Prior to the beginning of The Mystery of Musk, arguably, the most successful natural botanical musk in existence was Strange Invisible Perfumes Musc Botanique. The success of that was re-examined by Michelyn Camen as a prelude to The Mystery of Musk project (https://cafleurebon.com//musc-botanique-strange-invisible-perfumesprelude-to-mystery-of-musk-project/ ).
I agree with her assessment of Musc Botanique as having an almost crystalline quality to it and it was unapologetically a heady musk mixed with a prominent herbal quality. It was everything Alexandra Balahoutis, the nose behind Strange Invisible Perfumes, wanted her perfume line to be about as she showed that no note was beyond the creativity of a natural perfumer.
That was in 2008. I was looking forward to seeing how she would do things differently for The Mystery of Musk project and her entry Temple of Musk.
The answer to that question is in Temple of Musk the accompanying notes to the musk accord are bright and shiny. This has the quality of adding luminosity to the musk and in turn illuminating it in an entirely different way. Unlike Musc Botanique which had a great deal of depth to it; Temple of Musk seems to float like a colorful butterfly over a foundation of musk. One hallmark of Ms. Balahoutis’ fragrances is the use of different extraction techniques to expose new facets of notes I think I know well.
In Temple of Musk she uses a hydro-distilled temple mandarin and also myrtle, from her family grove. This process adds lightness to both of these notes and in the case of the myrtle adds a fruity quality to an already bright floral note.
Temple of Musk begins with that temple mandarin note which is joined with black currant. The currant grounds the brightness of the temple mandarin without turning this into a dark berry opening. The top notes are really all the sunniness of the temple mandarin with the black currant used as counterbalance to keep it from being too ethereal. Right from the beginning the musk is lurking around the edges, in the opening stages it is as sheer as it gets but it is there. As Temple of Musk moves forward a green vanilla ushers the musk accord to the foreground.
At this point in Musc Botanique the musk felt intensely animalic. In Temple of Musk it is still identifiably musk but it is kept much lighter which fits this composition. The base brings in the myrtle and, as I mentioned before, there is a berry quality that the hydro-distillation seems to enhance. This allows that light berry feel to bracket the black currant from the top.
Temple of Musk has average longevity and very modest sillage. Temple of Musk is very close to being a true skin scent.
In many ways Temple of Musk is the heads to Musc Botanique’s tails. Musc Botanique is the fragrance that captures the darkness of musk and the Hour Of The Wolf; Temple of Musk captures the brightness of musk and it is like standing in a Temple Of The Sun to greet the new day and all of the possibilities inherent in that.
Reminder: Temple of Musk is the bottle we are giving away at Cafleurebon. We will draw from among all comments on The Mystery of Musk articles on Cafleurebon at the end of the project.
Disclosure: This review was based on a sample provided by Strange Invisible Perfumes for The Mystery of Musk project.
For more on Strange Invisible Perfumes I have reviewed their first masculine fragrance Peloponnesian (https://cafleurebon.com//strange-invisible-perfumes-peloponnesian-dionysian-delight/ ) and Essence of IX, Ms. Balahoutis’ co-production with Ann Colgin of vineyard Colgin Cellars (https://cafleurebon.com//for-the-love-of-wine-and-natural-perfume-strange-invisible-perfumes-essence-of-ix/ ).
-Mark Behnke, Managing Editor