8
Helpful Review
A gentle beast
I don't understand why Afrika-Olifant has such a poor reputation. While it has a tantalizing animalic undertone, the key players are warm resins and a superb leather accord. There's nothing dirty or indolic about it; Jorge Lee's genius mixture of musk compounds comes off as a clean, powerful musky volume. Think of it as an animalic fixative that elevates the raw materials and greatly improves the wearing experience.
The opening is loud and spectacular; myrrh and frankincense kick the door down with their boozy, fruity, honey-like, smoky and spicy nuances. Labdanum and ambergris add another fruity/sweet layer similar to ambrarome in Lustre - something between cherry, caramel and coca-cola. Once muskiness starts coming to life, you end up with a luxurious fragrance which oozes decadence.
Initially, castoreum and labdanum provide their usual dry leatheriness. However, 1.5 hours into the wear, a different kind of a leather note pops up. This one is incredibly rich and oily, rounding out the scent in an arousing fashion. The drydown phase is an interplay between leather and the powdery remnants of musks and resins.
Performance is solid, it lasts for up to 12 hours on my skin with moderate to soft projection. Given its captivating and borderline seductive scent profile, it's a good choice for date night. That said, it works fine as a daily driver during the colder months. If you love amber/leather perfumes and don't mind the musky aspect, grab a sample of Afrika-Olifant.
The opening is loud and spectacular; myrrh and frankincense kick the door down with their boozy, fruity, honey-like, smoky and spicy nuances. Labdanum and ambergris add another fruity/sweet layer similar to ambrarome in Lustre - something between cherry, caramel and coca-cola. Once muskiness starts coming to life, you end up with a luxurious fragrance which oozes decadence.
Initially, castoreum and labdanum provide their usual dry leatheriness. However, 1.5 hours into the wear, a different kind of a leather note pops up. This one is incredibly rich and oily, rounding out the scent in an arousing fashion. The drydown phase is an interplay between leather and the powdery remnants of musks and resins.
Performance is solid, it lasts for up to 12 hours on my skin with moderate to soft projection. Given its captivating and borderline seductive scent profile, it's a good choice for date night. That said, it works fine as a daily driver during the colder months. If you love amber/leather perfumes and don't mind the musky aspect, grab a sample of Afrika-Olifant.
5 Comments
Also if this doesn’t smell animalic to you, what’s your undestanding of the word in regards to fragrance?
The base is full of chemical musk compounds, ofc it will smell “clean” when it’s synthetic.
Real animalics were banned a while ago for obvious reasons.
You will fall in love with this one - I guarantee it.
There's a bit of everything you enjoy; warm resins, rich leather, enough sweetness.
Surely you have tried a perfume with too much ambroxan or iso e super, which resulted in an "empty volume" kind of a smell.
You have the same volume here, except it isn't empty but animalic. Clean, powerful musk that ties everything together in a very opulent way.