MSK 004/NTL

ETA: I couldn’t put my finger on why this smelled like a familiar scent. Another review below said it smelled like toilet paper. In the 70s and 80s Charmin had scented toilet paper and this is that smell. OMG! It took me back. My Grandma used scented toilet paper. Now I know why it felt comforting. It’s just sweet, soft and delicate. Nothing overbearing to it. I swear people expect too much from Zara though. This isn’t a youthful sweet fragrance because it has that powdery vibe. It’s just pretty for the sake of being pretty and I would say it’s powdery enough to even be a little sexy. It’s not gonna leave a trail all day but it will smell soft and delicate. This is the type of scent that you walk by a lady and she just smells familiar, warm and feminine. This is very lovely at this price point. The bottle alone is incredible at the price point. If you’re expecting a hot new fragrance that you haven’t ever smelled before, this isn’t for you. This is sweet almonds with a makeup powder vibe.

Zara MSK 004/NTL is the ultimate "clean girl" fragrance, masterfully blending a cool, cosmetic elegance with a soft, gourmand sweetness. Created by renowned perfumer Nathalie Lorson, it opens with a unique "confetti" note of sugared almonds that feels light and airy rather than heavy, perfectly complementing a heart of powdery iris and violet that evokes the chic scent of vintage lipstick or luxury face powder. As it settles, it transforms into a "your skin but better" aroma, wrapped in a fluffy cloud of clean white musk and a hint of patchouli that mimics the cozy, high-end feel of a fresh cashmere sweater. While it remains a polite, close-wearing scent ideal for the office or spring days, its striking resemblance to the much more expensive Lancôme Iris Dragées has made it a legendary, highly sought-after "hidden gem" in the Zara collection.

Hello Prada d’Iris with a citrusy note! I love iris and this is amazing. It says there’s almond. Where? Maybe on the dry down but it’s definitely an iris fragrance for my nose and I like it. After 10 minutes it starts to have a smoky dusty smell on my skin (thats toasted & dry confetti almond sugar I guess...) At that moment it’s no longer prada iris but something very synthetic. So my advice is wear this on your clothes since it has no color so it wouldn’t stain the fabric. It stays not forever on your clothes. I can say app. 1 day. I can wear this more often than Rose Gourmand because this fragrance is 24/7 4 seasons and ageless. Edit Update: Alright it’s been 3+ months since I bought this and I can say there IS ALMOND. But candied almond not that beautiful one. Sorry for the misinformation.

This has nothing to do with Shalimar Millesime Iris. To my nose, MSK is like a sweeter version of Paris-Venice from Chanel with added candied almonds that you reiceive as gifts at baptisms or wedding. It reminds me in style a little of Serge Lutens Rahat Loukoum. It is also a different sweet from Prada Candy, because that one is rich in benzoin and caramel notes, while this one smells more like hard, white sugar candy coating. Also different from Shalimar Millesime Iris, which has a burnt sugar/caramel and orris on a base of prominent original Shalimar DNA. In conclusion, I think this is a beautiful, playful but still elegant perfume, not duping anything in particular and definetely one of the better Zara creations.

This reminds me so much of Prada Candy, but surprisingly longer lasting! I wish I knew about this before I bought Candy because it's so much cheaper and I like it a lot more. This is soft, powdery, and very feminine. It's a sweet and cozy scent that will have you smelling yourself all day long because you can't get enough. I'm impressed with how long-lasting it is because usually Zara fragrances don't last whatsoever for me, even on clothing. It is super hot outside right now and I still love it, but I can see myself wearing this more in the fall. I like it so much I will probably buy a back up, which doesn't happen often with Zara scents.

I finally got my hands on this and got it for a surpisingly fair price. It's absolutely magical! Never thought that iris and sugared almonds could go so well together. And yes, this is similar to Lancome's now discontiuned Iris dragees. I don't know if this is supposed to be a dupe, but they're very close. The only issue I have is the longevity and projection. You have to spray quite a lot to actually smell all the notes. So for the bottles that go on ebay for over 100 dollars - skip it. It's NOT that worth it. But if you manage to find a bargain then go for it! It's truly one of a kind, and you won't be disappointed :)

Delectably sweet sugared almonds resting on a fluffy cloud of cozy musk. Starts out candy-sweet, but eventually, the sweetness mellows, and the nuttiness of the almond moves slightly forward. It's a well-balanced gourmand-musk fragrance. This is simple, delicate, and charming, a true delight that I am happy to have in my collection. Zara MSK is a lovely mood lifter—both uplifting and relaxing. my nose really picks up on musk notes, so I find the lasting power and sillage to be pretty darn amazing. I get 10-12 hours and can't do more than two sprays because it is so strong. A real gem for us musk lovers.

