Hyrax (Zoologist Perfumes)

African stone is also known as hyraceum, the petrified excrement of the hyrax, which is native to sub-Saharan Africa and some regions of the Middle East. It is harvested in the same way geologists sample any stone, with careful tool extraction from massive stratified and fossilized excrement beds called middens, and thus gathering it does not harm the animal. There are some climate freaks who wail about how chipping out the stuff hurts climate science, but this is the most humanely-acquired animalic material in perfumery, bar none. Zoologist's Hyrax contains real hyraceum, and I think I can smell it. (It also contains synthetic civet, which confuses my hyraceum detector.) 

I love this fragrance. From first sniff, I loved it. It hits me with a peppery/rosey opening, accompanied by saffron aldehyde (2,4 Dimethyl-3-cyclohexen-1-carboxaldehyde), which rapidly segues into a gloriously dusky heart accord of rich resins and animalics, including synthetic castoreum and a variety of florals that coalesce into a Laos oud-like base structure of benzoin and styrax. Adjectives to describe it: Golden, Swirling, Epic. It smells like an eighties masculine "powerhouse" fragrance aping Kouros with extremely high quality materials, and manages to emit at long-range for fully fifteen hours with moderate application, dwarfing even its YSL predecessor in strength. Its florals are blended closely with the fetid aspects of the urinous dungs compiled here, and perfumer Sven Pritzkoleit mentions that he incorporated lilac and hyacinth notes to soften the blow. Wow. 

My only critique would be that I would have adjusted the overall balance only slightly to push out more rose and lilac, to make their dance with the musks even more obvious to the nose, but otherwise Hyrax accomplishes the same burnished glow of its designer Reagan-era progenitors. The hyacinth does endure rather prominently and provides a sweet contrast to the umbers, adding a dimensionality that this sort of composition needs to succeed. These days I tend to lean away from wearing things that are this musky, and I'm sure that contemporary society recoils in horror from this sort of thing (only fragheads understand), so Hyrax wouldn't be a full-bottle purchase. But I'm tempted.