Musk Ketone

The synthetic musks have no chemical relationship whatever with the odourous principles of musk animal or plant extracts. They owe their name to an odour nuance which they share with the natural products. […] They are […] characterised by a narcotic effect, accompanied, more or less distinctly in each type, by an erogenous and a stimulating nuance.

Musk xylene is the faintest smelling of the three. The narcotic element is relative weak and the erogenous and stimulating notes are quite clear. Musk xylol therefore most closely approximates musk tonquin in odour character.

In musk ketone, the sweet-nutty nose is gentley narcotic, the erogenous and stimulating auxiliary nuances remain in the background. The odour of musk ketone can, therefore, be described as ‘soft’.

The sweet-nutty component of musk ambrette is reminiscent of the odours principle of the ‘plant musk’ ambrette seed oil which has been identified as ambrettolide. Musk ambrette shares with ambrettolide the stimulating more than the erogenous effect. In addition, musk ambrette exhibits a powerful, somewhat balsamic, narcotic note, much superior to in strength to that in the two other synthetic musks and capable of making itself clearly felt in compositions.

^{Paul Jellinek. The Psychological Basis Of Perfumery, London: Chapman & Hell, 1997, pp. 75–76.}