Musc Ravageur Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle 2000 Eau de Parfum

Hard to believe that almost 20 years have passed since the launch of ‘Musc Ravageur’!
Luca Turin's verdict: ‘.... more flashy than good’ I absolutely shared back then, and I still remember that I found the scent loud, flashy, and banal - a somewhat overly sweet musk-centered work dressed in mainstream vanilla.

What a mistake!

In fact, I wasn't entirely wrong, I just hadn't taken the time to let MR unfold on me in peace.
It wasn't MR that was ‘flashy’; it was me. A quick sniff and - bam - a judgment was made. Yet MR is a fragrance that, like hardly any other, should be tested slowly and, above all, multiple times to be properly assessed.
MR is a true scent chameleon: one moment you think you recognize an oriental fragrance dominated by musk and vanilla, while another time it reveals itself as a classic fougère, with herbal lavender notes in the top and heart, and a powdery-animalic base.
Interestingly, it is perceived just as inconsistently - and after almost 20 years, many have truly expressed their opinions about it in various forums!
From the ultra-feminine, sweet gourmand-oriental, completely unwearable for the male gender, to the testosterone-loaded macho-fougère, absolutely not recommended for the ladies. Many, many absurdly contradictory judgments can be found among all these comments.
However, many, and I count myself among this group now, do not share these extreme positions. The fragrance is neither one nor the other; it is both.

With MR, it’s a bit like back then with ‘Mary & Gordy’: at the end of one of their shows, they would take off their costumes and wigs to Frank Sinatra's ‘My Way’, remove the false eyelashes from their eyelids, wipe the makeup off their cheeks, and stand before their audience, recognizable as what they really were: men. Of course, everyone knew from the beginning that the two were drag artists, but they were so perfect that you somehow forgot it. Yet, at the end of the show, one was still astonished that it was these guys who performed all the dazzling tricks.
A base note writer described MR: ‘... a sexual dragqueen of frag.’

The scent progression is just like a striptease - from vamp to guy.
And just as all the glitter conceals the male core, a sweet-sour, slightly bitter mandarin-bergamot accord initially camouflages the actual aromatic-herbaceous lavender core on a rather hefty animalic base (although, it’s not that hefty, but more on that later....).
A transformation from ‘Shalimar’ to ‘Kouros’, so to speak, although MR possesses neither the opulence of one fragrance nor the skin scent of the other.
No, MR doesn’t come across as so voluptuous, but it also doesn’t display its male attributes so broadly; it is slimmer, more androgynous - and yet both fragrances are somehow godfathers.

The animalic base! Just as varied as the whole fragrance, it is also judged: from unbearable and unacceptable to addictive and extremely erotic.
For lovers of ‘White Musc’ and ‘Clean Musc’ scents, or clean fragrances in general, it is likely to be absolutely intolerable. However, those who appreciate fragrances with significant civet and/or animalic components (a perfume base of various animal secretions), who don’t faint at ‘Kouros’, find Dior’s ‘Leather Oud’ wearable, and also enjoy the scents of Bogue, will have no problem with MR at all.
I find this animalic side extremely stimulating (not to say: arousing!) and very sexy!

Two other fragrances come to mind that I loosely associate with MR. One is Alyssa Ashley's ‘Musk’ from the 60s, and the other is good ole ‘Jicky’.
‘Musk’ was quite popular during my school years in the 70s, one of the many hippie musk fragrances at the time. Compared to MR, however, it is much more boring and, above all, harmless, simply not ‘ravageur’, meaning: stunning, devastating, destructive.... Nothing of the sort is Alyssa Ashley's ‘Musk’, and yet MR occasionally reminds me of this fragrance, making me a little nostalgic.

‘Jicky’, on the other hand, is a similar scent chameleon - equally difficult to decipher, whether ‘pour homme’ or ‘pour femme’, whether fougère or somehow oriental, but it is exactly this masquerade, this vagueness, this evasion of categorization that I greatly appreciate in both ‘Jicky’ and MR.
With ‘Jicky’, MR also shares another parallel: both, despite all the power they can unleash, are almost slender works that build on few accords - rather minimalist fragrances with maximum effect.
Speaking of maximum effect: MR lasts on me incredibly long. I believe I have never experienced a fragrance that is such a long-distance runner. Even two days later, I can still trace it on my skin, and unlike Bogue’s ‘Mem’, this is not unpleasant at all; quite the opposite. While ‘Mem’ is somewhat penetrating and overwhelming, MR steadfastly stays by your side, but ‘to the side’, without burying the wearer (olfactorily).

I must now vary Luca Turin's verdict: ‘....not flashy. Really good!’
Five Stars!