To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Audrey_fromAC – :
This is a beautiful perfume, I definitely pick a lot of musk in this one, leather and amber aswell. It has a great longevity, but projection to me is not that great as it is voted here. If you are wondering if it is wearable for a guy, It reminds me of old-lady-masculine scent. I think totally wearable
ExonnaBoody – :
So far this and Red Vetyver are my two favorite from this house. This is pretty powerful but not off putting in the least. Beautiful scent and worth a try.
9/10
pupsoid777 – :
Is this actually a fragrance or did someone bottle up skunk gas to scare away any other possible living creature. If North Korea and America don’t destroy the world I’m putting my bets on Montale and Mancera.
ladygin – :
I’m absolutely blown away with this fragrance.
I love the house of Montale.. but this is my clear winner.. wow..
Anyone selling a bottle of this please
surush – :
I always thought that musk smells like cement or wet concrete, but when I tried this I realized that musk smells like feces.
pbn754speagoessenda – :
Tried this when the weather was hot and didn’t work (didn’t expect it to).
Tried this in December and found it a bit boring.
It is a Montale, and one can tell from beginning to end.
One of those rare fragrances I dare define unisex: I can imagine a woman wearing this (not a teenager) or a man (on formal occasions).
It doesn’t project much but it is long lasting.
In my opinion Montale offers much better fragrances, Black Musk it just there and I’d go for Wild Aoud instead.
I can smell leather, pepper and a lot of woods but I am Wondering why I cannot detect the musk note. Aoud Musk and Etro Musk smell like musk, but I don’t think Black Musk does.
yavseznau – :
This is a low-key version of Black Aoud with a smokey vibe lurking in the background. Yet another winner from the Montale-collection. A yes from me!
Roksolanka – :
Leather and just leather is my perception of this Montale. I would have been more happy to get the spicy notes that were supposed to be present and that would have create a more balanced and rich in composition fragrance. However, it may be an excellent finding for leather-lovers that are a considerable community among aroma lovers.
sergei305 – :
Nice gourmandish ending….opening is like a Middle Eastern something. The Musk is not the main player but binds the whole composition together very well. 4 outta 5 stars!!
jeo777 – :
A softer, more leathery cousin of Montale Black Aoud, Black Musk is a pleasant winter fragrance, easy to wear, that contains some of the powderiness of Van Cleef & Arpels Midnight in Paris while embodying much of the depth and intensity of Black Aoud. There’s not too much else to it–it’s not thrilling but it’s subdued and comes back to the middle enough that I could see it being someone’s, especially a man’s, signature cold weather fragrance for night and/or formal events.
Priced similarly to the rest of the line (circa $100 for 100ml on BeautySpin), Black Musk strikes me as a good option for those that find Black Aoud a bit overwhelming, assuming one also likes a little leather and powder. Not as thrilling or as powerful as Black Aoud, but still very good in its own right.
7 out of 10
1валера – :
What a heavenly smell!
Musk soft as a feather.
Just a little of spice, just enough to warm your heart like a cup of coffee warms your hands on a rainy winter day.
So much emotions in a bottle yet so soothing & calming.
Black Musk is one of Montale’s finest creations.
I’ve fallen…hard.
lptlqkij – :
Tested today from a 2ml sample. Sharp at first, then light (not dark for me), sweet, musk and smoke. I can also pick out leather, albeit after I read the list of ingredients. I also keep thinking of Turkish Delight, but I can’t figure out how from the ingredient list. Feels oriental, exotic, unfamiliar. Like browsing round a dusty tourist shop in North Africa. Smoky, leathery, musky, sweet. Interesting to see all the different exotic wares, feeling slightly uncomfortable, and then I’m outside again. This type of scent is too exotic for me, at least at the moment. I really enjoyed my sample, like I enjoyed my holiday, but now I’m on my way home again to a cooler, greener, herbier, more traditional landscape.
It’s a pleasant scent, and I got a compliment from a female colleague today too because of it, but it’s not enough for me to buy a bottle. I will probably come back to it when I have more experience of musky scents. Moderate to heavy sillage and lasts about 4 hours.
August 2015
Later edit : the scent projects for 4 hours, but as a skin scent the longevity is ridiculous. 36 hours and 2 showers later, it’s still there!
stas76 – :
I like this “everyday” scent, but it’s not sensational. I like my Arabian Black Bakhoor much better. I find Montale’s Black Musk to be more like a sharp sport scent, than a dark scent. Maybe it’s due to the spicy pepper ingredient. It lasts 8 hours before becoming a close-to-skin scent, and the sillage trail was moderate.
valerich51 – :
This fragrance has what I’ll call “tomorrow longevity”. I applied it yesterday after a shower, and it not only lasted but projected enough for me to smell it throughout the entire NEXT day until I showered again. It even cut through the already-strong Declaration D’Un Soir I wore today. Crazy.
But this is the good kind of crazy… you know – like Dirty Harry, or Liam Neeson in Taken. The kind of crazy that you’re proud to be associated with. Tough crazy.
