Musk Quest: Musc by Reminiscence

As I've mentioned recently I'm on the mission for a new musk. My absurdly long lived Egyptian Goddess roll-on oil by Auric Blends recently turned and I need a new musk to wear. The frank truth is by the end Egyptian Goddess was no longer really me either. We had grown apart. I still consider it one of the best cheap thrills you can get in the perfume world and definitely recommend it to those that love Egyptian musk scents. Still I want a musk back in my collection that I can wear and feel great in. The pleasure of a good musk scent is that they smell like a natural awesome smelling extension of you.

I was recently going through my collection of samples when I stumbled on Musc by Reminiscence. It stuck out even more considering the recent review I read on Chez Pajama for it. Chez Pajama considers it a favorite of her's and that it has a rather intimate quality going on. Well I had to try it with that ringing endorsement and lets be frank if there is one place where mutations of scent on different skin can be smelled it is in the musk category of perfume.

Musc by Reminiscence smells good. It is one of those downy warm sweet creamy musks on me that some people say remind them of babies although I would say Reminiscence sidesteps that issue by keeping a lovely spicy bitter almond note running through out the musk. Musc is all about warm clean skin on me, whatever animalic edge other's encounter in this scent is sucked up on my skin (I can notoriously de-animalic scents that are considered super animalic and I can animalic scents that are considered safe). For me Musc is all comfort and ease with a little bit of spice running through it. I like that Musc is not a white musk or an Egyptian musk, it is closer to the old school 70s musks but a bit sweeter and more interesting.

It's not quite the musk I am looking for but I am most definitely going to enjoy my sample of it while I have it.

Try Musc by Reminiscence if you like Disco Nap by Smell Bent, Clair de Musc by Serge Lutens, or Dana O'Shee by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.

First Image from Fragrantica.com 
Second image by Jozef Wilcon

SOTD: Jour de Fete

So I decided to follow my almond craving and had heard some good things about L'Artisan's Jour de Fete and some not so good things, in general the house of L'Artisan and I have had a no go relationship, except for making me love a floral, Le Chasse Aux Papillons. The notes for Jour de Fete are the stuff for making lovely scents: almond, pink laurel, wheat, orris, bourbon vanilla, cedarwood. In truth this is almond water, you can barely smell it, this smells like the memory of a babies head from 10 years ago. I smell this and I wish they had pumped up everything just a bit more.

Image provided by http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/vincent-van-gogh-final-paintings.htm/printable

Almond Blossom by Vincent Van Gogh

SOTD: Kuumba Made Vanilla Musk

My mondays are spent studying so I often go with comforting scents (those that blend in with my own scent) or scents that I perceive to be intelligent (Infusion d'Iris) or scents that I perceive to intellectually stimulating because of their energy (citrus scents). Today I am going with comfort and a scent I have not worn in ages: Kuumba Made Vanilla Musk. This one has a great deal of similarity to Lea St. Barth and Sage Machado's Pearl, the musk is light and delicate, the vanilla also light with hints of cherried heliotrope and almond, yet the drydown also has hints of civet and amber. Truthfully this scent really should get much more attention but I suspect because it is cheap and usually found at health food stores it is dismissed.

Quote of the Day: The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.-- Stephen Jay Gould

image provided by artnet.com

Implicate Order by Eleanor Miller

Datura Noir part. 1

I'm going to admit it now, I rarely wear tropical scents, what can I say I rarely think I can pull off the sunny lushness that tropical scents often have going for them, and yet Datura Noir by Serge Lutens is one of the few tropical scents that I can. I suppose if I were to sum this scent up it for its character it would be "a gothic tropical scent, a moodscape of the icy arctic meeting falling petals of creamy luscious tropical flowers." This is the scent of a jungle at night with the coldest white full moon in the sky illuminating everything in its brilliant silver light. And yet this scent is softly narcotic there is no screeching gardenias or tuberoses, the tuberose in this is mellow and edged with a buzzing green note, the osmanthus is the more promenent floral giving off its gentle greeness with its hints of apricots soaked in cream, the coconut is subdued never reminding of sunscreen but rather the scent of freshly cracked coconut, and the hint of bitter almond through out giving it that hint of high pitched sweetness that is cold and wonderfuly sweet. Datura Noir is a soft scent yet has a sharp edge with its unheady narcotic quality.