Parfum d’Empire Musc Tonkin extrait de parfum ©Parfum d’Empire
“Je l′appelle ma p’tite bourgeoise
“I call her my little bourgeois
Ma Tonkiki, ma Tonkiki, ma Tonkinoise
My Tonkiki, my Tonkiki, my Tonkinoise
Y en a d’autres qui m′font les doux yeux
There are others making goo-goo eyes at me
Mais c′est elle que j’aime le mieux
But it’s she I love better”-Writer(s): Christine Henri, Villard Georges
Zia Graziella, a friend and a former Soubrette who drove the audience of Operetta theaters crazy for more than 40 years introduced me to this French tune of yore. Her French maman used to sing it to her as a lullaby, she told me with shining eyes. The song was sung also by Maurice Chevalier and Josephine Baker, who made it an international hit. All the times this jingle rolls in my head in Graziella’s charming voice, it is a sweet reminder of how music and perfumery have so much in common. Actually, more than one could think, as they sometimes share a common history. That’s the case with this debut du siècle melody and musk Tonkin, a mythical raw material I was lucky to smell long time ago in the early days of my fragrant training. Its intoxicating smell all about sinful tenderness is bound in my memory to Auntie Graziella and “La petite Tonkinoise”.
Tonkin – L’Indochine Française, 1931by illustrator Joseph-Henri Ponchin (1897-1962)
Nowadays you can find plenty of information on the web about this traditional ingredient in ancient perfumery, spanning from sources like Marco Polo “The Million” to classic perfumery manuals that used it for its fixative power and it purported properties as an aphrodisiac. It is less talked how musk from Tonkin (the current Vietnam) became a signature ingredient in French Perfumery after the Sino-French war (1883-1885) that gained France the Tonkin protectorate (1886-1945), meaning profitable imports of the finest tea, opium and musk as well. Travels by sea to those faraway lands also inspired music and arts, along with perfumery.
Coco Chanel et La Marquise de la Flaconnerie, 1923 by SEM (1863-1934)
During the same time period, the discovery of aliphatic aldehydes led to what I consider the most exquisite musk pairing of the XX century: aldehydic musky florals. The suggestion of a heated feminine body still smelling of the finest floral soap made socially acceptable fragrant eroticism, yet teasing the dirtiest, forbidden bourgeois fantasies. My beloved Chanel No. 5 eau de cologne is probably the most famous and abstract example of this mix of soapy floralcy and troubling intimacy. Musky florals were still en vogue in the late 1950s, as also confirmed by a 1961 Firmenich interpretation of the Chanel No. 5 theme (via the knowledgeable Octavian Coifan) featuring 15/1000 of natural musk Tonkin tincture (quite a significant amount). Originally coming from the musk deer perineal glands, it was then banned in 1979, and animal cruelty concerns have prevented it from being used. Fortunately.
The Tibetan musk, Edinburgh 1866 by Sir William Jardine (1800-1874)
Back in 2012 Parfum d’Empire Musc Tonkin extrait de parfum not only wanted to play homage to the eponymous raw material, but also succeeded in bringing us to a fantasy boat trip to the mysterious Vietnam, discovering beauty, and love. Perfumer Marc-Antoine Corticchiato ethically sublimates the magic of moschus moschiferus secretions backing the notorious skunk side of musk with the original cleanness of a sparkling marine bouquet. Parfum d’Empire Musk Tonkin is the ultimate redefinition of musk in perfumery, resulting in an unprecedented, unique fragrance worthy of entering the CaFleureBon Modern Masterpiece Hall of fame.
Parfum d’Empire Musc Tonkin Extrait de Parfum (2012) and Parfum d’Empire Musk Tonkin edp (2014) ©Emmanuelle Varron
Initially released as a 1000 bottles limited edition extrait de parfum almost 10 years ago (read the original review by Mark Behnke here), Musc Tonkin was later released in 2014 as a less challenging eau de parfum. It later returned to its extrait de parfum concentration, as uncompromising as ever.
Parfum d’Empire Musc Tonkin opens with the most memorable erotic funk of the past several decades, but it’s far from being a mere muscular exercise on animalcy. Its roaring warmth is interwoven with heady white flowers, possibly tuberose and ylang-ylang along with a luscious confectionery of honeyed rose and osmanthus absolute that melts on skin like a sumptuous liqueur. What makes Musc Tonkin really break through is the sparkle of orange blossom boosted by a genius marine note bridging the urinous mineralcy of African stone. The endless salty skin base accord softens in the hay-like hues of coumarin and patchouli, hinting in my mind to the languorous opium smokers of French Indochina.
This miraculous balance of immaculate and dirty is the very soul of the XX century French perfumery featuring the (back then) widely available musk Tonkin and the key ingredient. As many perfume reviews on the web point out, that there is common ground with classics like Guerlain Mitsouko, Femme de Rochas,1000 de Jean Patou and many others is no surprise. The vintage vibe is a happy result in this case, not a goal.
