Night Flyer

Being relatively new to niche fragrances, and loving the darker and more challenging types of scents, I was really excited to give this one a try. That being said, when I first sprayed this on I felt that I had met my match and found myself confronted by a wave of soil and urine (which I assume could be a civet note, even though it’s not listed in the note breakdown). Thankfully, the pissy opening subsided after a few minutes and I was left with a hyper realistic soil accord with ripe fruits creeping in. Night Flyer began to win me over when the soil and fruits began to harmonise and the Vetiver and resins became apparent. The dry down of NF is absolutely stunning if you enjoy dark and resinous fragrances like Black Afgano. What I hoped to find with this fragrance was something dark and comparable in feel to BA (my favourite fragrance) for the warmer weather, and it absolutely did not disappoint in that regard. The price and quality of this juice is phenomenal, and four sprays lasted me about 24hrs, with 12 or so hours of solid projection. Beast mode for sure. To my nose it definitely leans masculine, however, I think a more feminine person with a gothic sense of style could pull this off without too much trouble. It definitely isn’t mass appealing or an easy wear, but this is fragrance as art which achieves the goal of capturing the experience and feel of bats inhabiting a tropical cave. A must try for dark fragrance lovers, I’ll be picking up a full bottle after my sample runs out.

Ordered a sample as part of testing kit with 5 Olympic Orchids perfumes. I have never smelled original Bat, but have heard so much about it, that I could not miss the opportunity to test its successor. Despite being a big fan of petrichord notes and earthy patchouli style fragrances, I was scared a bit by the "ripen banana" element of Bat. Somehow, banana smell evokes pictures of flavoured condoms in my (apparently twisted) mind. Thankfully, Nightflyer has by no means resemblence to odour of male contraceptive devices. It's gorgeous, not at all challenging, difficult or in any way polarizing scent. The fruitiness at the start is more tropical fruit-like (I pick a good deal of coconut actually), no banana per se. The earthy element takes over shortly and becomes more pronounced with time. It would be very confusing to describe it as "dirty", because this is very clean, pure black soil smell - such as if you open a bag of fresh garden soil for your balcony flowers. Does not come across as dirty at all. If you like smell of fresh earth, this will be a very familiar and comforting experience. From up close, you can smell green lushness of the rain forest foliage - in these elements it actually reminds me another Zoologist creation - Elephant. In the drydown stage, what stays are nice clean musks and faint fruitiness. Overall it is super original, evocative and highly interesting perfume. I'm looking forward to wearing it outside and watch people's reactions.

The accomplishment of my year, 2021. When I first found Zoologist, they had considerably less fragrances and this was one. I had a sample kit with about 15 scents and my fiancé fell in love with the original Bat. When the sample was gone, I went to go buy it and found that Zoologist had discontinued it and it was sold out everywhere. For several years, he would continue to bring up Bat. We tried the new formulation and agreed it just seemed hollow and wrong somehow -it was NOT the original. I don't know which fragrantica user mentioned Nightflyer, but as soon as I saw it was Ellen Covey's formulation I snapped it up and hid it away until his birthday. Upon opening it, he had no expectations whatsoever and then he sprayed it and said OMG THIS IS IT! IT'S BAT! He has a terrible memory so I wasn't even sure that he'd recall how it had been all those years ago. This has been his white whale and I am so thrilled Ellen was able to release this formula under Olympic Orchids, and more so that I was able to find it. As to the fragrance itself, the fruit, the dampness of the earth, and the minerals truly shine here. One spray will fill an entire room and it lasts 12+ hours.

I didn't think, by the description, this would be a perfume I'd like. I typically find fruity scents to be cloyingly sweet and occasionally they stray into the sunscreen department, especially with banana and tropical fruits. They can get malibu rum/banana boat quickly. This is far more sophisticated than I expected. The banana, fig, and tropical fruits are there but the prominence of the mineral and earth notes work beautifully to stop them becoming an obnoxious, in-your-face, bath and body works fruit salad. Instead it is grounded, deep, and, yeah, cave-like. It's so refreshing during the hot summer, getting a whiff of a cool, dark, damp cave. The resin and olibanum sit quietly in the background and make the perfume even deeper and more complex. This is currently my signature scent. I'm still trying other things, but I find myself, time and again, longing to smell this one instead of whatever I have on at the time. Edit: Petrichor. Petrichor comes to mind. This reminds me of the smell of just after rain, but with the fruits mixed in.

Evocative and strange and intriguing, I am quite sure I have nothing like this in my large collection. Looking at the notes, I was sure this would not be a love, and, well, I’m simply stunned at how much I’m enjoying this little oddball. Wet, cold earth with stale air, evocative of a cave due to the mineral note. There’s also lots of overripe fruits on the verge of spoiling, but also at their most aromatic stage....enchanting. These are the kind of fruits that are plump and squishy, their scent mingling with the heavy atmosphere. It’s both dark and bright. I smell musk and a delicious resin note in the base. I thought I would grow tired of Night Flyer as the scent stayed with me all day. The first half I’m confident it’s projecting, though I have been around very few people so I’m not sure. But most importantly, I found myself intrigued with the scent....in a way I can’t remember happening with any other perfume I own. If the original Zoologist Bat smells close, I’m sure I would love it. I think this is a Ellen Covey masterpiece.