Musk Animalic Collection

They add an extra dimension to perfume compositions and act as fixatives, extending the life and longevity of more fleeting and volatile botanical aromatics.

There is a mystique that surrounds musks and though synthetic molecules have replaced many of these animal-sourced aromatics in modern perfumery, it is mainly due to issues of ethics, cost-efficiency and consistency when reproducing vast quantities of mainstream perfumes. In many ways, synthetic molecules can never completely duplicate the qualities and functions of their natural counterparts.

Ever wonder what Ambergris smells like? Civet Musk? Castoreum?

This Musk-Animalic Collection contains 6 of the rarest traditional animalic essences in one handsome set.
The market for rare and exotic materials is rife with adulteration and it takes either years of costly trial and error or a trustworthy and reputable source to learn to discern between fakes and the real deal, between poor and excellent quality material.

The Musk-Animalic Collection presents the rarest of traditional perfume ingredients!

The Musk Animalic collection is all natural and produced in-house by Apothecary's Garden.

This Musk-Animalic Collection is an excellent educational aid and provides an intimate and experiential introduction to these classic exotic and rare aromatics.

Each sampler contains 1 Millilitre vials of 6 different Animal Musk tinctures.
Each sample kit comes with a vial of-

Hyraceum Blonde tincture
Muskrat Musk tincture
Propolis tincture

Plus your choice of one of the following trios.
Trio #1-Oils-Which will include Civet Oil, Castoroleum and Ambergris 5% oils
or
Trio #2-Tinctures include Civet 10%, Castororeum 10% and Ambergris 5% alcohol tinctures.

Ethics and animal welfare in the realm of natural musks.

From an ethical point of view, using most of these animal-sourced aromatics either has little to no impact on the animals and the ecology. (Ambergris, Hyraceum, propolis)
Some are under government regulation which considers a long-term view of the well being of the ecology, the animal population and the impact of animal/human conflict and regulates and culls animal populations by regulating hunting and trapping quotas. (Beavers, Muskrats and in some cases Musk Deer).

However, Civet and to a great degree Deer Musk still pose serious ethical issues. Though most sellers of deer musk state their material is collected under strict government control, there seems to be way too much of this product on the market to account for the limited number of licenses that are actually awarded to hunters. Add to this issue the traditional adulteration of Deer musk, one never really knows what one has purchased for an outrageous price or where it has come from.

In the case of Civet musk, we have boycotted the use of Civet products in perfumes since the '60s. However, it has done little to help Civets or traditional farmers.

In fact, in my opinion, our passive approach has caused more damage than good. I believe we need to collectively take a more active role in changing the industry rather than hoping it will go away if we ignore it.

I have worked with Civet farmers and exporters in Ethiopia for 6 years now. Though they are happy to change their practices to accommodate a more lucrative, ethical and animal-centric farm, there simply has not yet been enough interest from the West to motivate the transformation. For more information on the subject please see my post here- https://apothecarysgarden.com/2020/04/29/animal-musks-civet-and-the-problem-with-a-passive-approach/

Dan

Materials: Musk Animalic Collection Castoreum, Ambergris, Muskrat musk, Propolis, Skunk, Hyraceum, Beaver, Civet Musk, Alcohol.