Let me tell you a secret.
A secret about the origin of perfume…
A secret about the Mystery of Musk.
It begins with Adam and Eve on the dusk of their wedding night
He, the wandering Minstrel, the Fool Child
She, the Lunar Priestess, Green Queen of Earth
And the divine sparks that flew between them.
First she kissed the nape of his neck,
Second he kissed her mouth
Third he put his hand between her legs.
From that hormonal gesture sprang a scent, that none the world has ever known
A Musk so sweet that even the stars in the Heavens Wept for Joy
A floral fruity sweetness even the Gods bowed down and wept
Tears of contentment in her sweet lap
Adam brushed her hair, he brushed her long black hair smooth down
He smoothed it with his hands
She and he both
Their musky scent rising
Giving birth to twins
And triplets both
They were King and Queen for a night
Musk is a reddish brown glandular secretion of the male musk deer native to the higher mountainous elevations of the Himalayas and Tibet. The demand for this precious perfumery material has caused the near extinction of this animal and the gathering and trading of genuine musk has been illegal for decades. That being said the more exclusive perfume houses are said to have small quantities of this olfactory memorabilia for “reference” in their materials collections. If one has been lucky enough to smell the “real thing” the impregnated scent memory retains the sweet, fruity, floral animalic aroma forever. This invitation to mate scent secreted by the musk deer has been the subject of intense interest to humans once they discovered that this scent, well, attracts them as well.
Chemists have synthesized muscone, and several synthetic “musks” play pivotal roles in almost every commercial perfume. Running the juice on real musk provided the molecular information to synthesize the aroma sufficiently well to trick our fifth sense into true hormonal response. This is the object of most perfumes, certainly musky perfumes, to send a scentual invitation to our mate or prospective mate(s).
Natural musks available to the Natural Perfumer’s palette today fall into two categories, botanical, and animal origin. The animal origin musks that are commercially available are the hyraceum, or African stone– a secretion produced by a small guinea pig like creature, the rutting billy goat hair extract, ambergris (produced in the whale’s digestive tract and vomited to float on the surface of the water where it is collected), beeswax and civet (another animal secretion by the “civet cat” which is not really a cat but a mammal closely related to the mongoose). None of these materials are as sweet or fruity as deer musk but nevertheless have an animal pull pleasing to many people. The animalic note holds weight in any formula and in the case of ambergris gives a lift to the perfume enhancing the bouquet without significantly changing the overall scent. It is as if it simply leant a magical power to a perfume, but invisibly. The other animal notes to me have an unbecoming fetidity I find unpleasant, but personal taste aside certainly they lend power to the formulas they inhabit.
Botanical musk like notes are many but only ambrette seed and angelica root contain macrocyclic musk, like deer musk. So the arguably the only true botanical musks are those two but many botanical oils are musky enough to be considered by the perfumer for any perfume requiring a musk accord.
Is it difficult to blend an accord similar to animal musk but solely with botanicals? You betcha. But the skilled perfumer can provide his or her customer with scents similar in effect to real musk by providing the human system the stimulus needed to enhance ones own ‘musk’ or personal scent. My personal preference is to smell on a man, pure botanical essences that bring out and enhance his natural scent. The attraction of hormonally produced scent must be present for successful and blissful intimacy so the enhancement rather than the overpowering of, personal scent should be considered.
The Natural Perfumers Guild Mystery of Musk project included 12 natural Perfumers blending 12 different variations on the musk theme. Some of of the perfumers submitted floral perfumes with an underpinning of “musk” lightly or heavily applied. One contained no florals . As usual we have an eclectic crowd in the world of natural Perfumery. A bunch of renegades all passionately committed to doing their own thing.
Editor's Note: We thank Anya McCoy and the Natural Perfumer's Guild for including Cafleurebon in this project. We chose to spotlight each perfumer and their work individually; we were fortunate to receive eleven of the twelve submissions. To the world of fine fragrance, natural perfumery is not going anywhere, in fact it will only gain momentum. On a personal level I thank Mandy Aftel, who was my point of entry into natural fragrance. And to natural perfumers who I have written about who are not Guild members Liz Zorn of Soivohle, Kedra Hart of Opus Oils, and Jane Hendler of Ajne Perfumes.
Even though this isn’t a formal Mystery Of Musk entry any comments will be entered into the draw for the bottle of Strange Invisible Perfumes Temple Of Musk we are giving away in conjunction with the project, which ends July 7, 2010 at 11:59 pm EST. Check out www.siperfumes.com