What does it smell like? Peppery-spicy yet creamy enough to remind you it knows how to chillout (thanks to sandalwood I imagine), but musky and metalic with just enough leather to remind you it means serious business. Manly business. Somehow it does smell curiously futuristic as I’ve seen mentioned, like you’re in a city of the future where almost everything is made of metal and everyone wears fitted leather suits. Only one of these people is a Dirty Harry type character that wears brown leather instead of black, smokes cigars and fights a lot. But for some reason he smells oddly fantastic. Sounds weird as hell right? Yup, that’s Black Musk.
Even weirder, this stuff gets compliments too! Recommended.
igorius07 – :
For all day and then some longevity, this is it. Leather, musk and spice. Some I see get more spice and leather than musk but it’s about equal to me. If you like em dirty and loud this is it. The leather is not harsh as in other scents but still present. I think the spices stop the leather from being dominant which is a good thing. I really don’t get much wood or any amber at all but that is not the reason anyone bought this so it’s not a big deal. I think it’s more manly than feminine but to each’s own.
iqn514JeomiWogkig – :
What scent of royalty.
It smells very chic, formal, and fabulous.
This leather blends so well with pepper and nutmeg giving a balance of its composition.
I still did not detect the musk here, but let your slightly creamy sandalwood and warm touch.
Loved, because this does not smell those leather car seat.
I rank it like this:
Smell: 10/10
Projection: 9/10
Longevity: 10/10
newplan – :
GUTB this fragrances lasts 24 hours, you must have olfactory fatigue, even the reformulated retail version lasts a long time.
kiloton – :
I quite like this heavy musk — unfortunately it lasts approximately 2 hours on me, so therefore can’t be considered. It goes on heavy and seems to have the kind of intensity and sillage I’ve associated with quality EDPs, so it comes as a surprise when 2 hours later it’s gone. I don’t know what my skin lacks that so many others here seem not have a problem with, but still, buyer beware.
sevasn – :
Black. Musk. Yes, indeed, Montale Black Musk delivers what it promises. Lots of muskiness, and lots of darkness. I thought that the source of darkness was oud, but according to the note pyramid it’s leather and ambergris. I don’t really smell ambergris here, but I’ll accept leather. Anyway, I agree with other reviewers that this perfume smells very Montale–for better or for worse.
Some have suggested that this creation is a simple mixture of Dark Aoud or Black Aoud and Musk to Musk, with more of the latter than the former. Of course, the mixers at Montale are using the same source of musk and the same source of leather in their various perfumes, so just mixing up ingredients is going to do the trick–no need to combine aliquots of fully composed perfumes! One thing is clear: anyone who generally likes Montale’s musk and Montale’s “dark” or “black” perfumes, is bound to like this one.
I regard this composition as more masculine than feminine, although it is billed as unisex. Not really my kind of thing, but I’m not so big on musk.
darayu – :
Moyasskpen you must have the new reformulated version. The original Black Musk is VERY powerful and smells nothing like Cartier’s, rather its Dior Fahrenheit on steroids but with Oud and Metallic Rose as additional notes. A very dark and cold fragrance. Imagine walking on an empty futuristic city street after the rain, under a full moon. This is the image this fragrance creates for you.
Highly reccomended for hot summer nights.
ПРАЗДНИК – :
This one to me opens up with oud and musk and stayed that way the whole time. I got the separate notes, very sharp medicinal oud and a nice other smell, I think the musk. Maybe a little drydown to oud and rose but that’s it. All I could think about was this smells way too much like Cartier Declaration D’Un Soir with its rose and sandalwood smell which I like a lot. I was really disappointed with the lack of projection and longevity. Lasted 6 hours on skin but almost immediately it was a skin scent after I sprayed it. Good smell, terrible performance.
AKbIH – :
The musk is to strong give me headache if its to light well be much better not for everyday use
Absolutely this a winter fragrance
Alina – :
Such an interesting fragrance! Yesterday I tested it on my skin and in the first 30 minutes it was so…peppery, dark, sharp and strong that I was not sure it was for me. Then I found out that the first strong and cold metalic notes are a bit away and something gently sharp and deep started to come on the front line of notes. I couldnot stop breathing it. It is interesting that the strong and sharp metalic note becomes almost powdery and dominant, but as strong as in the begining. I am amazed of this clean and in the same time sharp and dark cristal deepnes of the fragrance. It becomes like a second skin to me. I believe that on a male skin will evoluate amazing too. It is a distinguished and pure pleasurable fragrance with notes of clean, dark peppery musk which turns on the senses.
zze003speagoessenda – :
This is without a doubt one of the best if not the best after black aoud IMO. It does remind me of black aoud but definetly the musk comes in play toning down the black aoud strength! It is still bee potent and a compliment getter for sure!
It’s classy, it’s elegant and refined! It’s one of those that will keep you wanting to smell more and more! I mean wow!!!!
894071737 – :
I did not find this fragrance dirty at all, dark yes, but dirty far from it. It is a very spicy fresh metallic silver almost lunar like fragrance. Yes this fragrance has a sinister vibe about it and you WILL get noticed.
forkos44 – :
If you want to spend the entire night in self admiration, whilst others also admire you, or you’re a pimp that owns a brothel, or you’re just a real bad-man, this is what you should be wearing. It turns heads, gets attention, and commands others to get out of it’s way. You won’t ever go unnoticed.
