Castoreum
by AbdesSalaam Attar Profumo

Not sure if my sample have mellowed out, but I was expecting something more pungent and animalitic. Instead, upon the immediate application, I smell birch tar, and then something leathery-sweet-smoky. Surprisingly, I could see myself wearing it just by itself.

It smells sweetish smoky-leathery, a bit barn animally, and slightly rubbery. It makes me think of a farm in autumn where piles of leaves are being burned. It’s a bit strong for me (especially in the morning before breakfast!) but I enjoy the autumnal wood fire associations. I wonder if a beaver den smells like this, if you could swim underwater and poke your head up inside one. I think Mr. and Mrs. Beaver’s home in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch and the Wardobe smelled like this. Fun to experience this on its own.

Urine, wet cardboard, feces at first. When it dries, it turns more sweet but has a slightly dry, astringent edge--gorgeous. Surprisingly, it has a similar antiseptic note to the synthetic castoreum I have smelled. Real castoreum smells much more floral to my nose, and the antiseptic note seems more herbal rather than like "band-aid". Later, it takes on more of the familiar leather quality I expected from the start, but at the same time has a sort of tropical flower quality to it.

Curious as to whether my vintage Jean Desprez Bal a Versailles parfum contains natural castoreum, I **liberally** applied Profumo's castoreum tincture to one arm...and on the other have applied BaV. The spot of castoreum has a rough beginning, but rather quickly mellows to be sweet, slightly tarry and antiseptic. I have smelled something similar in synthetic castoreum-heavy scents such as Dzing!, but the natural castoreum is much smoother. I think it is a combination of civet and castoreum I smell in BaV, which has a slight root beer quality. Of course, there are other notes such as aldehydes and florals, but the animalics in this vintage juice are far more smooth than the newer EdC I own, and in which I also recognize castoreum and civet (synthetic). On a side note, I smell root beer in castoreum if I waft it from further away.

Castoreum is a "single note" tincture of natural castoreum, and would be great for anybody who likes to make their own blends or for layering.