I was just wrapping up my reply to
@Philip's question on the SOTD thread when I noticed this thread. Thanks
@Ahmed Megahed. I think I'll post my midnight musings here for the sake of consistency, or whatever of it remains possible at this hour:
@Ensar i know you may not be able to answer, but what do you have in mind? Any chance you can keep it elegantly simple? Rose-Musk-Oud-Santal... Really looking forward to this.
I am still in full Musk discovery phase. Just macerated musk in Malay Oud. Crossing fingers.
Unfortunately the days of 'elegantly simple' are long gone, mon ami. The feature of the Sultan Leather and Sultan Red Rose Attars in Luca Turin's new
Perfumes: The Guide has catapulted me into completely unfamiliar waters! All of a sudden, Borneo Zen is too 'simple' (albeit elegantly) and I'm being compared to mainstream niche perfumers (oxymoron intended) whose 'ouds' are just as pure as the Sultan Leather and Red Rose Attars. Come to think of it, that's actually true!
So in short, I will need to outdo myself with this one, fortunately or unfortunately.
There was a brother here who used to compare Purple Kinam to the scent of uncooked basmati rice. That's a start. For capturing the soft, baby skin facet of the ultimate musky drydown. (I'm torn between putting some actual Purple Kinam in there or limiting myself to just basmati's natural coumarinic powderiness.)
Other musky jewels that I have on hand include Oud Ahmad and Santal Royale, though neither has made it into the Schott as of yet. Santal Royale is incredible in that it smells like a sandalwood musk maceration without the actual musk, thanks to the colossal Mysore grannies you were able to woo back in those days.
Some of the floral tones of Borneo Zen will be echoed here, for the diehard Borneo Zen fans who will not be able to source Borneo Zen again, the Sultan Musk Attar superseding it as the official house 'musk frag'. I want to give you something you positively will not want to be without. As of this writing, the current batch is invariably in my clutch or my pocket, as I crave me a swipe every half-hour. Not that it doesn't last, I just want to be permanently enveloped in the top-heart phase without ever reaching the drydown (like you’d want to be reaching the climax in your loved one’s grip, perpetually, without ever reaching the climax).
Then I have this incredible exotic pepper extract that smells muskier than muskrat. It is delicious. Facets of human sweat, grapefruit and animal musk emerge from it, taking us to a proper bestial muskiness imparted by civet, cumin, and other highly problematic aromatics. Rather than clash, they merge into an ultra-steroidal foundation for the floral musky notes that made up Borneo Zen. After their petals have fallen, we come to the soft basmati baby skin phase of the musky drydown.
If it sounds like the olfactory version of Frankenstein, that’s only because I don't want to go overboard with marketing stories. Don't worry, after this post I plan to let the scent do all the reeking.
'That all sounds fine and swell,' say you, 'but what about the actual musk? You told us about musky oud and sandalwood, musky peppers and spices, even musky florals and rice -- but where in all of that cacolfactophonic mess does the musk fit in?' Quite simply, in ALL of it. I want this to be a stinky naturalistic aroma that smells of animal yet arrests with its ravishing beauty. I want it to be the scent of passionate (and perfectly lawful) sex. And Musk is the backbone of it all. How do I know? I know because I blended all the same ingredients without the musk and everything fell apart like in that book by Chinua Achebe.......
