Fragrance is the cloak of armor against undesirable odors. During centuries where bathing was a luxury reserved only for the elites, pomanders served as a way of warding off one’s bodily stenches and dousing oneself in rosewater was an elegant way of freshening up. Of course, access to hygiene has improved since then, and so too have our tastes. Fragrance is no longer a simple way of covering up the body’s smells, but an invisible accessory (sometimes bold, sometimes subtle) to announce oneself to the world.As the perfume industry has become the $50 billion market it is today, its audience has expanded and a majority of those shoppers want something pleasant, a compliment-getter. Think pleasant, yummy gourmands, sensual amber florals, or clean-smelling citruses. In a sea of people-pleasing scents, animalic fragrances are the beast that refuses to be tamed.A Raunchy RevivalDefined by the use of originally animal-derived ingredients like civet, musk, castoreum, and hyraceum (although one could argue that oud and ambergris also carry animalic facets)—but now made possible through synthetic variants like skatole or plant-derived ingredients like indole—these scents have a certain funk to them. A funk that can border on the sweaty, fecal, or urine-like but in the right doses are downright sexy. After all, sex is not a sanitized act, so why should the fragrances emulating or alluding to it be censored? But animalic notes go beyond sensuality; they also add depth and intrigue to compositions. Shalimar, when it was launched in 1925 by Guerlain, contained castoreum and civet to give it that hint of darkness and mystery.