Musc Tonkin

Opens with a spicy, waxy, indolic floral accord. I’m no floral expert but my impression here is of jasmine and ylang ylang, possibly alongside tuberose, carnation, and lily. As it dries down, the connection between that opening and the promised animalics becomes clear, as the waxy and indolic characteristics of the initial bouquet intensify. I wonder whether there might be just a hint of frankincense bolstering the spicy warmth that now comes to the fore. The floral indole becomes more clearly animalic, with sabaceous, fatty, and slightly fecal nuances. To me this is potentially a much more challenging animalic accord than that of MKK, but I love it. New players also seem to join the bouquet in the first hour, with the initial creamy/waxy white number taking on a rosier hue. Somehow animalic florals always seem the most perverse to me. Even Keiko Mecheri’s innocent-on-paper Oliban becomes surprisingly sexy once the ambergris rears its head. This is no exception and is perhaps the most emphatic exploration of the synergy of flora and fauna on the market. On my skin the middle notes seem to include honey, sandalwood, the barest vanilla, and a hefty dose of oakmoss. The Venus in splendor of the first act turns out to have a masculine side: less the Venus of the Romans than Dietrich as Joseph von Sternberg’s Blonde Venus. Whether she’s wearing a top hat and tails or a gorilla suit is up to you. At this point the fragrance is somehow both glamorous and cozy. Where the opening suggests sumptuous silk gowns of bygone days, the middle suggests (and I mean this in the best way) a well worn jean jacket, perfectly constructed but warmed by the body and frayed enough to give it a certain je ne sais quois. As the day stretches on, MT remains present as a slightly slightly floral, very animalic spicy chypre. While less challenging in this phase, the scent remains engaging, seeming at once to be dusty and waxy, luscious and desiccated. All the while you can rely on a hazy, powdery, slightly metallic musk with a civet-like depth to anchor things. To me this fragrance is sensual, cozy, yet put together. Perfect for a formal occasion but maybe less so for a professional one. I agree with other reviewers that this has a vintage feel, almost a fantasy of what perfume once was. While I adore it, the opening of this fragrance does seem to me to be resolutely womanly, which is why I have never bought a bottle despite loving and wearing samples for years in the privacy of my own home. Maybe someday soon I will lean into the spicy indoles, earthy oakmoss, and that lingering fatty, animalic goodness. And apply 30 minutes before leaving the house. I also agree with some others that this perfume has a Kiehl’s original musk vibe. But where the floral character of that blend often feels distracting to me, here the whole point seems to be a kind of figure-ground ambiguity between plant and animal. I should also say this is the ONLY fragrance I have ever seen my cat take an interest in.

It was 2012, a year that I consider a turning-point in the history of perfumery; it is when very acclaimed brands started heavily reformulated many of their scents, changing their DNA. In that panorama Marc Antoine Corticchiato released his take on deer musk (forbidden since 1979) with a limited release of 1000 bottles of Musc Tonkin, classified as an extract de parfume. I am lucky enough to have bought one of those bottles; in 2014 they releaseed an eau de parfum version which feels different, less pungent. Then Parfum d'Empire came back to release the extrait version like the current one. Note that the latter is closer to the 2014 eau de parfum than the original 2012 extrait. Here I will describe my experience with the original 2o12 Musc Tonkin, but note that the differences are not that much. In a following review I will make an attempt to deconstruct the current version by chemical components. MK'opening is a pure blast of animalistic skank that feels concentrated perhaps painful to current noses, but then it settles into something quite sexy. I say this because MK is an old-school floral chypre: the musks are the base to make a floral accord splendid. My guess of notes would be: Orange Blossom/Neroli, Gardenia's accord, Ylang-Ylang, Peach, Cumin and, possibly, Coumarin. Middle: Jasmine Sambac, Damask Rose, Narcissus, Honey, Labdanum, and Patchouli. Base: Musk, Civet/Castoreum, Angelica root, Oakmoss, Tonka Beans, and, possibly, Benzoin and Vanilla. There is a strikingly interesting contrast between the fatty animalic skin and hair and the floral and slightly fruity heart. There is a leather, slightly urinous and barn-yardy undertone (p-cresyl phenil acetate? that could be responsible for that narcissus feeling I get). I detect something slighly hearthy, extremely intimate, carnal that smells of panties: cumin and other spices are in this juice. You cannot get that urinous undertones without civet which I think is missing from today's version. And when the floral heart finally emerges, I am blown away by its beauty. I smell very creamy, indolic flowers that I suspect are gardenia and ylang-ylang. The latter’s buttery notes are redolent of slightly banana-like custard, and they add a necessary softness to the pungency of the oakmoss and the intimacy of that funk. The leather note remains but it is no longer raw, pungent or rough as it was in those opening minutes. Softened by the florals, it is smoother and extremely subtle. In the late drydown I feel some tonka undertones, a faint woodiness, benzoin, and a touch of vanilla. It’s quite erotic and seductive, and calls to mind the famous nudes from Delacroix or Rubens. Please, consider following me on IG @alexolympia6

