Perfumery Basics - Musks: Their function, different types and how to use them 

Papa BK blessed us with another lesson.

What an informative video about musks! Thanks so much for your work!!!!!

Oh wow! Thank you! This is the video I've been waiting for. You've made my week. This is the best channel. Thank you!

Thanks for great video. Always wait to see every video.

I have 4 different types of musk that I use when making perfume: galaxolide, exaltolide, animalis and shangralide. Galaxolide, because it has little to no smell to it, is my immediate go-to musk scent and I feel could be used in any genre of scent. The second most common one I use is exaltolide but I try not to use very much when trying to make a light floral or citrus scent. Only because I want the scent to be as bright and uplifting as possible and not have a muskiness weigh it down. Animalis is essentially synthetic Siberian deer musk and having smelled both this and real deer musk, it is a dead on match. I tend to save this one exclusively for oriental scents such as ones with oud or heavy woods or resinous bases. The last one, shangralide, is certainly the most difficult to use. It is very animalic, almost like tobacco and castoreum mixed together. This one, just like with animalis, I only use in oriental scents but much more heavily diluted.

Oh man, your films are so great. Thank you! My sensei haha :)

Very good! I recently decided to create my own perfumes. Since then, I have purchased just over 50 aroma chemicals. 6 are from the musk family. They are: Ketone, Ethylene, Exaltolide, Galaxolide, Habanolide and Tonalide(fantastic! my favorite) Thanks for the vídeos! You help me a lot!

Thank you for that great introduction to musks 😃

Your videos are so helpful. Thank you.

Sir. I really love how to teach about musk details. Thanks for that.

This video was great...so great. It helped me enormously. Thank you, my friend.

I like musk. It's a great fixative and since the aroma is subtle, it's extremely versatile.

Very useful video. Thank you!

Very informative. Thanks with great appreciation.

You are so knowledge, and you express it in a way that I understand. You are actually one of my mentors. Niche perfumer here, not master, I had to hire one. You are no nonsense, and I want to be like you. Warmest Regards, MJ 😊

Musks have always been Must in perfumery. Other than all the must have musks you discussed I love and regularly use Helevetolide and Habanolide. I have not tried Auratouch (Firmenich) but I whip-up my own version of Auratouch using Helevetolide+Romandolide+Habanolide+Exaltolide+Muscenone and I love it

Galaxolide smells like White Musk from those make your own lotion and perfume shops in the mall back in the 90s. The Body Shop! My mom used to buy it.

Thank you so much for sharing and describing the smells! But you were torturing me ha ha! I want all of the smells right in front of me right now!😆. This is very cool. I’ve had a love for essential oils and perfumes for years!

Thanks for this video. I'm a great lover of base notes and musk and oriental - style perfumes. The section where you talked about blending musks was especially useful. I'm glad you talked about tonquitone since I love it. I've had a 0.1% solution on a scent strip I can smell two weeks later. Basically it's an attempt to recreate the scent of aged musk deer musk (which was called musk tonquin, hence the name). I don't find it terribly animalic, personally, though that's definitely there. It seems sweet, warm, powdery, and ambery/resinous with an undercurrent of sharp animal. Definitely nothing like civet absolute which smacks you in the face with the urine/animalic scent then opens up to more of the soft, warm, amber qualities that tonquitone has. I've tried civet in a few experiments but to get the urine smell down sufficiently, I had to dilute it down to something like 0.002% of the concentrate. You didn't mention it, so I wanted to ask your impression of musk ketone if you've used it. I know Chanel used it extensively back in the day, and it has pretty strong musk characteristics, but it's odor impact is so low I couldn't smell more than a slight "something" at 10% on a strip 15 minutes after dipping. It didn't really show up until a day later and has lasted for a month so far and you have to be close to smell it. Given the fact it takes such a long time to really smell it at all, how is it useful in perfumery, or how would you use it in a musk blend? Is it basically used as a functional musk?

There's so many to choose from! I'm for sure getting Ambrettolide next order. I put it off because of its price. Probably Ethylene Brassilate too and then whichever others I gravitate towards.

