The Musc

'Don't think! Feeeeeel.' Bruce Lee My oh my...I adore this perfume. It's magic. This was sent to me by a wonderfully fragrant pal on the other side of the world, and bless her soul because she was so right. I do love it! It fooled me to begin with though, the vial in the package had leaked slightly and when I got it I thought it smelled of, cheap, fresh laundry, the kind of white musk you get given free with a rollerball when I've bought Oud in the past. This...takes a minute to register and comprehend but when it does....sweet jesus, it's majestic. It opens with a very light hint of rose, and then proceeds to take you on a musky journey into one of the smoothest, yet most complex musk accords I can recall, moving through light and clean, cotton like into more javanol and synth sandalwood to the sweetness and warmth of ambrette seeds, it's just a lovely thing to behold and smells different close up to at a distance. Natural, yet like my favourite synthetic musks, so what if it smells of galaxolide? It’s lovely. I can get a very slightly, traditional perfume element of lavender but it's not even a 'note' as such more of an ethereal, spectre. Then there's the warmth and richly resinous feel of the beeswax listed in the notes and again, it doesn't even have a 'note' of beeswax just a faint orgainic honied warmth a delicate vignette so carefully sown into the fabric of the musk accord in this. This is truly a perfume that smells of all things and one and it's a gift that keeps on giving in the drydown. Less is more here, attention to detail is key in fragrances like this. Where I once may have dismissed stuff like this as 'pleasant' and 'pretty' perfumery not really innovating or moving things on creatively, cringing at myself in hindsight for completely missing the point. Like Bruce Lee once said (yes I'm evoking the great Mr Lee to describe a soft musky perfume, what of it?) 'It is like a finger pointing away to the moon, don't concentrate on the finger or you miss all the heavenly glory.' A good lesson for life in many ways. Big thanks to my Kiwi pal Elyse for the sample you're a dimond luv, and also an enabler because I want a bottle of this now!

A delicate, clean musk with a touch of zen. Built around pure nirvanolide with sustainable Australian sandalwood, red ginger, beeswax and lavandin, it’s character is gentle, affable and highly appealing with an innocent charm. The ginger in the opening is an inspired twist that lifts the composition, adds some refreshment and makes it a little bit different. As I wore it it grew on me more and more and I realised this is a scent I could never tire of, it’s quite simple but put together so beautifully. Strongly recommended to musk lovers and those who are into that freshly laundered linen vibe, it’s very clean, warm and comforting. So eminently wearable for any occasion and all seasons, but it’s a perfect choice to wear for chilling out at home, it makes me feel so cosy, like being wrapped up in a soft fleece. I’d say it leans feminine but in the 21st century gender rules are made to be broken and I don’t abide by them - as a man I am very fond of it and will be ordering a bottle or travel spray, it is one of those rare fragrances that genuinely makes me feel happy. Projection is ample and it’s very, very long lasting, I could still clearly smell it on my skin 24 hours later. The nose behind this, Calice Becker has composed many famous perfumes, including the oft compared J’Adore but also a great number (42!) of By Kilian fragrances. I’m very impressed with the perfumes I’ve so far tried from Essential Parfums, so much so I intend to sample their entire range. I thoroughly admire the brand’s mission to make very affordable (and sustainable) niche level fragrances from internationally renowned talents in the field of perfumery.

Essential Parfums’ The Musc is not reinventing the wheel, but it might be perfecting it. There are other lovely musk scents out there but this is hands down my favorite that I’ve tried. The notes are spot on - to me, this is the smell of a baby just washed in sleepytime bath bubbles sleeping soundly in its crib as you sit down to read with a beeswax taper flickering and a steaming mug of ginger tea. It is soft and cozy with surprising projection for a skin scent - it is never loud, but does envelop you in a lovely cloud for the first hour or two of wear before slowly fading to a more usual intimate scent. The Musc layers beautifully with Molecule 01+Ginger from Essential Molecules, which makes the ginger note more prominent and turns it into spicier, more “awake” scent for daytime. This would be a $250 perfume from another brand (which I’d pay HAPPILY) but having both the travel and the full size bottles, I can say they’re keeping costs low with the packaging. It is absolutely adequate but the finishes aren’t nearly as high end as the scent itself: the travel bottle has no cap, the full flagon cap is a cheap plastic that feels at odds with the hefty glass bottle, etc. edit: I have become obsessed with layering The Musc over Zoologist's Bee; the Musc softens all of Bee's honey sweetness that verges on screechy saccharine, while Bee amps up The Musc's beeswax note and improves longevity by a mile. It's a great pairing.

The Musc is the junction between fresh laundry musk and lived-in musk, a clean that is accented with just a touch of human tang. I have a soft spot for lavandin, a hybrid cross between English Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) and Portuguese or Spike Lavender (Lavandula latifolia). It's a stronger aroma than that of Lavandula angustifolia and is more camphorous. Lavandin sees much use in functional products such as those for house cleaning, air fresheners, detergents and personal care. Here, it imparts that just-out-the-dryer effect, while the macrocyclic "white musks" Nirvanolide and Serenolide make up the nucleus here. They are soft and sensual, velvety to the nose, recalling warm skin. During my first wear, I began to feel as if it were a specter of my childhood memories, until it dawned on me: cotton. Cotton balls, specifically. When I was a young child, I would use cotton balls to tickle my nose as a sort of soothing mechanism, while sucking my thumb. Think Linus and his blanket. Core memory unlocked, this reminds me of the smell of those cotton balls. The freshest cotton ball, right out of the bag as purchased from CVS, through the round, perforated opening where they would be retrieved. Accompanying me while watching Sesame Street and Mister Rogers. Now that I've shared an intimate detail of my own childhood, I feel a bit liberated—and I feel comfort. My regards to Calice Becker.

The Musc is what I thought VCA's Musc de Soie was going to give me. It’s gorgeous. In an immediately disarming way, actually, where you smell it and go ohhh, that’s the one. It has this clean, creamy, skin-close softness that feels less like perfume and more like your skin right after being loved correctly. The beeswax is subtle without the candle chunkiness you'd typically get. It just adds this faint lotion-y sweetness, a soft little waxy creaminess that makes the musk feel rounded and tender. It isn’t sweet in a sugary sense, it’s sweet in a warm skin under lamplight sense. And the lavender! Such a smart touch really: it keeps the perfume from becoming too soapy or baby powder-like. It's dotted with a low herbal sleepiness, almost like the smell of skin after a shower right before bed, when the air is cooler and everything feels prim yet intimate. The Musc sports the clean of a person, not a product. Cozy, milky fresh skin. It's fuzzy in a very unannoying way, genuinely comforting. The scent equivalent of your sleeping lover's bodily warmth, softener-laundered sheets, tender nourished lips and not having to answer to anyone for the rest of the night.