Basenotes › Basenotes Forums › Fragrance Discussion › Male Fragrance Discussion › MFD Archive › The best dark musks
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

The best dark musks

post #1 of 10
7/13/11 at 8:24am
Thread Starter 
I have bought heaps of musks labled as dark or animalic, but most of them turned up dissappointing..floral, powdery, sweet, blah

Of course the best one would be Ajmal Musk Gazelle. Yowwie...definitely lives up to its reputation, and worth the hefty price tag..mainly cause itll probably last forever @.@

Also animalid's musk deer reconstitution isnt too bad, (and a lot more public friendly) like a facefull of deer crotch upon application, but dies after half an hour ish to a...root beer scent?! O: probably just my skin chemistry


If anyone knows other good dark musks, drop a post here so i dont waste more money on misadvertised crap






On a side note, if anyone has ever come across REAL deer musk, how does that compare to these?
Reply
Reply

Features on Basenotes

Basenotes Reader Awards 2013 - Finalists Announced.
Greatest Hits: Annick Menardo
Petals Falling From The Sky - A Report From The Cote d'Azur's Bataille De Fleurs
post #2 of 10
7/13/11 at 8:44am
pikachu2460, it'd be very interesting to read any suggestions from fellow Basenoters. I love Ajmal Musk Gazelle (2nd batch) myself and also would be curious about other alternatives. As for real deer musk, I've been informed that it smells even better but have no idea how it performs on the skin.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 10
7/13/11 at 9:41am
Have you tried CB I Hate Perfume's Musk Reinvention? It goes its own road: neither dark, edgy, and animalic nor cleap, soapy and floral. It's darkly earthy and ripe in a very odd way, all its own.

A word of warning about Middle Eastern musks: here in Cairo I've sampled a great many dark musks, and most of them I'd describe as ambery florientals rather than anything animalic. For better or worse, Ajmal Musk Gazelle is far from typical.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 10
7/13/11 at 4:00pm
Give the much vaunted MKK a shot
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 10
7/13/11 at 4:15pm
MKK is the lightest, most pleasant musk I have every smelled. Just because it's musk doesn't make it "dark or animalic". In fact, I'd say this is exactly what you are trying to avoid.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 10
7/13/11 at 6:06pm
Abdul Samad Al-Qurashi have an excellent black musk along the lines of the Ajmal AA black musk. I believe the Al Qurashi product is also named Black Musk Ghazal (or Ghazelle).

I own a half tola of it. It is quite animalic like the Ajmal but is less aggressive. It seems more refined and more floral than the Ajmal, a bit more reserved, but it is certainly not sweet. I prefer it over the Ajmal for those reasons - better balance and refinement. The Ajmal seems rather crude in comparison.

But you pay for that refinement. The Al Qurashi is about 4 times as expensive as the Ajmal. I don't remember how much exactly, but it was considerably more. I consider the Ajmal to be inexpensive, at least when bought here in Saudi Arabia. The Al Qurashi, however, is expensive but extremely good. You could get a quarter tola, which wouldn't cost that much and would still last a long time.

You might also try some of the middle and upper end ambergris products from Al Qurashi. These are totally dry, strong, animalic ambers, which smell very differently than black musks. The Al Qurashi ambergris products are sharper, more medicinal, and far less fecal but just as compelling.

noggs
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 10
7/13/11 at 6:25pm
Pikachu, you may wanna contact our very own Abubakr_Al-Misky who runs Aluwwah.com and knows boatloads about musks. He can set you up with some of the best stuff money can buy.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 10
7/22/11 at 6:16am
Thread Starter 
Woot wasted more money!
MKK is like frolicking in a meadow of flowers
Untitled#8 is waaaaaay too feminine..kinda like a strip clubby smell..nothing dark about it at all


But wow, ive actually been drooling over the site Aluwwah =p
although most things on there are too out of my price range lol
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 10
11/24/12 at 5:19pm
Bought a tola of 'Royal Dark Musk' from the Arabian Oud store on Oxford Street. Its just wonderfully complex and way more refined than Ajmal AA Musk Gazelle (1st and most definitely even more so from the 2nd batch). Its so wonderful on its own cant take wrist off my nose. Seems to go practically with anything interms of layering and just amplifies the layered fragrance that much more. Longetivity is outstanding and so is the silage. Its an animalic musk derived from the gazelle but the animalic nature is very much tamed and refined. Starts of with dark fruity liquirish, than intensly dark smoky flowers almost indolic then finally sweet leathery honey. The whole transition is very smooth and lacks any harshness one would expect from such dark musks.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 10
11/24/12 at 6:44pm
I'd say the ubiquitous MKK, its stepchild (which ironically predated it), Kiehl's Musk, and Smell Bent's Commando.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: MFD Archive

Features on Basenotes

Basenotes Reader Awards 2013 - Finalists Announced.
Greatest Hits: Annick Menardo
Petals Falling From The Sky - A Report From The Cote d'Azur's Bataille De Fleurs
Basenotes › Basenotes Forums › Fragrance Discussion › Male Fragrance Discussion › MFD Archive › The best dark musks