Musc Gardénia: Kyara Ketone

Two years ago, we made a special batch of Musc Gardénia.

This batch was composed specifically to complement the perfume’s white floral facets with white, kinamic oud profiles (rather than the classic Malinau profile of Borneo 50K.)

What you don’t know is that we split the batch in two – the one half became the White Kinam edition that brought on all the love Musc Gardénia enjoys today.

The other half became the “vault” edition no one would hear anything about until two years later; i.e. today. That edition got Kyara Ketone as the oud of choice.

Where Malinau was ethereal, Kyara Ketone was sumptuous, that kinamic counterpoint the perfect olfactory plateau to rest the buttery white floral’s delicate petals upon.

I actually thought of naming this edition Kyardenia, but then of course the Musc would have been left out; and we can’t have that!

The heart of the OG composition was white flowers galore, and the interplay of White Kinam’s signature powderiness with the vanillic white flower freshness made it a stunning perfume to be reckoned with.

But for two years, we kept the other half of the batch aside to let the brew simmer, the flowers ooze out their white in full bloom, waiting for a special occasion to be uncapped.

While White Kinam’s powderiness adds a palpable dimension to Musc Gardénia that you can tell apart from the contrast imparted by Malinau’s Microcarpa.

In a perfume centered around a delicate arrangement of flowers, the oud you choose can thoroughly imbue the aroma with a unique character. That’s why you can wear two editions of Musc Gardénia side by side and react like this:

“To my nose, MGB went through a revolutionary update, you’ll smell something familiar BUT completely new at the same time.”
“First off, this is unlike any of the past MG’s that I own.”

So, when you have the chance to go back to the OG batch and choose which unique character to imbue it with, you don’t just choose anything. Rather, you go back to the white flowers and see where they can take you, the way they let White Kinam’s powderiness ride their wafts…

“The creamy jasmine, the sultry frangipani and that sexy blue lotus all blended with the musc and oud” gives Musc Gardénia a chart-topping loveability factor. The scent is addictive, inviting, and simply beautiful the way the most exquisite white flowers that compose it just are.

And that’s it – the allure of the gardénia flowers, the charm of the perfume itself that stands out, the ‘it’ that gives MG its mojo is just that – its delectable creaminess.

Kyara Ketone was an obvious choice to forge that creaminess and kinam-ify the OG.

There’s not another Sri Lankan oud in the world that compares to Kyara Ketone. Not in profile, quality, or style. Distilled years before others even found out about agarwood in Sri Lanka, Kyara Ketone already passed its ten-year anniversary almost two years ago.

It’s one thing to capture walla’s unique creaminess, and another to also give you its kinamic dimension.

To my knowledge, there’s only one oud in existence that does it. And it’s why there’s no more elegant aromatic you could ask for to inject smack in the middle of Musc Gardénia’s bouquet of blanc beauty.

If you’ve never tried Musc Gardénia, here you get the kinamified OG that lets you bask in its white ketone bliss. If you happen to own any or all renditions of MG, then you’re probably not even reading this and have already ordered a bottle…