Animalic

What it is

Once civet, castoreum and ambergris; now almost entirely synthetics chosen to suggest skin, fur and sweat without using anything from an animal.

What it smells like

Musky and skin-like at low doses, closer to sweat, leather or fur at higher ones. This is the accord that divides people most sharply, and the split is not about taste in perfume so much as about how close to a body a fragrance is allowed to get.

How strongly it is worn

The average strength this accord is listed at, where 100 means it dominates the fragrance.

55 / 100

What builds it

How much more often than the catalogue average. 1.0x would be chance, so these are the things that genuinely travel with it rather than the things that are simply common.

Accords it sits beside

Same measure, with its own family filtered out. Saying woody turns up with oud is a restatement, not a finding.

When it is worn

Against the average fragrance here. The line marks that average, so a bar past it means this is worn in that season or setting more than most.

Houses that use it most

Counted across the fragrances here, which reflects what we cover as much as what a house makes.

Byredo (15), Rasasi (12), Ajmal (10), Al Haramain (10), Givenchy (10), Jean Paul Gaultier (10).