Muskrat
Note Profile
About
Muskrat is a tincture of the preputial gland secretion of Ondatra zibethicus, a North American rodent. It smells of dirty musk over damp earth. Reviewers place it between white musk and the animal materials: it carries the soft skin-musk effect but arrives dirtier, saltier and more mouldy than any synthetic musk does. It has never been a commercial musk source, so it is rare in perfumery.
Scent Profile
Muskrat smells of dirty musk over damp earth, sharper and saltier than a clean synthetic musk. The opening is sharp and frankly animal, almost rodent-like. It settles into a soft, clean musk close to white musk, but dirtier and mouldier. Underneath runs an earthy note of bitter roots and mushrooms, with a mineral, salty edge. A faint fruitiness and a woody, leafy quality separate it from plain musk, and a trace of hay and bran runs through the mould.
ScentWheel
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
ScentArt
Origin
Both sexes of the muskrat, Ondatra zibethicus, produce a musky substance from paired preputial glands in the genital area. The secretion has been known since the 17th century. A chemical extraction route was worked out in the 1940s but never paid for itself, and muskrat has never been a commercially important source of musk. What reaches perfumers today is an alcoholic tincture of the dried glands, sold in small quantities by natural perfumers rather than by the fragrance houses.
Usage in Perfumery
A base-note animalic used as an intensifier rather than as a stated note. It is described as the nearest scent to synthetic white musk, and it puts a dirty, skin-like floor under a musk accord without the leather that castoreum brings. Nine Fragrantica entries and eight Parfumo entries name it, across seven Parfumo brands, so its appearance in finished perfumes is real but small.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Muskrat
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Muskrat appears prominently.
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