Musc Botanique

I walked into the store and was very impressed with the philosophy behind the company. I smelled every perfume in the store and Musc Botanique was the one that spoke to me the most. The wonderful woman who worked there recommend that I spray it on myself--I wasn't going to originally but boy am I glad I did. It started as a very ripe and powerful liquor scent which was odd since there are no ingredients to cause that. However, it started to dry down and I mindlessly sniffed my arm, sort of forgetting the smell of the fragrance and fell in love. I ordered a few samples to test it out over a period of time before spending a good amount of money. The samples have given me a chance to explore all the nuanced details of the perfume. For example, when I first apply it on my skin, I get an almost Baklava type smell, or like a nutty Halva, minus any overwhelming sweetness. Hard to describe. Then it becomes very herbaceous and delicate, almost silky. So much simplicity in this scent, but still so complex. My only complaint is how quickly it disappears from my skin. It doesn't project hardly at all. I would love to just emanate this scent and leave a trail of it wherever I go but I don't foresee that. If it had the longevity I crave, I would probably purchase 10 bottles.

For an all-natural perfume, this EdP starts out nice and strong. At first I mainly smell concentrated geranium, along with a little angelica and what is certainly ambrette (Abelmoschus moscatus seeds), even though it isn’t listed as such in the notes that I’ve seen. Maybe “white amber” is a euphemism for ambrette. However, when I checked on the SIP website, “botanical musk” is listed as one of the notes (well yeah, that’s the name of the perfume), so there’s the ambrette. In any case, I’m totally hooked on the geranium-ambrette combination. The geranium is strong enough to cover up the slightly unpleasant waxy opening of the ambrette and strengthen the floral aspects of the powdery, musky sweetness that eventually develops. In the drydown, I get almost pure ambrette. Just to confirm, I compared it with the ambrette CO2 extract that I have (and like to wear by itself from time to time), and there’s no doubt that’s what the main player is. Ambrette sticks around a long time, so this scent has good longevity. I think ambrette is a scent that grows on you after you wear it a few times and become familiar with its unique fragrance in all its glorious complexity. If you haven’t tried a natural “vegetable musk”, I highly recommend sampling this one.

If you are used to the extremely heavy artificial versions of musk this will come as a surprise, as it's quite different - the sweet, barely there, hard to put your finger on scent of clean skin. I actually think this perfume captures the smell of real musk much better than the overly strong artificial attempts that flood the market. The musk comes primarily from SIP's signature ambrette. As the name implies, this perfume is also extremely herbal/botanical smelling. - almost sharp at times. Someone mentioned it smells a bit like carrot, and I do understand that comparison. I think it's the angelica, which has a rooty, woody smell. The geranium is one of the dominant notes in the beginning and gives a sweet rosey green aspect to an otherwise almost too pungent opening. Underneath it all, the frankincense brings a very slightly smokey, incensey depth to the perfume. Smells like I just walked out of the shower into a beautiful garden full of flowers and veggies.

Musc Botanique is heavy on the 'botanique' and light on the 'musc'. It's a beautifully pungent, earthy fragrance that is heavy on unabashedly natural geranium and angelica. It's unapologicically herbaceous. Amber enters after a few moments, sweetening and lightening the composition, but even at this stage, it's not what I'd call musky. It smells like 'home', if home is surrounded by woods, grasses, and overrun gardens. I'm a huge fan of natural perfumery, and Strange Invisible Perfumes rank high in my books for their combination of naturalism and artistry. Note: This is a review of the now-discontinued pure parfum concentration.

Ok, I like this one quite a bit at application. Must be my body chemistry, but this fragrance smells like Johnson's Baby lotion. Even so, I like it! I don't find it overly long lasting though.