What Is White Musk?
The olfactory game Master Parfums makes it possible, as its name suggests, to immerse oneself in the confidential world of perfumery. Through numerous questions, Anne-Laure Hennequin, the creator, invites us to learn more about the ingredients of perfumes, but also about their history.
And precisely, white musk is an ingredient much appreciated by perfume composers, who design fragrances by combining several scents.
White Musk in the Master Parfums Game
It is on a card from the “The Olfactory Palette” category of this perfume game that a question about white musk appears. It is the following: “What do we call white musk?”
Here are the three alternatives offered:
- A sexual secretion of the musk deer,
- A synthetic fragrant material,
- The resin of the Asian musk tree.
Do you think you have the right answer? Read this article to find out!
White Musk: A Synthetic Material to Replace the Use of Animal Material
Animal musk is extracted from the male musk deer of the Himalayas (also called the musk deer). It is a sexual secretion that it produces during the rutting season, found in a pouch located under the animal’s belly.
The use of this animal material dates back to antiquity, since the Chinese already killed musk deer to harvest this material. It was prized for its medicinal properties and for its supposed aphrodisiac virtues, which are certainly at the origin of its use in perfumes. Indeed, humankind has always wanted to dominate desire, in the image of the animal kingdom.
The Smell of Musk
The natural smell of musk is very powerful and persistent. Today, its smell is considered animalic, even faecal, but in the 19th century it was described as the smell of the skin given off during lovemaking.
Kiehl’s, moreover, had created in the 1920s an oil based on musk, which was even renamed Love Oil in the 1950s.
The Role of Musk in Perfumes
In addition to its powerful smell, musk has a fixative effect in perfumes. In the history of perfumery, it comes and goes with the trends. It was sometimes accused by medicine, sometimes exorcised by the Church, or venerated by the Arab people or the Muscadins.
1979: The End of Musk Deer Hunting
It was only in 1979 that the end of hunting the wild musk deer was decreed. Attempts were indeed made to breed them, but in captivity they do not produce musk.
It is today a protected species because it is endangered.
The Creation of Synthetic Musk: White Musk
From the end of the 19th century, scientists began to look for a synthetic substitute for animal musk, because it was then very rare and very expensive.
In 1888, a German chemist named Albert Baur succeeded in creating the first artificial musk. It was then in 1906 that another German chemist succeeded in isolating the component that confers on musk its scent and its sensuality. This is muscone, present at 20% in musk.
These discoveries gave rise to the search for other synthetic musks. In the 1920s, chemists began to look for other musky compounds in nature. They isolated exaltolide and ambrettolide, in the ambrette seed (or musk mallow), and in angelica.
Scientists then succeeded in synthesising them—that is, in recreating them through chemistry—and created molecules where the musky note wraps itself in a powdery caress of violet and blackberry, sometimes milky.
Synthetic Musk from the 1950s
Clean, cosy synthetic musks came to improve the scent of detergents and softeners, while clinging well to the fibres of fabrics. One of the best known is IFF’s famous Galaxolide, a floral, raspberry musk, clean and cottony. The carnal sensuality of animal musk had been recaptured, but without the dirty side.
They were given the name “white” musks because they recalled the whiteness and purity of clean linen. Since then, many other synthetic musks have come to enrich the perfumer’s palette: sometimes metallic, fruity, or powdery…
In 1978, L’Artisan Parfumeur highlighted the “red fruits” side of these musks in its timeless Mûre et Musc. In 1981, it was The Body Shop’s turn to release its White Musk, with velvety floral notes of peach, which became the olfactory symbol of the teenage girls of the 1980s.
White Musk from the 1990s
At the end of the 1990s, it was the powdery, velvety side of white musks that was highlighted, as for example in the perfumes Flower by Kenzo by Alberto Morillas, Cashmere Mist by Nicholas Calderone for Donna Karan.
And one cannot omit the sublime For Her by Narciso Rodriguez, where the sensuality of musk resonates in unison with that of osmanthus and patchouli. A carnal concentrate of exceptional elegance composed by Christine Nagel and Francis Kurkdjian.
Excellent fixatives, white musks have also made it possible to give a new impetus to Colognes, whose tonic freshness can now benefit from an incredible longevity. The leader of this new generation of eaux de Cologne is Cologne by Alberto Morillas for Thierry Mugler, launched in 2001.
Today, white musks are found in many perfumes because they bring them roundness, sensuality, and longevity.
They are the ones Sylvaine Delacourte chose for her first collection of iconic perfumery materials. In it, she interprets five different personalities of what she calls “olfactory pashminas.”
If you want to learn more about the iconic scents of perfumery, don’t hesitate to buy our olfactory game about the world of perfume.