My fragrance journey has been made up of many smaller, often repeated "note journeys" in which I smell a range of perfumes themed on notes in which I'm temporarily interested. Musk is the single earliest olfactory memory I have, as my mother wore White Musk for my whole childhood and, since becoming a frag nerd, I've smelled a long list of others. Musc Tonkin I find it quite far down the animalic end of musks, but animalics are a path with many branches, and determining if something is "more" or "less" animalic than something else rapidly becomes impossible, as what each of us finds disturbing/ illicit varies widely. Musc Tonkin, to my nose, opens with a super heavy middle-animalic musk which is cloaking an enormous heap of warmly rotting flowers. Not quite as sweet as ylang-ylang, but further down the yellow end of the floral spectrum, there's a warm, sweaty, intensely humid sensation which deletes any freshness from the musk and renders the whole thing particularly dirty and unwashed. It's really a wonderful smell - think stale genital sweat mixed with lots of soft, pillowy musks and intense floral heat - it's somewhere down the more feminine side of naughty, with a petal-like, quivering sensitivity which, I think, is meant to give the scent its eroticism. I like it a lot but I do have my qualms - it's a lot "hotter", heavier and thicker than my favourite musks (MKK and Kiehl's). I find Musc Tonkin reminds me just slightly of waking up while ill, with sweat caking my bedsheets and a staleness in the cloistered air of the room - if a giant took me in their fist and exhaled over my whole body it would smell rather like this. A feverish musk. In the mid-to-drydown Musc Tonkin doesn't change a huge amount but it softens considerably and the hot florals mercifully retreat into a gentle, background butteriness. Now with some air in it, the scent opens up and becomes a less challenging wear. This is great from the standpoint of wearability but I think MT's distinctiveness starts to give way ever so slightly, and in the far drydown it could easily be the dregs of any quality white/yellow floral scent with a generous heap of powder-clean, admittedly vintage-inflected musks. The journey is an interesting arc, and it makes me feel like I'm being smothered by a naked torso under several quilts. Overall, however, I think I prefer the more saline Kiehl's or rosy-spiky-ambery MKK to MT, but for hardcore white/ yellow floral lovers this is a great one to try.

First spray. There must be a cat in this perfume store. She just peed. Someone should clean it up and put the animal outside so I finally could test the perfume. Five minutes later. I wonder why people tell that MKK is an offending fragrance. MKK is a sweet and innocent floral garden compared to Musc Tonkin. Well, there is cumin in MKK, but who does not like cumin? They must be evil people. Cumin is nice. However, this MT is fighting me hard. Is it something with my nose? I wonder whether it’s legal to wear fragrances like this in public. Two hours later. I don’t like it. And I wonder why I keep smelling myself if I don’t like it. I usually remove those perfumes I don’t like from my body. I do have a soap. But I did not remove this one. Let me smell it again. Next day. I don’t know whether I like it or not. And what if I do? How many people will be offended? Would any woman talk to me when I wear this one? But why would I wear it at all? Third day. I spray it on my chest in a larger dose and wear it for hours. I remove my shirt and I go running. I come home. I lie on the bed. I put the shirt on my chest and smell it. A memory lurking in the corners on my subconscious mind knocks on the door. Four years ago I opened a white paper box hidden in my treasury. There was a black panties in it. It had been lying there for at least 2-3 years. I could remember putting it there, however, I couldn’t remember who left it in my apartment. I smelled it. My eyes teared up. It was the best woman scent I have ever smelled. Even after 2 years it was so perfect it touched my soul. I wanted to cry. “I should have married this woman, whatever she looked like. I would be happy with her for the next 100 years. How could I forget who she was? I must find her. Or someone who smells like her.” So far I have not found anyone smelling as good as the forgotten woman smelled, even though I have been trying hard. And now, Musc Tonkin reminds me that fragrance. It’s not the same. It’s able to recall it. Finding this fragrance lifts the burden from my shoulders after many years. There is hope. There is salvation.

Marc-Antoine Corticchiato seems to have created a homage to the massive musk bombs of the 70s and 80s with Musc Tonkin. If that wasn't his intention, I'm completely fooled. I don't follow the impressions others have of Musc Tonkin being animalic and "filthy." As someone who grew-up on and around farms, an avid outdoorsman, and sometimes-hunter, I've smelled animal musks and other excrement and this doesn't put me in mind of those experiences or memories at all. Instead, what I get is completely an old-school/retro powdery floral chypre that would make Jean-Paul and Edmond raise an eyebrow and nod in approval. Though that nod of approval would likely pique their curiosity to use Musc Tonkin as a base because, basically, that's all this perfume is: a very well-crafted musk base. Not much is going on besides. The opening has touches of bitter green herbs but they are so minute and fleeting that you could almost safely ignore them. What follows is simply that floral chypre musk base. But, before you get any ideas that this is a criticism, it's this simplicity that is Musc Tonkin's winning formula. Corticchiato did such a wonderful job composing this musk accord that it would almost be a shame to overlay it with a bunch of other stuff. Soapy musky, resinous, a touch sweaty/salty and dirty (animalic), a note of clean and smooth suede, and containing the perfectly silken fine threads of indolic jasmine weaving their way in and out of the musk material(s). It is gorgeous, and gorgeously simple. I would surmise that this could be easily worn year round, yes even in the summer, but it's exothermic nature requires the wearer to be careful; in high heat and humidity it could probably be close to suffocating if too much is applied, but as is typical of an extrait in the classic form I'm finding it staying very close to my skin on this balmy spring day (and lasting forever). Well done, Mr. Cortichhiato, for taking us on a wonderful trip down memory lane.