Scent Memories ⥉ Auric Blends Egyptian Goddess ⥉ Nostalgia

Summer of 2004:



It's my first summer after a tumultuous first semester in college.  I was young, I had no responsibilities, no ties, and no parents holding my hand.

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I got a job as a camp counselor in rural Maine (1, 365.1 mi away/3,134.8 mi away from either parent- respectively), opened a credit card (le drame), and bought a flight.

I pulled into Boston and spent the next three months of my life bumbling through new interactions, loneliness, the rocky north eastern coast, yankees, and June temps below freezing (seriously).

In retrospect, it is one of the most formative trips I have ever made.  Scarring, sure, but pushed me in the direction of making my own life/way/choices and longing for travel, adventure, and freedom.

I met my first fellow hippy, Melanie, and the scent she dabbed on as we smoked cigs searching for the art instructors tree house?  Egyptian Goddess by auric blends.  I was enamored-my new friend and her easy company, with Maine, with being a hippy as the totally natural, unavoidable label for "people like us."  When you're in that moment in your life-young, excited, afraid and reckless nonetheless, you always long to relive the feelings of firsts-or at least I do.  I want to close my eyes and inhale the passenger seat of an old jeep cherokee lost on back roads in Maine.

When Mel told me it was just some old hippy scent, I looked at the bottle and made a mental note of the scent.  Three months later I returned to school, immediately interviewed at the local natural foods store AND found my new favorite scent.  It was all so serendipitous and unremarkable at the time, and now it feels like legend.

"When things were new and simple: brimming with possibility and magic."

I ended up ordering stock from Auric Blends after being promoted a few years later.

I literally remember the day, the moment, the scent changed.

I ordered new stock, and immediately called for replacements as the oils smelled completely wrong.  I had mistakenly run out of stock before buying another bottle.  I was sent replacement...and the rest is history.  The scent has never smelled the same to me.  This was 2010.

If you're reading this I assume you know the scent:

A crisp/clean almost white musk scent strongly on the front, a light floral mid note, and a powdery finish.  It's clean, feminine, and different on every person.  I have spent the last year searching for a replacement.


****SKIP TO ME IF YOU WANT TO GET STRAIGHT TO THE INFO****
Here's what I have for you so far: reviews, explanations, and information as best as I could gather.

When I noticed the scent changed in 2010, the new bottles lacked the perfume/musk fragrance and smelled noticeably like vegetable oil.  A sort of sweet, sickly concoction.  I've purchased at least 10 bottles since then.

So what's the deal?  The only reasonable response I've seen from auric blends has been on Facebook. For year, and years, they denied any change int he formulation.  Finally, in 2015 they admitted to being inundated with complaints over weak scents and "changed distributors to a more expensive and source they used in the 90s." I've also heard them claim the scent needs to age and if your bottle is lacking fragrance you should age it.  Yeah, ok.  That's the problem.

 I should also add, they almost went out of business that year.  My store stopped carrying them, along with whole foods, and many other natural foods/crunchy stores.

This is is what I know, in general about the scent.
Auric Blends popularized an unadulterated version of Egyptian musk:  clean, softly floral, and crisp.  Musk melds with your own skin to create a personalized scent.  A little goes a long way, and when you use a high quality oil you get a long lasting, come and go, soft/clean finish.  If you want to read more:

http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.com/2010/03/musk-series-many-permutations-of-musk.html

On to the scents:  I'll give you the closest I've found so far, first.  Just cut to the chase, that's what you're looking for.

Best/closest scent (IMO)

https://www.amazon.com/Goddess-Musk-Oil-Egyptian-Creations/dp/B01CS87B12

1. Mari Kyrios Goddess

At first sniff, this made my heart soar!  I smelled that old time eygptian goddess scent.  Clean and fresh and floral.  I think that this really does hit the points I missed, and when I slather myself in it people notice and comment.  This brings us to the downside, it's a very light mixture.  I use a lot of this.  Practically using it as a moisturizing oil.  I'm not subtle people.  I want to smell myself.

I give this product a 7 out of 10.  I even asked if I could buy the undiluted scent.  No luck folks.  (more on this later-i have ideas!)

Next on the docket:

2. us_shosho egyptian musk
Purchased from eBay

At first, I thought...this is the worst.  It's like flowers mixed with polyester BO smell.  That was straight from the mailbox to my arm.  After reapplying, I find it hits a lot of the main points.  Its soft, but more floral and heady.  Theres a stronger sense of white flowers just on the verge of spoiling.  If you live in the south, you'd recognize this scent as honeysuckle or privet right after the flowers wilt and turn brown in the heat.

I give this a 5 out of 10.  It could work for someone, just not me.

3. Cake & Barrel

https://www.etsy.com/listing/482699472/goddess-roll-on-perfume-oil-10ml?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=egyptian%20goddess%20oil&ref=sr_gallery_12

This was almost the one. Then I stopped being able to smell it at all.  The owner of the company was super helpful, and open about the product.  I'm going to leave her a good review and hope someone else tries it and gives her feedback.  I like that she uses fractionated coconut oil as her carrier.  It absorbs better and has no scent at all.

4.  Pearl Musk by Lorajc946 (eBay)
This is almost solely a baby powder smell.  No clean musk scent to me.

Rating it as a 2.  Seller is fantastic and I have plans to get her Egyptian musk next (she doesn't have it available yet).


5. Egyptian Musk Superior
No. God. Just no.  This smelled like LITERALLY ANY CRAPPY OIL.  It smells like incense died.  It's heartbreaking.  Rating this a -10 because I thought it would kill my asthmatic husband.

6.  Random perfume oil I purchased from a customer at my store.

This lady smells amazing.  More of a jovan white musk.  Unfortunately, whatever she brought me is some vegetable oil.

We'll call that one a lose.

Stay tuned!

I'll be reviewing the Abdul Kareem Egyptian musk oil.  I paid the most for this, and it's rumored to be the best.  I have hope.

I'll also be reviewing the Egyptian musk from common scents.

I plan to try ava lux in the future and a few other bulk Egyptian musks.  My hope is to one day have a celebratory post letting everyone (anyone? seriously, anyone out there?) know I've found you're memories!

Love and light from one young old hippy to another.

Shan