Description
“Huge trees quake at their approach, vulnerable leaves shuddering as the ground rumbles under heavy footsteps. They come with appetites as massive as their lumbering bodies. Nothing is spared from their bottomless hunger – trees stripped bare, roots upturned, even the tiniest blooms cannot escape their grasp. When the behemoths move on, they leave behind a path of destruction. Yet what often looks like carnage is actually a renaissance. The elephants fulfill a vital role – purging the delicate ecosystem, allowing new life to flourish.
From beneath a canopy of lush, damp foliage, the complex aromas of Zoologist Elephant emerge. Into a mixture of invigorating Darjeeling and incense, swirl hints of magnolia, coconut and cocoa. With the patience of a foraging herd stripping the bark from a thicket of trees, the fragrance dissipates gradually. What is revealed is the core of the perfume – a beautiful and satisfying blend of woody notes, which dry down to an elegant, natural sandalwood scent.” – a note from the brand. Elephant was launched in 2017. The nose behind this fragrance is Chris Bartlett.
sapscievaMype – :
Green, airy, clean, and slightly sweet.
tepdriern – :
Well, Elephant certainly took me on a journey. This is NOT a linear perfume, and the various stages evoked very different reactions from me.
Elephant opens with one of the sharpest, truly natural green leaf notes I’ve ever smelled. I’m a tall woman, and the opening blast reminds me of when I accidentally catch a low-hanging branch full of leaves right in the face (minus the annoyance). I love this phase, but it quickly travels into some coconut and cocoa. This phase is interesting, and I’m quite glad that I’m getting a decent amount of cocoa here (despite my dislike of gourmands, which this isn’t) – the dry cocoa is tempering the coconut, which, as others have said, can easily overwhelm a perfume. In this stage, Elephant is thick, humid, quite jungle-y. In all honesty, this stage actually reminded me of a few BPALs, from the infant days of my ‘fumista journey. The next stage of Elephant is my least favorite, where she sits as a coconut/sandalwood/fig(not a listed note) scent. Very nice, but a combo I’ve smelled a million times and doesn’t do much for me. Luckily, the drydown is a lovely dry and cozy blend of sandalwood, musk, incense, and the dried remains of those opening leaves.
I appreciate the thought and artistry that went into Elephant, and I do find it evocative of its namesake and inspiration. I will use my sample happily, but she’s not my favorite from the House, simply due to my own preferences.
nikolay30 – :
This is a Macaque flanker. By comparison Macaque is pure galbanum and some sour apple and musk. This too is almost all galbanum on the top (not listed, I know) but much more blended, a bit more famine than Macaque. Elephant is a bit waxier and softer around the edges, creamier and dissipates into green leaves and linden blossom after a few hours. Though they smell analogous for the first hour, I much prefer Macaque which is stoic, bold, self confident, and linear. Elephant descends into a soup of mixed signals.
Compare also to Vert de Fleur by Tom Ford.
UnredsTexdreS – :
I don’t know if anyone else gets a slight mint note in this, but I certainly do. Maybe it’s the combination of “tree leaves” and coconut milk. Hmm.
Anyways, this is one of 5 fragrances I’ve tried from zoologist, and while I do like it, it’s not my favorite (nor is it my least favorite). I’ve also tried Civet (love), Bat (love), Hummingbird (like), and Macaque (ok).
Elephant is earthy and green, and while I can smell the coconut milk, the emphasis is on the milk, not the coconut. I wouldn’t say it smells creamy, as that would imply a rich, almost buttery feel. It smells more watery than creamy, although there is a bit of smooth sweetness there. As it dries down, the sharp green notes fade and the “milk-y” and warm smells take over. It still smells green, but in a more earthy, grounded manner.
To me, this is something a well-off (but not showy) man would wear. It’s sophisticated, subtle, and unique, all while not being offensive or too odd.
It’s a really good perfume, but as always, get samples first. If I had endless amounts of spending money I would get this, but since I don’t, I won’t. Not on my favorites list, but close.
Peace
EDIT: I have been smelling my sample on and off for about a week now and WOW have I fallen in love with this!! It’s fresh and watery and milk-y and leaf-y and I LOVE it. Very wearable, yet still quite unique. I might have to get this after all!
