Nishane
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Labdanum and frankincense burn like temple incense gone wrong, but within seconds the civet muscling beneath creates something distinctly corporeal—resinous meets rankly animalic, as though someone's sprayed liturgical smoke over unwashed skin. The ambergris adds a salty, almost indolic sweetness that catches you off-guard before the castoreum pulls everything earthy and profoundly human.
The leather fully emerges now, rendered thick and unsweetened, whilst the oud adds woody depth and a faint medicinal edge that prevents the composition from becoming purely animalic. Civettone and muscone develop quietly, creating an increasingly intimate, skin-like quality—this is when you understand the fragrance's true intent, and when some wearers begin reconsidering their choices.
The animalic materials dominate completely, the resins fading to ghosts as the civet, muscone, and muscenone create something almost intoxicating in its rawness—warm, vaguely sweet, undeniably musk-heavy, and lingering with the tenacity of something genuinely controversial.
Afrika-Olifant announces itself as an unapologetic olfactory provocation—a fragrance that treats subtlety as an afterthought. Jorge Lee has constructed something genuinely feral here, built on a foundation of raw animalic materials that refuse to be tamed by the resinous frame surrounding them. The labdanum and frankincense arrive with ecclesiastical gravitas, yet they're immediately corrupted by civet and castoreum, which transform the composition from spiritual into carnal within moments.
This is leather rendered through an animal rather than a tannery—the castoreum and civet create that distinctive, slightly urinous warmth that collectors either crave or instinctively reject. The oud threading through the heart refuses to soften the blow; instead, it amplifies the leather's animalic character, adding a woody, slightly medicinal quality that prevents the fragrance from becoming a simple animalic showcase. The muscone and civettone in the base push the composition into genuinely uncomfortable territory, evoking skin, musk glands, and primal physicality.
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3.7/5 (108)