Description
Tropic of Capricorn is an atypical tropical fragrance that avoids all the clichés of piña coladas, sunny beaches, and coconut-scented suntan oil. Instead, it’s a dark, night-time, jungle tropical, called Tropic of Capricorn in honor of the theme, the winter season when it was created, and Henry Miller’s famed work of the same name in which he writes about “the dark fecundity of nature, … a night so frighteningly silent, utterly incomprehensible and eloquent at the same time”. The perfume creates the aura of a still, humid tropical night redolent with the scent of exuberant, blooming life, quick death, and the almost immediate rebirth that springs out of the dead flowers, something sensed at a level below conscious thought.
Tropic of Capricorn is an all-natural perfume featuring notes of mango fruit tincture, jasmine, frangipani, tuberose, magnolia, osmanthus, maile vine (a common component of floral leis), Bourbon vanilla, Africa stone (hyrax), ambergris, benzoin and New Caledonian sandalwood. The nose behind the fragrance is Ellen Covey. Released in 2013, Tropic of Capricorn is available as a 4.5 ml parfum screw-top bottle and 15 ml parfum in a screw-top bottle.
roma samal – :
One of the most erotic compositions in modern perfumery and true to its namesake literary erotic tour de force, this sensual composition from Ellen Covey is an animalic floral like none other today. The perfume opens with notes of mango, jasmine, osmanthus and frangipani. Then it moves to a really animalic middle with notes of ambergris, Hyrax and tuberose before it settles into a powdery base of vanilla, sandalwood and benzoin with the floral and animalic notes hovering in the background. Sensual, decadent and animalic, this beauty is the smell of powdered vintage sex which Anais Nin and Henry Miller wrote about. Unisex (feminine leaning) with moderate projection, sillage and very good longevity this is a decadent masterpiece like none other and recommended only for those who love skanky florals. Enjoy cautiously!
carpinteyrogpy – :
Wow, this scent was a fun sniff! It starts with over-ripe mango and tiare, very tropical, joined by the wet, green, slightly spicy, rotting jungle foliage accord from Olympic Orchid’s Little Star perfume. I actually feel like there’s a little jatamansi in this scent as well (like a green woody spicy vine or root scent). After the first sniff, the mango smells more like apricot to me. Right out of the gate, this scent is animalic – with the indolic white florals and something hairy and musky which I can only assume is the hyraceum. I’m slowly getting into animalic scents, which I previously associated with those old fashioned civet and jasmine bombs. Here the animalic note is unmistakeable and somewhat addictive. Over time, it gets more floral and less dark/jungly, but the animalic and fruit remain to support the night flower. The floral scent changes constantly, shifting from slightly too bubblegummy (tuberose?? or tiare) to something resembling osmanthus (with leathery, apricotty aspects). Overall, the effect is of a flower that is some mix of all of them – a possibly poisonous night flower, but still polleny, powdery and sweet. The ambergris adds a touch of salty musky warmth, but the hyrax is the more present animalic scent for me. Tropic of Capricorn was a much more floral scent on me than I anticipated, but an interesting take on the concept!
popov5267 – :
wonderfully weird and addictive, dark and animalic, this is one of those odd can’t-get-my-nose-off-my-wrist sort of perfumes. not pretty but compelling. one caveat: DAB (sparingly)– don’t spray.
addendum: a few days and several more wearings later: what was i thinking — do spray away, this is so wonderful that more is actually more here (and i NEVER say that re: perfume.) or am i mad? possibly.
severyanin7 – :
Imagine the fermented smell of a salve composed of sweet flowers and herbs, macerated in lanolin, with an added tiny hint of the smoky scent of pine tar, that you get from black salve, being dabbed on to a dry scab, and then a bandaid is placed on top. This might sounds disgusting to some people, but I don’t hate it. It reminds me of all the cuts and scraped knees I would get as a kid, and the healing balms and ointments my parents would use to care of me. I used to smell my scabbed knees and contemplate the unusual smell. The one flower I thought I smelled before looking up the notes was plumeria, but over all the floral aspect just kind of smells sweet and tropical, with a fermented twist, the mango reinforces that vibe. It’s also very obviously animalic, but I’m not very familiar with Hyrax, and despite the comparison to the smell of a scab, it’s not a nasty smell; It’s a medical smell. If I had smelled a person wearing this I wouldn’t have thought it was a perfume; I’d have thought they had been anointing themselves with tintures and ointments, although after about three hours the ambergris take the forefront, giving it more of a perfumey smell, but the heart is an odor that I’d imagine coming off if a witch doctor. In this case, the good doctor resides near the Tropic of Capricorn.
