Skin Musk

I wanted to add that I keep sniffing this and feeling like the creaminess makes me think of nuts.... Maybe a nut gelato, Maybe pistachio rather than almond, but it does have a sweet nuttiness that (as mad as this sounds) made me think of Ellie Saab girl of now when I was getting whiffs of it on me today. I don’t like that perfume because it’s so insanely sweet, but the nutty notes in it are pretty creamy and amazing, so getting that same warm and creamy pistachio vibe is quite a treat - feel free to tell me I’m insane! Anyway.... The original post below! A little tale for Fragranitica! The early 90s were the Coty years in the UK. After growing out of impulse body spray and moving up to cheap and cheerful real perfumes, most girls at my comprehensive school wore L'Aimant, Wild Musk, Tribe or vanilla fields (blurgh! Pretty sure this is where my hatred for vanilla in perfumes came from!)?. I was a Wild Musk lass, although it felt a bit grown up and sultry for my young self and it was super strong, I wanted to be mature so I wore it anyway! I have very vivid sense memories of visiting my new friend Lorna’s house. Lots of dogs, which was shocking to me and I still remember the fear I felt when they jumped on me! I can still taste her dads freshly baked crusty bread that made even beans on toast the most delicious meal imaginable. But the most powerful memory is a smell. In her bedroom she had a pretty glass perfume bottle that her mother had given her. One of those cute old fashioned ones that has a glass stick on the lid that you dip into the fragrance then dab on to yourself. A perfume oil had been decanted into this little bottle and she let me try some. What heaven was this?! Wild Musk.... But so much better! Smoother. Sweeter. More natural. Warmer. Intensely comforting. I was obsessed! I searched for that oil for years, but frankly in the 90s finding anything from abroad was tricky. I gave up, re-tried wild musk occasionally but meh.... Kinda ruined after smelling the oil! Skip forward to my 30s and thanks to Fragrantica I found the name skin musk. I threw caution to the wind and ordered a tiny bottle from America. It was like getting into a time machine! This is it! Almost 30 years later and I’ve got a bottle of the heavenly oil from that decanter! I don’t know how to describe this smell as outside of the wild musk / skin musk family I’ve never smelt anything even approximating it. It’s musky (obviously!) but in a snuggling under a warm blanket way. It’s sweet but not in the cloying or sickly way so many modern perfumes are. It’s woody but in a joss stick sort of way that makes you think of tiled rooms in Morocco. It’s sexy but not in a try-hard way, more in a I’m going to let this woman wrap herself around me sort of way. If having a hot shower in a candle lit bathroom, on a cold night cloaked by fragrant steam had a smell..... skin musk oil would be it. I am obsessed! I have a feeling the sweetness here is coming from vanilla. It is a perfect blend against my skin. Maybe not everyone would feel this way but as I said. I’m obsessed. Ps, I also have the spray cologne now as I wanted to be able to spray my clothes when I’m wearing the oil. It dries down to be very similar to the oil but less creamy and warm. Perhaps a touch sweeter. Much more powdery. My husband says it smells like Turkish delight and I can see why.... The spray has a musk, sandalwood and rose feel with a sprinkle of powdered sugar. When first sprayed this has a sharper and more tangy smell. It’s much more like an old fashioned and traditional perfume (the old brown ones if you know what I mean?) until it calms down a bit, but calm down it does. Not as nice as the oil and doesn’t last long at all on the skin, but good for a spritz on the way out the door when you’re dressed if you’re wearing the oil underneath!

What a gross sounding name for such a beautiful perfume. Yes, I know that musk has a different meaning in perfumery, but for most people musk and body odor are practically synonymous. I blind bought a spray bottle of this in August and was not disappointed! I've definitely smelled this somewhere before...probably on an older female relative. Likely my paternal grandmother. I so love the late 20th century aesthetics of the packaging and bottle...I hope they never change it. As for the smell: I mostly get woodsy notes and musk in equal amounts. At will I can make either one of them stand out more to my nose. There's just a hint of something floral in here, but it's difficult to detect. I'm also picking up something powdery, but woodsy notes often read as powdery to me. This is solidly unisex, but if you pushed me, I'd say it's more on the feminine side of unisex. Another reviewer compared this to Avon's Skin So Soft -- I definitely agree there's some shared DNA here. My mom had a big bottle of the bath oil when I was 9, 10, or 11 years old. It also smelled very woodsy, powdery, and musky. The longevity and sillage on Skin Musk isn't anything to write home about. After an hour or two I believe it turns into a skin scent. But a subtle scent like this doesn't need to be a beast. I hear the oil version of this has better performance, but I'm always wary of perfume oils that don't come with a roller ball -- too much opportunity for a mess. Without using fragrance jargon, this is how I would describe Skin Musk: imagine a barely sweaty woman used a wash cloth soaked in hard well water to clean herself and then let it air dry. Skin Musk smells like that wash cloth when it's about 85% to 90% dry. This scent reminds me of a memory from when I was a toddler -- I'm autistic and one of my favorite games (if you could call it that) at that age was to wet a wash cloth while I was in the bathtub, wring it out, flatten it out over the ledge of the tub, and brush it with a toothbrush. This really smells just like a wet washcloth to me. But it's a wonderful smell!

