Squid

Here it goes, in depth explanation. I live in the tropics. The climate here is summer all year round with ambient temperatures being 30-32 degrees centigrade. Immediately after bathing i put two sprays of this perfume on my left wrist around the pulse point. I did not rub it in, i let it sit. Five minutes after spray i took a sniff. This stuff smells very very nice, it smells very sweetish. The smell makes me feel warm. It reminds me of gingerbread, again after five minutes of two sprays on wrist. This scent is gourmand, it is not aromatic. The smell invokes hunger. After 15 minutes the sweet theme stays but salt creeps in and oh my god is it nice. So damn nice. I can feel neurons firing in my brain when i sniff, as it starts to take on a very satisfying marine theme, NOT aquatic, MARINE. It has a marine theme yet the gingerbread/sweetbread(the pastry) sweetness doesn't go in the back, instead it makes room in front for the marine theme to sit. The two themes, the marine theme and the gourmand theme, combine to give an overall marine theme which has a briny scent the closer to the skin you get. If anyone here has ever smelled asepxia soap forte(which is what i use), this perfume reminds me of that. That soap on its own has a briny marine, masculine smell that i enjoy but it is very very faint. Squid zoologist briny smell reminds me of and complements it...and i love it god damn. I can vouch that there is nothing out here in 2022 or post 2022 which smells like zoologist squid nor has the transformation route this perfume takes. At first it is very sweet, again, gingerbread/sweetbread(the pastry) like. It is gourmand in its opening. Then 15, 20, 30, minutes pass, 60, 120 minutes onward the marine theme steps in but the gourmand theme is still there, just in the front seat WITH the marine theme. The dry down(post 120minutes) is where the "holy smokes what is that?" feeling steps in. The THEME is still gourmand marine but other notes take the front seat to give the gourmand marine theme more depth and man is it DEEP. The ink and the salt show up but you have to get closer to the skin to smell it and damn does it take u for a ride. You cannot get all that ink and salt smell in the silage. You have to come closer to me to pick it up. After 3hrs the theme is still MORE gourmand as a silage but its the theme changes to more briny with ink(not from a pen) and salt(sea salt) as you get closer to the source of the spray. This scent is NOT what zoologists nor its fans say it is . This scent is gourmand marine, NOT aromatic aquatic. The pink peppers and the amyl salicylate and benzoin express themselves throughout this perfumes entire life on my wrist, while moving further and further into the background the closer you get within my proximity. The three notes mentioned and how they're placed within the notes tree is what gives this perfume its "one of a kindness" so to speak. This perfume invites you with the gourmand theme...THEN....traps you with the marine theme in a state of "what is this and do i love it?" This is so well done in terms of complexity, wearability and subtlety. Again, the gourmand theme is expressed throughout the life but it eventually makes room for the marine theme, then the marine theme gets more mysterious yet likeable as it blends with the gourmand theme. This is me. This is how I am, expressed in a perfume. I almost passed on it because people were saying it smells bad(like fish) which it does not. Not in the slightest, not remotely. I live in an island country. I know what fish smells like and what the sea smells like, there's beaches less than 10 miles from any given residence location. This will not remind u of the sea, nor 2000 leagues under it, nor Ursula, nor davy jones. None of that would be spoken if the presentation was different, its just the way humans are i guess. This perfume is ITS OWN thing, thats the best i can explain it. Nothing compares to it. Its now my signature scent. I dont know about other seasons, I would wear this in summer or any hot weather/climate, but liberally. Two sprays of this stuff is enough for the whole day any and then some. Spray more and it becomes cloying in hot weather, still smells awesome but it WILL choke you. It agrees with my skin/skin scent. Im very elated because i did the wrong thing by blind buying a full bottle of this off zoologist website at 165usd after researching on fragrancia, reddit, parfumo and youtube trying to filter out fanboy biases and hater commentary. I wanted something very very niche/different but still wearable. When someone smells it they cannot think of anyone else but me because I alone smell like this. So to recap: Squid by Zoologist is a Gourmand Marine perfume with a pastry/gingerbread/sweetbread reminder with a briney inky/salty joining in on the drydown. I give it a 4.5/5 I will wear this everywhere i go because im it will behave differently according to ambient temperatures(only tried day time hot temperature and night time, air conditioned, which tones down the gourmand theme and raises the marine theme). This scent is masculine despite the sweetness because it is a manly sweetness, not a twink sweetness. Spray no more than twice in a hot climate, any more and it gets cloying. Longevity is moderate in hot climate, eternal in cold climate. I love this, from opening to dry down. the 4.5/5 is due to its performance, i wish it lasted longer in hot weather for what i paid(165usd) and it being extrait de parfume. EDIT: I found what this perfume smells most like on me, it smells like melted chocolate! Was eating chocolate and the smell is very similar to zoologist squid perfume when it completely dries down. Bathed and everything, still have a skin scent a whole day later on the area it was sprayed. Its performance is eternal, It grew on me. I give it a 4.5/5 out of 5 still though, because you have to apply just the right amount of squid for it NOT to be cloying. Again, no more than 2 sprays.

