Description
Zizan, a perfume like no other because it has everything a man could possibly want in a single spectacular scent. This is a powerhouse perfume. Expect a deluge of boisterous Sicilian lime, lemon and bergamot but to smooth the biting edge, a brilliantly refined concentration of vetiver.
Top notes include Sicilian lime, lemon, bergamot, clary sage, pink pepper and juniper berry. The heart encompasses Bay, violet and jasmine. Zizan rests on a base of Vetiver, cedar, musk and amber.
The fragrance is available in eau de parfum or Made to Measure Parfum for which the customer selects the concentration. Zizan was launched in 2008. The nose behind this fragrance is Geza Schoen.
Funt30 – :
Zizan smells good but is a fleeting affair compared to the Monsters of longevity in the OJ lineup like Nawab of Oudh or Montobacco. Starts off kinda fresh with green, herbal nuances from the citrus notes of lime n Bergamot and the clary sage mostly. The Heart turns even more herbal with the addition of the Bay leaf notes and the vetiver note from the base does turn up quite early as well. I dont really get any floral notes here even though they are mentioned. Nor do I get any musk or amber as such either. Zizan is mostly a herbal, green vegetal Vetiver with juicy fresh nuances from the citrus notes.
Longevity and projection are average and for an Ormonde Jayne EDP, actually a bit underwhelming for me. This lasts about 4 -5 hours tops with decent projection for about an hour. Something in the structure of this frag reminds me of one of the Imaginary Authors Frags, Saint Julep or Falling into the Sea, has that kind of vibe.
In conclusion, I’d say this is a good frag if you like green vetivers and I do and it has all the usual hallmarks of an OJ frag, good quality ingredients and smells upscale. Just that for this price, honestly, there are better performing alternatives out there. I definitely see myself enjoying my decant but dont think will be upgrading to a FB. Kinda bummed as I had high hopes for this. Maybe an Intensivo version would pique my interest a bit more. 7/10
iav876JeomiWogkig – :
This is very masculine and green, nothing different but a very nice vetiver scent- its a more tangy version of tom ford grey vetiver- still not as good as encre noire for me- 7/10
oir291Diobtetty – :
Zizan is masculine.
Zizan is a piece of beauty in the “classic” genre. This is a classic that we all know and love but in a modern man’s hands.
This stuff is clean, crisp, elegant-yet-easy going.
The lime plays a fantastic role. The vetiver is clear, but easy. The bergamot makes this sugary.
I can see how this might remind someone of Guerlain Homme, but this is much more bold. The sugary aspect is what makes me think of Guerlain. Other than that, this stuff is way higher up.
If I tried my best to describe the picture I get, it would be: Spilling a margarita on a freshly washed silk sheet. It’s fresh, clean and VERY satisfying.
HALK-102 – :
Zizan is a true masculine scent that pays homage to classic masculine scents we grew up smelling on our fathers, uncles etc. but Zizan is a more modern approach that doesn’t smell old or dated, and hasn’t been played out like the masculine scents of the previous generations. This is one for US men now. This is what a man should smell like. Crisp, clean, masculine and edgy. Ormonde Jayne brings the highest quality to the masculine vibe and gives it a classy manly feel, not just a “man wearing cologne” feel, this is more refined and beautiful for a manly scent. Very nice!
olimpic45 – :
Im not particularly fun of vetiver fragrances but this one is a true love for me. It is the best vetiver based fragrance i ever tried. The combination with lime cedar and spieses is owesome. The vetiver is very refined and not aggressive. It is a smoothe signature worthy cologne, not groundbraking but very nice. The vetiver gets stronger at the end but there is something that makes it very nice!!! The quality is very high with good sillage and longevity. It is in my wish list for sure.
filemon – :
I think Geza Schoen has been tainted by the Essentric Molecule series, being too minimal and arthouse or lazy and money grabbing, depending how you see it. I kinda gave them the benefit of the doubt for showcasing modern aroma chemistry and showing people who wouldn’t otherwise know, what things like ISO E Super and Ambroxan are all about. However, it still marred my view of him as a perfumer but looking at his back catalog he’s produced some wonderful stuff which I adore and the Ormonde Jayne line are right up there. Incidentally I do like the Escentric molecules, especially the later ones and Zizan reminds me very much of Escentric 03 because it’s got that ultra sharp, lime citrus note and ton of vetiver, dry juniper type stuff and that synthetic cedar wood note of ISO E Super. This is like a Post-TdH scent but from the year 2050! I’m not saying there wasn’t any citrus/vetiver/woody scents before that, but TdH represents the high water mark in the mainstream. The pink pepper starts to pop when it settles producing a somewhat signature smell of futuristic, fresh spiciness. I really like it.
feofan88 – :
Like the best powerhouse scent from the 80s that you and a precious few just recently discovered. Sublime for its old-school masculinity and sillage.
