Orchid Mantis

An orchid by any other brand would not smell as sweet. A botanist’s dew-eyed, green fever dream, Orchid Mantis bedews, beguiles, and bewitches its wearer. This is one of Zoologist’s finest accomplishments – and perhaps the most glowing floral fragrance on the market. It’s a hot pink hallucination of lip-glossed venom, floral lacquer, and sticky palms in a greenhouse that breathes as if it were alive. It’s a kiss from a rose on the grey. Orchid Mantis is the scent of Poison Ivy’s greenhouse. It intimately lures you into a botanical atrium – a haven of sticky heat, dew-drenched petals, and monstrous florals that lean in just a little too close. The air is surreally humid and pungently floral, with that dewy, glistening wetness, and a slightly acidic lip-lock of yellow citruses that melt into your skin. Vines of flora twist out of soil and creep toward the sky. Rare and exotic orchids bloom with obscene lushness, littering the earth in shades of fuchsia and high femme sprawling underfoot. Taking inspiration from the heavy, shoulder-padded fragrances of the 1980s, a southern girl decked out in pastel greens and pinks could still wear this fabulously. But me? I want to drown in it. Perhaps one of the most pleasantly approachable fragrances that Zoologist has ever released, Orchid Mantis lacks a bit of the standard Zoologist punch that we’ve come to expect. But don’t be fooled – it’s wildly addictive, right down to the very last petal. Like a carnivorous pitcher plant, Orchid Mantis lures you in and reminds you that beautiful things are a trap. It seduces softly, slowly - until you’re caught in its pretty but poisonous tendrils. Devoured in its embrace, and still gasping for another breath of its floral sap. It's leafy-soft, with a bite like glass. Orchid Mantis might just be Zoologist’s prettiest scent – but it’s not harmless. It coyly and delicately dares you to spray it again. And then, like a Venus fly trap in bloom, it smiles as it swallows you.

This might be my favorite take on a floral scent yet. Rarely does a scent manifest a certain setting or memory like this one has. The opening is a beautiful mixture of basil, citrus, and pear, which brings for a feeling of humid greenery. When Zoologist lists "dewy green accord," they did not lie! This gives way to a vibrant, yet delicate, mixture of florals which has yet to be paralleled in my scent trial journey. There is a faint "pissyness" (as put by my boyfriend) which you also get from actual flowers. There's also a subtle soapiness too. The depth of this scent has wowed every person I've shown this to. They way this conjures the memory of visiting a flower nursery's greenhouse, right after the flowers are watered, with my mom in mid-spring to pick out that Summer's garden arrangement, is breathtaking. This is a fragrance that reminds me why I became obsessed with perfume in the first place. I've already gone through a sample from several wears and showing it to friends, and I have a travel size coming soon. I see myself getting a full bottle down the line. This is bound to be my go-to S/S fragrance. 10/10

Tomoo Inaba is a very very creative Perfumer. Orchid Mantis is a very pretty floral fragrance, it is very nostalgic and vintagy reminds you of the good old days. I own moth and I can say they have the same similar DNA while Moth is the gothic sister, Orchid Mantis is the "bright" sister. To the scent itself to my nose, the Jasmine is very heavy here and dominate along with the Lady of the night flower and the green notes for the first 2 hours then after that it feels like you have entered a forest that it just finished raining, very humid with the whiffs of flowers from the background. Very unique and it will definitely make you stand out. Like every Zoologist sample before buy People say it is feminine, well I'm a male and I bought a full bottle of this pretty fragrance and I give it 10/10 Thank you Inaba for your work 🥰🤗

Imagine the most indolic ylang-ylang colliding with the most indolic jasmine, bound together with the sharp, almost feral bite of freshly cut grass. Then a deep, shadow-soaked moss rises through the composition: green, wet, and funereal; the scent of a night where the earth itself seems alive with restless spirits. Now the tale unfolds: This is the wedding perfume of the Corpse Bride. The flowers she clutches are wilted and water-logged, their vitality long surrendered to decay. She drifts forward in a slow, mournful glide across grass pushing up through bog-like soil, the ground soft, cold, and breathing beneath her feet. Gravestones loom, coated in velvet moss. Everywhere is dampness, darkness, rot; an eternal twilight where beauty and ruin hold hands. Wow. Tag(s): mossy, indolic, vintage-y, melancholic, decay

Very impressive to me. The opening is a tropical jungle as perceived in a dream state. That dream is pleasant and sunny but there is something lurking in the soil, making everything uncanny and unnerving. It's basically a David Lynch film in a bottle. There are 30,000 species of scented orchids, ranging in fragrance from rotting flesh to sweet jasmine/honey to cinnamon + chocolate. "Pink Orchid" means absolutely nothing in a photorealistic sense. This is high fantasy territory. The opening is all humidity + jungle sweat. The "green accord" is very present and smells like freshly cut leaves to me. The heart is of a musky tropical bouquet, positively dripping with nectar and hinting slyly at the inevitable rot and ferment underneath. Divine. One of zoologist's best to my nose.