1eprik0n – :
“the dark fecundity of nature, … a night so frighteningly silent, utterly incomprehensible and eloquent at the same time”. The perfume creates the aura of a still, humid tropical night redolent with the scent of exuberant, blooming life, quick death, and the almost immediate rebirth that springs out of the dead flowers, something sensed at a level below conscious thought.
That is a marvellous description of this fantastic beloved perfume of mine. I adore it. It is my signature scent. I wear it all the time…almost. It is incredible. I can say no more.
dimdxd – :
I’ve had this for quite a while now, and I’ve been wearing this little gem on and off over the months. This is one fragrance that really needs time to develop and mature on the skin. If you are too hasty and base your reviews on first application then you really aren’t going to be able to appreciate what ToC actually has to offer.
Its a rich, lush, dark, indolent, almost narcotic scent. A bloom of osmanthus and well dying tuberose with crushed, bruised frangipanni swathed in a dank, decaying rot of overripe fruit, and the ever present, compelling but almost sweetly offensive anamalic notes; amberigris, soft woods and softer florals in the drydown. Slightly cloying in the heat, the summer sweat only enhances this fragrance. Its utterly addictive and beautifully, harmoniously balanced.
Exercise patience with this one and you will be rewarded. This is quite long wearing – in fact longevity is outstanding – and requires much time to develop and evolve on the skin. The end wear is much softer than the opening and will probably be more appealing to the masses; if you’re going to wear this in the company of others then consider application well in advance. I’ll agree with Zephyrae13 review below – this is not a safe blind buy – you should strongly consider a large sample purchase and at least a few applications before plunging for the bottle.
likortaka – :
This perfume is odd, and the most expensive in the collection. I shared it with my friends, and the general reaction was avoidance. It is too strong, too pungent, too much. I love every single note, but I doubt I will ever wear it. It is pretty overwhelming.
Saidvrn – :
i’ve got a sample of the spring flower variant and while fully intriguing the rot and fecality is overpowering on me. i associate the scent of banana peel with bins in offices and so the jungle appeal is somewhat lost here. perhaps the original version packs a fruitful jest more balancing to the feral side than the sweet florals in the spring flower.
i’m generally a huge fan of orchid creations and this is very much unique, but not something i would wear for anything else than the unique novelty.
will add another review once i sample the standard.
upon one more try: the drydown is actually very smooth and pleasing. the warm rot is accompanied by subtle woodiness that complements the banana very well. i only wish the wood made an earlier appearance.
muchi_dima – :
incredibly odd, although i can’t help but find myself loving this creation. from the vial, contrary to what a lot of other people have said, i find this reminds me of a sort of ‘hospital’ environment; cleaning fluids, hand wash, quite sharp and almost industrial. as soon as it’s applied to skin, it changes rapidly to what i perceive as the smell of a freshly peeled banana, slightly browning and soft in places. i don’t know what creates this, perhaps a mix of the fruity mango and frangipani, but that’s the impression. this only lasts for a minute or so however before a wash of mentholated notes come along and smash the banana into oblivion. i’ll hazard a guess and say the tuberose has made her grand entrance at this point. from here, the menthol notes die down a little, releasing a sweetness redolent of overripe, even rotting, fruit. not overly-sweet however; tempered by a sort of emerging, vague, earthy-fruity-muskiness. it reminds me, in a roundabout sort of way, of ‘bat’ by zoologist, also by ellen covey, except ‘bat’ doesn’t have the psychotic industrial / banana / tuberose opening and possibly is more earthy-musty smelling than ToC. further into the eventual base, ambergris, animalic musk and vanilla make themselves more apparent, grounding the whole fragrance into a relatively close-to-the-skin experience. all in all, this process takes just over half an hour, so it’s a bit of a rollercoaster upon and directly after initial application. however like i said, it’s won me over with its quirky charm.
14881488 – :
Unfortunately, I get only a simplistic animalic musk;not even rotting vegetation! I am sorely disappointed- I really wanted the dark, dense, rain forest scent that so polarized those who wore it. I prefer Mardi Gras, which has that heavy animalic core, smoothed over by rich white flowers.
Perhaps my sample was old or bad?
