Original Musk

This is the OG soapy, lotion-y white musk. Imagine those cheap/drugstore white musks like The Body Shop, Alyssa Ashley, Jovan, etc.. but more plump, fuller, has more depth, much multi-faceted and just more vibrant and flavorful in general. The floral notes of neroli, orange blossom, ylang ylang, and rose creates this homogenous, old-fashioned, soapy-floral medley akin to the likes of Chanel N°5, but there's this cushion of musk that coats each threads of the floral weaving. The result is soft, creamy but not in a lactonic way. It almost feels like its made out of a combination of silk and cotton. Like a pillow you love stroke your skin against to. Yes it does remind me sometimes of some sort of soap, or a lotion, or a fancier fabric conditioner. It has a little bit of a detergenty vibe at some days, depending on my mood or the climate, but hey, I guess toiletry companies have based the scents of their products on the scent profile of Kiehl's musk. The opening though is a little bit harsh for me. My sister said it smells like a bug spray, which I do get. I guess that factor depends on the climate of the environment you're in. I live in a humid climate so i find that spraying this on is a little cloying and sickening. But when I spray this at night where it gets a bit more chilly, it gets a little bit smoother. The best form of this fragrance is when it stained my shirt after a day of wearing it around the house. It gets even creamier and softer and smoother, it's really irresistable and comforting. I really think that this would pair well with a simple, plain vanilla scent. Something along the lines of Eau Duelle by Diptyque. Or since I don't have the budget for that, I could just go with something cheap like those vanilla body sprays by Body Fantasies, because you can't judge me. I'm a sucker for sweet gourmand scents even if it's something I just picked up from the drugstore:P I guess my only main critique for this fragrance is I wish it's more animalic. When I read reviews of this fragrance before I bought a bottle few years ago, I expected to get some animalic notes which I didn't get at all, despite multiple testings and wearing of this scent. It's basically just a more luscious, colorful, and meatier version of the classic, clean white musk.

I'm a bartender and first time I felt the smell of this it was on a guy that came at the bar to order something and I had to ask him what perfume he is wearing. I was working outside in the winter time surrounded by snow (this is kinda important). He told me was this and straight away I start looking for it. I ordered a bottle and first spray on my skin, the first impression was a little different and contradictory with what I remembered I smelled on that guy. I didn't hate it, it just felt like it smelled like a cheap old fragrance. And kinda too sweet for me. As the minutes passed I had mixed feelings. After another hour or so, I was keep smelling it and still didn't know what exactly to feel about it but it kinda gave me a warm, reassuring feeling. Then my girlfriend smelled it on me and she loved it but she said it remembers her of her grandma. Still mixed feelings from me cus she was all over me but in my mind I was like "wth, I'm not your grandma and this is kinda weird". Then, going outside I received lots of compliments on the way I smell. This gave me confidence and I start to like it more. I finished that bottle and by the end of it I was actually in love with the smell. After that it was very very hard to find it to buy again. Not long ago I found it again and bought this time 2 bottles. I love it! Myself, smelling it, feeling it, I absolutely love it. Is like if I'm stressed or depressed, two puffs of this already change my mood in good. I still receive lots of compliments but one notable and weird comment on my scent wearing this, was that I smell like church. I don't see it as a bad or as a good thing. And to go back at what I said before, I think this scent it makes more sense in winter or autumn or maybe chill nights. I don't know why but when is colder outside seems to smell better. Is musky but not pungent and it has more of the powdery white musk in it but also after a while subtle animalic.

Kiehl's Musk reminds me of a preppy guy I knew in college in the 80's who belonged to the same fraternity as my boyfriend. He was handsome but kind of a jerk, like the stereotypical rich preppy bastard in John Hughes films usually portrayed by James Spader. He was not as good looking as James Spader but he had one of those traditionally masculine faces with a strong jawline and big white American teeth. Yet there was something uncannily, slightly, just barely caveman about his face. I bet he had some Denisovian or Neanderthal genes deep in his familial history. In any case, I kept my eye on him, waiting for caveman behavior but he never quite delivered on that expectation of mine. He never accidentally uttered early man sounds like ooga booga, mid sentence, like I thought he eventually would. He remained polite and controlled but you just knew that he had that in him. When I picture him now, wherever he is, he is still wearing Kiehl's Musk and a Lacoste but I think that the primitive features of his face have most likely deepened with time and that the veneer of civilized presentation has worn off. Like Patrick Bateman but hopefully not to that extreme level. I do love this fragrance, it's a great classic musk scent like the Jovans and the Body Shop and all of the other staple oils we used to wear. It was the type of scent people wore as a signature and despite its apparent hippie origins it was actually a very preppy scent back when. Worth a test if you like caveman musks and John Hughes films.

Went to the Kiehl's boutique in Provincetown, Mass today. I was searching for a rollerball vial of their traditional musk oil. They had zillions of every other Kiehl's product, but not that oil. However they DID have Original Musk Blend No.1 in the eau-de-toilette. I spritzed some on... the smell is pretty much identical to the oil, yet even stronger, and also with a bit of "development" on the skin that the pure oil does not. It's very good-smelling stuff... musky in the animalic style, augmented delicately with what appear to be floral notes. Paid $44 US for the flacon of EDT. I wonder: If this is their "Blend No.1", then do they also make a "Blend No. 2" or other such thing? I seem to remember that Kiehl's did indeed make another musk-based eau-de-toilette which was NOT a "solinote" type (like this EDT is), but rather a more complex EDT with varied notes. Smelling more like a sophisticated men's cologne type. Thoughts? It's funny: the Kiehl's website includes user reviews, and there are invariably a few in which the customer bitches ands moans that they will no longer buy the musk essential oil because "it doesn't smell like it used to, you've changed the formula". And yet, I myself have not noticed the scent structure change appreciably over the last 25 years. Did Kiehl's Musk Oil smell differently, once upon a time, than it does today?

Musk is one of those perfume words that can refer to diametrically opposed smells. Some musks are animalic and sweaty; others are the ultra-clean scents of laundry detergent and fresh linens. Kiehl’s Musk is neither. It’s warm, friendly, subtly sweet, and basically smells like the skin of a person who smells really good. It’s spicy, in a way that makes me think not of spices but of flower stamens; I know lily sometimes has that kind of a spicy facet, or narcissus. It makes you smell warm and alive and altogether lovely. Imagine: You’re a houseguest visiting a middle-aged bisexual man who lives in San Francisco. He has a gray mustache, curly chest hair, twinkling eyes, a deep tan. He’s got that Whitmanesque humane serenity you see in people who have explored a lot in their lives and ended up deeply comfortable in their skin. He knows how to relax. He gives great massages. He likes taking long walks uphill. His shorts are uncomfortably short and his stamina is infuriatingly better than yours. You step into his bathroom, and his medicine cabinet is full of supplement pills and serious-looking skin and hair treatments in tinted brown bottles. His sponge is an actual sea sponge. His towels are off-white and extremely fluffy. The way you feel and smell after taking a long soak in his tub – that’s Kiehl’s Original Musk.