Muskrat second pheromone project on Basenotes
A BATH IN MUSKRAT
Miss Hesta Jones
What’s the next step with the muskrat research? It’s fascinating mapping the interactions.
Profumo
Dear Miss, the next step is to douse yourself with muskrat and observe how people, especially the opposite gender behaves towards you.
We have to find situations in which observation is possible.
AbdesSalaam Attar
Composer Perfumer
Le vagabond
I am ready for this next phase. I hope those around me enjoy and are attracted to the smell of muskrat. We shall see
Profumo
What situation do you intend to use in order to test?
AbdesSalaam Attar
Composer Perfumer
Profumo
Hinjo, you are the winner of the draw.
AbdesSalaam Attar
Composer Perfumer
Miss Hesta Jones
Sounds interesting! Do you want us to test the muskrat on its own, or mixed with other fragrances? Or both situations? This sounds like a fun challenge…
Profumo
I was thinking to use it pure.
AbdesSalaam Attar
Composer Perfumer
hinjo
Really? Me am the winner woooow amazing thanks alot amazing I dont know what to say beautiful thank you brother thanks alot
Le vagabond
Profumo, I work at home so for the moment it will be in a family setting. Maybe later I will test in public. Although I am attracted to natural castoreum and civet in a blend, muskrat smell doesn’t immediately attract me. Maybe this will change.
I am wearing a generous amount now. It reminds me of my childhood, the smell of our dog after getting wet from a walk in winter.
I will not tell my family what I am wearing, so as not to influence them.
Le vagabond
Roughly 80 minutes after applying a liberal dose of muskrat my wife came home for lunch. She hugged me and didn’t notice anything unusual. Then i prompted her by offering my wrist. Nothing. I sniffed my wrist quite closely and the smell was extremely faint. Interesting.
mumsy
I went to my art class today with only the muskrat on and no other smells apart from a freshly showered me. Brave or foolish?
There was only one man in my class and he cannot smell so I was OK as he sits next to me. The other eight ladies didn’t seem to notice directly, but were very complimentary towards my painting today. Now, of course, the slight downside is, I don’t know if my painting is actually any good, or whether it was the muskrat making them be nice!!!!
Interesting though.
Profumo
He cannot smell but he sat with you. Is it a coincidence?
AbdesSalaam Attar
Composer Perfumer
Le vagabond
I have revisited my first blend (Eau d’Hermes with muskrat) and now, after seven weeks in the bottle together, the smell is much more harmonious and pleasant.
Coralc
Hello everyone, I have more reports.
I must also add, that as soon as I got the muskrat I instinctively doused myself with just only so as to try an understand what it was about. Alone it gives a faint briney whiff only occasionally but seems to somehow warm up my own skin smell, I am studying sculpture with clay in a mainly women art class in a small closed space, and the day I used only muskrat I noticed the women were much friendlier. I am also quite shy and have to concentrate on my work a lot so I don’t chat much, but they were coming to me to look at my work and chat.
My female cat also comes to nudge my wrist and lick me when I have it on, even when its mixed with perfume, the male is not really interested. The faint briney whiff that I pick up with just muskrat reminds me very much of his smell.
So on the perfumes… I was handed on a Hugo Boss woman, which I don’t much like, but accepted because my son had his first perfume imprinting with a tester and he loves the citrus notes. I strongly suspected a synthetic remix and I can safely say that when it is mixed with the muskrat nothing happens except that the synthetic like smell comes to the forefront. So I think it could be used to check if a perfume is fake/synthetic or not.
On that note, I have been using essential oils of frankincense and galbanum for a debilitating depression and I noticed that the muskrat does wonderful things to this. It brings up a spiciness to the frankincense straightaway and later on somehow liberates the green cut grass fragrance of the galbanum smoothing it into grass on a hot summers day and fixing that as the top note. I love the galbanum oil, it expensive and difficult to find, but it has a very soothing effect and diffused in the home it somehow placates the unrest in the air.
Then my best and most wonderful news, I finally opened my true love, a bottle of Fiore della Notte, I have an atavistic love affair with this perfume as it takes me back to my adolescence and the “hippie” fragrances in vogue at the time with sandalwood and patchouli. Though my imprinting was with Diorissima which is where my love of florals comes from…
Fiore della Notte has a very strong patchouli overtone with a really good duration, excellent silage and projection and even though the patchouli is very masculine and quite green, it makes me feel sexy and feminine and valued. I am very attached to it and this is already my third bottle after a break of about a year due to reduced circumstances. So the first few times I tried it alone to reacquaint myself, then I mixed it and at first I noticed very little difference.