Thank you soo much for this video. All of your videos are very useful. I'm waiting to purchase a scale it's the last thing I need. I'm not in a hurry because I have alot of smelling to do. Thanks again.🙂

Very good and useful video. Those like us who love PERFUMES and try to make it, are interested in watching more videos like this. We are from India - Kerala

Awesome advices…Thank you

Tq bro, I'm started to learn from you..!

Great video thanks a lot for sharing

Great video! I love tonquitone. Used it in a simple musk blend and wow! In the heat and sweat, it smells really good. Same with animals. Then I got Aurelione.....drool! like skin and just so beautiful. I use tonalid, romandolide and ethylene brassylate as workhorse musks and exaltolide, velvione and ambrettolide hc to elevate. I love Galaxolide but I'm torn because it's not biodegradable but I love it.

I love this vid, I rewatch it a lot trying to absorb the knowledge. I love Exaltolide Total at 20% on test strip into the deep dry down.

A musk see video, for sure!

When I first smelled galaxolide I realised it was the primary smell of a ‘green apple’ shampoo my aunt used to have when I was a 7-8yr old kid - I used to hang out with my cousins during the summer school break and LOOOOOVE her shampoo, which was nicer than the stuff my mum used to buy. I lathered it on in ample amounts, probably to my aunts dismay. Love galaxolide, for me it has a very clear noticeable scent of its own.

Love this because I love musk. Can you do something explaining "powdery" profiles? I really like things like "Cloud" and others that are powdery without being dated BTW, I just started making my own scents for gifting to family. Before I saw any videos or tutorials (I lean heavily on yours), I was just dumping cetalox crystals and ambroxan into perfumers' alcohol. I'd sometimes spray in existing perfumes. I had no idea what I was doing and still need to get a scale. However, I had a blast and most of the scents turned out really nicely! LOL

Haha cool reindeer, I tell you what does work well with musky woody floral perfumes is the allergen Alpha Isomethyl-Ionone especially with ebanol you get some exotic sillage then. Generally I'll add about 2% works quite well with all musks really but mainly galaxolide and white Musk.

Haha that deer at the start 😎

Great video! My favourite musks are habanolide for a masculine clean vibe and muscenone for a sensual effect. Good in combination too. I sometimes to overdose muscenone at maybe 2 to 2.5%. Filth! Have you used Velvione or the Animalis base? If so I'd be interested to know what you think.

Hi dear. Your videos are so exiting for me.thanks a lot.

Chris from Pell Wall says he also likes to use numerous musks at once because it makes it so the consumers will be almost guaranteed to smell the musk in the perfume. Basically it makes it unlikely someone would be anosmic to all the musks vs using only one musk that someone might be anosmic to.

Thank you sir, for another informative class in perfumery. Would there be enough information to have a video based on incense & incense accords used in perfumery?

My experience with musk is that there are many fragrances that have a specific kind of musk that tends to overpower the entire fragrance so that I can barely smell anything else, and I really don't like it... It has made me basically avoid any fragrance that has musk as a listed note. Examples: Narciso Rodriguez - For Him MontBlanc - Explorer Profumum Roma - Eccelso Olympic Orchids - Peace Carner Barcelona - Cuirs (and also Drakon) But then there are also other fragrances that apparently contain musk where I can't really notice it at all. I'm very curious if these fragrances where the musk really stands out and dominates use a specific kind of musk. I'm sure you would immediately be able to pick up which sort of musk I'm referring to if you smelled any of these fragrances.

Great info! I have a question, so I am new to perfumery/scent blending and would like to know if any of you guys can tell me how to give a scent a clean, musky dark finish, but smooth at the same time? Kind of like what you smell in men's beard care products?? I appreciate y'all

thank you very much

BK, Awesome on the musk mixes. If you haven't already done an aquatic scent fregrance video would you post one. If you have done a video on aquatic scent how can it be found? So much good scent you spread...thanks.

