Muskdeer tincture

Description

Muskdeer is the archetype of all perfumes.

Muskdeer grains are infused in alcohol for several years until it absorbs all the aroma of the raw material.

The name of Muskdeer (Moschus Moschiferus) is known to the entire mankind but today only a few persons have had the privilege to smell it’s odour.

It used to be the scent of kings and of emperors and the common people could smell it only in the wake of the powerful ones walking on earth. Musk is the very archetype of Perfume and possesses an extraordinary power either in the olfactory sense than for its action on the psyche and for its curative virtues. Musk is still used in Unani and Ayurveda medicine, together with honey, ruby powder and other ingredients, as a tonic capable to resuscitate the exhausted vital energies.

Its reputation as a powerful aphrodisiac is certainly not denied by it’s very much animalic and nearly bodily smell that lends to who wears it an enormous charge of physical attraction, conferring him a sense of audacity and assertiveness that he will be able to transform in mental (as the king to govern) and spiritual energy (Musk is the scent of Muslim saints). In Islamic culture, Muskdeer is the purest and noblest of all terrane matters.

Musk is produced by the male of a small deer from the Hindu Kush mountains and Himalayas, the Moschus moschiferus, a sedentary animal that marks its territory dropping small balls of the Musk that is produced in two purses attached under its belly that look very much like testicles.

The Musk deer drops the musk balls during the reproduction season as an olfactory message, for females and rivals, that contains all the information about itself; age, state of health and genetic patrimony. Today the small animal is nearly extinct, the hunters shoot him dead and cut off the precious purses in which the musk can be conserved indefinitely.

The prices are obviously very high and cheats are numerous. There are some breeding farms of Moschus in China where musk is collected without killing the animal. The musk obtained in such a way is reputed to be of inferior quality compared to the wild one.

As a perfume, the musk was used pure, rubbing a tiny piece in the beard or in the hair, but it is given to few among the very few privileged whoever encountered it, to use it in this way. In fact, not everyone can bear the effect of its extreme power.

The Perfumers of the used it diluted as a “magical” ingredient in their compositions. For this purpose, they prepared infusions of musk in alcohol, with several concentration grades.

Musk was also made to macerate in the essential oil of sandalwood, for at least a year (better is five), and that is an excellent way to extract its aroma because these two scents are of a similar nature and they reinforce each other.

See also Our Muskdeer page and our  King’s Perfumes page.