Tyrannosaurus Rex

T. Rex opens intensely caramelized and deep brown, then smoky, then waxy-balmy with delicious ornate florals, and then smoky again, like a bonfire among flowers. Strong Indian-wedding vibes. There's a *lot* of ylang-ylang, and it's lush, tropical, and quite rubbery. Golden and breathy, backed up with resins. Then the smoke and resins strengthen, the color darkens from gold to toffee and copper, and we've got caramelized smoky flowers, or spicy floral incense. It's very strong, but I find it beautiful. It's like Gardoni's other incense scent, Lita, with a heavy dose of floral nectar mixed in. Lots of champaca and ylang, lots of humid, heavy, tropical floralcy. Basically this is the most epic nag champa incense ever. (Does it smell like barbecue? Sure, I guess, if you don't know what nag champa incense smells like. To me it's *really* photorealistic incense. The good kind -- sweet and spicy and floral. ) Over the first hour the florals recede slightly and the smokiness strengthens. The tangy, bright-brown incense also turns a bit sharper, more pine-sappy and resinous. By the 1-hour mark, T-Rex is distinctly a conifer-resin and smoke scent; still very strong and fierce, reddish-brown and the perfect balance of sweet and bracingly turpentiney. By 1.5-2 hours, T. Rex is finally starting to dry out and calm down a little; less reddish amber-resin, more crackly golden incense and woods. (Sandalwood?) It's still quite rich and warm, though, with a lovely golden radiance. And sometimes the pine-sap note comes back and makes it glow red-gold. I think T. Rex is one of Gardoni's best fragrances, and one of my all-time faves; there are simply no other floral/incense scents this bold and epic. True to Gardoni's usual style, it's an aggro tour de force, merging the complexity of classical perfume with a punchy intensity of flavor the vintage classics never had. Sure, it's too much for some people, but for me it's rollicking feel-good fun.

On my skin, this opens up somewhere between "Imaginary Authors, Bull's Blood 2.0" and "PDM, Carlisle with a slightly blood like note", and a lot more complexity behind that again. I consider myself a decently knowlable amatuer in the fragrance hobby. But i can't even begin to sum up all the facets and nuances in this fragrance. It opens (on me) carnal and spicy, moves to woody, sweet, and floral in the mid. and ends up as a sweet, spicy, and animalic leather in the dry-down. And there is another 2-3 stages between each of those stages again. The fragrance is alive and evolving at all time. It is quite simply something to experience, not to be described. On My skin, this is quite wearable as well. The first minutes i'd say are a little tougher on other people, as the bloody/carnal note can be weird/too much for the average person. But after that, i can't find any point where it's not wearable. In late fall or winter, this will be amazing. it was a bit cold today (7-8 degrees celsius), and it wasn't too much at all. When it's freezing, this will be a warm breath of air. And at some points, it could be a literal breath of air from a carnivore. Where: Casual. Nothing formal about this. It's a fun, challenging, and dearing fragrance. Don't show up at a wedding wearing this unless you've got everyone's approval first. When: Fall and winter. Potentially early spring. day or night. Who: It's very masculine. It's dominating, it demands attention, it has a clear presence. I don't see teenagers wearing this, but i would love them to do so. Personal score: 9.5/10. This is on my "Must have" list, and i'll be getting a full bottle by mid/late fall. Absolutely worth sampling. DO NOT BLIND BUY!!!

My sample of Tyrannosaurus Rex arrived today, and I have it on as we speak. When you first spray it, it feels like an icy blast from the ice age, and then you move backwards through time from there, through a volcanic eruption filled with thick smoke and ashes into a weird, primal jungle landscape filled with plants and flowers you've never seen or smelled before. There's something dry, dusty and mineral-like just beneath the surface, and a shadowy, resinous leather note with heavy animalic facets that slowly appears and lasts almost to the end. In the drydown I smell resins, soft leather and the civet - which on my skin smells like a mix between gloopy, dirty honey and incense smoke. This fragrance is a fantastic journey that hits you in the gut and leaves you gobsmacked! Tyrannosaurus Rex is a really raw and primal scent, wild, beastly, chaotic, but at the same time it has a weird appeal. It's not a pretty, easy or familiar smell - it takes you to places you've never been before, some of them are scary and ugly, and some of them are strange and weirdly wonderful. The closest thing I can associate it with is the scenes from the movie King Kong (by Peter Jackson) where the crew is exploring the island jungle, and discovers the dinosaurs and all the weird bugs. This kind of smells like the landscape and vegetation in that movie. This beast is a new masterpiece from Zoologist! On my skin the sillage seems to be a solid medium from the beginning to the end, and the longevity is great.On my skin it lasts somewhere between 8 and 10 hours.

