I finally got to work a bit on Ambre Noir again today. I still like the last tester version I did better than the experiments after that, so I retreated to that formula and am taking another path with it. I like the drydown but not the start, and I’m thinking that instead of adding more amber/labdanum I should cut a few other things to simplify a bit. Sometimes after working on a formula for a while I need to backtrack and take a few things out to make it more focused.
So I tried removing a few things and cutting back on one other item and that does focus more on the labdanum/amber aspect but keeps it dark. I’ll try this again in the morning to see if I still like it. A night of sleep and non-sniffing often changes my perception the next day with a fresh nose. I’m always curious at the end of a blending day what I’ll think of it the next morning. I’m moving in the right direction though and have three slightly different variations on this same blend to try in the morning.
One of the musk package testers is done and will send the package out Wed. I think the other is almost done. I wonder if the sniffers will be surprised that many of the musks are less interesting by themselves than a finished musk scent you might buy called white musk or egyptian musk or skin musk etc. Those finished scents contain blends of various musks with soft woods, florals, ambers, spices, etc to finish the scent. Most musks wouldn’t be interesting enough by themselves, but they are very useful base notes in blends and are found in almost everything.
Another thing that might surprise the musk sniffers is that most of these are not very animalic. To add stronger animalic notes you’d need to add things like indole, para cresyls, civette, castoreum, costus, etc. I’ve not learned to love costus yet, even very dilute. Just too much dirty wet hair smell for me. The others I find useful in very tiny amounts, especially castoreum, indole, and para cresyls. I’m still learning to work with civette (synthetic); I have to take it ouside to dilute down and can only tolerate very dilute solutions of it.
Getting late so I should wrap up. When I get enough responses to the musk package to start tabulating I’ll post anything interesting that may emerge.
Was a pretty sunny day today! Smoke was gone, and that’s such a relief. I think they have lots of work yet on the fires, but the smoke in our area is sure better now.
