castoreum: 1 post

According to conventional fragrance marketing, most women run screaming from animalic notes, unless they are the clean, laundry type musks. Anything that smells too untoward or raunchy is a taboo. Now for most of you it may not be the case, but as I hear over and over again about the “fear of anything dirty,” I wonder what you think about it. Do you like animalic notes or detest them? What are your favorite “dirty” perfumes?

I enjoy the animalic notes in vintage fragrances like Chanel Cuir de Russie, Robert Piguet Bandit and Estee Lauder Azuree, which smell like a well-worn leather jacket. Serge Lutens Muscs Koublaï Khan is a fragrance I wear on a regular basis for its delicious rose wrapped in dark musk. L’Artisan Dzing! smells both like wet cardboard and a warm fur coat.

My favorite animalic perfume though is something called Lola. She’s my mom’s cat and she smells of soft musk and cedarwood.