Muskdeer, natural and synthetic

[AbdesSalaam Attar, Perfumer Composer]

I received an url to a nice article on muskdeer and musky coumpouds.
//boisdejasmin.typepad.com/_/2005/11/fragrance_ingre.html
A very interesting point is that “the anosmia to musks is extremely widespread, even among the perfumers”.
It directly relates to pheromone sensitivity and behavioural answers.
Is is noted that specific anosmy to some human pheromones, particularly androstenone, develops in males after puberty while for females, after puberty the sensibility to those becomes more accentuated.
I have mentioned this in my recent article on human pheromones //www.profumo.it/perfume/pheromone_perfume/human_pheromones.asp which is unfortunately still in Italian, but I shall translate it soon.

The explanations about natural muskdeer are fine. I was in Kashmir last winter I have published a report on Kashmiri muskdeer with very nice photos. //www.profumo.it/cashmir/english/13_kashmiri_muskdeer_report_moschus.htm
Note that the photos I took of the pods illegally sold nowadays are half the weight of those I saw there 15 years ago. This gives an idea of the muskdeer situation.

About a substitute for muskdeer, none of those mentioned comes anything near the real thing, be it ambrette or galbanum or Angelica. The nearest to it in my opinion is the heart and end smell of Oak Moss, but I really found a substitute using ruty billy goat hair tincture, which is completely ethycal.

AbdusSalaam Attar

AbdesSalaam Attar
Compositore Profumiere

[AbdesSalaam Attar, Perfumer Composer]

I have observed a number of people anosmic to Muskdeer in dilutions of 2 per 1000, mostly men, while women often react negatively to the smell, commenting on its excessive power.
However the pure muskdeer, the black powder and grains as shown on the pictures I published, have a stunning power, with a head scent of ammoniac.
Smelling it for the first time without knowing what to expect is like receiving a punch in the face.
2 grams are sufficient to make one liter of tincture.
The heart and end smells are obviously very different, much less “goaty” and very “human body”, but synthetic smells go nowhere near it, they just have the power to evocate, not to imitate the real musk.
They lack the animality, the extreme wealth and complexity of Muskdeer, and certainly it’s medical properties as this substance is traditionally used (and also today in homeopatics) to cure epilepsy, nervous exhaustion and hormonal disturbs.
The same thing is valid about ambroxan, a pallid evocation of Ambergris. Ambroxan is a single note heard from a cd player, ambergris is a symphony heard live.

AbdesSalaam Attar
Compositore Profumiere

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