Menjt981Negeltzex – :
Chris Bartlett did a great job with creating this lovely easy to wear verdant scent. It does make me think of the Far East. It has just the right amount of coconut to not smell like a suntan lotion. After a while the sandalwood, magnolia,jasmine and tea become very evident. This is my favourite stage. Slowly the musk and wood notes surface. It becomes quite musky now but thankfully this quickly wains.
The dry down is cool, damp and fresh. I don’t get much patch or chocolate if at all. Musk with a hint of magnolia, jasmine, coconut and sandalwood are present to the end as a skin scent.
It’s a gorgeous scent. A beautiful, very unisex, lightly tropical verdant scent. I get moderate longevity and low sillage in these 30 degree temperatures.
mansur199403 – :
Zing! Out pops a gorgeous, sharp green, immediately then, the magnolia, tea and coconut. That’s just the first minutes. Darker notes appear…but, really, the transparency of these layers is so remarkable that I smell something different each time I sniff my wrist. Overall, there is the olfactory impression of those first Indian import stores in the US in the early 1960s, where the air was so exotic, so unlike anything else you knew that you just had to stand there for awhile and take it in. Only then could you focus and enjoy the beautiful colors, sparkles, textures and specifics around you!
Little by little, I am trying samples of all of the Zoology animals. Three applied and reviewed, so far: Hyrax, Macaque and this, Elephant. Three to go before I order another batch. At this point, I’m just wondering if there’s one I don’t adore! This from a woman who’s wary of many of Zoology’s listed notes (incense, musk, animalics, coconut…).
Girls, boys, I just can’t think of a single reason not to at least sample a few of these masterpieces. In my opinion, Mr. Wong and his various noses are brilliant.
europa – :
There’s been a lot of buzz about the Zoologist house for a while now, but I’ve always kind of ignored it because animalics are one part of perfumery I’ve yet to develop a liking or even an interest for (and to be honest, I doubt if I ever will). So I was glad to discover that some (newer) scents from this house don’t feature many obvious animalic elements at all – a little musk in the base I don’t object to, of course, so onto my test list they went.
And now that I’ve tested Elephant, I have to say I believe the hype: it’s very special. After three full days with it my sample is empty, and I’m still not entirely sure whether I like it very much personally, but there’s no doubt that this is a work of art, unlike anything else I’ve ever smelled. It’s very strong and original; it smells like the product of the personal vision of a passionate perfumer not held back by a big cosmetics company’s need to fit into the mainstream. A perfumer’s (or perfume lover’s) perfume.
From the bottle, it smells greener than green: more like the smell of breaking a fresh green leaf’s juicy stem than the real thing would be. Simple and quite startlingly strong, but wonderful – if this is what Elephant smelled like on my skin, I’d have ordered a bottle already. But no, on the skin it’s a much more complex affair, and it develops a lot as well. That startling, raw green is joined by a warm spicy-woody aspect straight from the start, and that only becomes more prominent as time goes on, even as the green vibe is joined and eventually replaced by raw, unsweet milky coconut. This fragrance is extremely natural but not fresh at all – in fact, at times I find it almost alarmingly warm, a little feverish even, but it’s well-balanced for all that. Really hard to describe – it’s one of those that can’t remotely be imagined from words and note pyramids alone. It being so devoid of clichés also makes it unisex by necessity, and as for performance, it’s irreproachable: strong without being overwhelming, and lasts all day easily. I’d like a little decant to sniff often, and wear occasionally.
Caesar – :
Stunning! If their intent was to recreate a jungle atmosphere, one that is full of green verdant smells that delight the nose with their delicate beauty – they did it! If they wanted to add an Eastern Indian aura, the home and migration site of some of the last Asian elephants, they did. If they wanted to express the beauty and pathos of their lives in perfume, they succeeded.
