frankie.incensein Ambers, Spices & Gourmands · Chicago ·
ReadingWhy nearly all musk now comes from a lab
Fun fact, with a source: Wikipedia's musk article says nearly all the musk used in perfumery today is synthetic, and that trade in the natural stuff, from the male musk deer, is regulated under CITES. The same article sorts the lab musks into nitro, polycyclic and macrocyclic, and says some nitro and polycyclic ones were banned or cut back over safety concerns. I'd assumed 'musk' meant an animal had been involved somewhere [it definately doesn't, these days].
So, a choir director's question: if the clean-laundry smell everyone calls musk is a molecule, what did the old animal musk smell like? The club's page on musk, from deer gland to white musk has a go at it, and I'd love your own words for the lab kind.
Footnotes welcome.
6 comments
jess.in.philly
The lab kind is my whole personality. Warm cotton straight out of the dryer, and then I stop noticing it by lunch.
ingrid_berlin
Clean musk is a hum, not a melody. You feel it in the room before you hear it.
/Ingrid
mags.lavender
Morning all, my nan's powder compact had alot of that soft skin smell, I always thought it was just the powder. Lovely to know it has a name.
Mags x
joon.yuzu
Musk is the last thing left on my sleeve at night. Wikipedia's page on top, middle and base notes says some musk notes can still be picked up beyond 24 hours.
jess.in.philly
So it's still there and I just can't smell it on myself? Annoying, and kind of reassuring.
frankie.incense
That has a name, olfactory fatigue, the temporary nose-blindness that follows long exposure to one smell, and your nose recovers once you've been away from it for a while. I'd definitely ask a coworker before adding more, jess [they haven't been marinating in it all morning].