Musk

If today white musk is synonymous with softness and tenderness, the origins of this fragrance are much less tender. Did you know that musk comes from a kind of deer that has been killed for centuries for the peculiar smell of its hormonal secretions? Hard to hear, however, that was the case until 1979 ... Fortunately, beautiful synthetic fragrances replaced them while reproducing the qualities of this captivating scent.

Several centuries ago, the natives discovered that the scent glands of a species of buckshot produced an intoxicating, aphrodisiac scent at the time of its rut: musk. Fascinated by this scent, Alexandre Le Grand brought back this scent from China. Musk was successful in Europe for decades but caused the mass loss of these poor little deer. Indeed after centuries of exploitation of this animal musk, the WWF finally protected the buckshot (in 1979) by banning the sale of the precious substance. It is therefore synthetic products that took over in order to offer our noses this special woody animal scent.

As early as 1926, Lavoslav Ruzicka succeeded in creating the synthetic fragrance of musk in order to be able to mass produce it: muscone. Today the main synthetic reproductions of musk are found under the name white musk, in particular macrocyclic musks.

Today, white musk is used in the vast majority of perfumes because it has the undeniable advantage of being a fixer for more volatile scent notes and of providing suppleness and delicacies. Among the many variations or facets of synthetic musky notes, the main ones used in your favorite perfumes are elation with a fruity tendency, more powdery ambrettolide, cottony muscenone, and habanolide with woody scents.

It is one of the ingredients present in our Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius, Pisces fragrances!