Dragonfly

I was lucky enough to be able to get my hands on a sample of this bottle, the original Dragonfly (before it was discontinued and reformulated in 2021 to the current version). And I’m in love. *If anyone has a full or even a partial bottle of the ORIGINAL Dragonfly that they’re willing to sell, please contact me!* If you're reviewing the current Dragonfly that you recently purchased from the Zoologist website, then you're reviewing the wrong fragrance here, and you instead want the 2021 Dragonfly page. Both are nice in their separate ways, and it's a shame that Zoologist couldn't continue selling both the OG version and the current, slightly more masculine/unisex version (after all, two dragonflies are better than one - mating season, babyyyyy, amirite?!). Okay, with that out of the way, let’s fly on to the review of OG Dragonfly. The original Dragonfly shares similarities with the current 2021 version although they’re still different creatures entirely, and equally difficult to compare. They live on opposite sides of the pond, if you will. Whereas the current 2021 Dragonfly is more aquatic, ozonic, iridescent, and smells far more “green,” the OG Dragonfly is more moody, powdery, feminine, floral, and it smells exactly like what you’d imagine a light hazy purple would. I can particularly detect the notes of iris, lotus, heliotrope, cherry blossom, rice, and rain – except in my mind, it’s purple rain. 2021 Dragonfly shimmers and bounces across the pond during a bright afternoon. Meanwhile, OG Dragonfly broods in a quiet and elegant haze of melancholia amongst the reeds and the cattail plants, underneath a drizzling and violet purple sky at dusk. 2021 Dragonfly accurately conjures a pond or greenhouse, but OG Dragonfly isn't as photorealistic. Instead, OG Dragonfly conjures ethereal beauty: it’s a buzz-worthy, lilac-hued jewel. This OG Dragonfly smells like a priceless piece of impressionist art in a well-curated museum. Except the purple flowers in that painting are now oozing, melting and dripping off the canvas and onto the floor in a swirling, muddled, beautiful pastel mess. OG Dragonfly is ethereal and wistful – there’s something vintage about it that conjures an almost antique-like quality that vaguely reminds me of something from childhood, but which I can’t quite put my finger on. OG Dragonfly is more ineffable and indescribable than its current counterpart. I read that OG Dragonfly feels like a portal to another world, and there’s something oddly accurate about that. It has an unknown, surreal, and mystical quality that borders on otherworldly. While I enjoy both the original and the current 2021 version of Dragonfly, I think I need to give the edge to OG Dragonfly. In five words or less: Impressionist flowers oozing off paintings.

This is a lot less watery/aquatic and green than I thought it would be. On my skin Dragonfly is more a slightly powdery/dusty, milky and misty scent, a scent that makes me think of lavender coloured morning twilight. It's beautiful, but in a completely different way than I expected. The heliotrope note is very strong on my skin, and so is the rice. Together they make a smell that reminds me of soft, sweet floral almond milk - which I guess is what creates that misty atmosphere. And this nutty, milky floral smell lasts a really long time on me. To me this is more an intellectual and conceptual scent than an actual replica of a place/a landscape. Dragonfly contains notes that creates images in my mind, images of an early morning by a pond or a lake, the light is dim and cool, there is a mist floating just above the water and in between the trees - but the scent doesn't smell photorealistically like dewy grass, woods and actual water. It smells more like a time of day (morning), a light phenomenon (twilight), a colour (cool lavender) and a weather phenomenon (mist) - and all these things together makes the mind create a picture of a landscape that matches the place dragonflies hatch and live. It's genious and a real work of art. The scent is soft, calming and sensual in a very innocent and charming way. It smells very harmonious and tranquil. Towards the drydown the milky, misty almond notes and the floral part of the scent takes a step back and leaves room for a very pleasant vanilla (it's probably a part of that amber accord). Sillage is medium to strong, and longevity is very good. On my skin this lasts 8-10 hours. I want a bottle! <3

Well, this is just lovely. A very pretty little pond dotted with flowers and fairies that pretend to be dragonflies at sunset. This is aquatic but not in the way you’d expect. It has that ozonic smell in the air right before or during rain. The starch of the rice adds a pinch of something rich otherwise the wispy florals and aquatics would be too light to capture in a bottle. The floral stand out is the lotus which helps lends to the aquatic leaning magic. There was something that almost smelled like dry wood which is the papyrus and oak moss which when it combines with the iris and heliotrope gives it a little bit of a powdery ladylike quality and a mossy forest feel. The aldehydes are done very well in here. They aren’t the kind that bowl you over like in that iconic Chanel fragrance that I won’t go into here, but they are modern and used with restraint. It adds a little drop of airy etherial beauty. The clover adds that wonderful green grassy twinge and the musk gives it that smoothness along with the woody velvety sandalwood. This fragrance isn’t cloying, or sharp, or too green. Like one astute reviewer said, “this is unique and wearable” and manages to give you something romantic, and light as dragonfly wing all while telling you a story. It’s fresh but also a little funky like the real outdoors and truly does capture a rainy little fairy land in the forest. Gosh I love this house! I mean it’s just fun isn’t it?

Dragonfly is my unexpected favorite of the Zoologist line! I find big dragonflies that aggressively steer towards me a bit scary. But this scent is more like a smaller, beautifully colored dragonfly that just flies above a pond in a garden full of pastel flowers. I would describe this fragrance as an aquatic floral gourmand. It's very unusual. I'm not a big fan of watery notes of any kind, but the rain note in here is beautiful. Today we have a rainy spring day with a thunderstorm, I'm wearing my sample of dragonfly and feel that the rain note captures the mood well. It doesn't feel beachy or too clean, but like sweet water, like rain or maybe a little creek in the woods. In the beginning I get a hint of old school aldehydes that support the rainy freshness. On the other hand, the rice note is also very noticeable, like warm, nutty rice pudding. Heliotrope adds an almondy, sweet note. Later the florals come out, cherry blossom is most noticeable on my skin, but peony and lotus are close seconds. The basenotes are light here, there's just a hint of earthy and mossy notes in the drydown, but this is rather a fresh scent, focussed on the top and middle notes. This way it works really well on warm and humid days. The notes might sound like an odd mixture, but they play together delightfully. I love it!

There is something in the opening that comes through as a bit odd to me. Not unpleasant, but odd. It vanishes after a few minutes completely. The most prominent notes to me are rice (like when boiling while rice), rain notes, florals and musk. It's a lovely watery floral scent with a dash of milky softness & a twist of mystery. I have to confess it is well made and actually quite different from anything else in this category. I can detect almost all the notes and they produce a sparkly effect that rests on a breath of light sweetness. I would not buy it thou, to light and fragile for me. Longevity very good. I sprayed in the morning and went out. Came back home after 7 hours and I could still smell in clearly. It was softer, but completely there. This might be a safe blind buy for light fragrance lovers that are looking for something more complexed. My husband loved it on me. This is absolutely unisex. Tested from a sample sent directly from Zoologist.