I love exaltolide total, Egyptian musk, timbersilk, hedione, I use sandela as a musk for sweet woody fragrances, wife says cetalox makes her want to jump my bones so I use it in, fresh gym type scents where the fragrance becomes your own mixed with body chemistry. Oh yeah ambrettolide is great with cumin for me. How could I forget cashmeran musk... Great in combo with geranium and ginger dominated compositions

Thank you so much sir, your adorable knowledge, I have a query in the beginning of vedio as you said we use benzoin, labdanum,sandal as a fixative and also we use musk as fixative then my query is that if I use benzoin or labdanum as a fixative in compound then can I use musk in that compound.

Sir. Thanks lots for giving knowledge about musk's use in perfumes.but sir you have not mentioned nitro musk like musk ambrit .musk zylon. Musk ketones wildly use in industrial perfumes. Thanks lots sir.

Great Video Bk. It's amazing how different our noses are because I can pick up Galaxolide but my nose cannot detect Ethylene B. for the life of me. I have a question regarding dilutions for your blends; while I do understand it's always good to dilute materials down to 10% for smelling and better understanding of them, do you also dilute musks such as Galaxolide, Helvetolide, Ethylene B or even ISO e Super to use in your blends? thx

king👑👑👑

Fantastic video please make new video

What I like to do is blend naturals in with synthetic generally about 20% natural to a synthetic like for an example for an oriental woody fragrance I made last night, the objective was to keep it insency so I went 2 of Tonkin Deer Musk quite expensive by the way to 8 galaxolide. I won't do that all the time but in this case scenario it's an insensy oriental. The actual insence accord I went with was nag champa which works real well so 4 Dragons Blood to 4 nag champa 2 of cade oil diluted at 20% hopefully ifra will let that one slide, mind you it's just a demo prototype at this stage. And with agarwood I actually went full steam ahead with 100% Indonesian agarwood, what I probably should have done is gone 40% natural agarwood to 60% black Agarwood synthetic. What I found is when you strike a good balance between synthetic and natural you'll get a product that smells quite professional yet quite genuine with good performance, obviously it depends on what's being created you know like sometimes you just have to stick to synthetic and fruity notes can get annoying in that regard, I mainly just stick to chypre and oriental fragrances myself since that's what I like. Getting back to what I was ranting on about it's a bit like years ago when I was trying all these different perfumes then I finally discovered COMME des GARCONS and it was like wow what ever these guys are doing it works like it really stands apart from the rest, that nice balance between natural and synthetic. Bit like comparing a genuine wood fire oven cooked pizza by a top artisan Italian chef to Dominoes or your local pizza shop junk. But yeah that's my little rant keep up the good work, great job on the videos by the way.

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. Can you please tell something about cashmeran? Is that also a musk?i love the odour of cashmeran and always wanted to use it but hardly use it. Can you tell a formula for a masculine perfume base note with woody warm sensual and deep musky base? I will be grateful if you can help me out with this

Have you ever used Ambretex XMN 0512? Would be nice to see a comparison to ambrettolide! I’m finding that I love ambrette scents.

Appreciate the sabers...

Hi BK, I know that this is an old video but I was wondering if there was a way to tone down or neutralize musk in fragrances you’ve purchased? There is a specific type of musk that is in Xerjoff Erba Pura and Tiziana Terenzi Kirke that smells so strong that it over powers my senses and it just doesn’t smell good to me at all. And there is a perfume I recently purchased that is a flanker to a scent that uses that same musk but it doesn’t have musk listed, however I can smell that musk in the dry down of this one. I really want to keep it because it has a beautiful opening and mid but the dry down makes me so sad because all that’s left is that musk that I really dislike. Is there anything I can do to save it?

Hi BK..it's me again..🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ what is a good fixative for my essential oils perfume to last longer without altering my Scents?

