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Animal musk and other animal notes

I talked about synthetic musks in a previous article.
As promised, I'm tackling the subject of animal notes that are no longer used in perfumery with a focus on tonkin musk.
I have created a Collection of 5 fragrances around white musks which are dressed in different facets: citrus, green, solar, spicy, woody or powdery.
You will be conquered by their scents and their olfactory facets. Discover a unique and unexpected Collection with its Discovery Box.

Chevrotain musk

As fast as lightning, the chevrotain leaps and disappears behind the bamboo. Imagine it at the end of the rains in northern India, at an altitude of over 2000 metres, in the heart of the Himalayas.
Native to Asia, it is a fairly sedentary animal that feeds on leaves, flowers, mushrooms, mosses and lichens.

This animal resembles a roe deer, about 80 to 100 cm long, 50 to 70 cm high at the withers and weighing between 10 and 17 kg. Only the male is hunted.
Animal musk is secreted by an organ located between the umbilicus and the penis.
The abdomen contains the famous pouch that holds 25 grams of musk grains.

The leather of this chevrotain was used by the Tibetans to make small bags.
Its fur was used to stuff the best mattresses and pillows used by Chinese emperors.

Chevrotain hunting was practised intensively in the 1960s and 1970s.
It was a sport that brought in a lot of money. At the time, 300 to 400.000 francs per kg (i.e. 50.000€ per kg) and it could go up to 200.000€ per kg.
Even though it is protected, the chevrotain musk is unfortunately still poached.
To protect this species, measures have been taken, the musk trade is controlled by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES: Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species) signed in Washington on March 3rd 1973.
The aim is to establish worldwide controls on trade in wild animals and plants and their products, and this convention was implemented in France in 1978.

In 1988, captive breeding was set up in China to obtain musk without killing the animal.
The animal can provide musk 10 to 12 times in its life.
Musk extraction was recommended once a year on chevrotains aged between 2.5 and 8 years.

The reputation of musk

In Asia, there is still a great demand for musk, an aphrodisiac that is drunk through a straw from small bottles at the counter of some bars.
Musk is said to cure impotence and improve heart problems as well.
This is why the association of musk with the notion of sensuality, tenacity and sillage still remains in people's minds.

But don't confuse the animal musk that smells like a goat and a black coffee with the synthetic musk notes I mentioned in a previous post.

This is why synthetic musks are called white musks so that there is no confusion.
Animal musk notes and musk notes or white musks are both base notes.

In the Middle East, as the laws concerning raw materials are different from Europe, musk as well as other natural animal materials can still be found in some compositions.
Natural musk blends very well with leather or woody notes, including oud, which itself is a popular animal note.

Musk extraction technique

The pouch is lubricated and then a kind of silver spoon is inserted and the seeds are gently extracted.
This method was not very satisfactory and was performed without anaesthesia.

Use of musk tincture

Cold tinctures and, more rarely, hot infusions with 96° alcohol are prepared from musk grains.
These products are kept for a long time because time makes them better.
They are kept in huge bottles called Dames-Jeannes for a minimum of 18 months.

Despite all these efforts to preserve the existence of the musk deer, it appears that breeding was not a good solution.
The chevrotain is a solitary species that breeds poorly in captivity.
Overpopulation leads to fighting between males. It has also been proven that the chevrotain raised alone produces better musk.

The trade distinguishes between different qualities of musk:

Tonkin musk, from hunting in China, Tibet, Mongolia and Kashmir
Kabardin musk, the lowest quality: 4 times less powerful than Tonkin musk
Assam Musk
Tawpee musk
Yunnan musk
Musk Bouchara

Falsification of musk

As musk was very interesting from a lucrative point of view, we have seen many falsifications.
The agents of adulteration were many: earth, dried blood, liver, dried hair, dung, pieces of lead, infused tea leaves.
Skilled hands would open the bag and empty the precious product by filling it with these adulterants.
In the early days, musk was bought in bags. Later it was bought in grains.

Musk has a honey-like consistency, a reddish-brown colour that hardens quickly once out of the bag and then turns into a blackish-brown colour.
Good qualities are soft to the touch and blackish brown in colour. Good quality pouches yield 70% musk in grains compared to 40-60% for bad ones.

In the animal musk, many molecules have been found that allow us to obtain many synthetic musky notes that are identical to the animal notes.

Muscone is the characteristic constituent of natural animal musk, present from 0.5% to 2%.
Animal musks are now banned by WWF in perfumery, but there are alternatives.

Substitutes for animal musk, musky-scented plants

The ambrette or plant musk grows in Indonesia, India, Seychelles and the West Indies.
Its seeds are found in a variety of hibiscus. A musky odour is obtained by distillation due mainly to ambrettolide.
A very expensive product, ambrette is also cultivated in Holland, France, Hungary and Germany.
It is a slightly musky, peppery, green, rather iridescent scent with a pear-like top note.
The roots and fruits are used to extract the essential oil, the stems are used in confectionery.

Ambertte or plant musk has a scent that acts as a top note.
It gives a lot of elegance to the fragrance. I used it in Dovana, one of the perfumes of my Musk Collection which gathers 5 fragrances around white musks.
It is a very popular scent among perfumers.

Ambertte has a scent that blends with all the other raw materials, whether they are citrus notes such as lemon, bergamot and mandarin, or woody notes such as sandalwood, vetiver, patchouli and cedar, or oriental notes such as tonka bean and incense, and floral notes such as rose, jasmine, tuberose, neroli, orange blossom and peony (see Heart notes).