Damager – :
An electric shock went through my system the first time I smelled this. A primal recognition, deep within my brain, of notes that trigger subconscious responses to stimulus in the human past. Strangely obsessive, this primordial combination of fruit, floral and animalic notes is like nothing else. It’s explosive opening makes way to a heavy, indolic jasmine accord that is as captivating and sexy as a hot, sweaty tropical date. Tropic of Capricorn makes your senses beat like primitive drums in the night!
oleg_rs – :
Both challenging and compelling. There is something that is totally offensive but still tugs at me and compels me to keep sniffing my wrist. It’s like being unable to stop binge watching reality shows (or kinky porn) that you find appalling/disgusting but somehow addictive. I definitely get the animalic and decaying flowers-probably my less than favorite tuberose who’s past her prime. But also peeking through are the slightly sweet and tangy mango, frangipani and osmanthus. This is a very interesting, challenging and multi-dimensional fragrance. This is a definitely a work of art that belongs in MOMA. And as with true art, I can see why some will love it and others simply won’t “get it”.
These are not my words but they 100% reflect my opinion of this scent: “This is raw, animalic dangerous scent of the jungle after dark. Humid with wafts of decay and flowers drifting on the wind. Bewitchingly good! Very very different than anything I’ve ever smelled before”
Lavyn – :
Tropic of Capricorn is a dark, wet, rotting monster of a fragrance. It opens with fermenting fruits and decaying, narcotic, flowers in a hot, humid, tropical miasma.
This is the ‘bad boy’ of tropical fragrances. It’s the tropics at their dirtiest. As the top fades a mind-blowingly strong animalic chord punches its way into the fray, and for the next 8 hours or so rotten fruit, dying flowers and animalic fur fight tooth and nail for top billing. Sweet to the point of curdled, rich to the point of overwhelming, Tropic of Capricorn is an amazing experience, and a frag that is sure to be an instant love or hate – Not much room for middle ground with this.
Luckily, for me it was love at first sniff. Throughout the wear time I get alternating blasts of fermenting sweet fruits, dark, poisonous florals and some of the skankiest snimalics I’ve ever encountered. I get notes from apricot all the way to ripe blue cheese shimmering in and out of focus. Although quite linear, there is a lot going on in the Tropics, if nothing else – it’s not boring!.
Sillage is heavy, even oppressive – but I think it rather suits the humid, cloying nature of the frag. Longevity is stellar, this juice is thick and oily, a little goes a long way.
I’m not sure where one could really wear this, so I choose to wear it whenever I don’t especially care about offending the more precious souls amongst us.
EDIT: Thanks to Scorpiosheep for introducing me to this frightening beast!
Blach – :
Skanky at first, then with a juicy mango tang, against a backdrop of white flowers to soften it! Well balanced, three dimensional, I love it even if I might not wear it, unless I am in a rebellious mood.
puhlyi – :
I received a sample set of 6 Olympic Orchids fragrances on the perfumer’s blog, and I was most excited to try this one. Upon first sniff, I couldn’t stand it. All it smelled like to me was musky animal pee and black licorice. The second time I wore it, I don’t smell as much of the licorice but I’m still not crazy about it. I’m starting to appreciate the animal quality, but in my opinion it totally overwhelms the fragrance. I would prefer the floral and fruit notes to be stronger in this fragrance, but I suppose this odd balance is part of the charm. I doubt that I will ever smell something quite as intriguing and odd as this fragrance. If you’re up for a truly unique olfactory experience, you should try Tropic of Capricorn!
tigrina1 – :
A very good surprise to me. One of the most unusual scents that i tryed in last years along with Salamanca.
This is a great perfume with animalic and fruit notes, connecting papaya/ambergris in a perfect blend.
In the first smell remind me my grandfather’s farm and a lot of my childhood with my father.
It’s strong and concentrated and, consequently, your longevity is very good.
Thanks Ellen!
Faroantarne – :
Imagine you’re on holidays in a beachfront resort town in a developing country. One evening, against the advice of the concierge, you decide to leave your gated, guarded resort and venture into town for dinner. After dinner you start walking back to your resort, but realize that you’re lost. Before you know it you’re in the seedy part of town: men are eying you from neon-lit doorways, you pass the twenty-four-hour flower shop as they are throwing out their rotten flowers, cockroaches scurry across the sidewalk, you pass a street vendor frying unidentifiable meats and spices in a flaming wok, someone is urinating against the side of a building.
