A bestiary in extrait. Civilised doses of untamed animals.
Zoologist does not make perfumes so much as it makes creatures. Each release is a portrait of a single animal, handed to a perfumer, independent or at one of the big fragrance companies, and told to be fearless, and the results tend to divide a room in the best way. These are scents with weather and mood, worn as a story rather than as a background.
- Origin Toronto, Canada
- Founded 2013
- Known for Squid, Tyrannosaurus Rex
- Here 3 fragrances
- Founded
- 2013First three perfumes released in 2014
- Founder
- Victor Wong
- Concept
- One animal per perfume, a different perfumer each time
01
A game artist's side project
Victor Wong heard Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals at primary school in Hong Kong, and the idea stayed with him. In 2013, unhappy as a 3D modeller for video games in Toronto, he started posting on the Basenotes forum in search of perfumers willing to work with him. Zoologist launched in 2014 with Beaver, Panda and Rhinoceros, and Wong kept his day job for the first three years.
02
One animal, one perfumer
Each release takes a single creature and gives it to a perfumer picked for that brief, from independents to perfumers at the big fragrance houses. Tyrannosaurus Rex began as a joke: Wong said one of Antonio Gardoni's vetiver compositions smelled primal enough to be called T-Rex, and Gardoni came back the next morning wanting to make it. It arrived in autumn 2018, smoky and resinous. Squid went to Céline Barel of IFF, who had hurt her foot on a squid bone on a beach in Dubai and had its smell analysed by headspace.
03
Portraits, leather caps, Toronto bottling
Blending, bottling and packing happen in-house in Toronto. The bottles are heavy glass with leather-covered caps rimmed in gold, and each label carries a regal animal portrait by the illustrator Daisy Chan. No natural animal material goes in: the musks are synthetic, and so is the ambergris in Squid. Concentration is listed by percentage, 20 for Squid and 23 for Tyrannosaurus Rex. Squid was named Perfume Extraordinaire of the Year at the 2020 Fragrance Foundation Awards.
Who founded Zoologist?
Zoologist was founded by Victor Wong.
Where is Zoologist based?
Zoologist is based in Toronto, Canada.
When was Zoologist founded?
Zoologist was founded in 2013.
Who composed the Zoologist fragrances we carry?
Céline Barel, Antonio Gardoni.