Red Musk

[Gogo]

Not sure weather or not there is a thread like this, but I just realized that I looove red musk after I received an imp of the Dodo. I haven't tried many bpals so far, and I was wondering which red musk blends are the best and if there are any that would recommend?

[heathercaley]

Mmm red musk is possibly one of my favorites.

 

I would say that you should definitely try Mme. Moriarty from the Carniaval. Also, Hollywood Babylon is amazing. If you ever get lucky enough to find Corazon, it is very nice indeed. Good luck with Corazon as that one is a super rare, but Hollywood Babylon is a GC and can be purchased in imp form (in the Wanderlust catagory). The Carnaval is still in town so I'd say jump on Mme. quick like and stuff, cause that one is a winner and will be coveted once it comes down.

 

Oh! And Midnight Kiss is lovely. It's an LE, but you can often see it floating around at a reasonable price!

[empi girl]

I love red musk, too.

I second Hollywood Babylon, and would add Spellbound also.

[Ina Garten Davita]

I'm not a big fan of red musk, but there are a few blends that are insanely good. The most fierce and sexy-bitch red musk scent is Marianne from the Ladies of the Grindhouse/Carnaval Diabolique. It's like a kick in the crotch with black fuck-me pumps. Midnight Kiss aged so well, the red musk has gotten so sexy and mellow, if you can find that in a swap/sale, go for it. And third-ing Mme. Moriarty, just gorgeous.

[TPOD]

Midnight Kiss is terrific and still available from the lab (no imps though).

 

Mania is wonderful and fruity (smells a lot like Hollywood Babylon to me)

 

Scherezade is beautiful and very popular.

 

also check into:

 

Bien Loin d'Ici

Blood Lust

Fenris Wolf

The Great Sword of War

Lust

Loviatar

 

Have fun!!

[Dark Alice]

I would definitely recommend snagging a bottle of Marianne from Carnivale Diabolique while its still available. It is red musk joy!

 

[ivyandpeony]

There is a musk thread here in Recs, but I have been thinking about splitting it up a bit - red musk probably will be a solo topic so let's carry on the discussion and I will merge older posts discussing red musk into this thread when I get started on my project. =)

 

My absolute favorite red musk blend is Madame Moriarty

[ouch!]

You can add me as a red musk fan for sure!! It's one of my top favourite notes..along with sweet pea..vanilla and tonka! I ALWAYS try BPAL blends that have red musk in them. I love the way it makes a blend very sensual, deep, sexy and mysterious!!

 

Fave blends are.

 

Scherezade (My favourite EVER gc blend. So yum)

Mme.Moriarty (Of course)

Spellbound (Quite potent but stunning)

Dragon's Heart (Which to me is similar to Spellbound but with added Dragon's Blood resin)

Haunted Palace (This one is gorgeous)

 

I luuuuurve it! ..my biggest reccomendation is Mme.Moriarty!! I'll be hoarding this one for sure!!

 

ETA: Scherezade!

Edited August 29, 2008 by ouch!

[samarablackcat]

Mme. Moriarty and Marianne from the Carnaval, yep, second, third and fourth that!

 

If you can find Smut on the sales or swaps, red musk love

 

Three swarthy, smutty musks sweetened with sugar and woozy with dark booze notes.

 

It's a Lupercalia (Valentine's ) , so if you can't find it, not to worry! Hopefully it will be back in January!

 

Krampus, too, from the Yules.

 

Good luck and enjoy your finds!

[ifinena]

I love Red Musk, too.

My recs are : Marianne , Scherezade , The Ifrit and Red Moon 2007 (older LE).

I'll be hoarding a lot of Marianne before she leaves town.

There's something in Mme Moriarty that makes me not like it at all, but I am in a very very small minority here. I think you should try it though.

Also Krampus was a very nice, a bit more masculine, red musk blend.

 

 

 

 

ETA:Bolded the names, took off an emoticon or two. Sometimes I go crazy with them.

Edited September 3, 2008 by ifinena

[donnatron]

I slathered myself in Lust this morning so I understand the red musk love A few recs and seconds from the GC:

 

Bloodlust: A beautiful and dark red musk with patchouli, vetiver and cinnamon. Blood Kiss does weird, candy-like things on my skin and I find this to be the gothic older brother to Blood Kiss. It's a really interesting use of red musk.

Snake Oil/The Snake Pit: Red musk is one of the components in Snake Oil and especially as it ages, the red musk starts to round itself out nicely. Personally, I don't think you can go wrong with the original, but if it's too sweet or disagrees with you, the Snake Pit has a Snake Oil variant for everyone's taste.

Himerus: A very masculine, powerful musk. It's best after the juniper dries down.

The Witch Queen: I think there are a few decants of this floating around on the forums. Brand new it was molasses-sweet to me, but after a few months it's mellowed into a beautiful floral-musk. I find it's probably the GC unimpable that's closest to Mme Moriarty.

War: A warm red musk-ginger. Another one you'll definitely want to track down a decant of before committing to a bottle.

Loviator: Dark, sexy, sweet and completely sultry and lascivious. Leather has a tendency to go dry on my skin, but this is slick, hot, shiny leather in this one. Definitely worth a try.

Fenris Wolf: Another one on the masculine side. The rosewood in this is exquisite.

 

Limited edition:

 

Mme Moriarty: Well worth a try. It's pretty drop dead sexy and is well balanced by the fruity aspects.

