A few thousand years ago, people understood that the buckshot developed a particular scent at the time of its rut.
Therefore, they wanted to appropriate this power of attraction and thus discovered a gland the size of an orange, lodged in the abdomen of the animal, containing a brownish liquid.
They held in their hand what was to become the basis of a large number of perfumes and remedies, namely musk.
Liquid when it is warm under the skin of the musk deer, it becomes solid when it dries.
In this form, it loses a large part of its properties, which is why it quickly became necessary to kill the animal to extract the gland and thus keep the substance in all its purity.
With its woody and animal scent, musk quickly found its place on the skin of men who thought they had found the substance that would make them virile and attractive thanks to alleged aphrodisiac properties.
But is musk only for men?
Musk: feminine or masculine?
It is legitimate to wonder if the smell of musk can go to women as to men.
When it was discovered, musk was only used by men to increase virility and for its powerful, very bestial odor.
Despite everything, this scent is neither too spicy nor too sweet.
She knows how to be sensual without overdoing it.
In fact, the woman has known how to appropriate her strength and her mystery, while the man will rely on her power.
Thanks to all its virtues, musk has become the most expensive animal raw material in the world, but above all it causes the extinction of buckshot.
In China, farms have flourished everywhere to allow extraction of the glands without destroying musk carriers and thus meet the very strong demand from manufacturers of remedies, perfumes and incense.
Alternatives to animal musk
In 1888, while working on the TNT formula, Albert Baur accidentally created a substance with musky scents. This finding turns out to be toxic and dangerous to health. The idea aborts, but not the envy. It was in 1926 that Lavoslav Ruzicka succeeded in establishing the molecular structure of muscone and in synthesizing it. A considerable number of well-known perfumes use this chemical musk which does its job very well by still offering that woody, amber scent, often used as a base note.
Nature has not said its last word, because it is possible to find plants whose seeds (like those of ambrette) or the root (such as that of certain angelica) allow to obtain light fragrances of musk .
Despite these alternatives, musk remains a coveted material, difficult to obtain and export.
Its price is only the expression of the rarity of this scent inseparable from the cozy world of perfumery.