I haven't felt strongly to write online about anything I've tried. But this definitely left such an impression. The open was a slap in the face, in a good way. Strong, woody, and spicy. I did get immediate incense personally. My family owned a new age shop and I used to burn incense all the time, so this placed me right back into being a teenager in that store. As the mids came through more I got hints of a medical like scent in the journey, close to what child me would have called "pain". But the floral did break through, even just for a while which I really enjoyed and gave the fragrance a nice bit of depth to it. My partner swung by our study and clocked the sandalwood immediately, showing they could smell it about 3 metres away. Absolutely insane projection! Only to find it is now clinging to my skin after doing 2 sprays on a card. (Bonus was them saying they liked the sandalwood on me anyway?) My skin brings more of the resin forward to me, which was fascinating as I didn't smell it properly on the card at all. For now, this fragrance is stuck up in my nose and I do feel it in the back of my throat. One spray is more than enough for sure. Be warned to use sparingly, if not for your own sake, but for others who may be sensitive. This fragrance so far has been an interesting journey, and one I'm willing to revisit and do a proper skin test for. Especially since, of all things, I was not expecting Tyrannosaurus Rex to remind me of my own childhood. Props to the perfumer of capturing my new age childhood in a bottle.

Nothing here really softens the blow. The early opening is slightly sweet and well-rounded with florals and camphor notes, but once the metallic, balsamic, and tar sides show up, you're done for. This is the part that's truly diffusive, making the first segment of the wear a total room-filler. It's not that it's loud or overdosed; I'm just firmly convinced our fight or flight response is supposed to pick up on those smells. The drydown is slightly easier to wear (and great), but it's not as if the carnal nature ever leaves. Perhaps the best use of cade oil in all of perfumery. It weaves beautifully with patchouli and the signature Gardoni resins and animalics. Never gets boring or disappointing; it is well built with an astonishing level of detail and quality. I enjoy Bogue Maai, MEM and Come better (with which T-Rex shares some DNA) since those are scents I find a lot more applicable to real-life wear. Yet it's remarkable how unrelenting the vision here is. It's meant to shock, but it's got the bones to support it. This is a perfume. Anytime I want to share my interest in fragrances with new people, this is one of the samples I feel is necessary to show. Not that anyone will like it on first sniff, but it really shows the range of where perfumery can go, and that ends up resonating with people. If you seek perfumes for the sake of awe and artistry, it is a must-sample and one to keep close.

holy shit, was expecting to smell some bs notes but this is surprisingly good? i wouldn’t say pretty but it’s intriguing, provocative and straight forward, right off the bat it feels like fear in a bottle, a dooming and crushing fear of facing a predator that’s at least 200 feet tall, strong incense, i used to visit buddhist temples, even now, and always hated standing at the feet of those ginormous statues that fills up 40 percent of the temple, i wouldn’t dare to go around it, they always have bad lighting too, and it reminds me exactly of that feeling, the movie incantation came to mind and megalophobia, its also very green, a forest that could consume you whole with ease, it’s amazing when a fragrance can evoke such intense emotions, last one as artistic as trex that i smelled was ghost in the shell by eldo, both very fitting and on theme, it’s definitely tolerable for me, lowkey a confidence booster like a shield, wouldn’t recommend wearing it to restaurants as it kind of overpowers the food, it gets overstimulating after a few hours tho, probably wouldn’t wear it again in a long time due to this reason, also the dry down does kind of smells like a public restroom trying to smell good but has that lingering piss smell, i’m glad this was my first impression of zoologist, it’s a privilege to be able to have this experience