On about the third day of using a mix I noticed a very ripe almost rotting flower fragrance and I realized that my dream had come true, I always wished that I could have mixed a higher percentage of tuberose into this perfume as I love white floral notes over woody notes and the muskrat does actually after about four hours is bring up the floral.
My next step is to up the percentage and see what happens.
I still have an unknown tester in the box which spoke jasmine as soon as I opened it, but which being so busy welcoming back my beautiful old love, I haven’t dedicated myself yet to trying it and then I also have the heavenly and very feminine Tasmin whose vanilla over ylang ylang opens my heart. So those are next on my list.
I am loving this experiment. I love the perfumes I am trying and I love the unconscious effects that the animalic creates. I feel privileged to be a part of this experiment.
Profumo
I shall test the muskrat with Night blossom. If it effectively brings forth the Tuberose, muskrat will become part of the formula.
AbdesSalaam Attar
Composer Perfumer
Coralc
Once you’ve tested I’ll be very interested to know what you think.
Miss Hesta Jones
Hi, all. I’ve been away for a week and am just back. It’s a busy time of year for me, with exams looming – most of my interaction is likely to be with library staff!
However, I work as a bra fitter, so I’ll wear some muskrat to work and see if I get any response from the ladies I fit – they’re same-sex though, so that’s obviously not ideal, but I get very close to them, so maybe there’ll be some kind of response or comment. I’ve a few classes still to attend, so I’ll try it out there, too.
I’m really enjoying jasmine and tuberose at the moment, so I’ll try some muskrat with Nuda, Narcotic V and Carnal Flower to see how it affects the floral balance. A good friend of mine is crazy for tuberose – it’ll be interesting to see how he responds to Carnal Flower AND muskrat…
Profumo
We are waiting for your observations eagerly.
AbdesSalaam Attar
Composer Perfumer
hinjo
Hello
Something that I cant explain happened
The oud tincture that I made is almost odourless!
Its @10%
It has a very fruity incense kind of smell but it doesn’t last but few seconds on both my arm and the smelling strip?
Now I did something which is I granulated the rest of the oud wood and I add them to the tincture now its @25%
I will wait for few days and then see again
The alcohol that am using is 96%
…..
My brother in law has tride the muskrat with three different perfumes
Lacost red
Boss energized
Spice bomb
Acording to what he briefed me with
Musk rat had no effect on the first 2
But had on the spice bomb
Odor life became longer
The notes became more leveled and tamed
Waiting for his detailed feedback
nwguy
Time to report back after a while and many tests.
I have quite a few 2mL vials lying around and used them to mix commercial fragrances with the muskrat tincture.
I mixed one drop of tincture per 2mL of fragrance, keeping duplicates present without the muskrat for comparison.
General Findings:
Muskrat definitely increases longevity of anything I’ve mixed it with, be it Chanel Sycomore or 4711.
Muskrat also gives both a depth and richness to the notes not present before.
Most of my colleagues at work prefer the muskrat augmented versions-these are women.
More specific findings:
Chanel Sycomore gets a more gourmand feeling, bringing forth an almost peanut donut odor in the late drydown, possibly an interaction between vetiver and muskrat.
MFK Aqua Universalis becomes pronouncedly richer, almost regal smelling whereas it was before almost thin smelling.
A personal blend I made with vetiver, champaca, and tiare is very enhanced by muskrat, especially the champaca. One can almost feel the waxiness of the petals just from smelling this blend.
Time to see how other fragrances react to muskrat.
mumsy
I have picked it up randomly periodically when i thought of it, and worn it over any perfume I was wearing that day but only on one wrist and not the other. When proffered, it has only ever been ladies that preferred the muskrat side. Men have been indifferent or chosen the other. Very interesting.
I didn’t answer the prior question. The chap always sits by me in the art classes.
