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Fecal smell in Heritage EDP, Cuba and Koublai Khan

post #1 of 27
1/4/10 at 6:59pm
Thread Starter 
Guerlain Heritage EDP only (not the EDT). Czech and Speake Cuba and Serge Luten's Koublai Khan all have a fecal smell. What is it?
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post #2 of 27
1/4/10 at 7:17pm
I hope it's not feces.
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post #3 of 27
1/4/10 at 7:38pm
Could be jasmine, civet, castoreum, or cumin.
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post #4 of 27
1/4/10 at 7:43pm
All the C&S have a bit of that note to my nose. I've read other threads and sense that some people pick it up and others don't
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post #5 of 27
1/4/10 at 7:44pm
Civet more than likely.
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post #6 of 27
1/4/10 at 7:50pm
I adore Cuba, now who forgot to flush?
All kidding aside, I've always felt that the fecal note in Cuba came from the indolic white flowers used in its topnotes. I've smelled very indolic bergamot essential oils that are dead ringers for Cuba's topnote.
I've never made an association between MKK and Cuba, but Heritage has a ton of top loaded bergamot.
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post #7 of 27
1/4/10 at 9:35pm
Call me crazy, but I never understood why anybody would actually want to have a fecal note in their fragrance. The few times I've picked up on it, like with Heritage, make it an instant scrub-off.

If you really want to smell like feces, I believe my cat just took a sh*t in his litter box and I'd be happy to swap out a couple of turds for anything on my wanted list.

- Brad
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post #8 of 27
1/4/10 at 10:02pm
I do pick it up in Cuba. I brought this up in another thread. To me that particular treatment/note of tobacco has a very animalic edge. In MKK and Heritage, I think it's civet.
WindyCity1014, as for the reason for the fecal note, it's been discussed elsewhere on BN (I wish I knew where exactly). I wish I could elaborate better but it has to do with the philosophy of what a particular fragrance represents. Just as in life--it includes death; the rose with the thorns, etc.
I don't particularly enjoy the civet note myself. However, not everyone enjoys "clean," or even fresh scents all the time. The same reason cumin, castoreum and musks are used in some scents.
RM
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post #9 of 27
1/4/10 at 10:18pm
I say ambrette seed!
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post #10 of 27
1/4/10 at 10:25pm
I don't mind cumin at all, but the other animalic notes I can only enjoy if they are barely perceptible. My guess is that you are perceiving different animalic notes similarly, which I doubt is uncommon. It sounds like they all smell "dirty" to you in some general way, but if you keep at it, you'll sort it out over time.
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post #11 of 27
1/5/10 at 4:29am
Fecal notes normally come from civet, which itself reacts very differently with different skin types - on some it will be an animalic musk (in a good way), on others it will, unfortunately, smell like poo. I have a similar thing with Taylor of Old Bond Street sandalwood products - something in them give off a strong ammonia smell verging on urine when I use them on my skin, a complaint which I've not read about from anyone else.

Course, it could be the urine baths I take. But I don't think so.........
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post #12 of 27
1/5/10 at 4:43am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WindyCity1014 View Post


If you really want to smell like feces, I believe my cat just took a sh*t in his litter box and I'd be happy to swap out a couple of turds for anything on my wanted list.

- Brad

One cat's poop is another dog's ambrosia. (Cats pass food through their system so rapidly a quantity of semi-digested material ends up in their feces). Some dogs consider them delicious hors d'oeuvres. Having that symbiotic combination of critters in your house can provide you with a man's best friend with death breath and a feline thinking there really is a poop fairy. Go figure..
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post #13 of 27
1/5/10 at 5:39am
I love civet, musk, castoreum, ambergris and indolic flowers.

I've only tested MKK out of these three, and I can't say that I get a literal poop note from it. It does have a barnyard/zoo kind of association, but that's part of the charm.
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post #14 of 27
1/5/10 at 5:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bokaba View Post

I say ambrette seed!

+1. It's not only the Ambrette Seed, however -- the Ambrette Seed mostly lends the muskiness with or without slightest traces of fecalness. The castoreum and a little cumin are the primary culprits here.
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post #15 of 27
1/5/10 at 6:02am
Thread Starter 
I put all three of these on last night and I have one correction. The fecal smell is found in Guerlain Heritage EDP (not the EDT) and Czech and Speake Cuba. Serge Luten's Koublai Khan is more of an animalic, barnyard (thanks Tott) dirty smell.
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post #16 of 27
1/5/10 at 6:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by neal View Post

I put all three of these on last night and I have one correction. The fecal smell is found in Guerlain Heritage EDP (not the EDT) and Czech and Speake Cuba. Serge Luten's Koublai Khan is more of an animalic, barnyard (thanks Tott) dirty smell.