For the first two hours or so, Tropic of Capricorn smells like the part of town that your mom, and your guide book, warned you to stay away from. The initial animalic note is absolutely shocking, but it relaxes within about ten minutes and allows floral notes- albeit dying floral notes- to come through. After a few hours I find the floral notes clean up just enough to be appropriate to wear in the company of decent folk. It definitely lingers- you’ll smell it in your bedroom and in your elevator when you return from where you’ve been, but the sillage isn’t ridiculous. Most importantly (for me at least), is the fact that doesn’t make me feel feminine when I wear it, but at the same time it doesn’t strike me as being particularly masculine. I want to smell like a girl, and this just doesn’t do it for me. Perhaps it is actually animalic in that it’s not only derived from animals, but best-suited to be worn by them (in the throes of mating) as well?
Martyn911 – :
What an amazingly curious fragrance this is! I received it two days ago and my first impression was shock. My second was…OK…I see…but too, far too animalic for me. At the beginning I could hardly smell anything else but hyraceum. I sensed some flowers hiding in the background but the animalic note was so overwhelming that it just stole the show completely. As I don’t give up on things easily, I persevered…and long story short: this perfume is highly addictive! It reveals more and more of its beauty to me as time passes, and at the moment I cannot think of wearing anything else from my wardrobe. I used to live in and near tropical forests in Thailand and Malaysia. This perfume is like a zip file of the scents I met in those countries…the animalic notes remind me of a meditation cave near the monastery I lived in, which was inhabited by bats and other small mammals…the flowers I know from the gardens of the monastery and the forest around, from the streets and flower markets of Bangkok and Chiang Mai or my favourite parks in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore… the fruits from those amazing markets…the smell of sandalwood from temples… All this combined together does succeed in conjuring up a tropical night: it is silent yet resounding with nocturnal life, menacing and calming at the same time, repulsive and irresistibly attractive…I can’t get enough of it at the moment. Thanks, Ellen Covey for this magic fragrance!
Longevity is excellent, 12 hours easily.
Sillage is not enormous, after a few hours it calms down to a skin scent, which given the unusual character of this perfume is not a problem.
Emily_fromAF – :
this is.. utterly intoxicating! its animalic, musky,resinous, dank and wet, but tropical and fruity and sweet at the same time! oh i like this. this is what you’d wear on a humid steamy night! I dont get a fecal note per say but it is animalic on my skin. NOT A SAFE BLIND BUY. sample first, since this creation smells very different on everyone. For me, it turns tropical, musky animalic and darkly sweet. This is a masterpiece of art, and not wearable for everyone. My skin turns the skankiest of notes into beauty; so for me this is breathtaking. This is a pivotal landmark fragrance that anyone who needs to know what dark, fruity, musky and animalic smells like. It is unique, and there is no comparing to any other fragrance out there. A mysterious, bewitching brew, that quite literally makes my mouth water. Incomprehensibly sexy.
PUPSIK— – :
Dark, dank and utterly compelling. I love that the flowers are past their prime, this is probably why this is the only perfume with a tuberose note that I can stand. The mango note reminds me of the melon note in Diorella in that it’s over ripe and I love that too. This is the first time I’ve smelled Africa stone and as far as animalics go, I think I’m liking it more than civet. Definitely more than castoreum. This perfume is so rich and strange and beautiful. Very evocative.
LAKH – :
Interesting, I get a lot Osmanthus and Ambergris in the opening and this reminds me of a horse barn more than of tropical jungle, but as I’ve never been to a tropical forest, how can I know. I have been experimenting with Osmanthus absolue myself, also in combination with ambergris tincture but this is defintely an even more animalic scent,must be the hyrax in it.
I like the scent, it’s not an everyday perfume.
karrudo007 – :
Probably the most interesting and the most challenging of the line. This opens with a filthy blast of Africa stone (poop from the Cape Hyrax, a sort of cute rat / guinea pig combo) that immediately draws associative connections to the far superior Leather Oud. While hyraceum’s quite an intriguing note (a little like castoreum), here it’s cranked to such psychotic levels that it’s simply intolerable. Florals join in, but don’t really sweeten the deal until the opening calms the f**k down into a scent that’s not dissimilar to rotting fruit. It’s as fascinating as it is sickening.
R.Silanteva – :
What a strange scent! I ordered 5 samples from the Olympic Orchids site. Out of the five this is the most transformative and interesting.
I forgot that it was a unisex scent, so at first I thought it smelled so bizzare. When I looked at the fragrance’s profile again, I realized I was smelling the animalic aspect of the scent, which made me more accepting. I think I am also used to very feminine smells that are comprized of only flowers and delicate smells.
