Musk Lave
Areej le Doré (2020)

When first approaching Musk Lave, I didn't know what to expect after having sampled Russian Adam's more animalic offerings such as Siberian Musk. Upon first application, Musk Lave was not really like anything I had smelled from Areej Le Dore. I've heard others describe it is as powdery clean barbershop type fragrance. But, I think the best way to describe Musk Lave (I assume the "lave" refers to either lavender or the French verb meaning to bathe) is to think of it as an amalgamation of the finest quality early 20th Century orientals such as Guerlain (think Shalimar, Mitsouko, Djedi, Boquet des Faunes, etc.), Caron, Houbigant, etc. using the finest natural ingredients.

You will smell natural deer musk, but never overpowering or overtly animalic, a smooth lavender, creamy and buttery sandalwood, orris (likely orris butter), and oakmoss (giving the juice a dark brown color).

Musk Lave is a great fragrance and a fine way to experience early 20th Century French perfumery as it existed 100 years ago.

Musk Lave has one of the best real sandalwood finishes I have smelled outside of attar and mukhallat perfumery. For fans of real sandalwood, the real treasure lies here, and not in Santal Galore. But be aware that this is the type of musky, spicy, masculine-leaning sandalwood that used to feature in high quality ‘barbershop’ fougères before Indian sandalwood became generally unavailable to commercial perfumery in the late eighties, and before entire carpets of beige, sweetish tonka bean were conscripted to fill the gap.

In other words, though it certainly smells rich and incensey, like all good sandalwood should, this sandalwood is the handsome, rugged version that smells more like good wood and bay rum spices than a creamy dessert that will send you into a stupor. The invigorating sparkle of the sandalwood is beefed up by a nice lump of labdanum, so you get the full balance of aromatic-dry and sweet-incensey that the very best examples of sandalwood possess, e.g., the Mysore 1984 by Ensar Oud, which, because it is aged, has developed that rich, incensey sonic boom ‘loudness of voice’ that would be most unusual for a pure sandalwood more freshly distilled.

Winding back to the start, Musk Lave opens with a fresh, powdery lemon and lavender accord, which would be a naturally lean kind of thing were it not for the immediate upswell of an unctuously buttery musk or tonka that adds richness, like a pat of yellow Irish butter melted over a salad. Think Jicky but with real sandalwood and musk dialled in for that naughty ‘skin musk’ feel, writing over the rather sharp, sometimes foul-smelling synthetic civet of the Guerlain. Given that Jicky is my favorite fragrance in the world, hopefully you’ll take my word for it that Musk Lave is the upgrade nobody knew was in the wings but immediately presses the install button on.

I've never done such an about-face as I did on Musk Lave. I've been working through some of ALD's offerings, trying full bottles of War and Peace (amazing) and Agar de Noir (stunning). Nothing I've come across in the past prepared me for the strange accords that make up Musk Lave. I started by reading a rather negative review by the very articulate Kafkaesque, which focused on the 'marshmallow' lavender sweetness of Musk Lave. I took multiple wearings for my mind to sort out what was happening. Reading another review that described the notes in more detail really helped, especially concerning the sandalwood. The effect of verbal descriptions on our perception of smells is a very interesting thing. Initial impressions aside, here's what I get now.

First of all it does smell like lavender! Surprise surprise. And it is a smooth, pillowy soft lavender, not the sharp woody side of it that you get in Lavender frags. It's hard to separate it in the early stages from the very strong and beautiful real animal musk that pervades the juice. It's the musk-lavender accord that my mind initially rejected as bizarre. It smelled like some sort of sweet plastic, very strange. But over repeated wearings I find this increasingly addictive. I realize that I'm actually smelling lavender. The sandalwood contributes to this initial accord as well, but I can't distinguish it as a distinct note at this point. It's just this creamy delicious accord, with a dark pissy-stinky undercurrent from something like Civet? Not listed in the notes?

Only when the lavender and musk have died down, does the sandalwood come into its own. After a couple of hours, the sandalwood is glorious. Once I understood that, it all resolved in my mind. I still don't get the labdanum, oakmoss or 'iris accord' but perhaps with time, my mind will discern these as well. Notice that I say, 'mind' and not 'nose'.

What I love about ALD's offerings is this smell of real things. The mind is slow to sort out what is going on, but this one was really worth the wait and effort. It's almost impossible to find now, and getting rarer with each passing day. I wonder if there will be a Lave Musk II?