I’m in Abu Dhabi on a business trip and found what’s purported to be a cologne with real musk as the base note. It certainly smells different from anything I’ve smelt before.
The shop lists the ingredients to be “Special Musk accord, enhanced with White Amber, Sandalwood, Dhananloudh & Rose.”
I bought the smallest size, 6 ml, for 200 AED or about $50 USD. Long lasting in an oil base. Many Arab countries didn’t sign the treaty banning commerce in musk so maybe this is the real deal. Bought it in a shop in the city’s swankiest mall too.
I was under the impression that accord musks were based on white musk - which is almost always synthetic these days?
Although yes it is possible to still get animal-based musks in the Arab world but it is getting more difficult - With the recent EU ban on musk importation and the Indian Government’s finally (since 2011) starting to make serious efforts to stamp-out the raw musk trade, after around three decades on doing next to nothing despite the treaty, many Arab/Asian manufacturers have stopped using animal musks altogether, or have cut the lines using real musk to bare minimum/most expensive.
I have actually wondered if P83 is a synthetic derived from a musk or musk components? - The physicality I get from wearing a Musk is surprisingly similar.
And yes - try it with something sexual - its very good!
Also, Amber, Den-al-oud and Arab (Tafi) rose are all non-animal but have phero potential, so if you can lay your hands on a good quality Amber/Oud (some poor ones smell like toilet cleaner!), Amber/Ambergris and Rose/Musk attars on your trip, you will have some superb sexy/distinctive cover scents.
Sandalwood is most often the base oil for Arabian attars and as its an antibacterial, it may not be great in direct contact with your pheros - so apply it nearby, not on the same app points.
You’re lucky to be from South Korea , I’m sure north-american customs would go ape-shit if they come across these banned animal substances in luggage. Please report on your experiences however. If they banned it, it must be good, like anything forbidden, the ban was probably not just a victory of ecologists.
Except that antibacterials tend to be just as hard on your pheros - although in a wood oil, its more a contact thing, which is why they can be used adjacent to each other with few problems.
Musk gathering is a horribly cruel and wasteful form of hunting. Whatever you think of the effectiveness of musks, you cannot deny that - Its main method is trapping and as only mature male deer develop musk pods, it usually ensures the death of several female and immature males for every musk-bearing deer caught (there is no market at all for Musk Deer meat/skins) - and again they almost invariably die as a result of trapping or when the pods are cut-off.
Its a difficult thing, not a straightforward legal ban - more of a series of restrictive agreements by the scent producers to stop using animal derivatives and move to synthetics instead. It did leave room for a few niche-market perfumers to continue though. Amberessence is probably the one in the US. The EU ban of 2014 is more serious/legal however and is also the one that limits products like natural Oakmoss as well.
There is CITES regulation on animal musks but they still allow a small amount of export under quota. However, Russia refused to participate fully and apparently will issue CITES-compliant export docs for all quantities of Siberian musk, so have become the major supplier overall. China is wrapped-up in its own bullshit and claims all its musk is now farmed, so not covered by regs/quotas - They have yet to produce any real evidence of viable/large-scale Musk Deer farming but as the species concerned is a notoriously difficult, solitary and wide-ranging animal that isn’t likely to thrive in farmed environments. More likely they are still using contraband imports from neighbouring countries - Which is why the Indian government’s finally taking action to enforce its ban on hunting is seen as the key to the whole thing.
However, Musk has to be matured for fifteen to twenty five years before it becomes usable as a scent, so there is a decade or more still in the system to hit market, so enjoy while you can.
Thanks for the info. I didn’t mean to polarize the debate but maybe my words were a bit too crude, please pardon me for this. I got the opportunity to smell real castorum last week and the bottle was handed to my nose by a conservation agent. By being very insistant for research purposes, I could get my hands on a very very small quantity of it. I managed to dilute a few drops of my specimen in alcohol, and the scent came through different, powerful and very interesting, less animalistic, more aromatic. It has nothing to do with the synthetic equivalent, I tell you. I understand that killing animals is bad, I respect nature and all, but there’s nothing like the real thing. Mankind will have to do without it…
Oh no, its not that I object to the use of animal products per-se. Just that IMO anyone using them should be at least aware - the musk trade had become so unsustainable, cruel and wasteful that the mass-market perfumers had to get out of it back in the 80s, even if it meant several classic scents were never the same (eg Chanel No5, Yardley Black and others) or run the risk of driving musk deer completely into extinction - which is still a very real risk as it is estimated that approx 80-85% of current production ends-up in Chinese medicine, with the rest going to fragrance, mainly in India and the Arab countries.
Castoreum is a very different matter - it is a quite sustainable trade from a non-endangered species and although production does fluctuate, it is mostly as a result of quite necessary culls in Canada or Russia. Food use of Castoreum ceased back in the 1990/early 2000s when better and more realistic methods of flavonoid production changed the market.
Years back when I worked in Switzerland, I often used to pop into one of the very high class perfumers in Geneva on a Friday after work for a “sample” of musk oil - which would last me well through the weekend. I could never afford a whole bottle but if you choose your app points carefully and don’t wash them, it will last and tends to smell better the second day when it has matured into a deeply and primitively attractive scent on your skin.
In this country, the law differs from region to region. In most places, you have to hire a registered ‘trapper’ to get rid of a beaver on your property. And that ‘trapper’ has the right to take the pelts (and probably other parts, including oil) if he has the license to do so. In some more rugged regions, it is legal for the land owner to shoot beavers on sight if they are on his own property. Putting the dead beast in the garbage is ok, however, it is illegal for the land owner to exploit the skin, or other components of the animal without special permissions and licenses. These licenses are often given to natives for cultural and ancestral rights reasons. Natives do not need to trap in-season, also. I don’t think the natives care that much for the oil though, altough I might be wrong.
I’ve smelled a number of synthetic musk chemicals and this is very different. Perhaps they blended it well.
Plus, the sales guy called it “must” rather than “musk.” If I have a chance, I’ll return and ask for a small quality of “musk accord” and see if they can comply.
As to Customs, I do suspect that Korean Customs did something with my EoW mail shipment but “perfume” hadn’t meets the declaration level of “animal product” so I think I’m good.
The Korean customs guy waved me through when I asked if a little perfume was OK.
I bought some perfume for my Korean girlfriend while in Abu Dhabi. This was difficult since Asian women tend to like powdery florals and the Middle Eastern style is rich, warm, and spicey.
I settled on a floral - still a bit heavy with the base notes but it dries down nicely to my taste.
She didn’t seem too put off my it either although she never wears fragrances with me.
, I’m sure north-american customs would go ape-shit if they come across these banned animal substances in luggage. Please report on your experiences however. If they banned it, it must be good, like anything forbidden, the ban was probably not just a victory of ecologists.