Making Musk Perfume . . . the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I am participating in a musk perfume project with my fellow natural perfumers.  Myself and eleven other professional perfumers from the Natural Perfumers Guild are participating.  Our fragrances will be reviewed by perfume critics worldwide.  I am nervous.  I am excited.  I am musk.  Literally my hands smell of musk from constantly blending and tweaking musky perfume samples in the quest to create the perfect musk scent.  One thing is certain, musk is tenacious.  Despite my careful nature while blending perfumes --droppers, scales, caps twisted tightly-- a halo of musk clings to me.  On certain days when I hug my children they wrinkle their noses and tell me I smell funny.  I am so immersed in my project I no longer notice the faint ghostly notes of musky botanicals clinging to my body.

Over the past few weeks I have created numerous musk based perfumes.  Some good, some bad and hard to classify as they seem to be changing.  The confounding thing about natural perfume is the aging process.  Natural perfumes are similar to fine wines in that they need to age someplace dark and dry to mature.  Sometimes I will blend a fantastic perfume, only to pull it carefully from it's dark closet months later only to find it now smells  . . . less than fantastic.  Luckily the opposite alchemy can occur and a perfume I recorded as "so-so" in my notes, is now spectacular.  The burning question is:  Which version should I submit for review to perfume critics, bloggers and my fellow perfumers?  The pressure is on!  

I am a wee bit terrified that my "musk" perfume may receive a very public unfavorable review, or perhaps worse, no review at all.  What if my musk is too pedestrian?  Wholly unoriginal?  I can't think of anything worse.

The Mystery of Musk project has me beyond excited to sample my fellow perfumers fragrances.  And so the blending goes, a drop more oud, a drop less black currant bud.  More to come on Musk.  Tune in next week.