إليزيه للعطور
We sense several shifting layers of scent in Zoologist Camel, all of them are fascinating. First, a top note of dried fruit dipped in green frankincense sets the pace: resinous, rich, but also dry, tart almost. Imagine the steamy sweetness of dried apricots and plums laid out in a souk, pricked by the waxy sourness of preserved lemons and pickled mangoes just beneath. The mouthwatering notes of the opening give way to an animalic floral heart – a none-too-clean jasmine and orange blossom whipped into a soapy, leathery froth by civet and musk. All of this is spread over a gritty amber dry down that manages to smell like the friction between hot sand, cold soap, and silk sheets. Although Camel strikes us as more Madame Bovary than Scheherazade, it nonetheless manages to capture the contradictory nature of the camel, itself permanently poised between froideur and rage.