This year has been an interesting and trying time, pulling me inward until I was so sick of myself that I could scream and then forcing me to live more outwardly than I had in a long time, finally ridding myself of my more curmudgeonly and misanthropic traits. Every day that I go to yoga class, I know how much more I have to do to finish opening myself up and releasing, well, everything. My taste in perfume over this time has changed and shifted with my moods and, er, challenges.
Finally I have in my hands a perfume that fits exactly who I am at this moment. Those clever boys at Le Labo say they made this for Los Angeles, but they really made Musc 25 for me. Tom reviewed it already, and I completely ditto everything he said. The open on me is a little more aldehydic and bubbly in the way Dallas’ Aldehyde 44 (which I adore) is, not nearly as sparkly, though, but bellowing up under that is a delicious, sensuous musk. Now, as a word of warning, I don’t find CB’s Musk Reinvention skanky in the least – it just seems like a nice, mellow skin scent to me, so if you find it really rank, well, you’ve been warned, my nose just doesn’t perceive musk as rank most of the time.
The notes for Musc 25 are aldehydes, civet and muscone. It’s pretty much everything a musk should be for me – my skin, but sparkling with sun and a little leftover sex, and not just your run of the mill sex, some really luxurious smutty sex on Pratesi sheets. It shimmers like some impossibly beautiful thing while remaining incredibly human. I adore it.
As much as the Le Labo City Exclusives have vexed me in trying to get ahold of them, I have to say that they have been outstanding, and I have adored them all. From the effervescently melancholy Aldehyde 44 to the incense powerhouse of Poivre to this gorgeous musky creation, they have done a really outstanding job of making these special perfumes.
So… let’s do a drawing for a couple of samples for this great perfume. Just drop a comment in, and I’ll draw two winners of a sample.
I think this sounds right up my alley! I am also undergoing a transformation, can’t wait for 2009 to roll around. Tibetan buddhist meditation, studies and retreats are what’s opening me up right now, but if I could find the right yoga class…
oooo…I do have a thing for those sexy musks :d Please include me in the drawing!
sounds fascinating. please include me!
Musc 25 sounds exciting! Please include me in the draw also 🙂
This sounds perfect. I’d love to be in on the drawing!
oooh sounds delish! Please include me 🙂
Well, I do love my musk and civet and Le Labo is always interesting. Please enter me in the drawing. It’s been an interesting year for me too.
UGH! I have loved every Le Labo city exclusive I’ve tried. Love, as in, I must now fly to Paris for Vanille and London for Poivre and spend thousands of dollars and… oh, or I could just keep working my way through my little samples and decants from TPC and let you all do to flying 🙂 I would love to try the musc, but like Brooke above, if I don’t get picked, I’ll just wait for you all to get it at TPC 😉
Loved your post! Please enter me in the drawing.
Indeed I hope I’m not too late! I would like to be entered in the drawing…although truth be told if it is on The Perfumed Court I will probably end up buying a sample anyway 😉
Oooh oooh oooh! I hope I’m not too late for the party! Please enter me in the drawing…I’m so curious about this, and it may be the only sniff of it I can get…
This would be my first Le Labo…and sounds like it rides the edge for what works for/on me…but am willing to give it a ride! Please enter me in the draw.
I have tried 6 of Le Labos creations, and would love the chance to try some of the “Exclusives”.
Patty, I hope you’ve had a wonderfully happy birthday! <:-p And I hope the coming year is just a tad less "interesting" and doesn't require as much releasing. Hope it's a year during which you can just relax and fully enjoy your life and who you are now. And if this scent matches your current self...well, that sounds like an extremely promising, fun start. 🙂
Include me, please. Thanks!
Wow, you’ve got me interested. Please include me in the draw!
Oh, yes, please! This sounds marvelous.
I’d love to be put in the draw….
😉
Oh, I love musk, I love Aldehyde 44, I love or at least appreciate most of the Le Labos (just tried Poivre and that is on my Want More list) and I love your description.
The only thing that I don’t love is that this perfumista backwater town called DC will never have a City Exclusive, although Louise and I were trying very hard to come up with a name for a Washington Exclusive. Hmmm…La Corruption choose your year depending on which party you hate? Does corruption have a smell? 😕
Anyway, please enter me in the drawing.
Filibuster #290? Kickback #458? Le Lobby #127? /:)
Eau de Graft is bottled right here in the Land of Lincoln. I think we should also release one called Moron No. 22.;)
xo
>-)
Yeah, and if we make it a really loud scent, Moron becomes Loopy de Loop.