It appeals to all olfactory families, but the price can be an obstacle for brands.

Other substitutes that give animal notes

We now have many choices both in natural and synthetic raw materials to replace the classic animalic notes, i.e. tonkin musk such as castoreum or civet which are now all banned except for ambergris.
Of course, the result will be different, which is why substitutes must be found, especially for older perfumes.

Truffle tincture

Tinctures and alcoholic resinoids were and still are used in perfumery and liqueur making.
This aromatic scent has the advantage of giving an animal, sensual and above all natural note.

Costus essence

This is a very leafy plant that can grow up to 2 to 3 metres in height.
It grows in Kashmir and northern India and the root is harvested in autumn.
It is dried, split, peeled and lightly roasted. In China, the root is used and sometimes mixed with tobacco.
I advise you, for example, to smell the men's perfume Kouros by YSL, which incorporates this costus smell well.
Some other perfumes have also tamed it well but it is not easy. It is used a little less nowadays.

Goldenstone or Hyraceum

The animal Daman urinates on the rocks and it is a very singular story.
The stones impregnated with this liquid are collected and distilled to obtain a very interesting note in the same tone as the civet.
The result is a natural animal scent.

Cumin

It is a hot spice with spicy notes produced in India, Morocco and China, and has been found in many tombs of the Pharaohs.
Its seeds resemble those of caraway. Cumin has a powerful, animal-like smell that can be reminiscent of perspiration.

Blackcurrant bud

Honeyed notes can have animalic inflections, like beeswax absolute.
Genet Absolute Calabria, a note of Wax and Blackcurrant, has a Butyric note that smells like rancid butter, a word that comes from the Greek Boutyros meaning butter, a rather dark note of yeast.

Cistus labdanum

Cistus labdanum comes from a shrub that is found mainly in Mediterranean countries, and its gum has been used since antiquity.
This tree secretes a kind of viscous gum, which sheep are fond of.
It is used in the manufacture of incense, and is important in oriental, chypre and fougere accords.
It exists in the form of a concrete, from which cistus absolute is obtained (see Extraction by volatile solvents).
It also exists in essence, its scent is leathery, balmy, animalic, warm and intense.

Musk or animal scent in pure synthesis

Costus Oliffac: olfactory reconstitution of costus by IFF, but more animal than natural one.
Base Animalis de Synarôme: its main component is paracresyl phenyl acetate. It is the base of the perfume Kouros by YSL with added costus.
Chevral: it is the same kind as the Animalis base, but it comes from IFF. Chevral is more powerful than the Animalis base.
Castoreum: synthetic, like Biolandes' Artéssence castoreum and many others.

As a reminder, castoreum pockets, glands located in the abdomen of the beaver that secrete a substance that serves to waterproof the hair, are not banned by IFRA, but banned by WWF.
Real beaverwood gives a very interesting leathery note, used in many women's and men's perfumes. Its sensual and full-bodied olfactory power is unique.

Scatol: as the name suggests, this is a very scatological note.
Indol: a very powerful scent and synthetic note, but naturally present in jasmine flower, giving an animalic note, very useful for boosting floral notes.

Floral scents are a symbol of femininity. Indol can also be superb in an oriental, chypre or woody fragrance. Indol can be easily integrated into all olfactory families.

Paracresol: a scent reminiscent of stable and marker, used in a lilac reconstruction.
Methyl Paracresol: synthetic raw material of the same style as paracresol.
Paracresyl acetate: synthetic raw material close to paracresol.
Paracresyl phenyl acetate
Methyl Paracresyl Ether
As a reminder, ambergris is a pathological concretion of the sperm whale, still used in some very high end perfumes.

It is one of the most expensive raw materials in perfumery, with a scent that is slightly iodized (marine facet), powdery, smoky and leathery, refined, very sensual and above all pleasant.
It was used in powder form by Casanova in his chocolate for its aphrodisiac properties.
It is the only natural animal note that is allowed, as the animal is not killed.

Nevertheless, because of its exorbitant cost, ambergris can be replaced by:

Grisalva: synthetic raw material of the ambergris family type.
Grisambrol: synthetic raw material of the ambergris family.
Cetalox: very chic synthetic raw material.
Ambrofix: similar to ambergris.
Paracresyl Isobutyrate: synthetic raw material, ambergris type.
Ambrinol: synthetic raw material, between ambergris and civet scents.
Ambrarome: synthetic raw material, very animal amber labdanum effect.
Civettone: even more animal, the civettone is derived from the raw material that came from an Ethiopian cat secreting a fat towards the genital-anal regions that was taken with a spatula.

As a reminder, the civet has a very powerful and tawny scent and is now banned.
It was used purely by the Ethiopians on the evening of their wedding, considered by them as the height of luxury, the most beautiful of perfumes.
The scent of civet was found in the perfume extracts or eau de parfums of Guerlain's Jicky fragrances (perfume or eau de toilette, eau de parfum for women or men) or Guerlain's Mouchoir de Monsieur. It is a rather violent scent, as if one smelled the animal's skin.

Tonkitone: a very soft musk in the same style as the civettone, in the same tonality as the old Tonkin musks.
Muscarome: like the Tonkitone, a musk also close to the Tonkin musks (synarome).

Sylvaine Delacourte perfumes

Discover Sylvaine Delacourte's brand with her Orange Blossom, Musk and Vanilla Collections. You can try them thanks to the Discovery Boxes (5 Eaux de Parfum x 2 ml) and rediscover these raw materials as you have never smelled them before.