The opening of Elephant sparkles with green leaves, woody ground, and sweet coconut. So much so, I, at first, thought there were aldehydes in the pyramid. Dazzling! It dries down to an exotic woody accord. The transitions are lovely, taking you from the bright rainforest, gradually focusing your attention on the metaphysical aspect of an elephant’s experience. This is masterful. The green is one of tropical trees, stripped by hungry trunks. Fresh and realistic. The sandalwood, incense, patchouli and amber form an accord that is foreign, mystical and enticing. I loved every stage, and am impressed with the perfumer who used this viewpoint to represent the elephant. It makes you think of their annual trek to find feeding grounds in the midst of losing their habitat. This is a perfume celebration of their lives, a reminder of their journey.
гольм – :
It’s surprising that even at this moment of success of the brand Victor Wong continues to take risks with his brand Zoologist. Now that the concept of perfumes that personify animals has proved to be a success the owner and creative director of the brand could go in a safe direction and launch just what the public expects. However, his creative side has taken him along with perfumers to break out of obvious explorations and create scents that are different but usable in a way that the innovative effect may go unnoticed by us. I see this clearly in one of his recent creations, Elephant.
As stated in the blog post available at the brand’s website, Elephant the perfume was at first designed with a very Indian aura, centered on an accord of chai, spices and sandalwood. It is possible to understand this by considering that the Elephant is an extraordinarily symbolic animal in the Hindu religion – one of the most venerated Hindu gods is Ganesha, who has a human body and the head of an elephant. However, I discovered by researching that the graciousness, strength and perseverance of this animal ends up traveling in a much more universal way the mythologies of other countries. Although the mythologies vary, the meaning always revolves around noble characteristics. And to give a more abstract aspect to this the noble figure of the Elephant is celebrated in a much richer way.
The construction of the sandalwood aroma is also part of a more abstract idea and it is a perfect representative: the fragrance of sandalwood can be seen in fact as a kind of perfumery elephant – a noble, sacred aroma, celebrated in many cultures, of a olfactory perfume curiously powerful and at the same time delicate. Feeling the essential oil of Indian sandalwood is a curious experience, since its creamy and woody aroma does not have a strong impact like other woods, but it forms a persistent and soothing aura. The idea of the perfumer here seeks to capture these elements of the wood in a much more complex fashion, using different synthetic and natural to create the aroma of sandalwood. In addition, the perfume captures the idea of a forest of them, a habitat where the elephants live in harmony with the environment.
At first I hoped that Elephant would have a woody and creamy scent from the start and so I was surprised by its sandalwood with green and floral contours. It is almost as if the trees are still alive and leafy in the forest, in an environment where you perceive a slightly earthy scent and the smell of green leaves and that humid scent that you perceive in the plants after the rain. There is a green and radiant floral accord here, a clever choice that fits with the green idea of composition and the fact that in some cultures the elephant also has a feminine energy-related symbolism. The perception of these flowers sometimes makes me think of jasmine, at other times in a scent of lily of the valley and magnolia. Among the flowers begins to emerge the most abstract aspect of this forest of sandalwood, with an incense accord that leads to a complex woody base. At certain times the woody side of sandalwood stands out, in others the most creamy aspect and it is still possible to perceive a more mineral aroma that seems to come from a sandalwood synthetic. It is a multifaceted construction, like a luminous jewel with many edges or a forest of similar trees and that call us attention eventually to different aspects of the aroma of its members. If many perfumes celebrate sensuality and seduction, Elephant celebrates the harmony, peace, nobility, grace and strength – both of the elephants and the sandalwood forest that represent them.
affigory – :
I was actually quite disappointed with this one. I had expected a more in-your-face fragrance from such a concept of the elephant. Upon reading the notes from the card that came with my vial, I was excited and surprised to read about a floral, green fragrance to represent the Elephant.
I’m a huge magnolia fan, and this one missed the mark for me big time. It was very fresh and lush, but it read as straight up FIG on my skin. I got a fresh, floral fig for maybe four straight hours before whittling down to a mere whisper or nondescript florals.
It reminded me of the Hermes Mediterranean Jardin, just not quite as lush or complex. It’s certainly got a place in the homes of many, though, because it’s easy to love if you’re not expecting more. But I had higher hopes, after sampling other fragrances from Zoologist which seem to push the envelope a bit more (Bat, Beaver, Moth, Dragonfly, etc).
wwwvovaua – :
At the beginning, this is really like an angry, trumpeting elephant running through the vegetation of the fields and jungle. It’s green and aggressively so. The elephant runs over green grass, but he also takes some branches from the trees with him and crashes them to the ground, so the grassy smell mixes with wood notes, figs and magnolia petals.
