Musk Hall of Fame: A List of the Best &/or Most Talked About Musk Perfumes {Perfume List} {Perfume Short (Reviews)}
Without further ado, here is our Musk Hall of Fame list that offers short and longer reviews of eminent musk perfumes and our very favorite ones (at the end).
• Auric Blends Love
A subtle clean yet warm musk oil perfume with woodsy undertones
• Auric Blends Egyptian Goddess
The most popular perfume in the line and a mild sexy floral Egyptian musk that blooms beautifully on the skin making you think of natural flowers.
• V’Tae Egyptian Garden
It smells like a musk perfume from the Egyptian antiquity would, steeped in herbs, mysterious unguents, and secret macerated formulas. It used to be worn by a high Egyptian priestess and evokes the honey, date, and almond effluvia that wafted from her well-oiled and well-massaged body. Longevity is so-so.
• Gap Musk
A clean discreet, and lightly sweet white musk oil.
• Coty Wild Musk Oil
The oil, we think, is better than the alcohol-based versions. A sweet woodsy musk oil reminiscent of high school dates for many people.
• Kiehl's Original Musk Oil
This is another classic musk oil that we also prefer in the oil-based formula. It was discovered abandoned in a turn-of-the-century to 1920s vat labelled "Love Oil" in the basement of Kiehl’s, established 1851. Everyone went crazy for it decades later. A musk oil with a marked floral lily of the valley facet, which is a natural phenomenon associated with musk in small quantities.......
• Bourbon French Musk Oil
This is reported to be a world-famous musk made in the French Quarter in New Orleans. They also boast about their jasmine scent and since the latter we did sniff and had to acknowledge its distinctive presence, we think the musk oil won’t leave people indifferent.
• The Body Shop White Musk Oil
A classic. It has been issued in alcohol-based formulas but we stick to our preference for the oil-based one. A clean musk. We prefer the Japanese Musk Oil from the same brand.
• The Body Shop Japanese Musk Oil
A sharper, woodsier, and slightly more complex musk than the White Musk.
• Alyssa Ashley Musk
A leathery and soapy musk that initially seemed to smell like the real thing but ultimately betrayed its fabricated nature. It is too synthetic and might even make you feel ill at such pretense.
• CB Musk Reinvention
From memory: a greasy, unkempt musk that signals danger and a prowling presence in the dark. There is a suggestion of mental sickness and criminal intent - a very unsafe musk.
• Narciso Rodriguez for Her
A lovely, feminine, and sexy musk with creamy floral and dewy jasmine facets. A terrific dry-down that is subtle, lightly floral, and almost beach-y. A bestseller.
• Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely
A lovely clean floral and musky chypre and a bestseller. It is close to Narciso Rodriguez for Her, but slightly less fruity, slightly more heavily textured.
• Jacomo Jacomo for Her
Animalic cedar combined with musk makes it a great courtesan skin scent, see review.
• Worth Courtesan
Musk and powdery cocoa, see our review.
• Alexander McQueen Kingdom
A reasonably excessive musky and sweaty perfume (cumin, cedar) that plays with the rules of polite washed society without truly trespassing them. It has a fresh facet to it and a subtle quality, which make it clear it adheres to mainstream clean values. For some it epitomizes hedonism and furiously unmade bed sheets.
• Gucci Eau de Parfum
Because of the cumin note, see our review.
• Réminiscence Musc
We tried it once briefly and immediately turned back our attention to the Patchouli scent from the same line, which is also their star product. Muskier sometimes does not mean necessarily sexier.
• Bruno Acampora Musc
This scent is reportedly considered to be one of the best or even the best in its league. It is a musk that is greasy, chocolate-y, woodsy, heavily-textured, and leaning towards the masculine. It is a solid musk to our nose, but ultimately it did not wow us, being too structured, a bit blocky, and not sinuous enough. An enthralling musk scent should have more of a serpentine, slithering, mysterious quality.
• Serge Lutens Clair de Musc
At first a white musk that seemed a bit too classic and devoid of originality for a Serge Lutens, but which is in fact a subtle transparent crystalline musk that marries beautifully with whisper-soft floral notes (neroli, Tuscan iris, jasmine, rose....). The musk is vegetable and borrows this facet from ambrette seeds. A refined rose and musk fragrance as soft as the tactile sensation of a rose petal on the skin.
• Lorenzo Villoresi Musk
A powdery floral and sweet musk perfume that we liked less than Teint de Neige made afterwards five years later (2000), with which it shares powdery notes. Although rather feminine-smelling at first blush, it is favored by men as well. It used to be a favorite of Brad Pitt's.
• Frederic Malle Musc Ravageur in edp and oil
See reviews
• Les Néréides Musc Samarkand
See review
• Les Néréides Musc de Java
A soft fruity musk with berries, and blackberry in particular, inspired by the famous blackberry and musk combination inaugurated by L’Artisan Parfumeur in 1978. At the start it is less subtle than Mûre et Musc, albeit pleasing and charming and softly alluring on its own. But the dry-down might win some over as the L’Artisan has moderate longevity and depth.
