Musc For Her by Narciso Rodriguez – review and a giveaway!

The Narciso Rodriguez fragrance range suffers from a bad case of flanker-itis which is not helped by the similarity of the names and bottles. I’m not going to list the other products here except that to say beware – there are big differences. I own Narciso Rodriguez for Her in the black bottle and wear it when I want to remember the expensive spa I first smelled it in or to cover myself in its floral, metallic and musky skin-scent.

Musc by Narciso Rodriguez is nothing like NR for Her. First of all, it’s an oil rather than a spray perfume. Second – it lacks the rosy, fruity and almost all other perfume-y elements* and focuses on nothing but the musk.

It takes me back to the 80s… to the days of white musks and the sorts of scents one might have worn to a school disco. It’s not animalic at all and smells slightly soapy, slightly floral and very intimate without any of the skank. It reminds me a little bit of Alyssa Ashley musk, of The Body Shop White Musk and of Beyond Paradise by Estee Lauder. Not massively; I’m talking about more of a venn diagram in which there’s an area where all these perfumes meet. To me, Musc by Narciso Rodriguez smells of clean female skin; of babies and kittens and crisp laundry. It smells of the memory of a white flower. It smells of turquoise.

The floral tones are understated and pastel-coloured. There are no top notes and not much structure or development. The oil takes a few minutes to warm up on your skin but when it does, you radiate a musky aura. It’s pleasant and comforting. The scent surrounds you but the sillage is almost subconscious. This, my dear friends, can be a good thing from time to time. What’s good about this scent (the intimacy, the softness, the familiarity; the cleanliness) is also bad. It’s not particularly exciting or unique. It’s also so safe as to be a bit boring. Musc for Her is like Photoshop for your unique body odour. It enhances the sensual aspects of how your skin smells and I can imagine it would prove interesting in a romantic setting**. Calling it a perfume is not quite right. So if you want to simply smell good and don’t like perfumes with a lot of character, or (like me) swap around what you’re wearing depending on your mood (so one day can be an Ambre Sultan day and another day can be a 4711 day) then this could be a beautiful addition to your perfume wardrobe.

Speaking of which, I have one to give away! If you live in the UK and would like to win a bottle of Musc For Her by Narciso Rodriguez, all you have to do is to leave a comment to this post with “yes please” or something to that effect. The competition closes on Friday the 19th of September and I will draw a winner at random by Saturday 20th of September. The winner will be announced in this blog and please do also leave a valid email address when you comment so that I can contact you if you win. If the winner can’t be contacted within a month I reserve the right to re-draw the prize. Good luck!

P.S. There is another way to wear this which may become my favourite: layer it under the NR for Her EDT. An extra dose va-va-voom? Don’t mind if I do…

Musc For Her by Narciso Rodriguez was provided by Escentual.com

Photo credits: cavale, …love Maegan, familymwr, lorZ

*Really sophisticated technical terminology there

**Something I will test but won’t promise to report back on

P.P.S. I apologise about the ads you may see below. They’re a new thing WordPress has added to the blogs of freeloaders like me. I don’t pay to host this blog so I suppose some ads are fair enough.