After a while, the elephant calms down and becomes more true to his reputation as a gentle giant. In the drydown, the scent is less loud and grassy, and more floral with a hint of citrus. The coconut note is going strong for a long time, but it’s of a very milky and figgy kind, and not sweet at all.
The basenotes aren’t very noticeable to me, they just ground the scent with a little warm earthiness.
Elephant is an interesting scent, but not for me. It’s quite heavy for a green scent, nothing light and fresh here, and the opening can be overwhelming and takes time to get used to.
I’d say it’s unisex and worth a try for fans of grassy and figgy notes, but not a crowd pleaser.
Yuriyar – :
Starts as offensive green with a hint of fig and gradually dries down to incense, which gives it some oriental twist.
Overall a well designed perfume, a little bit loud, not quite office safe. Definitely stands out, could easily be a signature scent if blends well with you.
lij499Negeltzex – :
Well dressed houseplant – Hubby
EDIT: Tested this scent several times and I get it and love it! It’s very masculine and I thought it wouldn’t be wearable for me but now I think I can definitely wear and enjoy it. I actually tested it again today and I would totally wear this now! One of my favourites from Zoologist!! I get the similarity to Debaser but I don’t think they are the same. Elephant is actually more wearable to me than Debaser, which I tested again yesterday and it’s harsh and not the easiest to wear in my opinion. I really enjoy Elephant a lot more now in fall than I did in the summer.
9/10
Dear jalphabet, below. I bought a full sample set directly from the zoologist website. I hope this info helps you.
Dr_Zolberg1 – :
Where is this available to purchase? It seems hard to find.
igolion – :
Yow. This jungle juice hits you like Jumanji in a bottle. Elephant opens with some of the sharpest greenery and mulch I’ve ever encountered. It’s very bitter, and any potential sweetness from the coconut or cocoa is almost nowhere to be found. This is a meaty coconut dusted in dry, unsweetened cocoa powder. Some are comparing this to Diptyque’s Philosykos, but even calling Philosykos Elephant Lite doesn’t scratch the surface. This juice takes no prisoners.
I admit to have found the opening pretty vile, but it does start to calm down. In time Elephant feels like a fresh jungle breeze. The cocoa becoming more chocolatey, setting some of the bitterness to rest, and the magnolia appears in the form of a dewy rain note like fresh water droplets on leaves. It’s like you get both the Elephant stomping through the jungle, and the flattened, green aftermath that follows.
Hardcore nature enthusiasts will appreciate this scent, as well as anyone who likes a challenge. It’s way too viciously green and abrasive for me, but I can’t deny that a lot of heart and creativity went into it. I appreciate the journey.
weni – :
Bananas, Bamboo and fresh tea leaves.
Settles woody and earth.
Very nice summer scent.
chernenkoff – :
What a beautiful surprise! I’m in a vintage perfume phase, but I had bought a sample of Elephant, and with a name like that, I had to try. I expected chypre, not my fav, but got more.
I opened my ml bottle with difficulty, prying the cap back and forth, round and round to get at the small amount of precious juice. Pop! It suddenly opened, and out flew a drop carrying the scent of the green jungle, mixed with a bit of dirt. I put a couple more drops on my wrist, as I have cleaning to do and it’ll get washed off; I don’t want to waste it. I could smell green leaves, and the dirt of coconut water mixed with pieces of scratchy hull, and woods mixed with cocoa nibs. No tea, no magnolia, nothing pretty, just dirty. And yes, it brought to mind rough elephant skin, or the scent an elephant would leave behind after crushing through a jungle. Not in a beautiful way though, nothing I would wear. Not bad either, just not the way I hope to smell. I can detect all these notes separately and they are unexciting. My disappointment at only being sent half a ml turned into acceptance as I figured I would not wear again.
Thirty minutes later I sniffed again, and on my wrist, the perfume had settled into the most marvelous concoction of incense and musk and flowers. On the finger where the first drop landed, it still smells dirty green, which is interesting. Must be the pulse points.