Sheesh, it’s not my hometown, it’s my adopted town, but man, this has been a tough day.
Would love t be in the drawing, thanks!
Not only have I have abandoned the gym for the last few months (although not the monthly fees…) I didn’t even think about joining the yoga group that meets at my church. You’ve inspired me. I’m going to give it a try.
And a 2nd to Kathryn’s comment above. You really don’t know how many people are impacted by your blog. Your sense of humor comes through in everything you write (including facebook!) and often brightens my day! (I have my curmudgeonly times as well, so humor is needed.):)
Count me in on the draw. Haven’t tried Musc 25. Was not impressed by anything in my one visit to L.Labo in NYC, but this new one does sound interesting.
–Gail
Hmmmmmm, love musk (and sex…and nice sheets-haha)!
I have yet to try any of the Le Labos so would love to be entered into the drawing.
Thanks!
Linda
Ohhhh, I love musk, and yoga’s nice too! Please enter me in the drawing.
:xOOOOOOO,Lordy….musk/musc…..I LOVE IT!!!….Please add me to the draw….smooches/:)
Please enter me in the draw! I would llove to smell like expensive sex.
Oh my. You had me at hello.
I love this post; I can feel the passion and urgency that inspired it, and that I need, quite frankly. My skin is a skank-killer, too, so I’m definitely curious about this frag. Please include me n the drawing.
Patty, thanks for the review! I love Aldehyde 44, too. Please enter me in the drawing…I would love to try this one!
Hi, Patty. I start most of my days with yoga. A key part of the practice to me is acceptance of myself and others in all our complexity. As you go through your personal catalog of strengths and weaknesses, please don’t overlook the gifts of knowledge and insight you have given so many readers. A true misanthrope would have kept all that to herself without sharing, so obviously something open and giving has been humming along inside you all the time. The sentence you wrote, “It shimmers like some impossibly beautiful thing while remaining incredibly human ” sums up everything I love about what you, March and Lee share with us in your writing. That something like that can also be distilled in perfume is quite miraculous. Of course, I would love to be entered in the drawing.
Please enter me in the drawing. When I smell good all is right with the world. When other people smell good, I’m in heaven.
must smell this… must stop ordering samples. maybe I’ll get lucky on this one!
Please, please, please add me to the drawing!
This sounds fabulous–please enter me in the drawing!
What a wonderful description. Now I’m curious.
Please put in for the drawing too. Thanks. E
Sounds wonderful. Please include me in the draw.
Oooh Patty–the comparisons you and Tom have made to Aldehyde 44 have me drooling, and I love civety, animalic fragrances. Please put me in the drawing for a sample.
hhu huhh huh hhuh 😮
(that’s me, hopping up and down on one foot, unable to think of any witty comment but having serious antz in pantz for that ‘fume there……….) oh – “enter me, please!”
Lunarose, you just made me have a serious bout of “aw, gee, I miss those guys.” Thanks for the LOL…hope your December is going well.
I hate to show how “not in the know” I am, but where are these? I’m guessing Barneys? Anyway, I’d love to try…please enter me in the draw and thanks!
Gosh, going to yoga every morning is a big goal of mine. That’s great.
I’m hoping to get to Dallas/Ft. Worth area around Christmas to get to some art museums (and perfume, of course!), so I have got to try Aldehyde 44.
Thanks for the lovely review of Musc 25, I’d love to check it out. Please enter me in the draw, thanks!
I am ever searching for the perfect musk. I’d love to try this one!
Ummm…musk, civet, eucalyptus, SoCal sex and yoga. Sounds, well, like “25” is a good number. I still do yoga, btw.
Prepares the body for meditation, or so the yogis say. There’s nothing like it for keeping the body, and the mind, flexible as you, er, age.
I’d love to smell this, please enter me in the drawing! Thanks…
I’m very curious about this new Labo in spite of my fear of the skank! I’d love to be entered in the drawing.
Thanks
sounds beautiful , count me in…
Pluto spent 12 years in Sagittarius , putting us Sagittarian people through the wringer , and depending how it aspects your chart , you too . As of Nov 26 or so , it left Sag and went into Capricorn . So you Caps , prepare to be transformed .
Don’t say I didn’t warn you .
Brad Pitt left Jen and took up with Angie when Pluto aspected his sun…FYI
Patty, I so envy your ability to smell & appreciate musks that way. I read your description & think YES, that’s what I want to smell on my skin. I want a scent that has an undertone of something that reads to my primitive animal brain & thrums of blood & passion, but somehow musk never works out that way for me. It feels to me that I’m missing that element in my scent wardrobe but I’ve yet to find a musk that reads to me or reads & doesn’t smell like pee. So yes, draw me please?