Woman Smoking Opium, Hanoi, French Indocina c.a. 1915 by Léon Busy
Of course, vintage perfume lovers have been unknowingly exposed to musk Tonkin, so its smell is an acquired taste as previously explained. Nowadays though, very few people had the chance to smell it, so I was happy that perfumer Marc-Antoine Corticchiato answered my questions about this legendary raw material.
Marc-Antoine Corticchiato, image ©Parfum d’Empire
Ermano Picco: What is your relationship with musk in perfumes in general and with your perfumes in particular?
Marc-Antoine Corticchiato: First I shall mention that real musk, the only natural musk, namely musk Tonkin has been banned for a very longtime It’s an incredible raw material I had the chance to smell thanks to an old friend who is also a perfumer. Nowadays we don’t realize that it was used in many iconic perfumes since the beginning of the XX century. It’s a raw material that’s part of our olfactory heritage. It is so rich, dense, powerful, deep, sensual, animalic, unique! It has nothing to do with modern musks. About synthetic musks, today there’s a wide palette available to perfumers. Every molecule has its specific technical features. Some give a “clean” impression, especially because they have been implied in huge amounts in detergents and fabric softeners since longtime. I confess they aren’t my favorite musks, even if some of them are technically interesting for their cloudy aspects.
I prefer more sensual musks, like musk ketone, muscenone, cosmone, or again muscone which incidentally naturally occurs in musk Tonkin. They are the warmest musks, the closest ones to the smell of skin. They are the most expensive as well, unfortunately.
African Stone aka Hyraceum @Ermano
EP: How did you compose Musc Tonkin to make it such a sensual, animalic perfume?
MAC: After smelling on several occasions musk Tonkin and having understood its impact on the great perfumery, I made a great consideration. This musk Tonkin, so mythical and mysterious is the ghost of perfumery: it disappeared but it never stopped haunting the imagination of perfumers. I wanted to retrieve this very animalic, erotic indefinable aura. As natural musk Tonkin is forbidden since the 1970s for animal cruelty concerns, I tried to find animality in a differently. First with muscone, the molecule naturally occurring in musk extraction, but also with some flower absolutes I chose that, balanced in a certain way, offer a palette of animal notes (osmanthus, tuberose, rose, jasmine, narcissus). Lastly, I worked with a very rare natural raw material, African stone that can be found in Eastern Africa. It is an extraordinary product also knows as golden stone or hyraceum. Those stones are actually fossils resulting from a symbiosis between the environment (vegetal and mineral exudates) and hyrax scraps and need hundreds of years to be formed. The extraction from these stones is rarely used in perfumery. It is a very animalic mineral raw material with a mysterious smell that’s also totally ethical as it doesn’t endanger the specie.
EP: How it is possible nowadays for perfumers to work with musks and still comply with more and more strict regulations?
MAC: As I mentioned, many so-called musky molecules are available in the perfumer’s palette. Some are increasingly monitored for biodegradability and tend to be used less (these are polycyclic musks, such as galaxolide or tonalide). But macrocyclic musks degrade very well and have very different facets: we find muscenone, but also woodier habanolide, fairly neutral T musk, more earthy exaltolide…. Alicyclics degrade easily too, I particularly like helvetolide in this family, a bright and rising musk. To work with musk from an animal point of view (as was the original musk, tonkin musk), we have witnessed a shift in recent years: the animal notes are now transferred to the vegetal. This animality can indeed be found in certain flower absolutes. There are also extracts of cistus which can be very sensual. It is a plant which touches me a lot and which has always been very present in my life since it is a major component of the perfume of the Corsican maquis (with the immortelle). There are also spices, such as cumin, or pyrogenic extracts of plants such as cade, birch or styrax. And also this oud wood, some extracts of which can be particularly animalic.”
Musc Tonkin has above average projection and outstanding overnight longevity.
Notes include marine notes, tuberose, ylang-ylang, rose, osmanthus, African stone, musk
The writing is based on a personal sample of Parfum d’Empire Musc Tonkin extrait de parfum, opinions as always my own
Ermano Picco, Editor and Perfume Expert
Thanks to the generosity of Marc-Antoine Corticchiato, we have a 50 ml bottle of Parfum d’Empire Musc Tonkin Extrait for one registered reader worldwide. To be eligible please leave a comment with if you have smelled Musc Tonkin , where you live and what interested you about Ermano’s essay and mini interview. Draw closes 12/8/2021
Editor’s Note: I chose Parfum d’Empire Musc Tonkin for the Jovoy Paris X CaFleurebon box. There are only a few left so please buy our 14 sample box here. Please read my interview with Marc-Antoine Corticchiato here. Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief who translated M. Cortichiatto’s third question from French to English, so any error is mine. Also the Musk deer is not really a deer belonging to the family Cervidae but rather their family is closely related to Bovidae, the group that contains antelopes, bovines, sheep and goats according to wikipedia
A Big merci to CaFleureBon Senior Contributor Emmanuelle Varron for photos and assistance.
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