When it comes to iris, perfumes like this are my favorite interpretation of the powdery purple floral. This fragrance is soft, fluffy, sweet, powdery, musky, a little earthy (from the patch) and just downright beautiful. It’s such an easy reach and I don’t think you’ll offend anyone with this, even if you overspray. Lasts well on clothes and okay on skin. Nathalie Lorson did such a spectacular job on this. Too bad it’s been discontinued.

Nathalie did it AGAIN... Love her work, love this one... Is very light and airy... Moderate projection and small longevity... But I don't mind. Edit : 10/10/24 : my bottle is halfway ....and this is also a bottle I have to treasure because Zara always discontinues....I HATE them! Natalie don't trust them with your creations please!!! Go give "sweet pastry in paris" and this one somewhere else!

Beautiful ! Fluffy, creamy, sweet, classy ! It’s has that cold sweet smell and it’s not overpowering. I can smell all 4 notes equally but maybe almonds are little bit more prominent then others. I tried Iris Dragees too and yes they are very similar but ID is less sweet for sure.

I absolutely love this perfume but I like it more when I spray it on my clothing. On my skin it’s a weird slightly sweet musky patchouli scent that sits very close to the skin. On my clothing it smells sweet, musky, powdery, and it projects a lot better.

What a 💎 This one totally surprised me, I decided to take my chances since it had really positive reviews here. Blind buy 🙈.. Result: success, I love 😍 this scent so comforting and 😋, indeed 'edible musk'

Please message Zara on twitter or on the app to get this beauty back 🙏🏼😫 I'm sure that this this one was the best seller from this collection

LOVE it! It is my absolute favorite Zara scent. Wish I had purchased more. If anyone is selling a bottle please PM me.

Oh wow, this is so sexy. It reminds me of Burberry Body, it's as sexy and musky as that.

To me this smells like toilet paper, a very clean toilet paper

To deny that this has resemblance to Lancôme's 'Iris Dragées' would be questionable 🤔 'MSK 004/NTL' smells EXACTLY like the dry-down of 'Iris Dragées' except...wait for it...more gourmand and candied: it's those white / pastel sugar-covered almonds! Right from the opening! What 'MSK 004/NTL' is missing is the refreshingly-delish citrus opening of 'Iris Dragées' and has a very linear drydown. But this is still youthful, fresh, super feminine and innocently sweet. The iris in this is light and airy too, nothing like make-up powders. For comparison: this is far more feminine than 'Infusion d'Iris' by Prada. But they are all in the same family, a bunch of cousins/aunts/uncles lol. I owned 'Iris Dragées' so it's easy for me to compare. This scent is still beautiful and ballerina-esque. However it only gets a 'like' from me because of the disappointing performance: 3.5 hours longevity on my skin. ONLY 3.5!!! Come on Zara, you put out powerhouses in 2020 with Red Temptation (first edition). Nevertheless, this is absolutely delightful and aptly named 'edible musk'.

This is really a sweet, almondy and powdery perfume. The first thing I smell is candied almonds (not candied walnuts, but those pastel candy coated almods). You can smell a soft almond and it's incredibly similar to the real candy. After a few minutes, you can feel some iris and patchouli, that gives some body to the sweetness, and it makes it powdery. At times, I can discerne some incense, like the type you smell at an Egyptian gift shop, which didn't bother me at all. It also reminds me of a bowl of cereal. It is a very interesting and original aroma, and when giving it to other people to smell, they all agreed that it is a very beautiful aroma. My mom and sister said it reminds them of Kenzo Flower, but I don't think it has that fruity touch of Kenzo. Anyway, personally, I loved this fragrance and I'm waiting to see what else Zara has to offer with these clever collaborations and I totally recommend it for people who like sweet and powdery perfumes.

Update from my review below: 7/27/21 This one has sat for a couple months now and definitely developed. Is this Iris Dragee 2? No, but for the money, it's a nice layering or simple day wear perfume. The almond deepened a bit and the patch finally found its voice and lent a nice bit of soft spicey. Sweet and fleeting, but I'm not unhappy I spent the money. as a view below noted, Zara isn't niche, the price tag isn't either. I shouldn't have doubted Nathalie Lorson. I mean, your not going to get the exact scent of Iris Dragees, but you'll get a close cousin, nice.

