Zoologist
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The green apple and red mandarin attack with immediate citrus brightness, whilst cedar simultaneously establishes woody authority—it's a surprisingly tart, almost slightly green-skinned opening that feels more like biting into fruit than wearing perfume. The galbanum immediately shadows this brightness with herbaceous bitterness, preventing any sweetness from settling.
The jasmine tea and honey soften the structural edges, adding a whisper of floral gentleness as the rosewood develops a slightly creamy warmth underneath. Frankincense maintains a cool, resinous counterpoint, ensuring this heart never becomes sugary—it remains composed and almost meditative, with an oud undertone that adds a subtle, slightly animalic muuskiness.
The base reveals itself as a study in green restraint—tree moss and green tea create an earthy, almost tea-steeped quality that becomes increasingly prominent as the fragrance settles into skin. Musk becomes your closest companion, offering a pale, slightly soapy warmth rather than animalic depth, whilst the oud fades to mere suggestion, leaving you with something that smells increasingly like breathing in a cool forest after rain.
Macaque arrives as a botanical provocation—green, sharp, and deliberately cerebral. Sarah McCartney has crafted something that refuses the usual perfume pleasantries, instead opening with a bright collision of green apple and red mandarin that feels almost tart against your skin, whilst cedar cuts through immediately with woody precision. This is no fruity confection; the galbanum in the heart arrives like a slap of structural intelligence, bitter and green, anchoring the sweetness of honey and the delicate floral whisper of jasmine tea.
What emerges is a fragrance of contradictions held in tense balance—the rosewood and ylang ylang suggest sensuality, yet the frankincense keeps everything austere and contemplative. There's a primatial quality here, something alert and curious rather than domesticated. The white oud doesn't announce itself bombastically but rather threads through the composition like a faint animalic breath, whilst tree moss and green tea in the base layer suggest damp forest undergrowth and meditation rather than comfort.
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Maison Margiela
3.8/5 (432)