Some fragrances earn their reputation through shock value. Others do it through patience, balance, and originality. Squid by Zoologist belongs firmly in the latter camp. Regarded as a cornerstone of oceanic niche perfumery and one of the house’s most celebrated releases, Squid has received major recognition, including The Fragrance Foundation Awards 2020 Perfume Extraordinaire of the Year and a finalist position at the 2020 Art & Olfaction Awards in the Independent Category. Often described as deep, salty, and inky while remaining surprisingly wearable, Squid arrives with serious expectations. The real question is not whether it is artistic, but whether it truly delivers beyond the mythology surrounding it. (Before getting into the scent itself, a quick aside. I love the artwork Zoologist uses. A squid portrayed as a necromancer with a staff and hat is about as good as it gets. Like many others, I also wish the house had kept the older bottle design. I bought my bottle back in 2022 and still prefer it to the current presentation. That said, we are not here to talk about the bottle. We are here to talk about the juice. The indigo juice.) The opening of Squid is unexpectedly bright. Pink pepper and a touch of incense are immediately noticeable, joined by amyl salicylate, which gives off a subtle sun-warmed skin effect. There is also a hint of marine funk early on, present just long enough to announce itself before easing back. I even detect a very slight citrus nuance, despite it not being listed, along with a faint touch of ink. Around thirty-five to forty-five minutes in, as Squid moves into the heart, the ink accord becomes far more defined. Incense begins to emerge alongside the marine saltiness and opoponax. This combination pulls the fragrance into slightly darker territory, adding warmth and depth while preserving the amber glow, introduced in the opening. The transition remains smooth and intentional. At roughly the two hour mark, ambergris, benzoin, and musk finally start to push through, and the subtle marine funk makes a return. At this stage, Squid wears as a warm, slightly deep amber fragrance with a consistent oceanic undercurrent. There is a very slight oily, almost bag of fish bait like nuance here. Not straight fish, but that unmistakable suggestion of it. As the fragrance moves on, it becomes clear that Squid isn’t quite as dark or heavily marine as people may expect. The ink note is still there, but it blends with warmth and a slight sweetness. Somewhere around the three to four hour point, everything comes together. The amyl salicylate from the opening, the opoponax from the heart, and the benzoin in the dry down finally converge. What remains is a beautifully composed, slightly oceanic, balsamic, inky amber scent that feels cohesive and deeply satisfying. This is the moment where Squid fully earns its reputation. Had I reviewed this fragrance after only one or two wearings, I likely would have dismissed it as underwhelming. Instead, Squid revealed itself as a slow burn that grew on me significantly over time. One thing years of wearing fragrances and watching certain releases become particularly successful has taught me is that originality leaves the strongest impression. For Ganymede, it was the mineral core. For Inexcusable Evil, it was the iodine and blood-like accords. And for Squid, it is that unmistakable ink note. Squid stands as a rare example of an amber marine fragrance that works beautifully as the weather cools or any time you want it to, quite frankly. It is artistic without being unwearable, distinctive without being gimmicky, and confidently self-assured in its uniqueness. Wow.

