The Illuminum brand came to my attention when a certain famous womanwore it on her wedding day. I tried my best to ignore the royal wedding because I had very little interest in it, so just about the only thing I knew was that it had happened and that Kate Middleton wore Illuminum’s White Gardenia Petals. While I do have a sample of that, I wanted to start with something less well-known.
Cashmere Musk
In Bottle: Cashmere Musk, smells of hyacinth and soft, clean musks. It’s light and airy and very delicate.
Applied: Nice light hyacinth scent with a soft personality. Makes me think of spring, clean clothes, and gentle breezes. I had initially wondered if Cashmere Musk would smell like a soft suede with woods, but there’s no such thing in this. It’s a clean, fresh floral with heavy emphasis on the hyacinth. The floral note features heavily in the fragrance upon application and is joined briefly by a nice gentle touch of cedar. The cedar adds a bit of woodsiness to the fragrance but isn’t very detectable unless you try to search for it. Cashmere Musk dries down with a cool woodsy and floral fragrance with a prominent clean white musk note. This smells like clean, expensive soap and I love that. The projection sticks close to the skin and the longevity is moderate, giving me about five hours of enjoyment for this fragrance.
Extra: The Illuminum line was started by Michael Boadi who also heads the Boadicea the Victorious line. There’s definitely a correlation between Cashmere Musk and some fragrances from Boadicea the Victorious. I’m reminded of Pure when I tested this out.
Design: The bottles look pretty nice lined up in a row and I love it when things look good and uniform when you have a collection of them. I’m not too crazy about the aesthetics strictly speaking as a designer, but differing tastes and all that. The bottles are presented as they are to showcase the natural colors of the fragrances they contain.
Fragrance Family: Fresh Floral
Notes: Ylang-ylang, hyacinth, cyclamen, cedar, sandalwood, precious woods, white musk.
I’m tempted to drop the cash for Cashmere Musk, it made an excellent first impression on me and I’m happy to have chosen it first. There’s a bit of a rift when it comes to reviews of this, some love it and some think it’s a bit boring. I happen to really like fragrances that do clean and floral rather well, so Cashmere Musk hit if off with me. You can purchase a bottle of Cashmere Musk on Illuminum’s website.
Reviewed in This Post: Cashmere Musk, 2012, Eau de Parfum.
Disclaimer: The fragrance sampler spray reviewed in this post was provided to me for free for the purposes of review. In no other way am I receiving pay or compensation for this review. This review was written based upon my personal experiences and opinions of the product.
Kay, you are the Kate Middleton of the perfumista world 🙂
Aww, thanks! Somehow I don’t think my husband would like it very much if I told him I want her pretty wedding dress. 😀