Muscs Koublaï Khän (1998)
by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido

Yum! Human musk with sexual associations, burned cotton/linen, fertile earth, dry leaves, beeswax and smokey vanilla. Primal, alive, must have always!!!

Easily in my top five. Not dirty at all, except for maybe a few minutes during the opening. It's actually quite beautiful. One of the few Lutens that I immensely enjoy along with Ambre Sultan. Another one of those scents that most people around you won't get or enjoy. But, personally I wear this for my own enjoyment and wouldn't have it any other way.

I am very sad that I bought a decant sample of this. All of my other 40-50 fragrances I own have now been diminished (to me) - hollow vestiges of their former selves. I had to have this and ordered it before the smell had even begun to fade from my initial spray. Only place I found it was Barney's and they only had the 50ml bottle. Stupid purple dinosaur! I hope my decant lasts until it gets here.

Not offensive, rank, funky, or foul, but maybe skanky in a "Come here and let's Fcuk all night and I lick the sweat off your neck before I bite you because you smell so good" kind of way. SeXXXy stuff indeed!!! This is my Holy Grail scent.

This is probably the most animalic fragrance I have ever smelled. It smells like it’s made almost exclusively of bodily fluids and animal secretions, with just a touch of floral notes and spice to sweeten it and prevent it from smelling like someone’s crotch.

Although Muscs Koublai Khan is animalic, it doesn’t smell dirty or disgusting at all. It blends beautifully with skin probably because it smells like skin – warm, tanned skin with fresh sweat. More like “body smell” than B.O..

I’m not a big fan of Serge Lutens’ fragrances because most of the ones I’ve sampled seem more like overblown, self-indulgent showpieces rather than scents that can be actually worn comfortably. Muscs Koublai Khan, however, is an outstanding, fascinating and totally unique scent that is both extremely masculine and extremely feminine. It’s the kind of scent that seems to mold itself to its wearer – you really don’t need to have a certain personality or look to successfully pull off wearing this.

This really is a one of a kind fragrance, and something truly special.

After spending a couple of days with this I can certainly say that this is an awesome fragrance. I was a little leery about the first spritz. After reading through all of the reviews I was almost certain that I would end up smelling like I had grown a pair of testicles on my chest and that those testicles need a good washing.

I spray it on and the first thing I smell is honey. Extremely rich, tasty honey. I didn't get any of the horrible funk and I certainly (thank goodness) didn't get balls. Small spray to the inside of the elbows and dab my wrists in each and I certainly start to get a little funk but nothing that is off-putting. It's a very sensual, slightly skanky note but it's not very heavy at all. It's blending in very well with the honey notes and it mellows out the sweetness of this frag.

This would actually be too sweet to me if not for that note. It reminds me of the smell of the inside of a woman's thighs. But, then again, everything reminds me of that so it's not at all surprising to me. I've embraced my overly sexual nature and, most oftentimes, cherish it. If it wasn't for my constant tail-chasing I probably wouldn't care how I smell. Loving women brought me to this wonderful hobby of mine and that hobby led me to this richest of perfumes.

This is a very (to myself at least) sweet scent. A delicate application is definitely in order. It blossoms very well with my skin. It also smells very expensive. That's a very nebulous term to use when describing a scent but some smells are cheap and other smells are expensive. This has an expensive smell to it. I think to say it smells of luxury, refinement, sophistication, and it does smell a bit naughty in a tenderly flirtatious way.

I was expecting the bastard lovechild of Kouros, Eau de Hermes, and a Mongol raider but instead (happily) received a honeypot. Take that any way you choose. :)

If ever a scent took long acquaintance to appreciate, it’s Muscs Koublaï Khän. My first (and second, and third, and fourth…) attempts at wearing Muscs Koublaï Khän all ended in puzzlement, if not utter revulsion. The unabashedly raunchy animal reek that assails the nose when this scent hits the skin goes beyond challenging: it’s outright scary. It’s every secretion ever extracted from a mammalian backside all rolled into one. Who in their right mind would want to smell like this? Me, it turns out.

What changed my mind? During one of those seemingly endless attempts to wear and understand this scent, my wife came up behind me and asked me what I was wearing. I fumbled apologetically for a moment before she continued, with a leer: “That smells goooooood!” It was Mikey with Life cereal. Clearly there was something to be said for this pungent concoction.

The fact is, if you can inure yourself to it, Muscs Koublaï Khän is kind of like a bulldog: it’s so ugly that it’s perversely beautiful. To wear it is to flaunt your gonadal urges and your mammalian stench. You just have to accept the fact that you’ll smell as if you're coming off of a sweaty sexual encounter on a bed with decidedly stale sheets. If you can swallow that, you can wear Muscs Koublaï Khän with pride. There are indeed times when I want to smell post-coital, and when those times come I reach for my bell jar of Muscs Koublaï Khän.