Musc Gardénia: The Making of a Perfume

There was quite a bit of talk about a “no spearmint” version of Musc Gardénia and if this new edition will reflect the tweak.

Before I get to the changes and the bonus addition towards the end, it would help to take a look at how Musc Gardénia came to be, and how a single change to the composition complicates everything…

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There have been two previous editions of Musc Gardénia, both semi-bespokes that featured Borneo 50K and White Kinam, respectively. 

You’ll note that from all the ouds we could have added, both were Borneo ouds. The new edition, too, features a handsome dose of Borneo Kinam (an unreleased Oriscent).

If it were simply a matter of adding any oud to any perfume, why would you use back-to-back Borneos instead of three unrelated ouds? Wouldn’t that have been more ‘interesting’ and ‘new’?

The original drafts of Musc Gardénia shared a profile flowing with cream and pollen atop a white flower bouquet – and did not yet contain oud. Not because I didn’t plan to add oud, but precisely to determine which oud would be best suited to the buttery white profile, one that would add the resinous depth of agarwood without smothering the beautiful creamy floral tone.

Going through the early draft, it immediately became a no-brainer that it had to be Borneo. In fact, one of the competing drafts (which also did not yet contain oud) was nicknamed “Borneo 3000” because of how its pronounced powdery vanilla tone practically screamed for a hit.

The question then became, which one?

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The Borneo-befitting profile stems from a blue lotus and frangipani combo specifically chosen to build the delicious creamy tone that defines Musc Gardénia, while mimosa’s sweet-pollen aroma combined with cypress’ dry-sweet tone aligns with the creaminess to create a gourmand chord that’s sweet-dry-floral, which is what you want leading into fine Borneo oud, and in turn, it’s what the oud would feed back into.

Adding the Borneo alone would work all sorts of wonders, but you cannot ignore the particular profile of the distillation you have in mind. Borneo 50K was much sweeter than White Kinam, for example. 50K had stronger notes of raspberry and vanilla which in White Kinam were almost absent, overshadowed by a Kodo-like focus on the agarwood’s powdery incense heart and little besides.

Which oud you end up using would immediately impact your top note arrangement, and secondarily your heart notes. If you want to show off certain fruity notes at the top and then, most importantly, integrate those notes into the scent so they remain steady/present throughout, upping the percentage of base entails giving or taking from somewhere. 

Likewise, when working with dense savory flowers as you have in here, you don’t want them to dominate the base notes, nor do you want them muted by overpowering top notes that lead almost directly into the base, i.e. have a ten-minute interlude showing off the most precious flowers on the planet.

Either you want the exquisite flowers to shine for as long as possible or, better yet, integrate them so tightly into the fragrance that the lines between top, heart, and base are blurred, which is certainly the case with Musc Gardénia. 

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Take that custom edition of Musc Gardénia which does not contain spearmint as an example.

It sounds straightforward – you smell what you perceive to be spearmint and become intrigued by what the profile would smell like without that note.

But put yourself in the perfumer’s shoes: Do you just remove the spearmint? Is it really that simple – could removing just one ingredient have such a dramatic effect? And in the case of this Borneo Kinam edition, would it even work – or, would the addition of Borneo Kinam demand you ditch it?

Firstly, what many perceive as ‘spearmint’ is actually a combination of eight different constituents. It becomes strikingly apparent when you compare the scent directly to spearmint, at which point spearmint neat smells almost jarring and empty and you realize that the ‘spearmint note’ is in fact a rich chord with only an echo of spearmint.

On top of that, the challenge becomes more intricate because Borneo Kinam itself possesses a minty character – not as in mint leaves, but a piercing kinamic bite – that has an obvious impact on the fragrance.

What do you do? When you add Borneo Kinam, do you now tone down, remove, or crank up the ‘spearmint’ effect? Too much musk can choke a perfume while if you don’t add enough blue lotus you’re just wasting a fabulously rare ingredient, so it’s a constant balancing act.

Will there be a synergy of the two profiles (Borneo Kinam & Musc Gardénia sans oud), or will the piercing notes dominate to the extent that it mutes other facets of the perfume, ruin the creamy vibe by making the top notes overly sharp, or perhaps change the overall profile beyond instant recognition?

You might have to keep the spearmint but adjust the cypress – the cypress actually being a more substantial note that’s been modified by rosemary and spearmint, rather than the other way around. But if you adjust the cypress, you might now have to adjust two or three other components as well. And if you change those………

It quickly becomes complicated because the actual ‘spearmint’ acts as a modifier to the auxiliary notes to add projection and lift to the primary top. It was never intended as a standalone note nor is it a note most would distinctly pick up amidst so much going on in the fragrance.

Rather, that ‘spearminty’ chord is meant to enhance the vaporous herbaceous elements while bridging the gap between the primary and secondary top of honeyed Granny Smith apple, which further expands into the full-bodied floral heart stuffed with those creamy white pollen beauties.

Olfactory ‘bridges’ like this are essential to maintain continuity, which is crucial if you want a perfume to remain whole rather than being a predictable series of notes you simply peel off one by one.

Aromatics used in such bridges usually play cameo roles in the overall fragrance, or they do their thing behind the scenes the way musk, ambergris, sandalwood, or pepper often do.

When you create a semi-bespoke perfume, it’s not usually as simple as ‘add this’ or ‘subtract that’ and then you call it a day. You need to adjust/balance out aspects to accommodate any change. You can’t dunk an additional 35% oud and expect to have same smell, just more oudy, just like you can’t up the rose by 10% and expect the profile to remain intact. Have you smelled what a mere 1% increase or decrease in rosemary or clove does to a recipe?

This last edition of Musc Gardénia (now sold out) is a perfect example: Just one addition, and a base note at that, which is on top of the ‘finished’ perfume, and which was chosen because it already aligns with the overall profile – that alone entailed amending the enitre composition.

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While some would prefer it be otherwise, Musc Gardénia has been a semi-bespoke from the get-go. One built around and for Borneo oud – and the finest Borneos in existence.

But we have to give credit where credit is due, and Svetlana picked up on a potential improvement which became reduced to “no spearmint” which serendipitously served as a prelude to a release featuring the kinamic smoke of Borneo Kinam. That said, I hope you now see these factors are only half the story.  

In the end, the spearmint effect has been removed for this Borneo Kinam edition, and this will be the only iteration that will not incorporate it.

Not just that, I wanted to take the profile to new heights and highlight the kinamic/narcotic/vaporous/heady facets of the flower by supporting it with the most floral Oud profile I’ve ever encountered anywhere (Borneo Kinam smells like extragalactic purple flowers) and enhance the “moistness” of the petals their lushness and voluptuousness. Gardenia flowers in the rain is the idea.