Le Serval

Carole Baskin could NEVER. If you’ve smelled any of Dawn’s menagerie, Le Serval is actually quite outspoken by comparison. The longevity is also quite good for a natural fragrance. The white florals and honey combined with these African continent sourced naturals makes for a sort of woody, genderless haze of golden hues. It strikes a balance between raw feline musk and haute couture perfumery. It’s unexpected but somehow manages to smell exactly like the animal’s den for which it’s named. Skank, hay, fur, wood, the rising heat waves you see off concrete in the summer. For me what’s most interesting is the construction of the fragrance, because Dawn built this fragrance from naturals sourced from the place it’s evoking. She channels these elements quite masterfully. This is definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. But it certainly is mine. I love Rendezvous, Chinchilla, Une Robe de Zibeline and Foxy. Lilas de Minuit is another excellent use of her fur accord. If this untamed creature is too far out of your comfort zone, try one of these. This one is built for sin.

Beautiful honey white flower animalic amber. Drydown is a sexy purr. A toned down Muscs Koublai Khan or Absolu Pour le Soir. Reminiscent also of delicate version of Bengale Rouge at times. My favorite from DSH so far. I definitely will get a FB! Moderate sillage, good longevity.

Oh dear lawwwd smells like my imaginary pet goat (of the farm variety) headbutted a beehive. But for real though, I am scared AF of animalics. I received this in a mystery bundle of samples and thought what the 'hay', let's give it a go. As others have mentioned it is not so skanky, and dries to a bit of a fuzzy wild feline. I'm still scared of animalics but am happy to have tried this, it's not as unpleasant as I made it out to be in my head. I can absolutely appreciate the artistry and the perfumer most definitely nailed the brief.

Wow Le Serval is...a lot. All I could think of was Marty McFly in Back to the Future saying, "I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet." Because I was not. To be fair, this has got to be one of the most well done, artistic fragrances I have tried. It is very animalic. So incredibly authentic to a cat who has been out in the sun and chilling in the grass or more to its name, could be found at a zoo encounter in hot weather. Dawn truly nailed it. Unfortunately I just don't think it particularly smells good. At least not something I would personally choose to wear. It is also quite strong, considering the amount of natural ingredients. I am a huge fan of honey and beeswax notes and while they are there, I think they are by far secondary to the animalic side of this perfume. There's definitely some hay there, too. It is worth a sniff if you are curious and if you can rock this, more power to you.

On me this is largely a woody, musky, animalic fragrance with a bit of honey. Although it's animalic, I don't find this one stinky. I do definitely see the resemblance to MFK Absolute Pour le Soir (which I believe has been discontinued?), however in the MFK I got a urine vibe which I don't get in the Le Serval. The performance on Le Serval is great, lasting all day with decent projection. Good for cooler months.