Possum-Pie
Haven’t visited this group in a long time, but happening to browse today, I find this fascinating thread. Pheromones are interesting. Obviously the world of animals doesn’t have complex language, so scent language is used. Combined with behavior language-showing one’s genital area or ritual dances, pheromones call to the opposite sex that one is ready to mate. Much has been said about them in the human realm. Apocrine glands excrete different oils than sweat glands do. They are located in the genital area (and armpits). Can humans detect consciously or sub-consciously sexual readiness? The scientific answer is that we have evolved out of most of our sexual responsiveness by odor, but there is more research to be done. The unfortunate side of all of this are the charlatans who prey on geeky awkward boys and men promising women will tear their clothes off at one sniff of their new Pheromone fragrances…this has NEVER been substantiated in a scientific study! :engel017:
An interesting aside. It used to be taken as fact that women living close together (in the same house or dorm) would slowly have their menses match the daily cycle of each other. This was explained by pheromones. After scientific research, it was shown that this just doesn’t happen. Their menses were no more aligned with each other than by chance alone. Thing is if a woman menstruates 4-5 days out of 28, That is about 18% of the time so just by chance there will probably be someone else with the same cycle as you in a group of 5 or more people. Too much information??? Reference: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-women-who-live-together-menstruate-together/
Miss Hesta Jones
Hi, all.
Continuing to wear the muskrat either underneath or mixed with various fragrances. Ive nothing to add to what I’ve said before and others have reported – top notes are rounded (particularly white florals), longevity is increased and this seems to appeal much more to women than to men.
Profumo
I am curious to know how you will feel after finishing the bottle of muskrat that you have used for so long . Will you miss it? will you like your perfumes less? Please tell us.
AbdesSalaam Attar
Composer Perfumer
Coralc
Oh yes, I hadn’t thought about that…I too have constantly layered it, I will definitely miss it.
I still have a couple of perfumes to try, what I do is wear it for a couple of days straight then I wear it layered or mixed to understand the difference.
I think its already pretty clear that women prefer the layer or mixed version, and that the women on this forum are enjoying the effects.
Next up will be interesting, my mother used to wear joy by Jean Patou, after her death I found the bottle of perfume which I had given her pre 2000 and kept it as a keepsake, I remember my mother with roses and lily of the valley… and every now and then I take it out to smell, it on me dries down to quite overpowering powdery aldehydes, though through the flowers I do get a nice musky base, this is my next test…with all those flowers it should be interesting…
Coral
Profumo
We are curious to know the result with such a prestigious perfume.
AbdesSalaam Attar
Composer Perfumer
Miss Hesta Jones
Will I miss it? Definitely. I’ve been looking for a replacement to layer with big white flowers on days when I want them to be a little less ‘toppy’. I have really enjoyed the softening effect it has on floral top notes – it’s made my wardrobe much more versatile.
Whiskyjack
This is fascinating reading! Is it too late to join this experiment? My partner is both a perfume fan and a wildlife biologist and so is also interested!
Profumo
Welcome Whiskyjack, you can find the muskrat tincture here https://attarperfumes.net/fragrance…/animal-perfumes-raw-materials-for-perfumery/
AbdesSalaam Attar
Composer Perfumer
Coralc
Hello from Italy, its been an unbearable heatwave here, now with the full moon the weather has changed and it has cooled down considerably, so I am catching up with all my overdue stuff.
I am so happy doing this experiment, I love how one simple little ingredient changes everything so much, the perfume, my mood and the reactions of people around me.
So my big work was with the bottle I inherited from my mother of Joy.
It is an EDP and its called Eau de Joy and I bought it for her in the mid nineties when Italy was booming and I had a good job and generous boyfriend with a good job and we had managed a trip to the Caribbean. In the duty free shop I bought myself some la Prairie face-cream and my mother this bottle of perfume.
My mother lived in Durban, a harbor city on the Indian Ocean in South Africa. Its subtropical and quite warm, though refreshed with the sea air. My mother was already getting old and found the perfume that she had used all her life, too strong for the last part of her life.
When I cleared out her home after her death the bottle had hardly been touched. Bringing up bitter sweet memories of her beautifuly dressed and coiffed and kissing me goodbye on her way to an important dinner, I put the bottle in the bottom of a box and let it be.
While looking for another perfume to test, I came across it.
First I had to go through all the emotional connotations that the perfume evoked, I came to realize that my olfactory imprinting, roses and jasmine, and my love for lily of the valley all stem from here, then I tried it for a couple of days, first alone, then mixed.
i have contradictory sensations, firstly, although I love the flowers and the delicious amberey sandalwood muskiness, I cant stand the powdery part which starts in early on and follows right down to the dry down.
I also wondered if indeed this perfume has managed to resist the extreme Italian summers all these years, as there seem to be notes missing and it also seemed to change when I started uncapping it more, maybe its like wine that needs airing.
There is still a bit of civet in the base note, something warm and a bit furry, well hidden by the blowsy powdery florals, but something of a warm femininity and sexiness which as a little girl I so admired in my mother.
I can get the rose and some jasmine, but have a hard time distinguishing the lily of the valley, I find the orris root overwhelming and suspect that as the main culprit for the powder smell, there is still a sandal wood dry down though somewhat covered with rose and powder.
