Musk Extrême
Alyssa Ashley (2009)

This stuff has a weird history, and by reviewing it, I'm also technically reviewing another scent which is effectively the same formula tooled up for the niche world, so I'll keep it brief here. Alyssa Ashley Musk Extrême (2009), aka Alyssa Ashley Musk Eau Parfum Extrême, was a last gasp product released by IPD Fragrances, who owned the Alyssa Ashley fragrance license after Parfums Parquet went belly-up and sold piecemeal their fragrance catalog of old Houbigant fragrances that had been taken downmarket. What's really funny is the rumors that new owners Perris Group took formulas they intended to use for their upscale Perris Monte Carlo brand and made downmarket versions of them to release under the Alyssa Ashley name either as a dry run proof of concept, or to double-dip their return on investment by having cheap versions for the average schmucks, and expensive versions for the hoity toity who wouldn't be caught dead buying perfume from a drugstore. Either way, by the time IDP's Alyssa Ashley Musk Extrême hit market in 2009, Perris already took over the brand from them, and it was pulled from service as an Alyssa Ashley scent to be reconfigured into a Perris Monte Carlo one.

The key differences between this and it's eventual Perris Monte Carlo makeover are slight, but they do matter to collectors. Primarily, this was originally developed and made to be sold at drugstore prices, so it is very much built for cost like the original eau de toilette version of Alyssa Ashley Musk (1968), just a slightly higher cost as a higher concentration of that scent. You get the same synthetic jasmine hedione fluffiness and violet as the original, but with a bit of bergamot and aldehydes that move you into carnation and rose with a dollop of orris. At this point, Alyssa Ashley Musk Extrême smells similar to the masculine take of Alyssa Ashley DNA found in Monsieur Musk by Parfums Parquet (1973) aka Monsieur Houbigant, or Monsieur Houbigant Musk. The carnation and orris make this feel like a classic bar of pink soap just like the old Parquet scent, but the almost sulfuric synthetic musk note of that scent is smoothed here with added vanilla and tonka, which then combines with a powdery woody base note I'd say tries to emulate sandalwood. Wear time for this is all day as what is basically an extrait, while projection booms for the first hour than recedes to a musky skin feel until you scrub.

This was marketed feminine by IPD but it feels just as unisex as any other of the Alyssa Ashley white musks, and prices for it has risen sharply since it was taken off market by The Perris Group and reconfigured into a member of their gold bottle launch line for Perris Monte Carlo. If I were you and you really loved this stuff, I wouldn't pay the asking prices exceeding $80 per ounce when you can just buy the Perris Monte Carlo version for a bit less (at discount) plus get some mildly updated materials to boot courtesy of Luca Maffei working it over for launch as a niche fragrance. That said, I am proud to say that there is very much more musk here than the original 60's hippie stalwart. Ultimately, I prefer these soapy and slightly sour synthetic musks over the ambery spicy powdery ones that brands like Jovan and Coty would create in an attempt to emulate real deer musk. I can understand the appeal for those not seeking out real deer musk for ethical concerns, or looking for something in the neighborhood for cheap, but I've always found white musks to smell better when they're allowed to behave as white musks, rather than dressed up to be something they're not. Thumbs up

Musk Extreme is unisex, as was its predecessor, Alyssa Ashley Musk (it has the intertwined masculine and feminine symbols on the packaging). While I owned and enjoyed the original, this EDP formulation is even better. For once, an Extreme manages to just amp up the basic rendition, rather than presenting a completely different fragrance. I wear this without any trepidation, although this has a more floral character than Monsieur Musk, for example. Smooth and rich, this is one of my favorite of this type of perfume, along with Kiehl's Original Musk.