Private Blend: Currantfunk

I smell it in the very petrichor of London’s rainy afternoons and all the Khalijis who have invaded my neighborhood seem to imply in every glance they cast at me, “Currantfunk. Out with it, Maestro! Bring us Currantfunk! We want Currantfunk!”

Looking at the clouds in London’s gloomy August afternoon, it’s as if they spelled out C U R R A N T F U N K.

Returning home from work today, you were probably asking yourself, “When is he coming out with Currantfunk?”

The porter, letting you in, just as he offered to bring your bags from the boot into your flat, all but whispered in your ear, “Did you hear about Currantfunk?”

I LOVE – you love – they love – we all love Private Blend’s core profile. Yet, within that profile are facets that entice me at different times. Some days, I want it muskier, dirtier, funkier – hence Funkmaster. Other days, I wonder what a blast of orange-zesty Chinese oud would do – cue Hailam Kilam edition.

These aren’t gaps or shortcomings. They are olfactory pontifications – the subject matter of my mornings, evenings, and afternoons. Trepidating what-ifs, where each moment of pause and imagination becomes a possibility to transmute into new realms, experience new realities, and taste delectabilities such as very few could even begin to imagine.

My entire July has been a blackcurrant modality of sorts. From eating them raw, to sprinkling lime juice on top, pairing them with passionfruit, or infusing them into Greek yogurt with chia seeds. The small ones that are ultra black and burst with a tart violet zing on your tongue, and the big, bulgy ones bursting in Prussian blue.

I have made it a point to infuse each one of my days with the anthocyanine zing of one of my favorite perfumery botanicals to work with.

If your idea of perfume is thick, unruly, and unapologetically sticky – like raw honey dragged through a spice rack that stays on your skin – then this one’s already licking your wrist.

It opens with a full-body slam of funk: hyrax paste black as tar, red with resin, dripping with that sour-sweet berry bite. Smell pheromonal chaos. Sweat, spice, and animal growl, bottled.

The animalics don’t whisper, they snarl. Castoreum throws sharp elbows, civet zings like citrus on amphetamines, and Sichuan pepper snaps against jasmine that’s barely holding it together. Mongolian muskus? Whole pods. Leathered, hairless, steeped in oud.

I’ve come to look forward to the Private Blend escapades. It’s like an artistic valve that lets you blow off steam by having no boundaries. No rules, no restrictions. Just the craziest raw materials and the freedom to go full throttle. Currantfunk is what happens when you let the perfumer off the leash.

When the market’s flooded with sterile spritzes that smell like nothing and cost too much, this one punches through the noise. It makes perfume feel dangerous again.

Private Blend has always been about musk – loud, spicy, and unrepentant. But what if you could lace that roar with oud, and then berrify the brew?

Imagine Vietnamese oud so funky it drags musk and amber through myrrh and incense and makes you wonder what on earth is happening to your nose! Plus, King Super that smells like it was soaked in blueberry tobacco and left to bask in incense smoke.

In case you didn’t know, if you allow Tigerwood to mature for another decade or three, the resination pattern will eventually turn from tiger to black panther – the resin will become denser and denser until the Tigerwood eventually turn into King Super sinkers. And that’s the oud you want to jive with blackcurrant…

Now take the Vietnamese funk and feed it blueberry jam spiked with mandarin peel, sour cherry, and a slap of Persian rose.

Now comes King Super’s thick purple sauve. The famous Malaysian jungle’s soil in high-def, malaccensis nuggets dripping purple-blue-black jam, while blue lotus rides shotgun, drowning the blend in a funk-zest haze.

It’s the kind of perfume that makes you sweat when you realize the oils behind it are vanishing. People say it’s a clever way to sell rare oils, like we want to get rid of them! I say it’s the only way to make something worth uncapping. It’s why I first made Private Blend for myself, purely as an act of extravagance.

If you’re not into funk – real funk, the kind that bites and claws and doesn’t wash off, the kind that gets Nha Trang’s sinensis and King Super’s blau drunk off blackcurrant’s delicious juice – then skip this. It’s not for you.

This isn’t a perfume that plays nice. It doesn’t open with pleasantries or dry down into something “wearable.” It lunges. It bites. It sticks. And if you’re still reading, you probably like it that way…

This is for the ones who want their spritz loaded with musk grenades and animalic shrapnel. You crave a pheromonal uppercut; a perfume that doesn’t behave.

Inside the bottle: a 45%+ concentrate of pure musk-berry-oud-peppery mayhem. Top notes that don’t flirt – they attack. Jasmine gets dirty. Rose is fighting to keep the brew from bursting. Everything gets twisted into a nectar so musked-out it should come with a warning label.

But this isn’t just another musk bomb. It’s a berry-slicked animalic overload. A spritz still stuffed with all the naughties: castoreum, civet, gris, Tonkin musk – oud soaked in beeswax, black tea, and blackcurrant syrup dripping over helichrysum. Currantfunk wasn’t made to be “liked”. It was made to be worn by the few who can handle it. It’s not here to charm or convince, or play nice. It was built to bite, shout loud, and make other perfumers go “Oooooooh, it’s like this!” If that sounds like too much,

Featured Testimonials…

I’ve always been a big fan of the Private Blends from EO to me they’re basically the perfect musc perfumes. While the previous ones like Overfunk and Funkmaster have laid their focus on showcasing the power of the animalic aspects that we all love from Private blend, the Currantfunk shows a completely different side. Don’t get me wrong there’s still a lot of animalic power in this scent but as the name implies they’ve set the focus on the currant in this edition. And oh boy the currant note has been turned to maximum power and shows the full extent of this juicy sweet note.

As it dries down on the skin you’ll slowly notice how more and more facets come out. The king super Tigerwood and the Vietnamese Agarwood adds a beautiful purple oud note to this crazy musky-berry cocktail.

I’m absolutely amazed by this version of Private Blend and at the same time I’m super angry about myself for not buying a big bottle now I have to figure out how this 30ml bottle is going to last me for the next decades since I never want to run out of this gorgeous musky-berry-oud brew. Great Job Maestro!

UPDATE:

Currantfunk was love at the first spray. The addictive blackcurrant note from the signature Private Blend DNA was the reason why this series found a special place in my heart.

I’ve mentioned that I would have loved to buy a 50ml but sadly the situation at the moment of the release wouldn’t allow to go higher than 30ml. After a couple days I’ve received a messaged from a very kind memberof the community who offered me this big bottle and I couldn’t resist. Now it‘s here and what should I say, it’s absolutely brilliant.

The musk, the funky ouds and the florals are already a very unique combination, actually one of a kind since I’ve never smelled any musk perfume with such an addictive aroma.

The EO black currant note has been featured in quite a few of my favourite scents like Iris ghalia & fragheads anonymous (just to name two). But this private blends takes it to another level. The opening hits you with a burst of juice berry-funk, it’ll stay over the whole time while the musk and other components shine through. To be honest it’s not as funky as overfunk or funkmaster but I don’t think that it would have needed that extreme amount of funky animalic smell at all.

Absolutely gorgeous!

I’m already looking forward to the funkberry, I hope it’ll continue to legacy of this epic juicy berry aroma

—Chris A

/ Germany

Purple musky flavor of my favorite musk fragrance. I was very excited when I read Chris’s review, imagining how good Currantfunk must be. The currant note has been maxed out where the beginning hits you sharp. Paired with the sweetness of tonkin musk and other animalics, it really tells a different story of Private Blend.

—Home L

This isn’t a perfume that plays nice…