Macaque Fuji Apple Edition

I was not expecting to fall in love with this. I originally received this as a freebie, and I was not expecting to like it as much as I did. It might honestly be one of my favorite Zoologists I’ve tried, depending on my mood. The name makes you think it might be more apple-forward, but to me, this is not a sweet apple fragrance. I can barely detect the apple note. Like yes, there's a hint upon first spray, but I'd say it's more of a supporting tartness for the Juniper. A little flicker of fruit somewhere inside an alive green ecosystem. It’s like you’re in the middle of a dense rainforest, woods, moss, leaves, and humid air, and somewhere in there there’s a piece of fruit. But it’s not the fruit that matters. It’s the environment. It smells natural and wild, but clean in a way. Not clean like soap or powder, but clean like living greenery; plants, wood, and damp air. It definitely gives me the image of being a monkey in a rainforest, but without the funkiness. It captures the idea of that environment without making me smell like actual animal habitat. This is very green. Very foresty. It is warm, woodsy, green, earthy, resinous. Very alive. But not dirty or funky. It’s complex too. It’s not just green apple and woods. Though, hinoki really does stand out to me within the structure along with myrrh, oakmoss, and juniper. There’s something resinous and slightly spiritual about the heart, almost like incense or sacred forest air. It has depth, but it doesn’t feel heavy.

I’m reviewing this from a sample that I bought when it came out. I didn’t remember the scent at all, and I wore the rest of the sample when I found it a couple months back. The first thing I want to note is that it’s very possible that the sample went bad, because what I get here is not what anyone else seems to be getting. typically with zoologist, I can imagine myself in the habitat with the animal each time I wear a perfume. Unfortunately, I have no idea what the hell a macaque is, so it’s harder for me to grasp that part of the perfume. this is so insanely fermented and tart on my skin. It smells identical to the smell of when you go to an apple orchard a little too late in the season and most of the apples have been smushed into the dirt and have fermented and rotted. That’s where I think the sample *may* have gone bad, but I hope this is just how the scent is. Without that sourness, I would find this perfume to be too boring. I don’t like apple in my perfumes, but when it goes sour and fermented... sign me up! I love this stuff in my sample. I’ll have to order a new sample and see if the fermented thing is just because my sample went bad, or whether it’s the actual smell of the perfume !

This is GORGEOUS! I have bought several bottles from Zoologist over the years, and I'm very thankful to Victor for adding this sample to my most recent order. It's NOTHING like the original Macaque! Macaque Fuji Apple Edition has made it to my top 3 Zoologists, alongside Camel and Moth, and knocking off Panda. The opening is fruity, round, sweet and woody. The apple note in here is what makes this edition so special: it's probably the best apple note I've smelled in a perfume; nothing like the green apple in Panda. It's sweeter here and reminds me of a yellow apple (which are usually sweeter than red apples, even though the Fuji cultivar is reddish-pink). Macaque remains sweet throughout, but the apple facet of the sweetness dims with time and leaves place for the hinoki and oakmoss, which are the two other notes I'm able to single out. Compared to the Yuzu Edition, this is sweeter, fruitier and less sharp. I prefer the Fuji Apple edition way more.

First full bottle zoologist I bought from an actual Japanese retailer since this remains a limited edition (most of mine were resells at mercari or directly from the zoologist website). This is not so complex but definitely the most crowd-pleasing zoologist among the bunch. I find the approach similar to geza schoens juniper-forward chypre called boudicca wode where it transitions from a sweet blast then reveals a darker, earthier nature but this is sweeter & very juicy (with swirls of olibanum, Hinoki wood and a touch of sweet labdanum). I’ve tried a sample during summer and was convinced to get the bottle this winter - seems destined to be an all season, blind reach type of fragrance. I find it masculine but who cares at this point :)

Many of Zoologist's offerings suffer from the same problem: they work as room scents, but are unwearable for most people on most occasions. I'm looking at you, Bee and Cow! The original Macaque was nice, but had a somewhat off-putting mid-note that smelled like rotting bananas. Zoologist's flankers, however, corrected most of the original's problems, and are very nice indeed. "Yuzu" is a great citrony blend, and "Fuji Apple" is even better, with a pleasing apple note that blends wonderfully with spicy basenotes. Longevity is decent and the drydown is very pleasant. It's always best to buy samples of Zoologist's products before committing to a full bottle, but Zoologist has made the decision to buy quite easy with this one.