Prada d'iris! Nice iris (powdery) perfume with à little bit of musk and somewhere in the background at the dry down some almonds. It lasts on clothes not on my skin, after 2 hours it is gone! This has nothing to do with the others from the line, rose Gourmand or red Temptation which are beasts! Nice for the bed time for me 🌛 Edit: I am wearing it a while now and i can say that reminds me also a little bit Athalia from parfums de marly..

Was pleasing surprised by this one. I’ve been waiting some sort of fluffy musky scent and that fits the bill, its my scent for when Idk what to wear. It has good sillage and great longevity, it will last on clothes for days! It has been doing good for me this summer, I wish they keep it on permanently. Great bang for your buck.

Oh my, I feel like I'm resting on a pink fluffy cloud in the sky when I wear this. A well blended and balanced and lovely combination of sugary sweetness, powdery iris, and fresh clean musk. The best of all three worlds. I'm not picking up the patchouli which is unfortunate. But that may just be me.

This perfume reminds me of lira, something like a body mist of lira because the longevity and projection are really bad but for the price still worth it it’s so delicious!

Only issue is i can barely smell it on myself. Seems like a beautiful scent but i can barely smell anything.

This is hardly detectable on me, even after a generous number of sprays. Sweet white muskiness. Girly girly feminine candy floss.

Nathalie Lorson is the master perfumier behind YSL Black Opium, along with other famous scents such as D&G Imperatrice and Sicily, Lalique Amethyst and my personal favourite of hers is the yummy "Wish" by Chopard. To pick up one of her frags at a Zara price is kind of a deal worth noticing, and when I heard the notes were iris (a flower whose ethereal light prettiness I've always enjoyed in perfume) along with sugared almond, I went ahead and pressed "Buy" on that cart. The next day it arrives and the juice goes straight on the pulse points (yeah I know I should let a fragrance sit at least overnight but I couldn't resist!) ; initially I get a pretty, sweetened ladylike iris with a trace of musk, very sweet, very pretty but there's no almond at first.... a wee bit later I get it the almond subtly, and it's definitely not straight up almond but "confetti" ie: those little sugared almond sweets you get at weddings, and it's there underlying the iris and it's very, very pretty indeed. I feel like a ballerina should wear this, or a bride - someone wearing lots of tulle and being SUPER ladylike and elegant. Unlike some other Zara frags it lasted me from early afternoon till bedtime too. I love these limited edition tall round bottles Zara do on occasion (I also have and recommend "Rose Gourmand" and "Red Vetiver" in this format). For every two or three screechy fruity frag that disappears in 2 seconds that Zara produces, they seem also to come out with something as classy, classic and quality as this from time to time so they are definitely worth watching! This one is absolutely beautiful and I am happy with my purchase.

Chapter one being obviously heavily inspired by Mancera (yes all of the Chapter one fragrances and inspired is an understatement!) and Zara doing Byredo, Le Labo and Marly before I was secretly hoping this Chapter Two range would be inspired by some niche brand as well. Reading the notes I was hoping to find maybe Vilhelm, Maison Lancome, but alas according to me these are not inspired by such a brand. Maybe they are, but then unfortunately unrecognizable as such by me. I was hoping this version would be inspired by Iris Dragees by Lancome, but it is....not...at...all. What I get is indeed sweet sugared but then more lika an Iris Dragees Salt Caramel. It's almost a savoury sweetness, salty. It has that same burnt sugary note Baccarat Rouge has but then a million times softer. I find the total to be really artificially smelling. I also tested the flwr version, hoping to find a tea perfume like Dear Polly. All I get from that is an Elizabeth Arden Green Tea on the really soft floral, almost aquatic floral side. So sorry, this time not even keen on testing the two others in this line.

Now this is actually incredible and not just for a Zara fragrance. I hate to hype it up even more given that it’s discontinued and increasingly hard to find. And it is no surprise given who the nose is. There are layers to this - candied violets, iris and musk, and an earthy wood and patchouli combo. Cotton candy musk with a whisper of iris. I find that it actually projects and the scent endures on clothing for days. It is definitely a musk, your skin but much much better type of scent. It is quite layered and I haven’t experienced a skin scent like this one. Nothing like Prada Candy, nothing like the Shalimar Iris flanker. Possibly like Lancôme’s Iris Dragees, but I haven’t tried that one. Love it, will snatch up every bottle I can find.