If you dont love Niche and Artisanal fragrances, move along... My initial thoughts were, “This smells like a Turkish grill”, as it exhibits a grilled meat quality to it. On my skin, T-Rex is an aromatic, smoky, amber, incense, balsamic and floral fragrance. I get notes of galbanum and rose at the heart, amber, incense, smoke and vanilla at the base. Sure it has its bitter qualities to it but it is subtly balanced by the sweetness of the amber, that almost brings brightness and life to the fragrance, all while the florals bloom, peering over low laying smoke shrouding the scene. The way that the perfumer brought in that subtle florals and sweetness is masterful, without it, T-Rex would be too basic and less wearable. It’s so marvelous that i cant stop smelling my hand and admiring the beauty in it’s delicate balance. Do i want to smell like this everyday, i think not, but it definitely has its time and place. In the dry down you get whiffs of different facets of this perfume from time to time, sometimes woody, other times incense or ambery. 8 hours in, it dries down sweeter and vanilic while still projecting decently Let me end this review off by saying i nominate T-Rex to be THE ambassador for niche fragrances. Scent: 9 Longevity: 9 hrs Projection: 9 Versatility: 4 Originality: 10 Wearability: 7 Overall: 9 Rec Sprays: 3-5

This is a beautiful fragrance with an unnecessarily bad reputation. The opening is ozonic and very leathery, with slight animalic notes from the neroli. The Osmathus and Jasmin can give a barnyard/indolic (fecal) note to some people, but I am hard to detect it. I fear that you do need a more experienced nose to cut trough the indole and see the absolute joy that is Zoologist T-Rex, but please, if you get the chance, try it. It is bold. It is daring. it smells of leather, Armagnac and Turkish rose, muddled together with something primal. It is how I imagine power smells, power as in energy, as in will. In the winter outside, especially on a hike in the woods or something this would go so well. You will not go trough a whole bottle and that is ok. This is not an office scent, it is far too daring for that, but is the fragrance bad for not fitting in, or is the constricting and limited space the issue of it? T Rex is for those brave enough to ask questions, be themselves and exude aura. This is how I imagine Nietzsche's overman smells like, a figure that creates value for himself and that is not afraid to break taboos. This is not a joke feces fragrance and I mean it, it is a truly beautiful work evoking the image of the apex predator of a time long gone.

I've been wearing this one now for about 45 minutes and it's an instant winner. Very much in the same "leather / patchouli" bomb camp as Monsieur. by Frederic Malle. I thought that scent was going to be way too strong for me IRL but one day, I took the plunge and it's been one of my go-tos for many years. This is a clear cousin, but far smokier (think burnt meat) and with white florals to balance it, instead of Monsieur's rum and vanilla notes. It's in no way fried lizard, or bloody carnage, or burning garage. Agree strongly with the review below that likened it to a burning forest with white florals. But then also... leather, pepper. All very well-blended. I think for a 50-something man (which I am) this is absolutely wearable. Would be more provocative on a woman or much-younger man, but provocative can be good. This is a strong scent but not a weird/WTF scent like Squid (which I like) or Secretions Magnifiques (which I don't). UPDATE: A couple hours in now. This one has a very interesting and thoughtful progression. Pleasant evolutions that others have covered in detail. It becomes less in-your-face but still very smoky.

Usually I'm more after sweet and fruity fragrances, yet for some reason Zoologist as a whole has sparked my interest. I've heard a lot about T-Rex, considered it not to be my type, yet of course I had to test it anyway and thus I got a sample of it. And what can I say... here I am loving it against all odds. First of all, this is definitely not something to wear on formal occasions. Too strong, too offensive, provocative, not a crowd pleaser. This is the asteroid that imprints your presence into every room you enter with fossils to be found even days later. It reminds strongly of scorched earth, burned meat, death and smoke. Where I'd wear it is for certain family meetings like barbecues or fireplaces, meeting with friends or night club maybe if you really want to turn heads regardless if they hate or love it.... or if you just want to be left alone in crowded places. This one is definitely better when it's colder, best during night. One or two sprays are usually enough, two might even be too much for some. Also be prepared to still take up traces of it next day after applying, even after taking a shower.

