Musc Amarante L'Artisan Parfumeur 2022

The American writer Tom Robbins begins his novel "Pan Aroma" with the following words:

"The beet is the most intense of all vegetables. Admittedly, the radish is more exciting, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of dissatisfaction, not that of passion. Tomatoes are at least lively fresh, but tomatoes are tinged with a hint of frivolity. Beets are dead serious."

The beet, also known as red beet, beetroot, or simply beet, is a serious vegetable? Absolutely. It is earthy and often unremarkable, something that people ate in winter because there was hardly anything else available, a peasant vegetable. Beets may be intense, but they do not stand out.
The same applies to Musc Amarante. The scent is individual, something that not everyone wears, but it does not overwhelm anyone. I must confess that I mainly know beets pickled from a jar and therefore do not really know how the actual beet smells (note to self: discreetly sniff at the supermarket without making people think I'm silly), but I will just assume for a moment that what I perceive as pleasantly earthy and down-to-earth, with a slight unobtrusive sweetness, is the beet. This remains present throughout, but towards the end, it is increasingly caressed by a gentle, also unobtrusive sweetness.

The perfume is an understatement, but a successful one! It smells of groundedness, elegant modesty, in short, of someone who is at peace with themselves and the world. Someone who is content without having to shout it out to the world. In the aforementioned novel "Pan Aroma," the search for the recipe of a divine perfume is central, and the beet plays a crucial role as a component. And perhaps it is precisely in this "serious groundedness" of the beet that the divinity lies, for I think the world would indeed be a better place if we all were a little more like Musc Amarante.