that's in here. Its not bad per se. I will not pay $400 for this. I am already regretting buying these samples which were expensive.