Zoologist Hyrax was created in honor of LuckyScent's 15th Anniversary. The hyrax is a small, furry mammal with rounded ears and no tail. Hyraceum is the petrified and rock-like excrement composed of both urine and feces excreted by the hyrax. After aging and petrifying over hundreds if not thousands of years, it is a sought-after material that has been used in both traditional South African medicine and perfumery.
The African sun reaches across a mountain range to caress a wide, flat boulder, baking it to a gentle heat. A family of hyrax settle onto the warm expanse of rock to partake in their ritual sunbath. As the heat from sweltering sun intensifies, ancient aromas are coaxed from the scorched rocks, sparse vegetation and petrified hyraceum. Eerily, they intertwine to form a scent that is both primitive and exotic, its animalistic tendencies tamed by an undercurrent of sweet florals.
At the heart of Zoologist Hyrax is a daring, seldom-used ingredient in the art of perfumery –– African stone, or hyraceum, giving this bold animalic scent its distinctive signature. This unique perfume skillfully blends saffron, pink pepper, whiskey, rose and musks to invoke an abstract image of a dusty African mountainscape.
Created in 2018 by Sven Pritzkoleit, Hyrax features top notes of elemi, pink pepper, saffron and Turkish rose; middle notes of African Stone**, hyacinth, styrax and whiskey; and base notes of amber, benzoin, castoreum*, civet*, patchouli, sandalwood and tonka. *Synthetic notes. Zoologist Hyrax does not use animal derived musks. **African Stone is a by-product of hyraxes and no animals are harmed in its harvesting. Zoologist Hyrax is not a vegan perfume. It is an extrait de parfum at 20% concentration.
Reviews of Zoologist Hyrax
From Scentbound - "For all its eccentricity, Hyrax is a simple fragrance. Elemi, pink pepper and saffron introduce the hyraceum. It quietly creeps up behind the scenes in these first minutes. You will detect it as that odd accord present in some forms of halitosis. It’s not unpleasant, just odd, unexpected. The hyraceum at this stage tickles your interest and makes you wonder what this could be."
From Basenotes - "A strange and wonderful perfume this one. Smelling it, I think of a woodworking workshop, the polishes and varnishes, and a pot of old fashioned bone glue steaming away on the stove."
From Mr Smelly - "The opening blast is sweet and complex. The whisky and benzoin give sweetness while the amber and saffron combine to suggest the exotic aromas of the hyraxes' far off homelands. As time progresses things get slightly less pretty and a little more gnarly. There is certainly a musky and rather funky undertone to the scent and it is not recommended for office wear."
