If you’ve ever traveled to a part of the world where monkeys are free in the wild you know you can get lost watching them. All species of monkeys are fascinating in their antics. If you sit somewhere observing them long enough you pick out distinctive coloring or markings, individualizing them. They are still the same type of primate they just now have some separation. That same concept has been applied to perfumery in Zoologist Macaque Yuzu Edition and Zoologist Macaque Fuji Apple Edition.
Victor Wong
If you visit the temples of Asia, you will often find a colony of Macaques as the treetop guardians. Creative director Victor Wong imagines this setting with two different monkeys present. Collaborating with perfumer Mackenzie Reilly each edition carries a different top accord over the same heart and base accords. As you might surmise the top accord of Yuzu Edition is built around that Asian citrus and the same occurs with the Fuji Apple Edition. The accords are so different that they interact in their own way with the remaining foundational accords.
Mackenzie Reilly
Yuzu Edition is not the crisp lemon-y scent you might be expecting. It is instead a diffuse version of yuzu lilting among the hinoki wood of the surrounding forest. It isn’t a great analogy, but it reminds me a bit of the traditional Onsen bath taken by Japanese on the winter solstice. The hot water makes the citrus less brilliant while giving it more expansiveness. This is what Ms. Reilly achieves here. She has a deft way of creating space in her compositions. The way the yuzu spreads out forms a place for the remainder of the development to interact with. There is a soft resinous accord which forms a lovely harmonic. As the base accord appears it has the effect of focusing things. Olibanum does this with the resins. Oakmoss gathers up the yuzu, adding it to a soft green carpet. An austere sandalwood adds a roundness to the stern hinoki.
Fuji Apple Edition is the crisp scent you might expect. Just like the snap of biting into an apple. The apple used here is that crisp fruitiness I prefer. What comes next this time is the silvery shine of olibanum. It adds a different type of crisp. The same hinoki continues the theme of delineated pieces. It begins to become a little less OCD as the same soft resinous accord in Yuzu Edition softens things in this version. The oakmoss provides another softer contrast of green. Only that sandalwood continues the theme of austerity from the top.
Both Yuzu and Fuji Apple Editions have 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.
While these are technically flankers, they are different enough that I think I’ll be wearing them both. Yuzu Edition over these final days of summer. Fuji Apple Edition is going to be my scent for apple picking in the fall. Which Macaque will you take home? I am quite curious to see if one prevails.
Disclosure: This review is based on samples provided by Zoologist.
–Mark Behnke
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