An absolute pinnacle of perfumery. How such a classic fragance can be so otherwordly? This is, as far as my fragance journey has reached, the most perfect concoction I have ever smelled. It brings me back decades ago, and at the same time it makes me think about what the future will be. This is an amazing take on vintage perfumery, twisting it to the limit for becoming another completely different thing. It brings me back my father and my grandpa. And it makes me feel so proud of them. About the fragance itself, I don't find it that challenging. Even the smokey part isn't that hard; in fact, it's the flower essence the one that stands out the most for me. And I love it. Would I recommend it to anyone below 40? Absolutely no. Or at least, not to anyone who isn't really confident about what he/she is wearing. This really smells like a true classic of decades ago, and anyone who isn't comfy with that better stay away of this. I think that's probably what people hate the most about this. Regarding me, this is my first Gardoni and I'm really willing to take a sniff about all his other fragances.

Similarly to Etat Libre D'Orange's Secretions Magnifiques, I believe genetics and or environmental factors will predetermine if you'll enjoy this scent or not. I know of someone who I share a similar fragrance taste with, and they proudly enjoy Secretions Magnifiques, whereas that rust-like metallic scent makes me want to throw up. Tyrannosaurus Rex is a scent like that; you'll either find it fairly pleasing or outright offensive. To my luck, this is a composition I find very enjoyable and inoffensive. It smells meditative, nostalgic and expressive. It reminds me of going to the museum as a kid and seeing a humungous reconstruction of a lifesize Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. It's also a good conversation starter; it'll get people around you asking, "Is it just me, or do I smell something burning?" If you have any doubts about trying this scent, just give it a shot and see if it's for you or not. It's one of my favourites.

A carnivorous destroyer of the perfume world. Primordial rage in a bottle. A roasting hot meteorite that slams into the earth, killing everything with the reckless abandon of raw nature. It lunges at the neck of perfumery, ripping it right open and feasting on it's flesh. At first whiff, strong tones of disaster and burning wood steam in like an out of control locomotive. Blood sprays everywhere; the rose oxide providing it's metallic and biological scent. A dense collection of prehistoric floral tones whisk you back in time, to a more primitive era where everything kills. Enormous sillage; leaves a big muddy footprint when you leave. Stays on your chosen body part for millennia and attacks a room as soon as you enter. Only for the brave; If you like miserable, doldrum crap like Versace, you will fucking hate this perfume. Those who want to smell interesting, unique and dangerous will love it. 10/10. It has no equal.

This is one of the most fucking horrific perfumes I've ever smelled in my life. and I love it so much for that reason. If you love dinosaurs, if you love Jurassic Park, and want to get in the spirit of your childhood watching movies about dinosaurs. get it. but you got to test it first cause you will most likely hate it if you smell it without this vision or perspective. This literally smells like the dinosaur era. It smells like a volcano smoke, wet green trees in the jungle under a thunderstorm, while you're running away from dinosaurs who are trying to eat you alive, while it’s raining with the volcanos smoke choking you. I absolutely love the house of Zoologist. Nothing smells like anything you've ever smelled before whether you like it or not. if you're a Paleontologists or a Volcanologists you got to get, this perfume as you're lucky charm while on you're hunts.

You can’t judge this fragrance in the first minutes, though I find the opening nostalgic, medicinal and enticing. This is not a linear fragrance. This is for someone who wants to experience what a perfume was meant to do; telling a story and taking you on a journey. The spicy fur that’s revealed to when the medicinal sting leaves your nose is very wearable. Later, a completely unexpected and pleasant floral scent blossoms in the mid, making you wonder what fragrance you sprayed on before you left the house The final dry down there’s a blur of woody resins that is very grounding. I am a fan of many in the zoologist line. This like sacred scarab and civet can give you first impressions of being unwearable, but turned out to be some of the more interesting fragrances in your collection

My wife was the one who was interested in this perfume for herself. We smelled it at a perfume shop in L.A. and my daughter and I both hated it from the get-go. Burning carpet. Gunpowder or exploded firecrackers. But my wife absolutely loved it--for herself!--and regretted not buying it. Well, for her birthday I surprised her with a 60ml bottle, and I'm glad I did. I love it now! I don't know what changed in my nose, but it's a fascinating complex blend of notes that's tremendously interesting. I do think it's a fundamentally masculine fragrance, but it works for her, and I love when she walks by and I get to smell it. I might try wearing it myself, but I don't want us together to frighten people in the street with too-strong an odor of primeval bloodlust.

