Zoologist - Bat :- A dark artistic delight. | Ellen Covey | Perfume Review.

 

                                             Zoologist – Bat.

I've always associated Bat with negativity or darkness, for some reason; good or bad. It creates an aura around me of a cold solitude, not one I prefer but definitely one that I crave. I like being alone once in a while especially when my heart and mind have no idea what depresses them. It happens with me and a lot of people I assume where the mind goes blank, heart becomes weak and for no particular reason you are stuck in a moment with an absolutely blank face; Bat reminds me exactly of those times. The situation hasn’t necessarily got anything to do with a bad event or losing someone, it is more to do with wanting to just sit in a dark corner and stay silent. It’s a nice place to be if you want to give control to your emotions and feelings irrespective of how destructive they are. I remember the first time I tired Bat and someone asked me about it, my only reaction was that Bat smells of death, as if there is no life left around me and I am the only 

one left all alone a cold and dim world. 

Bat as a perfume is a journey in its own self; it’s an artistic master piece. Bat in my opinion is a 

fragrance that pushes the boundaries of an art form to new levels and hence it is not easily 

likable or acceptable. It has been a mystical potion since the first time I sniffed it and it 

remains the same to this date. 

The perfume starts with a heavy dose of earthy note which is also the most important note in 

the fragrance, the Soil tincture note. It is by far the best iteration of damp soil I’ve come across. Min New York’s Moon dust also does justice to it but, that’s second in the line. The soil tincture here fells very natural, muddy and it is the strongest note in the composition. Along with it comes a foul and fruity smell, which in my opinion is a mix of many fruits and leather. The smell is almost like a basket full of rotten fruits. I don’t get any tropical fruity vibe yet and this is nearly 15 minutes into the perfume. The perfume has strange warmth when its sprayed, like a wood burning with resins.

Once the top notes cool down a little bit, that is when the perfume shows a different side of 

itself altogether. At this point, the leather note has taken a back step and the fruits have started becoming more evident. The very talked-about note of banana was the hardest for me to find, I consumed more bananas than I ever do in the past week so I can understand the smell of it. I could finally find it but since it’s mixed with fig here in this fragrance it’s still a bit difficult for me to grasp. This phase of the fragrance is more about its fruits and the transition from middle to base. 

The soil tincture and the mild fruity aspects make space for some Vetiver and myrrh. The 

perfume still smells a lot muddy and this is my favorite thing about Bat. I keep getting whiffs of the muddy and earthy notes every now and then. Vetiver adds some more punch to it, making it softer but in mild quantities. Myrrh and leather play the most important part in the dry down. On a strip, the last thing I smelt is leather, which I think smells just the same as it was in the beginning. If noticed closely, the dry down smells like a completely different fragrance as compared to the top. 

Composed by Ellen Covey for the house of Zoologist, Bat is a seriously complex fragrance, one very hard to crack and understand. The top, middle, and base are extremely well blended, there are no loose ends in this perfume. Ellen Covey has proved what an artist can achieve when given artistic freedom and space. Bat is second to none and has also won an Art and Olfactory award for the same.