I bought this fragrance indecently quickly, based on twenty minutes' wearing and one review on Now Smell This, and, mostly, my surprise at seeing fragrances from this hard-to-find house available where I didn't expect. I don't think that I'm going to be sorry. But I have doubts, because I usually wear a fragrance many times before I purchase it.
I can't decide if Musk is or isn't a scent that I "should" like. The notes include galbanum, bergamot, and woods, things that I love. But cardamom, geranium, and according to some sources, amber, are also present, and I have a more doubtful record with those - and with musk notes, for that matter.
Like Yerbamate from the same house, Musk is complicated. I visualize both of them as a dancing swirl of different fragrance notes. But Yerbamate feels like an organized if shifting pattern, a situation where the perfumer knows the boundaries of where the fragrance will go. Musk is a wilder ride.
It starts out quite floral, more aldehydic and feminine than I expected, and more powdery. The musk is there, and while it's not laundry-detergent musk, it's also perfectly clean. Any earthiness comes from the wood, not the musk. I expect something at least a little animalic in a musk, so this takes some adjustment for me. At this point it also has a mix of rose and spices that reminds me of my objection to certain "dark floral" rose and incense scents, as discussed in my post about Une Rose.
As time goes on, it turns less sharp, with the wood more dominant, and the troubling rose/incense note suppressed. The more it develops, and the more the sandalwood comes through, the better I like it.
It's a puzzle. I expect that I'll be talking about it again, when I understand it better.
Review Roundup: Now Smell This and Fragrantica and Basenotes.
Painting: 'Doubts' by Henriette Rae. Wikimedia Commons
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