Zoologist Perfumes by Animal: Ten Scents, Three Habitats
Zoologist names every perfume after an animal and builds it from that animal's world. This guide sorts the ten Zoologist perfumes we list by habitat, meadow, sea and fire, with the tagline, the perfumer, the stated concentration and the notes of each.
Zoologist is a Canadian house from Toronto, founded by Victor Wong in 2013, that names every perfume after an animal. Each one is made with a different perfumer, whose name is printed on the box, and each starts from the animal's world. That makes the range easy to sort by habitat, which is what this page does. We list ten perfumes in the Zoologist collection. The house guide gives every pyramid in full, and the house is placed among its neighbours in niche perfume houses outside Europe.
How the series works
All ten are Extrait de Parfum in a 60 ml bottle. The product pages state the concentration of each, from 18 percent for Bee and Cow to 25 percent for Rabbit, and add a one-line tagline that reads like the caption under a drawing. Many notes are accords, composed impressions such as black ink or ice, which our perfume glossary explains. Animal names do not mean animal ingredients: the brand's FAQ says that every musk or civet in its lists is synthetic and marked with an asterisk, and that apart from Bee, which contains beeswax, and one perfume we do not list, the range is free of animal products. Below, the ten are grouped by the setting the brand describes for each animal, and inside a group the most rated on Parfumo comes first.
Meadow, field and farm
Bee, tagline Waxy Floral Honey, is the hive in full spring bloom. Cristiano Canali built it at 18 percent, with orange, ginger syrup and a royal jelly accord on top, broom, heliotrope, mimosa and orange flower in the heart and a base that includes benzoin, labdanum and vanilla. It is the most rated of the ten.
Hummingbird, Juicy Nectar + Fruity Florals, sees the world as an endless run of nectar-rich flowers. Shelley Waddington gave it eight top notes, among them apple, cherry and plum, a heart with honey, honeysuckle and mimosa, and cream, moss and sandalwood in the base.
Cow, Bucolic Meadows + Creamy Apple Milk, is a pasture with a newborn calf. Nathalie Feisthauer's pyramid is short: sage and apple, then milk, lily of the valley, heliotrope, violet and jasmine, over cedarwood, vetiver, benzoin, musks and amber.
Harvest Mouse, Cozy Golden Harvest, is a wheat field at harvest time. Luca Maffei pairs Roman chamomile, davana and hay absolute with a beer extract, on a base that includes fir balsam, oak moss and vanilla.
Rabbit, Carrot Cake Garnished with Dry Hay, has a sonnet on its page instead of a story. Fanny Bal set a green vegetable leaves accord, cinnamon, bergamot and apple above a clover flower accord, carrot, jasmine absolute and violet, with hay, white almond and a biscuit accord among the base notes. At 25 percent it is the most concentrated of the ten.
Sea and ice
Squid, Inky Black Aquatic Depths, goes down to the deep sea. Céline Barel's nine notes are pink pepper, solar salicylate and incense on top, a black ink accord, a salty accord and opoponax in the heart, and ambergris, benzoin and musk in the base. We file it with our aquatic perfumes.
Penguin, Icy Salty Sea + Suede, is an Antarctic storm. Chiaki Nomura opens it with Antarctic air, an ice accord and juniper berry, puts pink pepper, saffron and ciste absolute in the heart and ends on sandalwood, musks, seamoss and suede. The brand tags both sea perfumes as salty; it calls Squid moody and mysterious and Penguin invigorating.
Fire, night and desert
Tyrannosaurus Rex, Apocalyptic Smoky Blaze, is a scorched Cretaceous landscape. Antonio Gardoni's pyramid counts twenty-one notes, from fir, laurel leaf and black pepper through champaca, osmanthus and rose to cade, frankincense, leather and resins. It sits with our leather perfumes.
Camel, Animalic Florals + Fruity Amber, is a caravan crossing the desert. Christian Carbonnel loads it with dried fruits, palm date, frankincense and rose, adds cinnamon, incense, myrrh and jasmine in the heart, and sets oud, sandalwood, tonka bean and vanilla among the base notes. It is one of our oud perfumes.
Moth, Dusty Honeyed Florals + Spicy Smoke, follows the insect that cannot resist a flame. Tomoo Inaba wrote the longest pyramid of the ten, twenty-three notes: black pepper, cinnamon, clove, cumin, lemon, nutmeg and saffron on top, six flowers in the heart, among them iris, mimosa and rose, and a base with honey, oud, nagarmotha, guaiac wood and smoke.
Choosing your animal
- Tagged gourmand by the brand: Bee, Hummingbird, Harvest Mouse, Rabbit and Camel; what the word covers is explained in what gourmand perfume is.
- Aquatic and salty: Squid and Penguin.
- Smoke: Tyrannosaurus Rex and Moth.
- Milk and meadow: Cow.
The brand calls its range creative, artistic and strong, and not made for mass appeal, so read the notes before you choose. Find your scent narrows the catalogue down by season, occasion and scent family.
Frequently asked questions
Do Zoologist perfumes contain animal ingredients?
According to the brand's FAQ, every musk or civet in its ingredient lists is synthetic and marked with an asterisk. Bee is the exception among the ten we list: it contains beeswax, so the brand does not call it free of animal products.
Which Zoologist perfume has the highest concentration?
Rabbit, stated at 25 percent. Tyrannosaurus Rex and Hummingbird are given at 23 percent, Squid, Moth, Camel, Harvest Mouse and Penguin at 20, and Bee and Cow at 18. Concentration is not the same as how far a scent carries.
Who makes Zoologist perfumes?
The house was founded by Victor Wong in Toronto in 2013. Each perfume is composed by a different perfumer, named on the product page and on the box, and the ten we list are by ten different perfumers.
