Best Perfumes That Smell Like Musk

Musk doesn’t always mean laundry-fresh, and it doesn’t always mean animalic. Glossier You EDP puts pepper and iris around a warm base. Narciso Rodriguez For Her EDP adds rose, peach and patchouli. Frédéric Malle Musc Ravageur EDP is the choice here for vanilla, amber and sandalwood warmth.

Choose by those surrounding notes as well as by the word musk. For the background on the materials and terminology, read what musk means in perfume.

Glossier You Eau de Parfum

Glossier’s original You EDP opens with pink pepper and iris over ambrette and Ambrox. Start here if the peppery, powdery side of a skin scent interests you more than a rose bouquet or sweet amber. This is the original You, rather than You Doux, Rêve or another flanker.

One wearer who had continued buying it loved the fresh, warm opening and comforting musk drydown, though they wanted it to last longer. Another bought a bottle after smelling it on a friend but found only pencil shavings on their own skin. That woody, pencil-like impression is a useful thing to check for when trying it.

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Narciso Rodriguez For Her Eau de Parfum

For Her EDP combines the house’s musk accord with rose, peach, amber and patchouli. It is the floral-fruity option here, with more surrounding bouquet than the pepper-and-iris direction of You. Look for For Her Eau de Parfum in the pink bottle; the black-bottle Eau de Toilette has a different composition.

A wearer who enjoyed the EDP singled out its peach and rose character when comparing it with the EDT. Another found the EDP extremely sharp and powdery. Pick this one because you want musk with flowers and fruit, rather than expecting musk alone.

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Frédéric Malle Musc Ravageur Eau de Parfum

Musc Ravageur brings bergamot and mandarin into a musky amber composition with vanilla and sandalwood. The maker also lists lavender. It is the warmest direction in this comparison and the one to try if vanilla and spice appeal more than clean linen.

The animalic impression divides wearers. One bottle owner loved its mellow spice, smooth musk and subtle vanilla without finding it animalic. Another enjoyed the spices and vanilla but found the musk too animalic to wear comfortably.

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For related styles, compare our vanilla perfumes and rose perfumes. Our skin-scent definition explains how that description differs from a particular perfume note.