Castoreum

Castoreum:

Castoreum is not quite what I expected. Castoreum comes from the castor sacs of beavers, which are not true glands and as such it is not a glandular component such as the extract of civet is.I expected something dark and extremely potent, perhaps even fecal (a simple and ignorant assumption due to the location of the castor sacs), and while it is dark it is neither extremely potent nor fecal.

Castoreum starts out with a strange top note, to me reminiscent of gasoline but with more body. It's not that unlike the top notes of labdanum essential oil, and calls to mind also the synthetic geranium one finds in the heart of something like 10 Corso Como or even Terre d'Hermes. The aromatic and slightly harsh qualities quickly fade to reveal a smooth and deep scent that made me think of rubber - not the rubber of tires so much but a harder and denser rubber. The scent of a rubber sanding block, perhaps. There is a hint of something animalic or perhaps even a human like nuance that made me think of black cumin oil, although it didn't smell particularly cumin-ish; it simply had that kind of human odor that cumin so often imparts. The next scent that came to mind is leather - not suede or anything soft, but fresh and raw leather. A well worn saddle, imbued also with the scent of the horse rather than a finely tailored pair of shoes.

The texture of the scent is smooth and neither wet, dry, nor creamy. Simply smooth and full bodied.

Testing on skin it quickly became a skin scent although persisted for a long time. As time went on it became dryer but retained its leathery and dark qualities.

Another random association that came to mind while sniffing was the scent of working on a car.. oil, car grease, etc.

While sniffing I was thinking of how one might replicate this using only essential oils and my initial thoughts are as follows:

Castoreum accord:
1 part valerian root (green/earthy/dirty/musky, 'dark')
0.5 parts cepes (mushroom) absolute (earthy, dirt, musk, 'dark')
2 parts patchouli dark oil (green, earthy, smooth texture, 'dark')
0.5 parts black cumin cold pressed oil (dirty, human nuances)
4 parts labdanum essential oil (rough then smooth, leathery, gas/geranium/pine like topnote, 'bright')
1 part labdanum absolute (smooth, leathery)
0.05 parts cade oil (dark, smoke, leather)

multiplied out to 1 part minimum =

20 parts valerian
10 parts cepes
40 parts patchouli
10 parts black cumin
80 parts labdanum
20 parts labdanum abs
1 part cade oil

I wore castoreum tincture side-by-side with civet tincture about a week ago, and here is my experience.

Castoreum: predominantly leathery; smoky; sweaty; cheesy; and salty. Interesting woody-smoky quality to it, and something in it reminds me of the smell of walnuts. The animalic quality isn't musky, but more akin to a mid-point between stale sweat and processed cheese ( not romantic associations, I'll admit, but where my mind goes ). Authentically leathery, but warm, old, well-used, unwashed leather rather than new leather ( I've smelled second-hand jackets that smell like this, but never new ones ). There's a certain smooth, heavy quality to it that is very appealing. It becomes mellow and rounded fairly soon on the skin, and eventually develops a slight burnt-caramel quality.

Castoreum doesn't smell like a single note to me, but rather a very strange, heavily animalic fragrance in itself.

Civet: Strongly fecal; indefinably "sharp" note, almost citrus or aldehydic in quality ( not sure how else to describe it ); musky and almost floral background, the musk coming forward more as it develops.

In contrast, civet smells plainer and more " to the point", more an individual note and less complex. It's drier, sharper, and the body-note it gravitates to is rather more alarming than with castoreum ( castoreum's sweat versus civet's feces ). Civet stands out a lot more than castoreum, and never mellows out at all, though it fades in strength.

It's worth noting I also tried L'Arte di Gucci. The animalic notes I'd long attributed to civet are in fact castoreum and musk, according to my nose, at least. I smell no civet at all in L'Arte, despite the fact that I was sure it was a civet overload for ages. Castoreum really dominates this fragrance in a way I don't think I've smelled elsewhere, and I think I far prefer my animalic fragrances castoreum-heavy rather than civet-heavy.

I'm curious - did you try your accord out? Did it smell like castoreum?

Agree with this description.