Two thumbs up for this niche that is worth its asking price.
IngaKrasava – :
Nice;-)
almasd – :
A citrus and aromatic, woody fragrance that is a touch too strident for me but it would be gorgeous on my man. A big bergamot and lime entrance that becomes stronger with the vetiver amping these notes up. The cedar is strong but there is quite a lot of lemon, bay leaf and aromatic sage which keeps everything zingy. I love the sage note but I guess my skin is really amping it up and its ruining the fragrance for me by becoming harsh. If the sage was gone then it would be a fb for me for sure. I dont know where the musk, amber, pepper are but I think they are underneath the sage!
ariliassora – :
A very boring scent; lemony limey and ones that are over ripe and going brown it has a bitter smell like you would find in a perfume that is going rancid.It was a fresh bottle too ordered from her store in London. It sounds promising on paper. All of her fragrances have a very Indian/ Middle Eastern smell, and their names like Nawab, Champaca, Isfarkand seem to tell you her love of the Asiatic spices and smells associated with the same. I think these smells are exotic, but in greeny sleepy parts of Surbiton Mrs Brown and Edna find it objectionable, which I think is fine in those countries but in England where people generally purport to hate curry and spice smell, yet strangely curry is the national dish. I know cos as a kid I took some spices into school in a cookery lesson and all the teachers and European kids started to call it the P*k* smell and insist that the windows are opened and started holding their noses it seems not to be quite their cup of tea yet chai latte they wax lyrical about. Quite why it is £90 is beyond me. If I bought a perfume that smelt like this at the £ shop I would think I have paid too much for it. I have already had some adverse comments when frequenting pubs saying I smell like a dark skinned gentlemen, I cant use the word they actually used for it is offensive and yet they all order Chicken Tikka Masala and naan bread? I tend to wear her fragrance in the inner cities where their are many immigrants and I have found that people from Asia always ask if I was the chef in the family as what I was cooking was potent!
wulf – :
What a lovely refreshment!
This is exactly the kind of citrus I like, a deep, woody, smokey one with many layers. The lime is very prominent but it’s so lovely I don’t mind. Actually, it smells like a fresh lemonade and without the notes listed, I would have though it was lemon. It’s shortly followed by bitter vetiver, which tames the citrus and prevents it from getting too sour.
This fresh bitterness is present throughout. As it develops, Zizan get slightly warmer and just a bit peppery but it’s still fresh. At the same time, it gets slightly herbal and green. All of these phases are very well blended and merge together smoothly.
The impression I get is a very elegant man in a suit. I’d definitely say this is a summer fragrance, but an interesting one.
semvik2009 – :
A pleasant smoky citrus harmony. For an athletic male without great pretensions. Excellent longevity and sillage.
AlexEster63 – :
It’s another scorcher out today, so I decided to try one of the made-for-men offerings in my queue, since candy and flowers can be overwhelming under these climatic conditions. Ormonde Jayne Zizan somehow never got sniffed by me before, so here goes:
No argument that this is a masculine cologne! Many of the usual suspects are readily detectable in this blend, from vetiver to juniper to pepper to citrus. This is an aromatic woody composition with a big dose of aromachemical base “cedarishness”, so for me it’s not very appealing. Some people really like that “stuff”, however, so Zizan could be a winner for them.
I was thinking about the difference between this British house and Miller Harris, which strikes me as basically this: Miller Harris avoids the aromachemical boosters and uses only natural wood in their blends. The aesthetics are very similar, at least when it comes to their aromatic-woody-citrus blends, except on that point, it seems to me.
Overall, I’d characterize this as a fairly classic (as in not original but comfortingly familiar) made-for-men cologne. It’s an interesting combination of natural-smelling aromatic notes atop a fairly dominant aromachemical base. Zizan will certainly do for many one-bottle-at-a-time gents. The sillage is pretty big though, so only guys who don’t mind everyone knowing that they wear fragrance will feel comfortable in this.
Seetedula – :
My husband really rocks this particular scent; he’s an outdoorsy, athletic kind of guy who doesn’t want his cologne to announce his arrival–no thick gold chains or inflated ego here– yet he still wants his scent to have a presence. The house of Ormonde Jayne is brilliant at that–scents with medium sillage that are quality modern offerings.
