From time to time at Cafleurebon we have a column “Behind The Bottle” where Michelyn delves into what is behind the fragrance that makes it into the bottle; her article on Pierre Guillaume's Gardenia Grand Soir (https://cafleurebon.com//behind-the-bottle-pierre-guillaume-on-gardenia-grand-soir/ ) is an example of this. As a chemist in my everyday existence I am always pleased when I can gain some insight into the modifications that a perfumer goes through before settling on a final formulation, my journey with Laurie Erickson of Sonoma Scent Studio as she perfected Incense Pure was one of my favorite recent fragrant experiences (https://cafleurebon.com//sonoma-scent-studio-incense-pure-the-birth-of-a-fragrance/ ).
Now thanks to the generosity of Dawn Spencer Hurwitz I get to do a little “Behind The Bottle”, of my own, as she sent me the three versions leading up to and around her final submission. This allowed me to see the development of her Mystery of Musk submission from the initial accord through two other iterations before finally entering Musk Eau Natural, as her choice, which was reviewed by Ida Meister (https://cafleurebon.com//mystery-of-musk-musk-eau-natural-by-dawn-spencer-hurwitz-parfums-des-beaux-arts-%e2%80%a6-a-sublimely-decadent-soliflore/).
Dawn’s words, that I use throughout, come from her web notebook (http://dshnotebook.wordpress.com/ ) and if you are interested, it is a fine regular read on a perfumer’s creative process.
Version 1 The Musk Accord
Every natural perfumer invited to participate in The Mystery of Musk was given the same task; create a realistic musk accord using only a list of 18 natural ingredients. Dawn would say in the beginning “my own understanding of The Mystery of Musk project was akin to Iron Chef (how to be creative with a limited palette)….she was nevertheless happy with engaging the challenge to interpret a musk perfume using no real (animal) or synthetic musks”. To begin she pulled out all 18 notes and began thinking about what she would use, by the time she was done she would use 15 of the 18 omitting only vetiver, patchouli, and vanilla “as they seemed too dominant to fashion a multifaceted botanical musk.”
When I first sniffed Musk Accord, I was struck by how deeply herbal it was. For the first 10 minutes or so it smelled like a dense spice cabinet but then like magic is started to get more and more animalic and I think this comes about as the black currant “catalyzes” the carrot seed, seaweed and cumin and pushed it much more towards an animalic feel than a botanical accord. Dawn goes onto say that the musk accord by itself “may be my personal favorite” but felt “that it was ultimately too soft and subtle to be submitted as a complete perfume design.” I definitely found it to be soft but never subtle.
Version 2 Musk Of The Mosque
Dawn’s inspiration for the next version came from this, “Many old mosques have musk ground into the mortar so that when the sun warms the brick of the building, the fragrance is released.” She also thought it would be an interesting exploration of the concept of musk as “ancient, holy and reverent” instead of the more typical “attraction/sexual/intimacy” aspect so common. This would make Musk Of The Mosque more “incense-laden and oriental in nature”. For Musk Of The Mosque she went back and added in the three missing ingredients from the ingredient list of vetiver, vanilla, and patchouli.
As I worked my way from the Musk Accord to Musk Of The Mosque I was completely bowled over at how well the Musk Accord worked in this kind of oriental fragrance. The green herbal beginning to the accord works incredibly well in Musk Of The Mosque as it comes off as an aged woody accord and as the accord goes through its softening into the animalic phase the rose, labdanum, and oud take Musk Of The Mosque to that ancient holy and reverent place Dawn was shooting for. Musk Of The Mosque smelled like an indeterminate place of worship; ancient, redolent of joss sticks and fragrant flowers of all kinds. I thought this was the version I was going to worship when all was said and done. Although I don’t want to have to say it three times fast, talk about a tongue twister.
Version 3 Musk Eau Natural
Once Dawn saw the logo for The Mystery Of Musk she got inspired to go in an entirely different direction. Dawn said, “The logo for Mystery Of Musk was unveiled: an exotic beauty in flapper hairstyle standing nude behind a bottle. Now it was back to a “nude” musk in an Art Deco style.” Dawn would now veer towards a more traditional sensual musk. My colleague Ida Meister reviews it marvelously in the link provided above and I don’t have anything to add to her evocative words about the composition as a whole, it grabs me in low places and doesn’t let go.
What I find very interesting is the note list for both, Musk Of The Mosque and Musk Eau Natural, are virtually identical but in the hands of a perfumer as skilled as Dawn she can take those notes and create a reverent experience in Musk Of The Mosque and a sensual experience in Eau Natural.
Version 4 ESME Musk-Chypre
In the letter accompanying the samples sent to me Dawn writes, “In addition I feel that Musk Eau Natural has a chypre-like quality that is also in keeping with popular styles of musk perfume in the Art Deco period”. This fourth version is her last riff using her Musk Accord and she creates a true chypre. To accomplish this Dawn went into her personal stash and added some aged materials; rare East Indian Sandalwood, East Indian Patchouli, and labdanum.
These much more diffuse oils, due to the aging, allow for the Musk Accord to have a more prominent place early on. As the Musk Accord goes through its transformation from herbal to animalic, this time, the quality aged oils combine in a different very chypre-ish way and the last part of ESME Musk-Chypre feels like I stumbled across an unlabeled vintage chypre at an estate sale. It feels amazingly different than either of the versions that came before but through the Musk Accord being present in all four versions there is a clear kinship among them.
Summary
As I found during the exercise with Laurie Erickson on Incense Pure when a talented perfumer is working their magic it is akin to listening to a great jazz trio at work. The basic musical structure is the same but each time through, as one of the instrumentalists is featured, things change and each time feels like something both new and familiar. Dawn Spencer Hurwitz has created fragrant jazz with her work on The Mystery Of Musk project and it is beautiful music of the most fragrant kind.
If you would like to take the same journey I’ve described for yourself, all of these versions are available on Dawn Spencer Hurwitz’s website (https://www.dshperfumes.com/) in 30% perfume concentrations. I found all of them to have excellent longevity and modest sillage.
Disclosure: This article was based on samples provided by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz for The Mystery Of Musk project.
Even though this isn’t a formal Mystery Of Musk entry any comments will be entered into the draw for the bottle of Strange Invisible Perfumes Temple Of Musk we are giving away in conjunction with the project.
–Mark Behnke, Managing Editor