Absolutely one of the best perfumes i’ve tried. A favorite for me. I will likely buy a full bottle soon. Squid is luxurious. Squid is a presence. It’s dark, brooding, but not someone who is insecure. No. It’s someone who’s assuredly confident, but willingly puts themselves in the background of a situation. Someone who enjoys the spotlight *only* when it is under their command to be in it. Thoughtful, intense, and unafraid to ask the hard questions. It is the presence who calmly approaches the person standing on the edge of a bridge with gentleness, asking, “What’s a moment in your life you’re proud of?” "If you could wake up tomorrow and everything felt just a little bit better, what would that look like?” And then they listen. Without judgment, without expectation. The ink note is cozy, and evokes a feeling of creativity and thoughtfulness in me, like writing on an overcast day. It is dark and poetic. I would alternatively call this The Raven, like the poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” Something about it makes me want to taste it. It has sea salt, but never veers into a fishy or animalic territory, not even a little bit. It is a personality rather than a literal representation of the ocean. I’m glad for that. I wouldn’t want to smell like an actual ocean. I can’t stop sniffing myself when I have this on. Needs to be experienced on skin rather than paper. I think it may be too “cold” to wear on a snowy day, I think that would be a little overkill, akin to eating ice cream in the middle of a blizzard. Regardless, it is the type of fragrance you could wear when you want to make an impression and still be sophisticated. It makes me feel a little more mysterious, creative, confident, and in control. Simply divine. Thank you Celine Barel for this beautiful and wearable work of art!

I love a good cuttlefish ink risotto. The briny, savory, and sweet flavor from the ink against the creamy rice and unctuous seafood stock is divine. The folks at Zoologist seem to think so too with this overlaying of a marine-ozonic ink note over a sweet amber base. The opening and the heart of Squid don’t quite stand as distinct sections of the perfume. Like ink jettisoned into seawater, there is a non-homogeneous and insoluble mixture for a time until the dry down to the base. There is plenty of tight, fruity, earthy peppercorn sans the piquancy, salt, a big marine ozonic note, sweet balsams from the amyl salicylate, and a resinous brown incense. The notes swirl about each other, sometimes coalescing and sometimes grating, until they finally harmonize just before dissipating to a warm vanillic benzoin and a salty musky base that pushes an ambergris character that is about as close to the real thing as I’ve smelled from synthetics in quite some time. The perfume is very striking and well done, at times it’s a little off putting, but at other times safe, familiar, and dare I say yummy. Zoologist has numerous amber offerings in their line-up but this is probably the most peculiar and captivating. It certainly won’t be to everyone’s taste, particularly since mass consumers generally have the same expectations for ambers across all brands and Squid doesn’t wish to be like any of them. I can’t decide if it’s full bottle worthy for me but only because I’m not sure when, where, and why I’d want to wear it but that is simply a personal taste preference and not a criticism of the perfume. Squid is excellent and a standout perfume for the brand.

And... I'm back to giving the Zoologist fragrances a go, and this is literally the deep end. Someone asked me yesterday what it was like (on my first day wearing it) and I said it was definitely "ink and stink." It's a strong and mostly weird scent. Daring to make, and daring to wear. Daring in the notes and how they're combined. I've read a book or two, and a blog or two, but I'm no expert in the chemistry of scents or individual notes. I know we can't smell water, and we can't smell salt, so any evocation of "the ocean" is indirect. I like the seagrass whisper of Sel de Vetiver. I like the old sweater and ocean breeze scent of Epice Marine, although that one can skew a bit peppery and Band-Aids -like for me. Squid definitely shares some similar "marine" chemicals with Epice Marine, but it is a much stronger scent, with a sharpness and sweetness and a-humanness that comes in and out. I don't think it smells exactly like the sea, ink, incense, and stone, but that's kind of the vibe. It's true to the concept, self-consistent, and *interesting* ... but just unlike a conventional perfume. It stays in the say-something zone for a long time before it dries down. This is a challenging scent, but it's in no way bad, and it's not a stunt. It doesn't have the immediate sense of wrong wrong wrong as, say, Secretions Magnifique. It doesn't seem cheap or poorly made. It's not trying to reek, but it does come at you from well outside one's typical frame of reference for perfume. I'm going to wear it some more, to get a better sense of what I think about it emotionally and practically. I think I'm only going to like this one more over time.