All the scents mixed and lifted, elevated this perfume to something beautiful and for me, unique. It is feminine and artsy, still reminiscent of the jungle but now we are inside, sipping tea rather than out worried about stepping in dung. With each sniff I notice the chocolate, the coconut, magnolias and patchouli, blended to perfection. I have not had a perfume dry down and change the scent this much; it went from dirty green to smooth exotics. Now I wish I had a spray bottle to be generous and see if it’s still so lovely on my skin after three or four sprays rather than the miserly drops I allowed myself.
Because I used so little, I cannot discuss sillage, it’s definitely a skin scent right now. It also will not get a chance to last as my hands will soon be in a bucket of pine sol. I could not resist the test!
Elephant is not my normal style but breaking out of styles is why samples exist. And it may go on my “to be” purchased list, after my next use of what is left. A perfume named Elephant is pleasant surprise for me.
140473 – :
Such a lovely green perfume. Engulfed in a tropical rainforest, big raw green leaves at the beginning, crushed underfoot. A little overwhelming at first and then smoothing out on my skin to an amber-laced green with occasional wafts of magnolia and jasmine. Soft sandalwood too. I don’t detect any of the coconut which others have placed as strong. And the amber is definitely present for me. All within an envelope of green green green.
Edit: mmmmm…. on further wearings creamy coconut did come out, enhancing the green and lending a further exotic aura to the scent.
annodezem – :
I purchased a sample of Elephant with my latest Zoologist order and while the notes made me think I’d like it, the blend just wasn’t for me.
I got heavy heavy green notes that were eye-watering sharp for an opening. It took a good 10 minutes or so for that to soften enough that I could even detect anything else, the tea scent lingered longer than I liked and I found myself annoyed with the way I smelled.
I was barely able to detect the coconut or any of the other notes, just a sharp grass and tea scent. Later I caught a whiff of my wrist and smelled the usual beautiful Zoologist dry-down of sandalwood and amber with just a tiny hint of tea, that was good but not worth the pain experienced in the opening.
It comes on too strong and too sharp for my taste, I love the dry-down but it’s not worth it to me at all.
aid-haron – :
Tropical greenery. Overwhelming burst of greenery; can definitely smell massive amounts of crushed leaves and trees. Underneath it all is the faintest melody of coconut and tropical flowers. Personally, I’ve always imagined the jungle to be much more humid and earthy, with an undertone of decaying plant matter. I get none of that here. Very fresh and lively. Can also definitely make out the tea note, but this a fresh, juicy green tea. I agree with an earlier commenter that this is reminiscent of Philosykos, even though there’s no fig leaf listed. Very fresh, bright fragrance; the base notes are there but very much buried underneath the giant, fresh green forest. They do become more prominent late in the drydown, especially the sandalwood, but by that time the fragrance is basically a skinscent. Bright and lively.
pyan – :
@mariemares I’m glad that my review was helpful to you. Enjoy your Elephant! 🙂
Econeesoame – :
Yasss finally got my hands on a full bottle! To be perfectly honest, I don’t consider myself a perfume connoisseur or even a fragrance enthusiast but in the past couple of months I have started to explore the unknown world of niche perfumery and all thanks to Zoologist – Elephant. Although no, this is not right. The whole story starts with Diptyque’s Philosykos, which has been on my radar for the past three years or so. I sampled it every time I saw it in a shop and considered buying a bottle a few times, however, something always stopped me, maybe it was the reviews on poor longevity or the fact the perfume, although very pleasant, appeared a bit too simple for it’s price. So imagine my excitement when I was browsing through Fragrantica’s ‘bests of 2017’ and read Ladilva’s review below that it reminded her of Philosykos. Bingo! I thought, and went on a challenge of finding a sample I could test (ended up buying a whole load of various samples from Bloom Perfumery 😀 ). Loved Elephant straight away and there was no hesitation this time, unlike with Phylosykos.
Undoubtedly, Elephant, opens with a load of greenness, the common thing with Phylosykos is the green juicy leaves (fig leaves?). It is so green that it’s almost bitter, and the white flowers definitely add to the bitterness. The green accord stays for quite a while, a couple of hours at least.
