Musk

Alyssa Ashley was born at Houbigant. Enrico Donati, a surrealist artist, discovered perfumery through his marriage to the last heiress of the house, which he bought after his divorce. He then created a line named after his daughter, Alyssa Ashley by Houbigant, which became a brand in its own right.

The house recounts that Musk, somewhat neglected at Houbigant, was relaunched by Donati alongside three other perfumes built on a raw material, Patchouli, Amber and Civet, under the name of his younger daughter. It makes it the symbol of the hippie revolution and of the emancipation of the late nineteen-sixties.

The dates vary across the house’s texts: its sales pages place the birth of Musk in 1968, in the form of a perfume oil, while its journal places the relaunch under the Alyssa Ashley name in 1969. The brand now belongs to the Perris family, which bought Houbigant.

What the house says

Alyssa Ashley presents Musk as a legend of seduction: a musk originally taken from a Tibetan deer, now synthetic, which Empress Joséphine is said to have used at Houbigant, and which the brand says it reinterprets with a modern touch.

The eau de toilette is, according to the house, the lightest version of the line and the best seller, warm and sensual, made to be worn several times a day without ever imposing itself. It is sold from fifteen to two hundred milliliters, alongside an eau de parfum and an oil.