I bought this because I like Prada Candy but don't find that Prada Candy lasts that long and it's a bit weak for the price. I just smelled PC and this one side by side and I've worn them and I can say they remind me of each other maybe, but they're really pretty different. Candy is definitely sweeter and has more of that caramel and benzoin type of smell, whereas this one is a bit more.. powdery and slightly more aromatic? Many Zara dupes are spot-on, and nearly 95% close, but I'd say this one is more like 80-85% close. Not as strong longevity and sillage compared to other Zara fragrances, but obviously still good for the price.

Today I tested this one at Zara, 5-6 squirts on my hand from a freshly opened bottle, to me the opening reminded me of 'A Sweet Pastry In Paris', also by Natalie Lorson, a sweet lemony pastry, my son said it smelled like cake. Then once it dried down it transformed into Dior Homme Intense with the Iris and Vanilla, only slightly more feminine and less smoky. I will try it again but this is my first impression and very different from what I was expecting, I do like it but I was hoping for something more 'playfull' maybe, with the Sugared Almonds standing out, I loved them as a kid.

I was hoping this would lean more towards iris dragee and less prada candy, having said that it's really beautiful. Not getting too much of that iris, mostly sugared almond dragee, but not overly sweet like prada candy. It's kind of the mid way between prada and l'ancombe iris dragee. Not too young, not overly sugary sweet but still has that powdery sugary touch. Much more elegant than prada candy, if someone loves this genre I think this is a great price for what you get. Lasts pretty well too, not too synthetic, delicate and smells like an expensive confectionary store.

This is actually quite a balanced gourmand with moderate projection and respectable lasting power. People probably expect niche quality from Zara, given the negative comments, but this is decent compared to high-end designer fragrances. It reminds me of LVEB in the third hour of spraying: beautiful powdered and sugared iris, very addictive and elegant. I absolutely hate those three first hours of LVEB mind you and the NL creation is far better. In my opinion tjis was the best from this line; the other two being quite bland.

Not bad...just very generic. I do can get the almond note but it is very subtle. When I was a child my grandma always used to have those almond candies in her house and I remember the smell coming to my nose when the bottle was opened. I this perfume smells exactly like that. I could smell the powdery sweet scent coming from the candies. And this fragrance is just that: a sweet, powdery, almondy milky scent. It doesn't projects too much, and doesn't last long. It does remind me Pink Sugar, with a iris/powdery note.

Strolled into Zara today to get the new Jo Malone fragrances and blind bought this scent too! I love the scents that Natalie Lorson creates so I had to add it. When I first sprayed it on my skin all I could smell was sweet sugar and Iris, mid dry down the musk comes peaking out but is still pretty subtle in comparison to the sugary notes and Iris, once the scent has dried down completely it stays the same with the Iris taking over. If pink sugar and Narciso Rodriguez Poudree had a baby, this might be it.

Remember those street vendors selling caramelized, candied nuts? They are usually near the metro stations and have this black skillet where they toss and cook the 'chouchou'. They perfume the air around with a very sweet smell of sugar, some kind of vanilla and candied almonds (although I think they use peanuts for chouchou, yet somehow I never smelt peanuts, just candy). MSK smells exactly like this to me, not the dragées pictured; dries down to a soft musk.

Beautiful but redundant if you have Shalimar Iris Millèsime. The two are very similar. Sweet cotton candy musk. I wish there was more lipstick Iris and more of the confectionary almond powderiness. The quality and performance is exceptional. I’m just not sure if I need another iris/musk in my collection along with L’instant magic, Shalimar Iris. Message me if you’re wanna buy a bottle. Mine is 95% full

I have never smelled Iris Dragees, so cannot comment on similarities but what I can say is that this is PRADA CANDY. I wish I knew that before I blind bought this. If you made me blindly smell this I would’ve guessed it was PC - I see no differences between the 2.

Update: Iris Dragée is on another level: aromatic, refined with only just a little bit of sugar. The NL creation, although lovely, is I'm afraid not comparable but nonetheless a fine fragrance for those with a bit of a sweet tooth.

As soon as I sprayed this I got Iris Dragees. I had to go and smell my bottle of ID to compare, and they are very similar. So, if you’re looking for a cheap dupe but without the longevity then this is your guy!

Do not believe anyone who says this smells like Iris Dragees, not even close, I barely smell Iris. It is sweet and earthy at the same time.

Great scents but very intimate. It’s clean, soft and very cozy. Sweet musk good for WFH and bed time. Love it even it’s gone so fast 💨

Is anyone smelling almonds in this? It would be a blind buy but I'm hoping for lots of almond, TY!

PM me if you don’t mind parting with a bottle and can post to EU or UK 🤗🙏🏻

If anyone is selling a bottle, please dm me! Does not have to be full.

Not too sweet. Very besutiful.