Clair de musc Serge Lutens (2003)

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7.1 / 10 270 Ratings

Clair de musc is a perfume by Serge Lutens for women and men and was released in 2003. The scent is powdery-floral. It is still in production.

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Perfumers

Christopher Sheldrake, Serge Lutens

Fragrance Notes

Aldehydes, Bergamot, Iris, Musk, Neroli

Ratings

Scent

7.1 (270 Ratings)

Longevity

7.3 (193 Ratings)

Sillage

5.8 (180 Ratings)

Bottle

7.8 (171 Ratings)

Submitted by Kankuro, last update on 11.01.2020.

Reviews

01/11/2020

CuirCuir
35 Reviews

CuirCuir

Clean but interesting musk

Clair de Musc will remind you of many white musk fragrances. As typical for Lutens, this scent has its own interesting peculiarities. Musk in the opening briefly shows its dirty side, reminding you of the great Muscs Koublai Khan. After that, it's no more Mongolian savages but an aldehydic soapy iris. For those days when you want to smell fresh and clean... but not dull because that is not how uncle Serge does things.

12/30/2018

Oswina
0 Reviews

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Oswina

Cuddly Flowery Woolly

Pleasant, soft and above all intense, stable fragrance. Like enveloping bath foam! I compared him with White Musk from Montale, there's hardly any difference, behaves weaker than Clair the musc.
It could also be a nice soap or softener scent. Can that be considered a perfume? For the price? I still have to think....

06/28/2018

jtd
484 Reviews

jtd

Very helpful Review 3

clair de musc

Clair de Musc’s musk accord isn’t as much like Muscs Koublai Khan’s as Fleur de Citronnier’s is. It’s ‘cleaner’ and higher pitched and has the hallmarks of the ‘white’ musks: soap, sweetness and soft-cuddliness. But here’s also where you’ll find Clair de Musc’s resemblance to Muscs Koublai Khan. Muscs Koublai Khan has just enough cleanliness to it to make you realize how dirty it is. The honeyed rose creates a feeling of purity that gets completely run over by the bawdiness of the the musk. If there is a narrative of innocence lost embedded in the perfume, the story is told in about as long as it takes to say, “Wow. Innocence lost.”

Clair de Musc tips the balance way in the other direction. The clean musk accord aims to cover any errant animalism but every now and again something unclean pops through. The scent of scalp, a whiff of armpit. It makes you realize this perfume isn’t about cleanliness. It’s about hygiene not quite holding its own against the scent of the human body. Remember the story of the first use of historical eaux like Eau de Cologne and Florida Water? They were for covering up the funk of unwashed bodies. Clair de Musc gives you that experience without you ever having to have a funky body yourself.

Some of the best musk perfumes are a variation on the idea, though perfumes like Kiehl’s Musk No 1, Amouage Gold Man and Les Nereides Fleur Poudrée de Musc all land much further in the funk than Clair de Musc. The perpetual resurfacing of bodily scents emphasizes the degree of restraint needed to keep from falling into the indulgence of the flesh. There’s a sexiness to the perfume that’s easy to miss if it’s not your bag.

From the angle of 2018 Clair de Musc is an interesting alternative to the trend in women’s perfumery toward dull white musky drydowns. The perfume’s musk notes are more detailed than the default pillowy basenotes built into so many mainstream florals.

from scenthurdle.com

08/30/2015

9.0/10

ScentFan
327 Reviews

ScentFan

Sweet Musk

Bergamot, iris and neroli turn this musk beautiful. Its Muscs Koublai Khan with the mongol removed, no horses and hides here. This musk dressed up to maraud through male hearts at a charity ball or symphony. To me it has a distinctly feminine and lush appeal but, yes, there's a silvery whip here--small, but naughtily present.

05/03/2014

8.0 2.5 2.5 7.5/10

Fanny
64 Reviews

Fanny

Helpful Review 5

Clair de musc

A Lutens Light for everyday use, like wearing a modern platinum jewel: sumptuous yet modest.
The most sophisticated musc scent I ever met.

05/03/2014

7.5 5.0 5.0 1.0/10

WRoth
153 Reviews

WRoth

Clair de musc

This fragrance opens with a soft neroli note whose flowery sweetness is tamed by orris and musk. Orris adds a powdery quality to the accord, a gauze-like veil over the sparkly citrus note. Musk adds the impressions of cleanliness and freshness. The fragrance is nice, but rather pedestrian and intentionally old-fashioned. I agree it is the most accessible Lutens offering. Rather linear in its development, this fragrance lasts for six hours on my skin.

12/22/2012

10.0 5.0 7.5 8.0/10

MemoryOScent
37 Reviews

MemoryOScent

Very helpful Review 6

tender is the musk

My first impression of Clair de Musc was that it is an unnecessarily expensive version of Bodyshop White Musk. After that it has been sitting in my perfume cabinet neglected until I decided to give it another try. My initial reaction to this was very hasty I admit. First of all the musk here is not white at al. It is of the same creamy, dusty variety found in Muscs Koublai Khan, treated on a more conventional and feminine way. The opening features a very beautiful, slightly rooty iris note kissed by the honeyed musk of Serge Lutens. Iris and musk are a match made in heaven and these first opening minutes are really amazing. The iris fades leaving a light shimmering trail of coolness under the warm musk. A floral note that to my nose is jasmine adds the feminine dimension and makes the difference to the most masculine MKK. As the base warms up on the skin the musk kicks in with all its animalic glory. In fact this musk seems a lot more raw and animalic than the salty, fuzzy, almost peach skin musk of MKK.

Clair de Musc translates as Clear Musk but is also play on words: clair de lune means moonlight so the name of the fragrance could also mean Musk Light. And although it is a light scent it has a nocturnal disposition. It reminds me a lot of Fleur Poudrée de Musc with less innocent florals and less dangerous musks. It is easier to wear and its deceptive name and similarity to a clean musk seems like a cunning game with the concept of musk as it has evolved in modern perfumery. The merest hint of true musk in a perfume rings alarms of “old lady smell”. The sexual connotations of musk have been dissociated from the interpretation of this note, as if we have lost our connections with our animal instincts. Clair de Musc offers a possible bridge to allow us to reconnect with this aspect of musk. Simple and airy on first inspection but sexy and secretive on hindsight.

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