• Les Néréides Fleur Poudrée de Musc
The dirtiest one amongst Les Néréides collection of musk perfumes. At first, you take in the scent of an elegantly powdered lady as you are walking on the street and end in her alcove among the crumpled sheets with a vision of nude silk stockings negligently thrown on a lacquered windscreen.
• L’Artisan Cologne Mûre et Musc (eau de toilette)
Opens on a salty and peppery armful of crushed leaves and berries. Becomes musky, dry, and fresh, with green and blackberry notes remaining. A subtle fresh musk fragrance that feels like one is taking a stroll in the underbrush in the dewy morning. Unfortunately the promenade, like the early morning hours, do not last enough.
Our favorites, which will merit longer reviews, if not yet reviewed:
• Les Nez L'Antimatière
A complex musk or more to the point skin perfume that reaches a rare psychological depth. The smell of time and the skin of close relatives and lovers transferred onto leather and clothes. See review.
• Guerlain Pamplelune
An intoxicating and elegant grapefruit and musk scent that wafts of the animalic and acrid facets of the grapefruit. It smells embarrassingly (especially in the US), yet delightfully so of an un-showered body. See review.
• Diptyque L'Autre
A refined spicy sweaty dry musk. It delicately exudes the smell of an unwashed men's shirt.
• Serge Lutens Muscs Koublaï Khan
Kubilaï welcomes you in the middle of the steppes in his ger or tent whose ground is strewn with precious silken Persian carpets decorated with garden-of-paradise motifs and alighted fragrant rose petals brought from afar. His sweat is complex and very refined and smells as precious as gold. You share a drink of koumiss with him poured in leather vessels circled with rare metals and are not loath to getting a bit closer to inhale him in more.
• Shiséido Féminité du Bois
This is a closet musk perfume, which evokes pearly, elegant sexy sweat under an urbane demeanor.
• Santa Maria Novella Muschio Oro (Gold Musk)
An unusual powdery musk perfume that is as light as fresh water and luminous as the halo of saints in a Florentine Renaissance painting. Liquid ancient gold.
• Santa Maria Novella Muschio
A spicier, drier, more masculine powdery musk than Muschio Oro with overtones of licorice, licorice-y caramel, aniseed, Pastis and a suggestion of turpentine. Manet might have worn it in his streaked overalls while seating in a Parisian café drinking absinthe.
• Annick Goutal Musc Nomade
See review
Photo of the Rue du Petit Musc in Paris by The Scented Salamander, Musk Oil from Kiehl's.
Previous Posts in Perfume Lists:
Perfume Layering Suggestions by Jean-Claude Ellena
Love Potions Or My Top Super Sexy Scents for Valentine's Day & Beyond
Sexiness Expert Dusan Z Offers a List of Perfumes To Wear On Valentine's Day
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Comments
Do you sell Coty Wild musk oil or do you know where I can purchase it
Thanks
GAil
Posted by: Gail Jennings | September 22, 2007
Gail,
The Scented Salamander is NOT the blogging arm of a perfume store. So we don't carry any type of perfumes, we just describe them and put them in context.
Coty Wild Musk is available in places like Target, Walmart, I would think. Try eBay also.
Posted by: Marie-Helene | September 22, 2007
hi
my girl friend loves for me to wear "musk"..found your reviews interesting....any you would recommend as more of a "guy"-kinda musk?
Thanks
Allen
Posted by: allen | December 10, 2007
Hi Allen,
From this list (which is an open one) I'd say you could try Frederic Malle especially the oil, L'Antimatière, L'Autre, Muscs Koublaï Khan, CB Musk Reinvention...
I'd also suggest you try the new Body Shop White Musk for Men and L'Air de Rien by Miller Harris.
I thought that Fracas for Men has a great musky dry-down too (discounters).
Posted by: Marie-Helene | December 10, 2007
hi! thanks for your description about musk! in Italy it's difficult to find lots of parfums you've described and i love so much this essence!
i could suggest Rumeur by Lanvin and Eau de Kasaneka by Menard...
the first one is elegant, not barefaced with a subtle carnality. the second one isn't a typical musk essence but it approaches to a good and velvety musk.
Posted by: gretel | December 20, 2007
Hello, I am looking for a perfume that smells similar to Comptoir Sud Pacifique's Cristal de Musc (which I believe has notes of white and powdery musk). I love this scent but because it is an eau de parfum it never lasts. Can you recommend something similar?
Thanks!
Dana
Posted by: Dana | June 16, 2008
I would try Les Néréides Musk Samarkand first, then Annick Goutal Musc Nomade, Lorenzo Villoresi Musk, Serge Lutens Clair de Musc....but let me get back to you when I get a chance to sniff Cristal de Musc
Posted by: Marie-Helene | June 17, 2008
Hi,
Just discovered this site and am already in love with it. I am looking for Santa Maria Novella Musc. I cannot find a place that sells it. Any suggestions?
Posted by: saint james | June 26, 2008
Yes, you can find it at Aedes.com
Thank you for your kind words.
Posted by: Marie-Helene Wagner | June 30, 2008
I'm hooked on The Original Musk Oil from Cabot. I've used it for 20 years (OMG) and it is amazing. I get it a Cooperlabs in CA.
Posted by: Logan | July 17, 2008