Amber
Musk
Sandalwood
Vanilla10/15/2025
earth0angel
8 Reviews
earth0angel
1
I think I finally understand Musks
Throughout my time trying perfumes and reading perfume reviews, there have been a few categories that have never quite clicked in my mind. I don't really "get" what powdery means or animalistic or musk. I suppose you can't really get it until you let it present itself to you. Even having an unreasonable amount of samples of Flowerbomb, I still don't understand powdery but I think I just need to try some more perfumes in that style.
But with musk, I think Amber Musk by Tijion has convinced me. It is not a terribly complex scent. It has 4 distinct notes so there is not a lot of question about what you're smelling. I appreciate that I have spent enough time with vanilla and woods so that I could really consider the title substances (though as a side note, I find myself being endeared over and over again by woody scents- thank you sandalwood for your participation). I find myself coming to terms with why perfumes are so difficult to advertise and review and even just describe beyond listing the qualities in the perfume. There truly is a je ne sais quoi about some scents and musk feels in that vein.
When you first spray Amber Musk, it can actually feel quite bright but I think that is the alcohol talking, though it is nothing compared to the alcoholic nature of Bath and Body scents on opening. It almost feels as though all of the notes are working together at every step of the process of this scent journey from opening to closure but just as others have rated on this perfume, closure when? This is an incredibly long lasting scent though it doesn't project particularly strongly (though I am someone whose greatest deepest darkest desire is for everyone in a room to be able to smell my perfume so don't take my word for it).
So instead I find myself contemplating who is playing the lead role, when, and how.
At the beginning, Amber and Sandalwood are our star performers- giving us something synthetic and natural in tandem. It is difficult to put a word on it but my best try is laundry detergent (complimentary). Laundry detergent if you washed your clothes in the river of a forest and dried it in the gaps of sunlight from the trees. Then, the musk and vanilla take over.
I have been dancing around actually describing musk, but here I go.
In this scent, as it works together with vanilla, I find that musk does its job by making a scent feel natural in a human body way and by giving complexity to a scent. I find myself sniffing my wrist over and over again and only coming up with the word- wide. There are scents that smell like what they say they smell like. I feel like adding musk to those scents would give them that extra bit to make them smell like that scent and....... musk, i guess. It gives warmth like body heat, not fire. It doesn't smell clean nor dirty. I consider it a supportive rather than a lead. Musk smells like your house. You know, you light a candle in your house to give it a smell but your house did already smell like something.
Hopefully that description helped someone like me who didn't really know what to think of musk and so I will move on as I find myself at a loss to further pontificate.
I would describe Amber Musk as if "you smelled nice". What if you just smelled like this? What if you woke up in the morning and without having to do anything, smelled good. It definitely still smells like vanilla and wood but this vanilla and wood is like incense in the other room rather than smelling something sweet and being in a wood shop. In that sense, I would agree that this is a unisex scent. I feel that anyone could wear this and enjoy it but by being so complementary and unoffensive, it can also be considered boring. I would not disagree. But I feel it is worthwhile to go back to basics every now and then when your head is spinning from all the perfumes out there especially if you are new.
A 15 ml bottle goes for $35 and you get a perfume of that size for free when you do a custom perfume making class from their business. I was able to make a 50 ml gorgeous guava and honeysuckle scent and take a 15 ml bottle from their collection with me. Not too bad in my opinion when the perfumes I long over are going for $100/$200 each (one day I will have you Paradisi by Jorum Studio). As we find ourselves transitioning into fall, I find myself reaching for Amber Musk so if you were ever considering it, I would recommend picking up Amber Musk for yourself (and do the class if you are able).
But with musk, I think Amber Musk by Tijion has convinced me. It is not a terribly complex scent. It has 4 distinct notes so there is not a lot of question about what you're smelling. I appreciate that I have spent enough time with vanilla and woods so that I could really consider the title substances (though as a side note, I find myself being endeared over and over again by woody scents- thank you sandalwood for your participation). I find myself coming to terms with why perfumes are so difficult to advertise and review and even just describe beyond listing the qualities in the perfume. There truly is a je ne sais quoi about some scents and musk feels in that vein.
When you first spray Amber Musk, it can actually feel quite bright but I think that is the alcohol talking, though it is nothing compared to the alcoholic nature of Bath and Body scents on opening. It almost feels as though all of the notes are working together at every step of the process of this scent journey from opening to closure but just as others have rated on this perfume, closure when? This is an incredibly long lasting scent though it doesn't project particularly strongly (though I am someone whose greatest deepest darkest desire is for everyone in a room to be able to smell my perfume so don't take my word for it).
So instead I find myself contemplating who is playing the lead role, when, and how.
At the beginning, Amber and Sandalwood are our star performers- giving us something synthetic and natural in tandem. It is difficult to put a word on it but my best try is laundry detergent (complimentary). Laundry detergent if you washed your clothes in the river of a forest and dried it in the gaps of sunlight from the trees. Then, the musk and vanilla take over.
I have been dancing around actually describing musk, but here I go.
In this scent, as it works together with vanilla, I find that musk does its job by making a scent feel natural in a human body way and by giving complexity to a scent. I find myself sniffing my wrist over and over again and only coming up with the word- wide. There are scents that smell like what they say they smell like. I feel like adding musk to those scents would give them that extra bit to make them smell like that scent and....... musk, i guess. It gives warmth like body heat, not fire. It doesn't smell clean nor dirty. I consider it a supportive rather than a lead. Musk smells like your house. You know, you light a candle in your house to give it a smell but your house did already smell like something.
Hopefully that description helped someone like me who didn't really know what to think of musk and so I will move on as I find myself at a loss to further pontificate.
I would describe Amber Musk as if "you smelled nice". What if you just smelled like this? What if you woke up in the morning and without having to do anything, smelled good. It definitely still smells like vanilla and wood but this vanilla and wood is like incense in the other room rather than smelling something sweet and being in a wood shop. In that sense, I would agree that this is a unisex scent. I feel that anyone could wear this and enjoy it but by being so complementary and unoffensive, it can also be considered boring. I would not disagree. But I feel it is worthwhile to go back to basics every now and then when your head is spinning from all the perfumes out there especially if you are new.
A 15 ml bottle goes for $35 and you get a perfume of that size for free when you do a custom perfume making class from their business. I was able to make a 50 ml gorgeous guava and honeysuckle scent and take a 15 ml bottle from their collection with me. Not too bad in my opinion when the perfumes I long over are going for $100/$200 each (one day I will have you Paradisi by Jorum Studio). As we find ourselves transitioning into fall, I find myself reaching for Amber Musk so if you were ever considering it, I would recommend picking up Amber Musk for yourself (and do the class if you are able).