Grate information about musk Please suggest buy sourse

Hi BK Scents, I was wondering if there's a good perfumery training kit you can recommend. Right now I'm looking at all kinds of kits, and don't really know which one to choose. BTW, I'm in Europe. Thanks in advance, and your videos are excellent and to-the-point. Keep up the good work.

what's your thoughts on happyang perfume..... What type of musk are they using

The Ethylene Brassylate I have does have a rather "strong" smell to it. Smells a bit flowery/floral and sweet to me. It smells rather nice and I do love to use it! But if you think it smells like Galaxolide, does that mean the Ethylene Brassylate I have is "off"?

Is it safe to use Ethylene brassylate on my skin?

Man i also used to think i hated musks until i started seeing them in all of my favorite perfumes . Usually white musks and it doesnt smell bad so that changed my view*

Wow!

love the vids and knowledge drop. background sound not so much.

Hello BK, I am a bit confused with the use ratios. Are these use ratios for neat or diluted forms?

Bro can we just use dpg, perfumers alcohol & essential oils? Is it better to use fixatives like galaxolite or tonalide, etc to get longevity or only dpg will do the trick? Edit: Also which is better galaxolite & tonalide, mass pleasing?

Does functional musk act as base notes?

It's a very grateful video. I have a question. Don't you use musk ketone? It's a different story from the musk theme, but can you tell me what the oil that says "terpeneless" is different from what it doesn't? (lemon oil cold pressed / lemon oil terpeneless)

What synthetic fragrance can I use to get a washed coral scent? And also if a perfume says it had coconut water what synthetic fragrance is that?

I picked up Tonalide today (crystals from Perfumer's Apprentice) and dissolved 10% in PA....but similar to Ambrettolide I can't smell a thing. Nada, nothing! Very frustrating! Is this common?

Hey now, I LOVE a cannabis strain called Dogshit. And yes, it smells like dogshit, but in flower form it's just so beautiful lol. SO syvette? I was curious to try and isolate the particular terpenes that create that smell so I could recreate it

You say you can use lots of technical musk, but even you cant scent it, wouldnt it have a negative effect on projection?

Question bro why are aroma chemicals used so much and why do they seem like they’re best to use? Also i love your channel man good shit

The only musk i have is zenolide but its sooo faint

Sir please give me oud perfume formula

Would Auratouch be considered a white musk?

habanolide ?what do you think?

Hi can you please advice how to dilute Musk Ketone, ethanol doesn’t work Ive heard I can use Benzyl Benzoate is that true.

Thank you so much for this insight! I have a question for you, I'm new to the fragrance making world and im making a new fragrance and i really want to have a musk note, some of the notes in my fragrance includes; honey, amber, berries, star anise, cashmeran, rosemary oil. Which musk do you think would be best suited for this fragrance? I am on a bit of a budget btw. Thank you very much.

We can use Musketon in perfume?

Great content ❤ But for example how much an parfumer or a parfumery house may charge for 300 bottles of 100 ml ( 3000-5000$) right???

Way too late in the game, but where can I find all these musky aroma chemicals in the US?(Preferably a single website/store😊)

F$@k yes bruh 👨🏼‍🔬

Sooo where do you get yours from? "Musk"

Thank you for the video! I like your content but in my opinion, the music behind destroys the concentration. Maybe is just me, but you could ask your fans if they prefer content with music or without 😃.

How can i contact u ? I really some some advice and information from u

Habanolide?

Oh man. I got covid and lost my smell for a month. After recovery galaxolide smells so STRONG i can't smell anything else if it has galaxolide. Even my shampoo (head and shoulder) has galaxolide, and all I smell is galaxolide. Its freaking annoying.

i thought galaxolide was banned

Are you for hire? Id like to have my own cologne recipe i can use to make my own spray colognes.....

I spy an evertune bridge lol

Hey BK. Great video. How do I get in touch with you. email, insta, etc? If that is possible? let me know.

I didn't want the video yet and never made a perfume. Wondering if you can use more than one type of musk in a perfume?

dont know why i disliked this video, changed to a like. must have been befoer i actually started perfuming and had no idea that i loved musks. sorry!

A smell can't be warm or textured. This is nonsensical. Those are not aromatic descriptors.

Is there any fixative to increase the projection right frm the spray..?