The coconut in the drydown (another similar thing with Phylosykos) is very prominent, but it is a scent of fresh meat of a very ripe coconut mixed with damp coconut husk. Sometimes I get the cocoa note, which for me smells like raw cocoa nibs – not sweet or chocolatey at all. I also get whiffs of jasmine, but it is more of a green jasmine tea scent rather than the flower itself.
More generally, the drydown is very warm and woody, with a mild sweetness that comes not just from the coconut, but from patchouli and sandalwood (I think). I have been wearing it through this wet and mild English winter and I feel it is perfect for colder weather. I thoroughly enjoy how warm and cosy it feels on my warm skin and just can’t stop from burying my nose into my sweater to have another sniff. It would be interesting to see how it performs in warmer weather, I have my suspicions that the drydown could be a bit too heavy but I shall wait and see.
Not rating the perfume itself as it is very subjective but I can say the longevity is amazing! Probably the best I’ve experienced from any perfume – easily lasts for 12 hours!
I am very happy I’ve tried this perfume and I feel it was worth every penny I spent. And thanks, Zoologist, for opening the doors into niche perfumery for me.
SEROS539 – :
I dont throw this word around loosely, in fact, I have never actually “rated” a perfume, scent is just too personal and subjective for any rating to have meaning. That said, Elephant by Zoologist is a masterpiece.
This is so complex and well done, I dont even attempt to pick out the notes, I just flow with the scent.. I go to wherever it takes me.
I am in the jungle.
Cutting a path through thick leafy vines and a warm sunny day.
There are berry bushes, the kind with thorns, wild flowers.
There is the smell of soil and earth in the background.
After several hours, there is still a hint of freshly cut grasses and bushes, but a layer of woods and a very natural and pleasant musk emerges. There is what seems to be that thick milky substance you get with cut green tree limbs and sap. Comforting, a little mysterious, very earthy.
The sillage and longevity are awesome.
This isnt a perfume, it’s an experience.
I do not get a hint of anything artificial or any sort of “designer cologne” vibe.
This (as all of Zoologist perfumes) is utterly unique.
This is so successful in paying homage to the great African elephant in his environment. Genius !!!!
I wholeheartedly rate this masterpiece a 10 out of 10.
I believe I have found my signature scent.
jerylee – :
The initial burst of green was promising but is shortly followed by chemicals that burn my nose. No coconut or sandalwood. Actually I am having trouble discerning most of the note profile. Application through dry down reminds me of smelling a long forgotten cologne in grandpa’s medicine cabinet. Will try again when it’s warmer, but I don’t expect much of a change. Very surprised this is so synthetic.
igorR – :
Elephant has a watery green stemmy opening, reminiscent of tree sap, fig leaves and tea, with a soft floral musky white noise in the background. Fig leaf isn’t listed, but the coconut milk + green note seems to create a prominent fig leaf. This develops into a milky green middle, with coconut milk, jasmine and tea at the forefront. There’s something a bit nose-tickly or synthetic smelling about this stage for me, and the tea/jasmine/coconut middle stage seems a bit like a designer scent for some reason. A lost Bvlgari tea flanker. It’s all very soft and hazy. In the drydown, these soft notes become a little bit creamier with the addition of sandalwood, and the jasmine becomes a bit more indolic. There’s the slightest touch of dry cacao powder. Overall, I liked it but I think the milkiness and greenness could have been amped up and the jasmine dialed back a touch to make it smell more interesting. I wasn’t crazy about the nose-tickling aspect, but I don’t know what causes that.
Женя13 – :
I’m in London for a few days; earlier today I went to Covent Garden and visited Bloom Perfumery – the only one that stocks Zoologist perfumes. I’ve been eager to try Zoologist scents for some time, but I wasn’t willing to pay crazy shipping costs from Canada, or to purchase decants of dubious authenticity from online sellers.
So, today I tested four of them – Elephant, Camel, Dragonfly and Hummingbird – both on my arms and on tester stripes, and now I’ll try to give an honest opinion on them. I hope you won’t mind me reviewing them all on this page – I don’t feel like spamming their separate pages with the same introduction.
