William Wetmore 

Scene: A moonlit evening on Place Vendome, a night rife with possibilities.

A strapping black aluminum bottle struts over to the sparkling silver bottle framed in the moonlight.

“Hi there you tall shiny canister what’s your name?”

“I’m Musk to Musk, what’s your name tall, dark and handsome?”

“I’m Black Aoud how about we watch the moon together and see what happens?”

The next morning Pierre Montale opens his shop to find an unfamiliar black bottle where he had left  Black Aoud and Musk to Musk the night before. The label said Black Musk. Pierre carried the bottle back to his workshop thinking this might be good.

Aaand…Cut!

 

I’m sure my fanciful imagination is not exactly how the new Montale release Black Musk came to be but it sure smells like the love child of Black Aoud and Musk to Musk. This isn’t a bad thing especially if, like me, you like both of the fragrances whose DNA make up Black Musk. In many ways Black Musk is an improvement on each of the originals as it seemingly manages to meld the two into a whole better than the sum of its parts.

 

While I am a lover of Black Aoud it is not an attenuated fragrance. It roars at full speed from beginning to end. In Black Musk the same rose, aoud and labdanum notes that are in Black Aoud come out at about half the volume and that quieter mix allows, in particular the labdanum, a foothold it never gets in Black Aoud. This makes the opening phases of Black Musk more leathery to go with the rose and aoud. Slowly out of the opening trio of notes arises the musk and it feels like the white musk from Musk to Musk. It sort of cleans up the dirty beginning and with the advent of the musk some clean woody notes arrive to let Black Musk come to a lively ending.

Black Musk has outstanding longevity and way above average sillage.

If you are someone who tried Black Aoud and found it overwhelming even though you like the notes, Black Musk might actually be the fragrance for you. It is much less aggressive in nature and in that lack of aggression I believe it allows the all of the notes more room to breathe making it, ultimately, a more interesting fragrance than either of its “parents”. I think I’m going to end up wearing Black Musk more often because it allows me to breathe deeply without fear of being overwhelmed.

Disclosure: This review was based on a sample purchased from The Perfumed Court.

-Mark Behnke, Managing Editor