The fact that each new Zoologist releases used to generate a wave of blog reviews and now there’s so many releases nobody knows what’s going on should really make Victor Wong reconsider the breakneck release schedule. Even Luca Turin told him indirectly with his reviews that he needs to slow down. There are probably 20 more scents in this collection than there needs to be! Anyways, this is a grand green floral, almost a Chypre. I was surprised by how dirty it smells, in a good way, this is really sexy and louche. Private collection or ylang 49 come to mind but the florals are much more vivid here. It’s tropical in a green and humid way, not a candy colored banana boat and pina colada way. Basil and pear do a lot of the heavy lifting. Vivid pink and lime green.

Absolutely beautiful! This perfectly captures the essence of its beautiful, delicate namesake. It smells like being in an orchid's natural environment, with an orchid mantis hiding in plain sight. This is the most beautiful soft, green but woody floral. It is very soothing and Zen-like scent to me. I agree with the reviewer below that it smells like a garden outside of a Balinese temple. It gives you that feeling of being in nature and a sacred place at the same time. Full bottle worthy for me. (Note: Most of the fragrance suggestions on this page are WAY off. This perfume smells in NO way like Anais Anais, it smells nothing like Lush's Pansy nor does it smell anything like 29 High Street. I have smelled all of these and they are not at all alike).

Today was 90 degrees, and this turned out to be a great perfume for the heat -- refreshing, sweet, and green. I was instantly in love from the first spray, and stayed that way throughout. The heat may have caused it to burn off faster than usual, so this actually might be better off as a Spring fragrance. Yes, it does smell like Lush, specifically reminiscent of their fragrance 29 High Street, but better. This is my second Zoologist sample, and I'm loving the brand so far. Bonus points for the mantis, since they're one of my all-time favorite bugs!!!

A REALLY nice natural floral smell with a bit of a note of mild incense; like the scent of being in a metaphysical store but if they also sold a bunch of fresh flowers. Or maybe like the flower garden outside of an old mansion. There's a sense of elegance and mystery to this. It's nicely unisex too; I think if you're masc and looking for a nice floral that's not too sweet or girly this is for you. Or if you're femme and looking for something mature and classy. Really versatile too, I could see myself wearing this in any season. Absolutely love it.

I like this. It is a floral-tropical forest fragrance. It is difficult to identify individual notes, but it is a blend of flowers sitting in a green forest that is tropical in essence. I don't notice any powdery smell, fortunately, which is kryptonite for me. It has quite a strong sillage and projection and will be noticed by people around you. Fortunately it is a good! smell. It is perfect for me when I walk around in my tropical garden, though I don't think it will fit in every context. To me it is a unisex fragrance.

I saw a lot of people compare it to soap, but I’m mainly getting the white florals, lemon and bergamot which are just fantastic. It’s a clean, dewy scent that reminds me of the rainforest, which is par for the course when the fragrance is themed after a tropical insect. The white florals, bergamot and lemon take me on a journey that eventually leads me to drinking a great cup of jasmine tea while watching the rain outside my window. (Great, now I’m dying for a cup of tea lol) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Gorgeous, juicy tropical scent. on my skin it smells like a candy watermelon but grown up and expensive and dries down to an aquatic floral scent. Beast mode for projection and longevity so a little goes a long way. Jasmine works well with my skin chemistry, but I would not consider this blind buy safe for the general population. I do want a full bottle of this one day, but the price point is a little high.

This fragrance blew my mind. It smells just like the jungle section of a zoo. It's humid, watery, green. This is the first photorealistic perfume that I smelled, and it put me under a spell.

Very impressive .Fresh humid flowers. it smells so good. I love it. It lasts a long time. Cow and this are my favorite from the brand. Both are between my top favorites perfumes.

this smells like the bar of soap that is in the church sacristy bathroom. elegant and floral with a hint of muskiness.

Perfect Spring scent for my skin. Does not dry down to baby wipes! Very smooth, ripe and lush.

Have you walked into a Lush store? That’s it, you know this fragrance, it’s glorious.

It smells like a hot jungle in full bloom. I love it!

A photorealistic botanic garden

Orchid Mantis explodes onto the scene with lush greens, tropical florals, and a prominent wilderness skank that I can't pin down. This reminds me far more of Sloth and Dodo than anything else from the Zoologist. It also reminds me a bit of Olympic Orchids' Tropic of Capricorn, but Orchid Mantis is the quirky, well-managed terrarium to that perfume's feral jungle. As evidenced by the plethora of questioning/negative reviews below, this perfume is definitely going to alienate a chunk of noses right off the rip. Once Orchid Mantis settles down, it becomes a much more approachable and even cuddly floral-green-musk fragrance. There is a bright floral note that hangs on long into the fragrance's dry down - my guess is remnants of the Ylang-Ylang that hang on to the musk. I do slightly understand the Nightingale (my beloved) comparisons during this stage, as perfumer Tomoo Inaba really seems to gravitate towards lush floral-musky bases. However, calling this perfume similar to Nightingale feels incredibly misleading. We're talking about a 20% similarity during an hour-long stretch of the perfume's wear. The opening of Orchid Mantis shares nothing in common with Nightingale, and if I didn't know the two perfumes were made by the same person, I would never have thought to compare them in the first place. My fiancee, a massive fan of green, mineralic fragrances, really loves this one. Me? I like it, but if I'm going jungle mode, I'm going full beauty (Carnal Flower) or full wild (Tropic of Capricorn). Inaba continues to be one of my favorite voices in the perfume industry, and even though Nightingale will probably be my favorite scent of his for quite some time, this is another wonderful effort that keeps me excited to see what he does next.