Musc Maori 04 (2005)
by Parfumerie Generale

One of the very few compositions by Parfumerie Generale that I strongly dislike. An extremely realistic dark cacao note, some coffee and a strong creamy/milky vibe. I know it may sound blasphemous of me but it smells like Starbucks minus the cinnamon. As a friend used to say, this is not simply a gourmand, it's more like something you could spray directly inside your mouth. Not for me...

13rd September, 2011.

Opening with a Christopher Brosius-like conjuring trick, Musc Maori smells for its first 15 minutes like a box of dark chocolates, accompanied by a hint of its plastic tray and occasional foil wrapping. Thereafter it relies on a combination of tonka, vanilla, and the remnants of that cocoa note.

On the spectrum of chocolate themed fragrances – ranging from the deplorable 100% Love to the delectable Borneo 1834 – Musc Maori sits a little behind the halfway point, on the queasy end of the scale. This is the skilful execution of a silly concept, for Musc Maori is both too simple and too sweet.

3rd May, 2011.

Chocolate is the key-word here - mentioned before.
The scent develops into a very thin, feeble musky whisper after five minutes. Luten's Borneo 1834 is a much better take at a chocolate fragrance ... just to cite a comparison. And why Maori? Where's the connection to New Zealand? I can't detect any. Patisserie 0815 would have been a more suitable name for this scent, which I find monothematic and dull.

31st December, 2010.

My Wife has been wearing this for 3 years now. She gets compliments whenever she wears it. I love smelling her when she wears it. It's simply an addictive fun, sexy scent.

29th December, 2010.

This smells like real genuine dark cacao. Nothing fake about it! I imagine a 50's lady wearing a white musc perfume making chocolate chip cookies from scratch. I feel the smell of freshly buttery chocolate cakebatter with nuts, vanilla, and her white musc perfume mixed with that. After a while this smells like those first 5minutes you set the cookies in the oven,just before the cookies start "cooking". Yum!

18th March, 2010.

Musc Maori opens with a strong almost-cocoa note – deep and dark. I’m not sure of the quality of the note… it has the depth of dark cocoa done well but I think the actual cocoa note is closer to surreal than real, possibly because of a dark coffee note in the accord. The chocolate note is impressive, but not necessarily enjoyable. The scent is essentially linear so its drydown is simply the diminishing of the cocoa accord along with the slow expansion of some discreet amber and tonka bean notes.

Musc Maori is an ok scent but I think it exhibits a definite lack of character; Serge Lutens’ Borneo 1834 does this concept much better, I think.

11th December, 2009.