Hey Crew! Sadly, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz is now unable to send alcohol based perfume to Australia. It’s a complete bummer. The good news though is that Surrender To Chance has some of her work to sample. Currently five of them. So I did what we perfumistas do, bought myself a couple of ml to enjoy. DSH Perfumes has long been a favourite indie house for me, and I even got to meet Dawn in person at an awards night in London a few years ago. Yes, she’s exactly as bright and wondrous as expected. So here’s a little look at one of her 2022 perfume releases, Rattlesnake Musk. What a fabulous title.

From DSH Perfumes: A rocky snakeskin and animalic musk fragrance with a definite bite.  (A connoisseur’s fragrance…that’s not for the faint of heart).

Rattlesnake Musk by DSH Perfumes 2022

DSH Perfumes give these featured accords:
Africa Stone Tincture, Ambergris, Bulgarian Rose Absolute, Castoreum, Costus, East Indian Patchouli, Galbanum, Leather, Musk, Oude / Agarwood, Sandalwood, Snakeskin (Accord), Virginia Cedar

The opening is waxy and clean, brand new Tupperware. So interesting. This is the oil version. Once that plastic has burned off Rattlesnake Musk becomes a low key fragrance, smelling a lot like one of those old fur coats you find in thrift stores. It’s animalic and dusty but also has the ghosts of hundreds of perfumes. Memories of a life well lived before coming into your hands.

The heart smells/feels smooth, tight and just a little funky. If you’ve ever smelled a snakes herpetarium, then the smell will be a surprisingly good, amped up to 50 recreation. Yet, Rattlesnake Musk is also more than the bosky smell of a snakepit. This is no Demeter perfume. It’s a fine fragrance that includes woods and a bouquet. It says rose, and there is rose, but I’m smelling more than just the rose. I’m also smelling freesias and undercurrents of tomato leaves. Yeah, I know they’re not noted, maybe my nose is playing tricks.

Dry down becomes the smell of warm skin as you leave the beach. Bronzed, a little salty and full of the healthy glow of exercise and the great outdoors. Dawn has done such an amazing job of creating Rattlesnake Musk that most of the notes are completely unparseable, it becomes a beautiful, better than skin whisper lasting hours and hours.

I know my review of Rattlesnake Musk makes it sound like a weirdo but it really isn’t. Interesting, great life parabola and very different to anything else I’ve ever smelled.

Do you think it could be a winner for you?
Portia xx