I was preparing for a strong reaction when I got this tester finally. Everyone seems to say how horrible it is. I am in LOVE, love at first sniff. It is almost cacao nibs, so woody, warm and hot and ugh so yummy. On my body chemistry it's almost relaxing, not the punch in the face so many people seem to claim it does. Sort of masculine, but more on the side of unisex. A little animal, yes, but not musty or stinky. Bergamot, leather and nutmeg are all coming together so nicely, strong incense vibes! I'm going to wear this all summer, absolutely perfect. BIG EDIT: Tried it on my mom and I understand now. The horrors assaulted my entire family.

this is perhaps the first fragrance that made me question whether my current perfume shelf bears space for masculine sentiment. i concluded that if a man wore this i think i may have to... well, it's uncouth to say! how incredible. i am so, so in love with this scent. so animalic, antique, it smells like an old, dusty attic... it smells like archeology, powdery and a little dry sweat-musked, sweet and masculine and manly. not at all "weird" as i had been convinced! i want to try this again. i want to live in this scent. i considered buying a sample but this is not for me to wear - it is for me to be buried in. maybe i am the t-rex!

9.8/10 closest to my dream Fragrance. The only problem is I CANT spray this on clothes. It smells so different on my skin vs everything else. Hot take: it's a summer scent for me because I have to wear it on skin and makes the fruity notes pop. This reminds me of a gas stop I use to stop at. It had lots of leather, taxidermy, jerky, and sweets in an old fashion wooden saloon. It also sometimes smells like axe/old spice body spray, but they made it into a $200 perfume. It's also hard to find perfume that sticks to me. I can still smell the perfume the next day.

Love at First smell! For me its a Smoky Root Beer mixed with ballantines finest scotch Whisky followed by a stroll thru the brothel where the hookers smell like rose oil and lit up incense in their rooms. 3 sprays are enough for everyone in the reach of 2m noticing you. Applied at 9pm and still smelled it on my wrist when I woke up at 8am. When i Met Up with my friends they all asked me if I came from a Thai Massage parlor, when I asked why they told me I smell like Red Tiger Balm and Incense Sticks with a hint of rose Body oil. Philistines!

Such a nostalgic smell, one whiff of this immediately sends me back to the Mesozoic era. reminds me of being a wee little hatchling, scurrying around the plains of Pangea.... the good old days... Definitely something that my mother would have worn back in the early Triassic period. Gives off the impression of a sophisticated, gigantic, carnivorous lizard. However, I would caution any fellow dinosaurs from applying this fragrance liberally. It gave my brother intense PTSD flashbacks to back when the asteroid hit. Please be mindful.

If Serge Lutens were to have offered this in a Gratte-Ciel bottle, it would've been all the rave. All the pseudo niche heads would've articulated each and every nuance of this, exclaiming it to be another brilliant creation by Serge Lutens/ Christopher Sheldrake. But slap a dinosaur on it and say Zoologist made it and see all the snobs---who generally buy every single YouTube top-ten-lists-perfume---say how unwearable it is. But in the same breadth talk of despising mass appealing fragrances. Hypocrites! 10/10

If you want smoky, this delivers. And just a single spray often overdelivers. Most of the time it's a rich and alluring smoke of smouldering woods, warming you against a cold night air. In rare fleeting moments, it's a burning car tire, havoc, poison. But by two hours in, it's only the good stuff, and it gets better and better over time, the vanilla and sandalwood coming through progressively more and more and enveloping you in something extremely comforting. I think it's brilliant.

Having smelled a sample in Bloom Perfumery, London (they tell me they are the sole stockist of zoologist perfumes in the UK), I treated myself to a full bottle. This really is amazing - loud with a cloud. You only need a few sprays, so this will last a long time. Certainly not office wear, unless you are the chairman of the Board, or date wear, but good for outdoors or city wear when you don’t care if people around you like it or not. Love it. Maybe King Cobra next?

Reminds me of lipping a zyn pouch inside a panel beaters workshop. I would agree much more with the people who say it smells like kerosene over the people who say it smells like a petting zoo. Definitely did notice some animalitic smells after the initial spray, with decidedly chemical elements. If you're buying or considering this, you're probably ok with challenging notes, and you won't be surprised by this. I quite like it!