Marianne: I can't even keep track of how many recs there have been. Just try it

Irrelevant and Disturbing Surreal Crawdad Dream: The musk in this is going to age like a dream. It's still floating around the forum and ebay for really reasonable prices, so definitely try a decant or pick up a bottle if you can.

Lunar Eclipse: Again, bottles of this are floating around for pretty darn reasonable prices. There's a gritty, dark base to this thanks to the vetiver and the fruit notes top it off beautifully. It's a good one to try if you don't like vetiver--all the other notes reign it in perfectly.

Blood Phoenix or Red Moon 07: I find a lot of similarities between these two and think they're both common enough to find a decant or bottle if you want one. The red musk-dragon's blood combo is dynamite.

Midnight Kiss: I'm with Andra, here. This is an amazing scent. The cocoa, wine and red musk play very, very well with each other.

[quimerula]

Blood Moon, aged, just perfect.

Chrysanthemum Moon; how happy I am of having bought three bottles! And aged is just purrrfect!

Spellbound, red musk and rose. So sexy and deep.

Scherezade. This one screams posh and sexy.

Fenris Wolf. Not as manly as it may seem.

 

IMHO, red musk is the sexiest of musks.

[Mamacat]

My favorite red musks are:

 

Scherezade

Marianne

Snake Oil

Fenris Wolf

 

The Grindhouse is also a great red musk scent for me.

[dorothy humbird]

Heh! I just posted a review of Marianne that I turned into basically a giant red musk comparison. I concur: Marianne is a sexy bitch; emphasis on both sexy and bitch.

 

My hands-down favorite is Mme. Moriarty.

Smut is supposed to have a bunch of musks, but I can definitely tell that red musk is a prominent player -- there's a distinctive sweet juiciness that gives it away.

I nth Irrelevant and Disturbing Surreal Crawdad Dream -- like a silly fruit cocktail, but WAY BETTER. The red musk and vanilla keep this from being too silly.

 

There's this mental dividing line I have between "sweet/juicy" red musk and "dark/dirty/dusty" red musk. I would divvy it up as follows:

 

SWEET/JUICY

Mme. Moriarty

Smut

Irrelevant and Disturbing Surreal Crawdad Dream

Snake Charmer (even though it lists Arabian rather than red musk as a note, it smells very red-musk-y, at least on me!)

 

DARK/DIRTY/DRY

Scherezade

The Great Sword of War

Marianne

 

 

Of course, opinions are sure to vary on this, but I thought it was worth noting.

My preferences tend towards the juicier end of the spectrum, but on certain days I want to feel a little more austere, and then I head for the Scherezade/GSoW/Marianne.

[ldymrmlde]

great thread, Gogo! I love red musk too! I will have to try some of the suggestions especially Hollywood Babylon and Marianne (before she leaves)...

 

Mme Moriarty is definitely the shiznit

[Scanmike]

It has taken me awhile to finally figure out the red musk works really well on me. I didn't even realize Smut and Chrysanthemum moon have red musk in them. It figures because they worked well on me. I hae to say my favorite red musk is Red Moon, followed by The Haunted Palace and Scherezade. I loved Chry. Moon, but my husband didn't appreciate it. I am also in the minority here about Mme. Moriarity. There is something medicinal in it, and it's been aged, that just bothers me. However, I would suggest you try it because most people love it.

[tempete]

I adore red musk, but seem to have very different tastes from all the other red musk lovers in this thread!

 

My favourite red musk scents are Snake Oil, Chrysanthemum Moon, Red Moon 2007, Scherezade, Spellbound and The Contract of Theophilus of Adana. Midnight Kiss is much better aged than fresh.

 

Red musk and certain fruit notes seems to go waay too sweet on me, so I didn't enjoy Hollywood Babylon or Kabuki. I think that the fruit issue also came into play with Marianne - I loooved this scent at first (it smelled like a better behaved Smut on me) but I couldn't wear it after the initial test.

 

I still can't figure out why Mme. Moriarty doesn't work on me. It's full of notes that I individually love, but for some reason it smells really green on my skin when fresh and of nothing at all when aged.

[samarablackcat]

Oh, how could I forget Chrysanthemum Moon? I do apologize!

 

Get at least an imp...

 

*runs off to see how Crawdad Dream and Lunar Eclipse are aging*

[ifinena]

Chrysanthemum Moon is my nr 1 bpal ever, but not until reading this thread had I realised there's red musk in there. One of those d'uh! moments

I get ginger and the whiff of opium and a spicy feeling. In any event it's drop-dead-GORGEOUS!

Edited August 29, 2008 by ifinena

[olive]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned Kabuki or Krampus!

 

In addition to those, I'll add to the chorus of Marianne, Scherezade and Midnight Kiss.

[zankoku_zen]

Oh man, you guys are making me want to hunt down more Crawdad.

 

Personally, it's about Crawdad, Spellbound and Hollywood Babylon.

[ouch!]

for myself!!

 

I COMPLETLEY forgot

 

Scherezade - my all time number one love of GC blends!

Red Moon 07 - My favourite lunacy (So far)

 

Sometimes there are just too many scents going round in my head!!

[sofaking6]

For me it's Mania all the way!

[Mordath]

The Grindhouse, all the way. None of the ladies have worked on me, but the whorehouse itself is love.

[alterosen]

Pirate Moon!

Crowley- infernal musk smells pretty red to me

The Grindhouse is indeed yummy.

Also joining in on all the Mme Moriarty love - for sexiness, I would choose this one over Snake Oil anyday (my DH would probably protest since he likes SO more than MM, but vanilla & I have a troublesome relationship)

Edited September 1, 2008 by alterosen