This line from the movie Casablanca endures, and not for naught. It captures meanings of love, memory, and wistfulness; the grasping desire to hold on while already starting to move on.

To me, these ethereal emotions would be expressed in white musks. In the aftermath of a definite past, facing an indefinite future, white musks embody wisps of nostalgia and the translucency of memories—which are all that’s left.

It’s not all smooth and delicate, however. The opening is slightly bitter, metallic: vivid though distorted, accusatory. This is the clarity of mind, in full awareness of reality, with which one steps into the pool of memories. An ever-so-faint smokiness lingers, a testament to the weight of the feelings behind them.

These are the concepts that, after 5 formulations, I have realized I don’t have the ingredients to bring to life. I have a skeleton of it:

• Opening: Black pepper EO, bergamot EO, dimethyl octenone, rose oxide
• Musks: Galaxolide, exaltolide, ethylene brassylate, ambroxan, velvione
• Sheers: Hedione, Iso E Super
• Smoke: Blond tobacco EO (ambroxan also lends a cool smokiness)

The Eiffel Tower is a skeleton of metal, so maybe I’m on to something…