I was in chicago today and I did overspray it, then i took the bus. I can see on the faces that everyone in the bus was waiting so much for my station to arrive so i can drop off. It is super strong and i dont think it is mass pleasing. However I am in love with it. It is such resinous animalic leather and suprisingly it makes good impression once it drys down because it will create good whifs in the air.

I got a 2ml sample recently and it’s an amazing scent in that it’s something I never thought I would wear but I have ordered a bottle. The dry down certainly is the resins on my skin and I am constantly checking to find if something is smoking in the house. I have the perfumers Maai which is chypre floral and this is completely on the other end. I find the scent pleasant but it’s definitely a winter wear.

Jurassic Park ! You can smell the dust when this big animal moves and the frictions with tree so you smell the green leaves and the Woods and leather of his skin. Dark perfume mix between the leather and wood and the green note. not for young crowd. People who like deep and dark mysterious they will love this scent.

I remember second time, wanted to spray this on me. Was so scared of this carnivore. Now this is my go to for a special occasion. My mother is a true critique when it comes to Zoologist perfumes. If she loves this one, then others will love it too. For me this is a 10/10. Feel very confident when I wear it.

it's really too strong. spray only one on the neck at most 2 otherwise you will have to throw away your clothes. yesterday I had a leather jacket and I don't know how to recover it. it's stronger than all the beauforts. a nuisance: sometimes you can smell an unpleasant smell of olives.

the scent is complex and intriguing, reminding of some kind of a primitive industrial process with lots of heat and resins, while having a retro medical hint. i like it but i struggle to find an occasion for it. going to my psychiatrist maybe with the t-rex as a ciphered cry for help?

I just wore this today and, man, fell in love with it all over again. I don’t know what to say just that either you get it or you don’t. In fact, these are the sort of fragrances I adore; The ones that are not necessarily clearly understood from just one sniff. Again: 10/10

Smells violent, animalic and how I'd imagine an incredibly hot meteorite would smell like. One big spray of this in the middle of my chest and layered with Grand Soir is just perfect. It's actually very wearable, especially if layered. People on here are so dramatic.

It smells like leather and dry wood with blood splattered on it in a good way. T Rex portrays the Idea of a big aggressive hunter in primal scenes, where I believe the smell is Unique and Good it is however harsh and not for everyone. Not for closed spaces!

Not gonna lie, it takes a different type of man to pull this one off. And I mean different because this shit is SMOKY STRONG and right up my alley. I need a travel spray of this one to test this one out because smelling it on my vacation was a GODSEND!

This is one of the greatest perfumes ever. It is smoky and rich. It lasts so long too. If you like smelling good for people this won’t do it. This is for someone that wants to smell good for themselves. It’s daring and it’s exciting.

This opens up just like a savory barbecue on a summer evening, it honestly smells really nice but I don't think I would wear it as a perfume. The artistry here is great, I still love it, but it's not "wearable" for me

An absolute beast, will remain as a legend in parfumery, some hate it, but I just loved it from first sniff. A city on fire - is a small child next to a Godzilla - if it comes to comparing.

I really like this! Initially it smells like a campfire, in a good way. On the dry down pepper and insence come through. I'm going to have to try this again but so far it's a winner.

Just received the deluxe bottle, I don’t understand the hate around it! It’s beautiful, great and strong opening, and the dry down it’s just wow! Longevity is off the charts 🤌🏻

Non capisco da dove vengano queste cattive recensioni 🤦🏽♂️😅 🫶🏽🔥🔥🔥🫶🏽 Si sente l’odore del pulito accompagnato da un fumo fiorito. Ben Bilanciato.

I had a sample of this and I’m going for a full bottle. It’s different than any other perfumes. I love it! It’s expensive but it worth it

opens like boiling bbq sauce but cools down into grandpas coat closet within an hour or so and stays that way for its duration.

I'm trying to understand why I LOVE this miserable, introverted, industrial smell so much. A singular masterpiece.

This is nth “bad smelling “ compared to secretions magnifique and not as challenging as inexcusible evil

Paying over £200 to smell like my Chinese grandma's medicine cupboard is lowk wild but understandable

Love it. Once the top notes have gone, it settles into an amazing floral.

Who knew tyranny would smell like this? Amazing fragrance.

