Feminine Musks

[Macaul]

In women's fragrances, are some musks more commonly used than others?

I have a pretty good assortment of musks and ambergris-like aroma chemicals and was wondering if some of these musks are considered more feminine than others....Are some musks viewed as "too masculine" and not commonly used in women's fragrances?

To me, I find exaltolide and cosmone rather feminine, but at the same time I understand that they works well in men's fragrances as well.

[David Ruskin]

Totally artificial classification. A smell is a smell is a smell. All musks, and indeed all aromachemicals may be used in whatever fragrance you want, provided they do what you want them to do. The only classification necessary is if the thing does what you want.

[Macaul]

Gotcha, I can understand that!

[purplebird7]

My favorite is Habanolide, which is supposed to smell "metallic" and more masculine, but I find it light and enchanting.
Perhaps not the different musks, alone, are uniquely male or female oriented, but the finished products certainly are. While I enjoy smelling Muscs Kublai Khan, as a woman, I will not wear it. It reminds me of a guy's locker room!

[David Ruskin]

And as a woman,how would you know?

[GuerlainJedi]

Haha - i am partly anosmic to some musks so i asked my friend to tell me which is more womanly - Galaxolid or Cosmone - she said Galaxolid.
From the musks i can smell i can say that i find Auratouch quite female'y, and suprisingly it does not smell like a modern woman
Iso-Muscone is totally unisex.

Most Ambergris aromachems combined with jasmine notes like Hedione are feminine.

[David Ruskin]

Haha - i am partly anosmic to some musks so i asked my friend to tell me which is more womanly - Galaxolid or Cosmone - she said Galaxolid.
From the musks i can smell i can say that i find Auratouch quite female'y, and suprisingly it does not smell like a modern woman
Iso-Muscone is totally unisex.

Most Ambergris aromachems combined with jasmine notes like Hedione are feminine.

Apart from those are are not; like Eau Sauvage, CK1 (unisex), Jicky/Mouchoire, and on and on and on

[Macaul]

I haven't worked with/smelled hedione yet, but I will be doing so this week, Im pretty excited for I hear it plays a (huge?) role in modern fragrances.

[pkiler]

I haven't worked with/smelled hedione yet, but I will be doing so this week, Im pretty excited for I hear it plays a (huge?) role in modern fragrances.

Yes, but musky it's not. :-)

PK

[RodErick314]

Yea i just ordered habanolide too. I am trying to add projection and longevity to a current work in progress. I was expecting to make a summer fragrance for men and ended up with a nice feminine fragrance. So I am just working on it to see if I can make it pull through I hope.

[Chris Bartlett]

I haven't worked with/smelled hedione yet, but I will be doing so this week, Im pretty excited for I hear it plays a (huge?) role in modern fragrances.

Prepare to be underwhelmed by Hedione - it’s perhaps the most important of all the aroma chemicals discovered in the last few decades, but when you smell it from the bottle you’ll find yourself wondering how that could be: it’s only when you start to blend with it and discover the effect it has in combination with other things that you’ll understand why it’s in probably 90% of modern fragrances.

[Nizan]

And as a woman,how would you know?

[DrSmellThis]

As a general rule, perfume musks are not hormonal, don't resemble sex hormones, and are therefore not gender related. But even if they did (and I think some do resemble sex hormones), all genders have all sex hormones in their bodies, only in diffeerent proportions. Men have estrogen, and men can have an estrogen related chlorine note to their body smell.

As a general rule, perfume musks are "unisex".

[bshell]

To me, Ethylene Brassylate is a feminine musk. It smells a lot like oil of olay and a lot of other cosmetics and perfumes that are pretty much solely used by women, not men. But what do I know. This is just my observation and may not be true.

[David Ruskin]

I still do not see how any chemical or oil can be regarded as either masculine or feminine. To me it is just plain daft, and I feel it could be restricting if you think that way. To feel that you cannot use something because it is not of the correct gender, is making a difficult task even harder.
bshell, you feel that Ethylene Brassylate is feminine because you think it smells like a product used by women. (And as an aside, I'm not sure if Oil of Olay even contains Ethylene Brassilate.) What about all the fragrances that contain it that are used by men, or indeed by both sexes?

[caromo]

I agree with David, if you think galaxoide is feminine you won't use never in masculine or unisex fragrances and maybe you are losing a lot of good results and interesting mixes. I think the prime materials are pure and If you don't use with closed mind, you'll probably be more free in the work and your results will be more interesting!

[DrSmellThis]

Oh wait. I forgot to mention exaltolide. There is some evidence to suggest exaltolide could be sexually active for men with women. You have to read the study to understand it. Basically, if a woman reacts differently to a musk ingredient while ovulating, there is some preliminary evidence to suspect it as analagous to a male pheromone, functioning to somehow affect women in a way relevant to sexuality. More research needs to be done to discover the nature of the reaction caused, and to study the effects for men, if any.

http://jap.physiology.org/content/22/2/311

It should be noted that deer musk is from a male deer and yet has been used extensively in women's perfumes. So there are no rules, and should not be.

Androstenone is a testosterone-related musk ingredient with a urinous smell. But I heard it can sour a perfume, and you have to be very careful not repulse people with it. It's probably not very useful for conventional perfuming. It is in raw celery in trace amounts, but not celery seed, I believe.

Androsterone is a testosterone related musk ingredient that does show differential affects on women (Maiworm). It has a weak, warm, sweaty smell.

Civet and cashmeran have a reputation for being used in men's products, but are widely used in women's perfumes.

Butyric acid and acetic acid are present in women's ovulatory vaginal secretions (Jutte), and have been studied as "copulins", or female pheromones. However they are widely used in men's perfumes, and are also present in men's body excretions, even though not as plentifully

David's advice is prudent to follow. As a perfumer everything is potentially useful for everyone.

[Macaul]

I still do not see how any chemical or oil can be regarded as either masculine or feminine. To me it is just plain daft, and I feel it could be restricting if you think that way. To feel that you cannot use something because it is not of the correct gender, is making a difficult task even harder.
bshell, you feel that Ethylene Brassylate is feminine because you think it smells like a product used by women. (And as an aside, I'm not sure if Oil of Olay even contains Ethylene Brassilate.) What about all the fragrances that contain it that are used by men, or indeed by both sexes?

You make a good point, David. I believe the reason I am interpreting things as feminine vs masculine has a lot to do with the "darkness" or heaviness of a scent (masculine to me) vs the lighter/softer aromachemicals (feminine to me). But as you said, its probably not a good Idea to use these classifications, for all aromachemicals can be used in men/womens fragrances.