It’s dark and it’s dirty. It’s smokey and sexy. Possibly one of the best fragrances to wear when you only have one goal in mind! Just buy it, put it on, and let it do the talking!
empatuess – :
very strong at firts time ,dark ,big sillage and good longevity (40 h)
only for man.
YourDream123 – :
Quick thoughts: This fragrance is dark, leathery, woody and spicy from pepper. I thought at first I was really loving this one but today I feel different. This scent is so dry, it almost borders on reaching this powdery state. I think this is coming fromt he musk used in this. This frag does bear a resemblance to Black Aoud. Now when it comes to oud oils, I have sampled many. Some of them smell more like leather than oud. I have no idea what’s really going on these frags (black musk and black oud) besides what the house tell us. For all I know There are using an oud that comes off as leather and woody at the same time. I do know that this frag comes off as more leathery than black oud. Black aoud is more on the woody side.
hargo – :
Black Musk is lunar and dark. An enigmatic futuristic fragrance despite being an Oriental. For me its a dark , camphorous, cooling yet silver spicy fragrance. The sillage is insane and the longevity is about 10-12 hours on me. Wearing this I feel transported to the futuristic world of TRON , clean, pristine, metallic. A winner from the house of Montale!
qafqaz_student – :
Black musk has a thousand guises,
Viscous,glutinous,adhesive,
viscid,dark,
black,opaque,
death-like,mysterious,
esoteric,heavy,
authoritarian,
autocratic,dictatorial,
imperious,decadence,
villains.
There is nothing Sparkly about Black Musk, when you wear this
it’s like your entering the Edge of darkness,
where light hasn’t
penetrate not even the bright hues of amber and fiery Sandalwood
note stand on there own,they sink in this Black Abyss.
I Can Picture Vilians like Le Chiffre from Casino Royal, Jaffar from Thief of Baghdad & Lestat from
Queen Of the Dead,
Black Musk is not for everyone it’s only for a select few who appreciate the Fine art of fragrance not your
typical day at a office kind of scent.
Sumarok – :
This scent is very dark, I do like it. Its smoky, mysterious yet still seductive although it’s very strong, even with very little it can give you a headache. It states for Men and women but honestly this seems to be too masculine. I received a sample recently, so I would like another women’s opinion or a man’s opinion of this scent for a woman.
I absolutely love the dry down, it’s amazing, a smoky musk. I do not smell leather in this at all.
TropleDor – :
I know that this fragrance is viewed as that result of crossing two other Montale scents, but I see it as an exercise in abstraction. A sharp, whistling musk, like the one in Thierry Mugler’s Cologne is the perfect match to a woody quality that makes for a sort of leather scent-mirage. The wood seems like patchouli plus oud, inflected with something in the mace/nutmeg/cardamom range.
Black Musk’s cleverness is in creating a tarry quality with patchouli, spice and just a taste of oud, then dry-cleaning it with a prickly musk that someone along the way surely told the perfumer was the wrong musk. No pillowy soft or bosomed musk. The result is a cool, inky leather scent that focuses more on the sharp nature of tanning chemicals than the hide itself.
I’ll take this chance to own up to a bit of fumie apostasy. I don’t particularly like oud, and since it’s usually the overwhelming center of perfumes that contain it, most oud perfumes don’t capture me. Likely this quirk has saved me a pile of money on niche perfumery and the laughingly late-to-the party top-shelf lines from the designer/perfume houses. This implicitly self-defeating strategy of the perfume houses launching ‘exclusive’ lines in order to appear ‘niche-y’ has produced an inordinate number of oud fragrances. (To witness niche, copying designer, copying niche, please see the Kilian Ouds.) Very few use oud as a minor part of an accord, one where you might not even recognize oud, such as Black Musk’s delicious vinyl/leather accord. Shame, yeah?
protoplazmax – :
The musk here is basically the same as in Dark Aoud minus the oud and the saffron. Dark, deep, rich, intense and completely satisfying. Leather and musk with a remarkable synthetic-woody vibe. By any means Montale-ish!
Rating: 6.5-7/10
meapseagreege – :
I could almost swear that when looking at the note pyramid and smelling this on me, there has to be more to the composition than what is listed… But in either case, I absolutely LOVE this. It’s dark and masculine, but it’s “clean” at the same time. This is more pewter grey than black.
Longevity and sillage need not be mentioned here: it’s classic Montale in those aspects. Actually, this has left traces on my skin after 24 hours. It survived 55C heat yesterday and will be on my shirt until I wash it out – but gosh, I really don’t want to.. LOL
This is definitely a mood-setting fragrance that turns heads with a vengeance. I actually got stared at and sniffed by a mother/daughter pair last night. After giggling and speaking to the store owner in Arabic, he told me later on that they both wanted to know what I was and I was wearing. Apparently, they both thought I was attractive and smelled sexy. From the looks of them, case closed. 😉
Black Musk, another reason Montale is up there with Hermes in my collection….