So, let me start with the overall impression on the Zoologist range:
Are these perfumes beautiful? – Yes
Are they unisex? – Yes
Are they wearable? – Absolutely yes (at least those that I tested – I didn’t try the more challenging ones such as Bat or Beaver)
Are those packagings as cute ‘in person’ as they look in the advertisements? – Ooooh yes
Are the perfumes themselves remarkable? – To be honest, not really
Are they worthy of the hype? – No
Was I inspired to buy one of them on the spot? – No. For instance, I remember my reaction when I first smelled Nasomatto Black Afgano, or MFK Grand Soir, or Chanel Coromandel – immediately I was like ‘Sh*t, I gotta have this!’ I have to say that none of the Zoologist scents made that sort of impression on me.
Now let’s review them individually, in a few sentences.
Elephant – This is my firm favourite among those that I tried. It’s gorgeously leafy and totally zen. The reason why I didn’t consider buying it is because it is very similar to Diptyque Philosykos – it has the same overall vibe with the combination of green fig leaves and coconut taking the central spot. I already have Philosykos, and I didn’t find Elephant sufficiently different from it to warrant a purchase. However, if you used to own and love Philosykos, but now you’d like something in a similar vein, then do try Elephant.
Camel – This is my second favourite. It’s very spicy and balsamic, and much less cloyingly sweet than I expected. Judging by the notes and the reviewers’ observations I kind of expected it to be dominated by dried fruits and myrrh – but actually it’s rather animalic and just a little smoky. Again, the issue is that I already have several scents in a similar vein, so I don’t need this one.
Dragonfly – The old saying ‘don’t judge the book by its cover’ might here be paraphrased as ‘don’t judge a perfume by its opening’. Namely, Dragonfly opens very timidly, with those nondescript notes of water and rice, but then blossoms into a garden full of powdery blue flowers. I perceive it as a very good contemporary interpretation of those old blue flower symphonies by Guerlain such as L’Heure Bleue, or more recently, Insolence. Yet, again it lacks something that would really make it stand out and distinguish itself from its legendary predecessors.
Hummingbird – Idk, it’s very pretty and sweetish, but totally unremarkable.
To sum up, if you have lots of money to spend and you dig cute quirky bottles, then do buy Zoologist. The rest of you mere mortals, please test them properly before you shell out lots of money for full bottles+shipping costs, because they are really not what I expected, and if I had done so, I would have been bitterly disappointed.
Peace.
fraancisco – :
Fabulous complex witchy green perfume with a retro chypre woody vibe that reminds me of a more crisply current and wearable Magic Noire. Outstanding complexity and real development like the beautiful classics up to the early 2000s when perfume seemed to fall off a cliff into a miasma of department store mediocrity. We are definitely seeing a real visionary come into our perfumista world.
den74 – :
Green, fresh, fig leaves, fig tree – very suitable for spring. Even a little bitter. Later one flower steps in.
Sandalwood stays secondary. Wish to detect it more.
Fig-lovers should try it, probably coconut gives the feeling.
alles – :
So very much green chaos initiially, but then I get a cardboard box impression that is completely off-putting. Dragonfly is so beautiful, guess I will have to wait for Camel.
aleks2525 – :
like all zoologist fragrances, this is very pleasing.
the opening immediately reminded me of when i cook thai food and have to tear the lime leaves before i mix them into the pot. except this is more green, less sweet, and has a tinge of bitterness. almost like fresh cut grass with a hint of lemongrass.
this is a bit similar to what i get whenever i layer guerlain’s vetiver and lalique’s encre noir, then add a tiny bit of citrus and amber.
there’s a sweetness on the drydown that mixes with the green bitterness that i find very relaxing.
this reminds me of the smell of watching elephants closely, eating fresh grass in chiang-mai.
projection is mild, just perfect for it’s character. i would wear this, yes, but not everyday, just to break away from the usual scents i wear.
if you love green notes, this is for you.
emc650speagoessenda – :
Elephant, the gentle beast. The name truly fits the fragrance, very gentleman-ly, very smooth. For me this scent opens up with loads of coconut. Don’t let that scare you off or discourage you. Th