This is my signature scent. Sexy, mysterious, unique, intoxicating... some how subtle yet sneakily strong but not really overpowering...hard 2 describe its mystery but it stands in a class of its own. I'm not one of those ppl who won't tell others what my scent is. Why wouldn't I want the world 2 smell better according 2 my nose lol!?!? I have had it in all its forms and thru all the makers, Bonne Bell, Prince Machiavelli and now Parfums De Coeur. I still have a bottle of OG Bonne Bell and comparing that 2 todays... I STILL Love it although it's not as strong or long lasting as the OG. Still, I'll take what I can get. This musk ruined me 4 all others as musk can b a tricky and over powerful (stinky) thing... I like a subtle sexy musk not a manly nose-punch one. They somehow round the musk with a sweetness in a perfect marriage. I love vanilla and while I can't say I detect it in there, I can't help but wonder what makes the sweet of this scent? Like musk, sandalwood can either b intoxicating and lovely or offensively strong...again this is the best of that scent 2 me. If there ever was a successful thrupple --this would b it, although they say "floral" so there's more nuanced scents I just can't detect in there? I generally do not like florals. My nose can't discern any floral note but I know there's a je ne sais quoi in there... so no doubt whatever they choose quietly hides in the pairing, like a true match made in heaven. I will say I remember smelling Cool Skin Musk in the 90s and I hated that. I don't remember what the notes were but it repelled me. I'm so happy this fragrance keeps on keeping on <3 This truly heavenly and heady, yet earthy, scent is one that I so adore and can wear all year around day or nite! I just wish it were stronger lasting and sillage was better like it used 2 b....4 both the oil and EDP. Happy sniffing

Bonne Bell Skin Musk was very much a 70s/80s kind of a musk, before The Body Shop White Musk took over in the early 90s in the States (The Body Shop didn’t become popular in the States until this time), or Egyptian musks like Egyptian Goddess (1993). The 70s/ 80s musks were a little different. I remember a while back, a guy on a different forum was trying to figure out what girls smelled like when he was in school during that time period, and I think what he was remembering was this kind of a smell. Like if you washed your hair with Wella Balsam shampoo (those golden, musky, balsam shampoo scents that don’t seem to exist anymore) and used Tone soap, were out in the sun, and a few hours later the scents mostly faded, and you still smelled clean, but like “skin”. Anyways, I loved this stuff, but I noticed the perfume oil I bought today is made by Fragrance Rebel? And it still smells like “nude skin musk”, but it’s pretty heavy on the sandalwood. I don’t recall the Parfums De Coeur version being quite so heavy on it? I still like it, I just wish they would tone this note down. The spray smells different, not as sandalwood heavy, and it’s more “80s drugstore musk body spray” / almost like a Designer Imposters Shalimar. The oil is softer and more wearable. The Skin Musk perfume oil from It’s Perfume Oil is closer to what I recall the original Bonne Bell oil smelling like; clean 70s skin musk, minus the pronounced sandalwood note of today’s oil, and not particularly animalic.

Addictive.. I could literally wear this every single night if my self control wasn't so good. First up I'm giving this a personal score of 10/10. Tl;dr soft, powdery (Baby), sandalwood musk with floral notes. You really do get what it says but it's just SO good. I get the perfume oil, I've heard the spray isn't as good? I love the oil so I won't buy the spray to test that theory out but oh my god this is just addicting. I do think you very much need to like a powder vibe though because it IS powdery but it isn't like baby powder in your face powder if that makes sense? This to me is a delightful skin musk scent. Beautiful musk and flowers on a creamy sandalwood base. Everything about this is just comforting to wear. It is the epitome of a bedtime scent like fresh out of the shower, drip some on your wrists and dab it to your neck, maybe the nape of your shirt/clothes.. I have worn it to work once but decided it's a bit weird to me personally to wear it at work since I associate it with bedtime but when I did one of my coworkers sniffed me up and was like "Girl you smell SO good what is that!?" so, to me at least it is a compliment getter. Just keep in mind it is powdery but that's mostly on initial application. Once it dries down you only get traces of powder and a whole lot of creamy, delicious musk/sandalwood and your skin but better.. ugh 10/10 Also it's dirt cheap. GET IT WHILE YOU CAN P.S. It's also fabulous for layering as a perfume oil!