The intense interest in Jovan would lead to an impromptu “musk war” between drugstore and corporate toiletries brands within the US, all wanting a cut of the market Jovan was helping create. Funnily enough, the name “Jovan” was really just a mimicry of large brands that had names like the aforementioned Revlon or Avon Products, and according to its founders, sounded more legitimate ending in “von”, as it were. After doing so, he tried pitching his ideas to Revlon, but they simply were not interested in a simple synthetic musk of Bohemian quality because courting the hippie counterculture of the time as a potential market for perfume was not something major cosmetic brands were doing. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Various different “oils” continued, including Ambergris Oil (1972), Frankincense & Myrrh (1973), and Grass Oil (1974); but the next major break for the brand would be Jovan Sex Appeal for Men (1976), and Jovan Sex Appeal for Women (1976), the final fragrances composed by Moscona (hilariously renamed “Star Appeal” for conservative markets), as both Shipp and Mitchell would sell to British conglomerate Beecham by 1977.

The Jovan brand began life after Revlon sales representative Barry Shipp stopped at a Greenwich Village “head shop” in the late 1960’s, noticing a long line for an imported musk oil that guaranteed virility and aphrodisiac effects; he procured a bottle of this musk for himself and then had it analyzed at IFF by flavorist Murray Moscona to see if it could be duplicated. Find sources: "Jōvan Musk"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( October 2013) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) For years, most of us born before the advent of the 21st Century were bombarded with tongue-in-cheek advertisements for a cheap, pleasant-smelling musk that guaranteed success in doing the “horizontal bop”. Whether or not Jovan Musk (1972) or its little-different male counterpart Jovan Musk for Men (1973) actually became the catalyst for conception of many babies born in the 1970’s remains impossible to prove, but the cultural impact of the brand is nonetheless profound. The musk Barry Shipp had reverse engineered and emulated synthetically would end up being released in oil form only in Chicago at first, then would see a wider launch across the US once response proved good. Going head-to-head with the already-established unisex Alyssa Ashley Musk (1968), Jovan’s musk oil was deeper and more ambery, more exotic and thus more exciting to young buyers snapping it up. Jōvan Musk is a line of cologne for men and women. Barry Shipp developed the oil musk as a standalone fragrance [1] and introduced it to the market in 1972 through Jōvan, Inc. [2] Jōvan Musk's co-founder, Murray Moscona, created the oil fragrance's first iteration. [3] The line is now being manufactured by Coty Inc.

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As the top notes fade, the heart notes come into play. Cocoa butter wraps the scent in a warm, creamy layer, harmonizing beautifully with the soothing lavender. The ylang-ylang, a tropical blossom, introduces a floral element that's both rich and subtly sweet.