Zizan starts off with a tangy lemon/bergamot but quickly joined by a burst of lime and a hint of juniper. (Zizan doesn’t strike me as peppery as some of OJ’s scents, at least not on my husband. ymmv) Soon the citrus starts to meld with some of the more herbal elements, and the effect is slightly bracing and astringent. The grassy vetiver and woodsy cedar become apparent in the drydown, and 12 hours later, we still could get a conservatively musky cedar glowing from hubby’s chest and arms–probably a nod to the IsoE that OJ seems to love.
Zizan is full bottle worthy for DH and goes on our short list of To Buy. A worthy scent from one of my most beloved fragrance houses.
aleha75 – :
personally don’t think this fragrance deserves the poor reviews it seems to receive. At once, it is a quality and skilfully realised scent with bold projection and enduring longevity. The super-masculine blend of citrus, herbs, wood and vetiver evolves elegantly and reminds me a little of Terre d’Hermes and Gucci by Gucci pour Homme by the time it has reached the final stages. Very good.
mallaev_343 – :
A violet riding a vetiver fueled Harley Davidson wearing ancient biker colors encrusted with green herbs and not giving a d**n about the cloud of pepper, indole and musk fumes blasting out of the unmuffled tailpipes.
Loud, bitter, ultra manly. Wear black, dont shave and do what you will.
Ormande Jayne brilliantly balances incredibly potent green and bitter accords with a gorgeous, understated violet heart note and comes up with an ultra potent, super manly scent that pulls off the sheer agression of a Yatagan while maintaining the subtle beauty of a violet based floral. This is perhaps the only perfume I have smelled the can stand on its own alongside oudh as the ultimate in forceful masculinity. Hats off!
igor27gor – :
After the big surprise with Ormonde Man, I was probably expecting too much from Zizan but, as a matter of fact, all I got was a citrusy-peppery, wood-centered composition with slight green undertones. We’ve seen this iteration too many times, not to talk about the huge amount of Iso E Super with which Zizan is fully loaded…
Woody amber galore…
Rating: 4/10
Sergey(PS) – :
I smell strong and peppery citrus, herbs, and woods on first spray, very crisp, assertive and pleasant. There’s a harsh, synthetic, teak-like note in the base, but it’s not strong enough to be obnoxious. It seems to be one of the typical markers of a “man’s” fragrance, and I’ve gradually made my peace with it, so can ignore it enough to integrate it into the big picture.
I tried Zizan after sampling a couple of unusually wimpy EdTs, and the contrast is amazing. There’s no comparison between the clear and well-defined scent of Zizan and the lifeless, ambiguous, timid scent of the other two. Sillage is moderate, and longevity is excellent. After 4-5 hours the musky base takes over and persists for at least 4-5 hours more. As a woman, I would (and will) wear this with no hesitation. It’s definitely not for those who love only fruity-florals and sweet gourmands, but if you like woods and herbal notes, it’s a must-try.
tessei330 – :
i really dig zizan. after shopping around london last week, this was one of my most rewarding purchases (along with coromandel & leather oud). how can you go wrong with an all-season, macho green citrus bonded to a sturdy, focused vetiver heart?
sure it’s redolent of other frags, but has strictly its own identity. great longevity and an ebullient, if moderate sillage. a very upbeat & well-constructed MAN’S frag (really didn’t jive with OJ isfarkand, even less so with OJ man. tolu was inneresting…)
zizan deserves more love! 8/10
SAHTA – :
Its a classic cologne scent thats been modernized. Love this particular Vetiver scent, it may be up there with my absolute favorite vetiver scent, Sycomore.
Танита – :
luv the vetiver notes there
Vitasha29 – :
I’m not wild about this.
There’s a nice bit of lime upfront in the first few minutes before it settles down to fairly boring, sedate floral middle accord of jasmine and violet. The savory base is very light and hardly worth mentioning. It’s all spiced up with colossal amounts of raw pepper/ISO E super mix which seems to be the Ormande Jayne house style as far as the masculines are concerned.
I don’t think men are going to form a queue to buy this one.
AnderRS – :
Me gustó bastante… se nota la diferencia a cualquier fragancia vulgar.-
Buean fijación
9/10
olegario – :
The latest masculine offering from Ormonde Jayne, Zizan features perfumer Linda Pilkington’s by-now signature crisp, herbal overtones, and rich, dry ambery undertones. The peppery beginning is frustratingly fleeting, but the floral midpoint is quite pretty, and renders this scent quite wearable for women. While overall not as breathtakingly original as Ormonde Man, Zizan is clearly another quality offering from this most impressive British parfumerie.