Once the perfume settled down, the scent melted into my skin and became sweet, musky, and dark with a breeze of deeply fragrant flowers. I imagined a dark, slightly dangerous tropical jungle, but with the comfort of some unkown but familiar flower. Maybe the power of suggestion! but this perfume is quite mysterious, and I found myself eagerly awaiting the next application, which I am wearing again today!
I appled the perfume to my wrists and neck, and added a small swipe of Lush’s Lust perfume stick close to my elbows and armpits, just for another layer of floral scent as I move around.
I wonder how this scent would smell on my boyfriend?
strahxxx – :
I’m in Europe, how do I buy this without paying ridiculous shipping cost?
uzf242Bessinepome – :
This brings back childhood memories of the tropics, alright: of flowering gardens at dusk, equatorial rainforest, humous, damp, sweat, animals, and perilously overripe bananas and mangoes.
The fruit notes are heavy (and particularly overripe), which, teamed with animalics, make this composition a bit suffocating. While the perfume is evocative and original, I can’t honestly say that I’ll be wearing it.
But I think what really counts here is that it is fascinating. I encourage you to sample Tropic of Capricorn, because it is light years away from anything you’ll find on a department store counter.
SPARCO13 – :
175) Africa in a drop
C’est détonnant, une tubéreuse tropicale animalisée.
J’ai l’impression de mettre le nez dans un parfum ancien aux substances aujourd’hui interdites.
La densité est magnifique, je suis plongé dans un souvenir d’enfance au Congo Belge/Zaïre, dans les jardin d’un hotel au crépuscul, au milieu d’une immense réserve naturelle. La moiteur étouffante rendait l’air liquide et à la faveur de la montée de la lune les fleurs libéraient leurs effluves comme de l’encre se diluant dans l’eau, ce n’était plus du parfum mais du miel en apesenteur.
Le musc utilisé ici est juste sublime, il est l’animalité (presque fécal) en équilibre avec l’odeur fruitée de la mangue pour sublimer le jasmin et la tubéreuse…et je revois alors de nouveau ces soirées africaines où l’on se rassemblait sur la terrasse de la piscine pour contempler, du haut de notre montagne, les éléphants quittant la jungle pour venir s’abreuver au lac, à nos pieds.
(et qu’es que ça sent ces grosses bêtes!)
Bref, putin ce parfum est beau!
It is explosive, a animalized tropical tuberose.
It’s like diving my nose in an old perfume which substances are now banned.
The density is gorgeous, I am immersed in a childhood memory in Belgian Congo / Zaire in the garden of a hotel at dusk, in the middel of huge Nature Reserve. The stifling dampness made air liquid. Taking advantage of the rise of the moon flowers freed their fragrance like ink diluting in water, it was not perfume anymore but honey in zero gravity.
Musk used here is just beautiful, it is the animal (almost fecal) in equilibrium with the fruity smell of mango to sublimate jasmine and tuberose … and then I see once again these African evenings when we assembled on the pool terrace to gaze from the top of our mountain, the elephants leaving the jungle to come and drink at the lake at our feet.
(and that smells these big beasts!)
In short, this fragrance is fucking beautiful!
kurt90 – :
Oh my. This is gorgeous. It is exactly what it promises and more – an animalic and dark tropical floral. The fact that this is 100% natural blows my mind. It is rich and magical.
The opening is full of natural floral absolutes. I can smell a lot of natural tuberose absolute very clearly. A fruity note pleases the floral composition which, although very natural, doesn’t sparkle – it emits a dull glow as flowers would in moonlight.
The development is natural, slow, and organic. After the gorgeous floral opening, the florals recede just a little bit and you can sense the composition in perfect balance. This really is a subtropical evening – night-blooming jasmine, plumeria, various datura species, the buzzing of dragonflies, wet subtropical earth (a very specific barely-rotting substrate aroma captured perfectly by the hyraceum and fruit tinctures), and the warm enveloping glow of the moon.
The base is gorgeous – a warm, slightly animalic woody base full of Siam benzoin and a tinge of sweet ambergris.
As somebody who grew up in this precise subtropical environment, I must say this is a monumental success. It is without a doubt a unique and engaging perfume with unquestionable quality and artistic vision. Buy this now before it’s gone!
Craving – :
I won a sample of this and a few other new scents from Olympic Orchids in a givaway on the perfumers blog. This I think is my favorite of the ones I got to sample! It is floral and fecal in equal measure! I had never experienced hyrax before, but I’m in love! Intensely animalic! This scent is not for the faint hearted!