Musk (1995)
by Lorenzo Villoresi

If you enjoy powdery rose scents and remove the word 'Musk' from the mix, you may really enjoy this fragrance. It is definitely an ultra-feminine floral and a good one. For those who have dreamed of owning Crown Perfumery's Marechale Original, this is a somewhat cheapened distant relative. The rose component dressed in rich cardamom and galbanum receives a sparkling from something I can't identify. On the drydown, the most lovely powder emerges from soft samdal and musk.

The house of Lorenzo Villoresi has really created a beautifully romantic and aristocratic 18th Century feel with Musk, a time of heavy brocades and velvets, powdered gloves, and gardens of deeply scented roses.

I had problems understanding this at first until I realized that I was getting a lot more wood and oakmoss than I was getting musk – I’ve got to stop believing these names. To my nose, the musk sort of skirts around the other notes, especially the sandalwood, oakmoss, rose, and geranium – and of those, especially the geranium. It’s only later that the musk comes into its own and joins the rosy / powdery heart. The dominance of the geranium / rose of the middle gives the fragrance an old fashioned feeling, and I’m not sure the musk has anything to do with that. Not only do I view the heart accord as old fashioned, but I experience it as quite feminine, and I think that’s caused by the musk. It’s a well-done fragrance. It’s refined with possibly an even tighter, more effective construction than many of the other Villoresi’s. And it has the same three-dimensional visual-olfactory effect that I’ve admired in several of the other LV’s. (Some day I’m going to pursue the reason why I actually visualize the olfactory construction of these LV fragrances.) But with LV Musk I can’t find the love: possibly because I am not a huge fan of musks?

This review is under revision.

This is my sixth Villoresi scent and I find it to elegant, subtle and sophisticated as I have found all of his scents. This one is relatively simple with only ten named ingredients from the Villoresi house page:

Top: Galbanum, Cardamom, Bergamot
Middle: Geranium, Rose
Base: Musk, Sandalwood, Oakmoss, Rosewood, Vanilla

For me it opens with a marvelous mix of rose and galbanum, which eventually drys down to an amber and vanilla mix. It is a very light musk, not at all heavy such as the Egyptian Musk Caswell uses in its Elixir No. 1, and is therefore not sensual. But it is a perfectly decent musk and for every day wear it is recommended.

Another winner from Lorezon Villoresi! I couldn't get over how beautiful and clean this scent is. I put it on my husband and found it amazingly powdery due to the oak moss, musk and sandalwood. I tried it on me and it was just a beautiful. It is the essence of romance and beauty.

The opening notes are upfligting with a rose, geranium and galbanum accord that is very warm and feels like old world fragrance magic. The initial impression is of Czech and Speake's No. 88. - Light. However, the C&S never leaves the rose patchouli note while the ruin of the LV Musk for me is the extremely sweet powdery drydown. It leaves the rose note behind and goes totally sweetness and amber. It is cloying and I really can not wear it. I don't know if its just my body chemistry or what, but whenever I encounter this combination of sandalwood, amber plus the powdery tonkan musk I become sort of allergic and can not wear it. Its sweet, strong, powdery - not really feminine - just not right for me at all. I suppose it could be worn at really light concentrations and the sweet powder would be less bother - but then its just the wrong smell. Oh well.