Tyrannosaurus Rex did not end up smelling as apocalyptic as I was anticipating, though it is exceptionally easy to overspray. Like usual, I made sure to get the pulse points the first time I applied it. It gave me a headache. The tension would ebb and flow in relation to when I inhaled and exhaled. I had a bowl of Spaghetti O's with a grilled cheese sandwich thinking it was just because I was hungry. I had gone until dinner without eating, as I had spent the entire day playing Civilization 6 for the first time, sitting in a cloud of this fragrance. I went to sleep with a headache, and though the headache passed by morning, the scent certainly did not. It lingered even after a shower or two over the course of a couple days. After showers I did not smell the soap I used, I just smelled Tyrannosaurus Rex. A single spray under the neckline of my shirt proved to be much more practical as well as enjoyable. Gusts of air produced by natural neck movements delivered the scent to me via a satin pillow rather than an artillery shell. This scent is much more enjoyable in intermittent wafts rather than as a perpetual cloud of domination. The notes are certainly smoky, but I do not pick up on the metallic, almost violent scent I was hoping for. The reviews seem to overestimate and dramatize the scent profile considerably. It is more than assertive, yes, but it does not feel raw; it does not feel authentically primordial. Most dominatory aspects come from the extreme sillage rather than anything innately primal or threatening in the scent profile itself. The description of this fragrance has been inflated and sensationalized by social media; I was admittedly disheartened when it did not quite live up to the hype. I'd love to perceive it as offensively Mesozoic, yet I just do not get that from it; I have heard some speculate there was a reformulation, and I find myself wondering that as well. One of the more popular positive reviews claims an initial association with satan and corpses, and while I desperately wish I could get that feeling from it, I do not. I ordered a sample rather than an entire bottle, and I am glad I did. The price seems almost worth it relative to the prevailing sentiment on social media, but when faced with the scent itself it is sadly overpriced. Knowing what I know now, I would still have ordered the sample. At times it felt like it had more value as a spectacle than as a fragrance. Eventually, the scent and showiness mixed like oil-based paints with acrylic paints to become intriguing, entertaining, and somewhat enjoyable. I value the experience, but I will not be purchasing a full-size bottle.

Historical crime thriller vibes: like those gritty shots in The Alienist or Sherlock Holmes (the 2009 one with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law) that indicate to the audience that they're now in the dark, crawling underbelly of a bustling late-1800s city. The opening spray is harsh, smoky, unsettling: think heavy iron woodstoves, gas lamps, something tarry and herbal burning in a pipe, the greasy, pungent sap of cut ends of lumber taken away to be burned, a pang of sharp metallics prickling through the heavy smoke, and the faintest whiff of disorienting, distant perfume oil. This is the only moment where I get the mid-note florals; for the most part, it transitions right from its ominous opening into a relatively approachable burnt incense, spice, and civet against a backdrop of lingering, muted smoke on leather. Having smelled some of Zoologist's other civet-base-note-heavy scents, I can pretty confidently say that theirs isn't even the most animalic civet ever, leaning consistently more musky-worn-clothes than straight-up bodily fluids. It only took it twenty or so minutes to get there, too. I will say that it's a relief to get to the dry down, but that's more because I personally don't love the way that fir and smoke combos pull on my skin and was pleased that they mellowed out, not because it's actually all that offensive. It's okay that not everybody wants to smell like a just-drunk-enough-that-he'll-tell-his-detective-friend-he-probably-imagined-it-in-the-morning messy 1880s protagonist tumbling into a grimy, worn-leather-upholstered hansom cab and being whisked away from whatever was chasing him through the seedy cobblestone streets just in time. Have I taken the Sherlock Holmes 2009 comparisons too far? Who cares. Anyway, this perfume smells like a narrow miss with danger, it's far from a crowd pleaser, and if you want something chill, you're probably gonna hate it. But if you're a bit of a weirdo who's willing to give it a minute and approach an intense atmospheric with an open mind, you might find it surprises you. Will I be wearing it regularly? Eh, who knows. Did I thoroughly enjoy the experience of trying this notorious bad boy out? 100%. Edit: one hour after spraying, this is a really balanced, warm, spicy, and fairly standard masc leather perfume with only a little bit of dark smokiness. I'm very much warming up to it as a wearable option as well as an art experiment.