After getting used to this, it took about a week, I tried it layered over the muskrat.
I found that it edged up the jasmine a notch, and I might have been imagining it, but I may have caught a whiff of Lilly of the valley. I felt it rounded off the rather overwhelming rose a bit, but what I was hoping for didn’t come about, the sandalwood remained the same though I would have liked to have toned it up, and the powderyness didn’t tone down at all, and I would still like to cut that by more than half.
interestingly for such an important perfume, the silage is very close to the body, its an intimate perfume, hence the image recalls of my mother coming to kiss me goodnight, you only smell it close up, and the muskrat doesn’t change that at all, and only just adds a little bit more of length to a medium lived perfume.
This perfume is very steadfast and quite stubborn, it doesn’t lend itself to change, it feels quite fixed. there are some things I love about it and others I don’t and althought the muskrat doesn’t change what I don’t I still feel that there is an imperceptible improvement.
i have now bought little atomizers from Flying Tiger, at one euro each and the other two perfumes I wear, Night Flower and Fiore dell’Onda I now wear regularly cut cut with muskrat.
I also tried it with a perfume that is as visceral as is fleeting and that was a little unnamed tester in my packet. A fleeting glimpse of jasmine and something delicious, it didn’t change much with muskrat, I was hoping it would slow it down, but even with the muskrat I had lost it within minutes. There is something in this perfume that works on a completely unconscious level and it seems to sing. I love it, but its gone before I can grasp it, somehow a polar opposite to the Joy.
If I come up with anymore perfumes Ill be back, its been a really interesting adventure and an education and I am truly grateful for having had the chance to participate, for now, I’ve done what I have at home.
Coral
Profumo
Thank you Coral. Civet might do better for Joy than muskrat. Have you tried wearing muskrat on its own?
Do you know that I have a course of distillation and aromatherapy this month in Rimini?
AbdesSalaam Attar
Composer Perfumer
Coralc
Good morning Dominique, I see you are like me, nocturnal, the curse and benediction of creative people.
yes of course, this Joy needs more civet, I also wondered about ambergris, I thought it might lighten that blowsiness and give it a more of an ozone-y touch combined with a solid extra dose of Lilly of the valley.
and Yes, I did see you have a course, I follow you on Facebook, and I share your initiatives always, its definitely on my heart’s desire list, but the work I do doesn’t allow me to have much of a holiday, I use the summer for working holidays.
Maybe one year when you have a big group and you need help with translations and even cooking/cleaning, I could possibility partly exchange for work, then it would be possible for me.
your courses look just so special and the people who report back are always so happy and even better proud of themselves and the work they have achieved.
Oh and yes, I have also worn muskrat on its own, to the joy of my cat, there is nothing she likes better, she will come and smell it out of the bottle, but doesn’t enjoy that, however the moment I put it on my skin she gets happy and comes and rubs herself on me.
It softens into my skin pretty quickly, bringing up an ambery smell with my body warmth, with faint traces of briny which has to be sifted through an olfactory memory to come to the word uriney as it works on a visceral level. Unfortunately I am a bit of an expert of cat pheromones because my male cat is an ex breeder’s cat and tends to mark his territory, and I have smelt his offerings, both pre and post sterilization. The male doesn’t like the muskrat, but the female likes it so much that when I use Fiore Dell’Onda cut with muskrat she will raise her head from deep sleep and give me a good smelling over.
I tried just muskrat for Biodanza once as I noticed that when the women come for an embrace they tend to inhale deeply, but i didn’t notice a discernible difference in their behavior, maybe just a slight increase in their emotional connection with me. I think that in the period when I was wearing Rose heart, I had a more discernible impact, but I found that it wasn’t a very long lasting perfume and it didn’t do anything for the males.
I need good polarity in my classes, and the presence of males in my group, so Night Flower, which males find very attractive, well cut with muskrat does it for me.
Coral
Profumo
Basenotes Junkie
Dear Coral, my morning starts at 3.30 AM. this is why you think me nocturnal.
You are welcome as my guest at the August course, without paying.It will be nice meeting you.
AbdesSalaam Attar
Composer Perfumer
Coralc
I am deeply honoured by your generous gesture. I hope I find a way to repay this debt, and I hope I might not be more trouble than I am worth. I will send you an email.
Coral
nwguy
I’ve found the muskrat tincture to work very synergistically with Dolce and Gabbana’s The One, it smells stronger but still the same, and massively improves its longevity