Then it's most likely castoreum (with hints of civet), which smells like.... poop-y leather. Believe it or not though, these notes are what give character, fullness and sexiness to those two scents. Some of us, like me and you, are just more attuned to it, so it sometimes comes off too fecal to enjoy. Invasion Barbare has the same type of note in the drydown, however it's so minimal that I can enjoy it. Musc Ravageur also smells fecal to me, but in a good way. I think just the right amount can be a good thing.
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post #17 of 27
1/5/10 at 6:56am
Civet smells more like cat's pee to me. But I'm quite sensitive to fecal notes from indolic flowers, earthy vetiver root and maybe certain animalic musks... MKK is rather animalic but not particularly fecal, at least not to me. I agree it all depends on how sensitive you are to these notes which, depending on how well blended, could either make or break a fragrance. And the funny thing is over time your nose tends to adjust itself to these notes and what used to be 'offensive' suddenly 'adds character'.
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post #18 of 27
1/5/10 at 10:08am
I don't understand this note or these notes either.....Don't take a bath or shower for a few days and You can smell this way for free.....Gary
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post #19 of 27
1/5/10 at 10:16am
Indolic/fecal notes are added to commercial vanilla ice cream to enhance it's appeal.
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post #20 of 27
1/5/10 at 10:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by WindyCity1014 View Post

If you really want to smell like feces, I believe my cat just took a sh*t in his litter box and I'd be happy to swap out a couple of turds for anything on my wanted list.

Maybe... Can you describe the specific notes your cat is producing in a bit more detail? We're connoisseurs, you know.
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post #21 of 27
1/5/10 at 10:52am
Sometimes we have to re-tune our perception of a fragrance to "get" what the makers were trying to achieve by changing our associations of that particular note. In regards to Cuba the fragrance is someones take of the smells of that country with its rum mojitos, sugarcane and tobacco. And that fecal note smells exactly like the tobacco in a cuban cigar, so for me I can understand what they were trying to achieve with that note in that fragrance. And when I smell that note in a scent I now just take it as a tobacco note.
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post #22 of 27
1/5/10 at 10:59am
This subject can be a bit disturbing, if you consider that coprophagia is often linked to some psychopatological associations.

Also, we could argue that eating is a taboo in western culture (not so much in some asian countries, if you consider urinotherapy... and there is even a kind of sumatran coffee called "civet coffee" - very expensive - and it comes from civet feces containing coffee beans!!!), and, according to mr. Freud, forbidden is attractive.

A gourmand scent with fecal notes would mess up any kind of analysis...
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post #23 of 27
1/5/10 at 11:52am
One "fecal" note I really enjoy is that in Kiehls musk
one of my favorite musk smells
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post #24 of 27
1/5/10 at 12:37pm
I think if you want to understand what Civet is, find the old formulation of Givenchy Gentleman. Civet and Patchouly. Love it.....sparingly. But would never wear it to work. At least not until the drydown.
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post #25 of 27
1/5/10 at 7:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by WindyCity1014 View Post

Call me crazy, but I never understood why anybody would actually want to have a fecal note in their fragrance. The few times I've picked up on it, like with Heritage, make it an instant scrub-off.

If you really want to smell like feces, I believe my cat just took a sh*t in his litter box and I'd be happy to swap out a couple of turds for anything on my wanted list.

- Brad

Don't forget to describe the contents as "used cat's poop" and give it a low value, in so it's not confiscated by customs...
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post #26 of 27
1/6/10 at 5:07am
Going back a few years ago , I received a decant of MKK .
I gave it a full wearing & my girlfriend at the time said it reminded her of soapy baby poo rising up from a baby sized bathing bowl .
I agreed with her & still laugh when i read about MKK .
I recently tried Heritage EDP & no such smell to my nose .
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post #27 of 27
1/6/10 at 1:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dimitrios View Post

my girlfriend at the time said it reminded her of soapy baby poo rising up from a baby sized bathing bowl .

Great description
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