Tropic of Capricorn

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!

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.

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!

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!

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?