Yoga is my weekly wonder.
No musk too nasty for me 😮 Sounds wonderful!
LOL, no musk too nasty…:d
Oh I’d love to try that Musc 25-please include me in your drawing. It’s very satisfying to find the perfect scent for certain moments in time…
Thank you-kristin
Hi Patty! I have yet to try any of the Le Labo scents – would love to! I’m especially interested in Patchouli 24 and Poivre. Perhaps I need to get my b*tt over to Perfumed Court and order some samples. 😉 Please also include me in the draw. Thanks!
Oooo…ahhhh! May I add Vanille 44 to your list of divine exclusives? I’m still blown away by the Poivre 23. I find it completely amazing!
I’m not sure about aldehydes…but it sounds like I *need* Musc 25 in my life right now so please enter me into your drawing. I also find Pilates soothing!
🙂
with the mention of sex and the “std” version in this comment… my mind played tricks on me for a second. :”>
Me, too! Glad I’m not the only one=))
Patty, first Happy Birthday!!!!!!< :-p (virtual cupcakes coming your way). I hope you had a wonderful day. Second, I'm still trying to get with the program re Musc/musk. March is doing what she can but it's a hard row to hoe. If you think this might do the trick, please enter me in the draw. xo>-)
wow. “…not just your run of the mill sex, some really luxurious smutty sex on Pratesi sheets.”
that’s nice start to my day. I love this blog.
~~ dea
ps. please enter me into the drawing 🙂
Hi Patty, I have a lot of time for Le Labo and I’d love to try this. Please include me in the draw. 😡
This sounds pretty fantastic. I’m glad you and Tom loved it. He seemed to be looking so forward to it, it’s always great when our hopes and expectations are realized.
Would love to try this one so please put my name in the hat. Can you compare in any way to Musc Nomade? :)>-
Hallo Patty, I would be very glad to be entered in the drawings. Thank you!
Please do include me in the draw. I have never smelled civet in a fragrance, though I have had a whiff of the extract. It’s so very strong.
Pretty please include me in the draw. It may be the closest I ever get to LA.
Please include me in the draw. I’m not so sure about the civet though. It’s not too stanky?
Have you found another source for the Tokyo-exclusif?
I’d love to be in the draw for a smaple.
BTW, there will be only one more (supposedly forever) std-version released early next year 🙁
Happy Birthday, Patty!
Looks like you had a smelly one… This one from Le Labo got me curious. I might even go to LA for it 😉
I hope the coming year will be easier for you. But really those trying times are what makes us who we are – stronger, deeper, more beautiful people. I know it sounds very cliche but it’s the truth.
Hugs,
Ayala
I’m with you – don’t understand those who find musk too…musky? So looking forward to trying this one. Have been very curious too about the Rose 31 – sounds like an interesting study in contrasts from what I’ve read. Good for you shedding some of the muck. I agree with the others – don’t know how yoga helps, but it somehow seems to accelerate the muck dumping.
Appreciated your review – revel in your Musc 25. A bientot.
Ooooh Baby! I think a lot of us are going to be very happy with this one. :d
Yoga has saved my life. I love it! It has gotten to the point over the years that my body actually craves it and has to do it on a regular basis. My favorite pose? So many, but right now it’s pigeon because it’s helping my lower right back that has been bothering me lately, but I love so many of the poses. Upward dog, down dog, fish, spinal twist, triangle, shoulder stand…they just all feel so-o-o good.
No need for a sample. I will be over on that side of town later this week and plan to stop by Le Labo for a sniff. But boy do I love Poivre 23!
Have you smelled the Guaiac one yet, Patty? I understand it’s divine.
Maybe one day soon the exclusive won’t be and Le Labo will make them available in all of their stores and on-line.
Namaste!
You know I really need to get back to Yoga. I had an instructor that I loved at my old gym but she moved out of town and I let the membership lapse, since there’s a workout room at work, which I have roundly ignored for the past few years. End result? 300 extra lbs, Ed Asner’s body and far too much time on the sofa. Must stop that…
Ooh. It sounds like you went through the kind of catharsis that I’m probably really going to need soon (sooner than I’d like) in terms of learning to live outwardly and dump a whole lot of misanthropy and other assorted junk. Yoga wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
I’d love to have a chance to win a sample, especially since I’ll probably never get around to buying one. Thanks!