Dodo 2019

Version from 2019
Dodo (2019) by Zoologist
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7.0 / 10 103 Ratings
A perfume by Zoologist for women and men, released in 2019. The scent is green-spicy. The longevity is above-average. The production was apparently discontinued.
Pronunciation
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Main accords

Green
Spicy
Fruity
Woody
Floral

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes Top Notes
LycheeLychee FernFern RaspberryRaspberry LimeLime
Heart Notes Heart Notes
Fir balsamFir balsam AmbergrisAmbergris GeraniumGeranium RoseRose
Base Notes Base Notes
MuskMusk OakmossOakmoss AmberAmber PatchouliPatchouli SandalwoodSandalwood

Perfumer & Creative Guidance

Ratings
Scent
7.0103 Ratings
Longevity
8.485 Ratings
Sillage
7.784 Ratings
Bottle
8.893 Ratings
Value for money
6.430 Ratings
Submitted by Franfan20, last update on 06/09/2025.

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Reviews

7 in-depth fragrance descriptions
4
Scent
PMRP12

37 Reviews
PMRP12
PMRP12
2  
Musty bird cage
Being a fougere fan, I had high hopes for this one... but they can’t all be winners. Brings back memories of growing up around aviaries—the smell captured here is uncanny. Birds have a very particular scent that is equal parts musky (their skin), dusty (their feathers), and grainy (their food). Kudos is deserved for perfectly replicating that scent—it’s just something I never seek to smell, let alone wear.
0 Comments
Nose2nose

45 Reviews
Nose2nose
Nose2nose
1  
Long live Dodo
After the 2020 version and the newest Jackfruit version, this (unfortunately discontinued) 2019 version of Dodo is still my favourite by far.

I love the perfumer’s (Joseph DeLapp) take on the extinct bird, or actually on the bird and its safe and warm habitat - before people arrived. I can't really compare this beautiful fragrance to anything else and it's one of my favourites from the house.

The opening has a much stronger animalic feel than the top notes (rosemary, petitgrain, bergamot, pink pepper) made me expect. The first thing it reminds me of his hot animal skin. The ambergris is present but not in a sticky way, it’s rather minerally.

It's aromatic, spicy green, humid, herbal and a bit salty. On cool, rainy days, it’s an unusual, salty comfort scent to me; like a damp, herbal bird’s nest or a big hug from a warm animal. On warmer days, it becomes a briny, almost tropical ocean breeze.

Dodo is a brilliant example of what niche perfumery can do when it dares to be strange and specific. It’s weird, it’s wild and I wouldn’t change a feather on it.

For more scent thoughts (and glimpses of my daily life with my dog), find me on Instagram @melanie.buist
0 Comments
6
Pricing
8
Sillage
8
Longevity
7
Scent
NuiWhakakore

70 Reviews
Translated Show original Show translation
NuiWhakakore
NuiWhakakore
Top Review 42  
The last of their kind
At first it was so beautiful! How the big raft shone in the sun and approached. Huge trees stood on the raft and in white clouds caught the wind. They had never seen anything like it. Finally the raft was close and the clouds disappeared. Smaller rafts came ashore with funny looking creatures on two legs. Just like us, they thought, and rejoiced.

But then it began. The strange creatures slew them and cooked them over fires and ate them! There had never been anything like this before and it confused them, so they watched for now. Only one of them, who was standing at the edge of the forest, had a small thought in his feathered head: this is outrageous, danger, I must warn the others!

Slowly the dodo, call him Dronte, turned and trudged over damp ferns into the undergrowth. Immediately the green twilight of the jungle enveloped him. Moist and sweet it smelled of overripe fruits and honestly also strongly of bird. So beautiful, Dronte thought to himself. And oops, now he almost slipped on a lychee. Slightly sour and sweet, the smell of the squashed lychee drifted up between his claws. It was the time of abundance in the year, when all the fruits were ripe, fell to the ground and slowly hardened there. Like all dodos, Dronte loved this time. The slightly fermented fruit was the most beautiful thing in the whole year. It was no surprise then that he momentarily lost track of what he really wanted. He guessed it was something really important, but it just wouldn't come to him. Maybe after a little snack, the memory will come back for sure, he thought to himself. The lightly fermented fruit tasted excellent, a warm feeling spread through him and his mood brightened noticeably right away. The scent of flowers was heavy and sweet in the warm, humid air. Oh, what a beautiful life it was!

Aimlessly, the small, fat dronte wandered around for several hours. Every now and then he nibbled a few fruits, always nicely on level, the most beautiful time of the year. He rubbed his feathers on the sandal tree, lay down under the bushes in the moss, took a little nap and dreamed of flying again. What he had intended to do that was important, he did not remember for a long time. After his nap he would go down to the beach again, it was always so beautiful there at this time...

------------------

The dodo was supposedly discovered in 1598 on Mauritius by Dutch sailors. The island was uninhabited, he knew no natural enemies and therefore had no fear from the Dutch. If he had known about the eating habits of the Dutch, he might not have been quite so trusting. But it wouldn't have changed his fate much, because he couldn't fly. Evolution can be really nasty. Tragically, the dodo isn't even described as particularly tasty. But if you're at sea for weeks on end, you might see it differently. In any case, by 1690 at the latest, the subject of the dodo had been eaten.

But now to the also already extinct Dodo (2019) by Zoologist:
The start is green, terrifyingly green. Rain wet ferns, damp undergrowth, jungle comes to mind. Sweetish fruit to go with it, very ripe but not yet fermented. I can't smell individual fruits, but they are sour as well as sweet. Through all this a plump, flightless bird deppert and crushes it between its claws. And the bird smells a bit stern, animalistic, you'd think you were in an exotic bird aviary. Guanon notes in muggy air. Then there are heavy flowers. The rose is recognizable here. There you have to go through first.
After half an hour, it becomes more pleasant, fortunately. The initially violent silage recedes somewhat and everything becomes softer. Could be due to the fir balsam, but I do not explicitly smell out. This is then quite pleasant until the musk comes creamy around the corner and makes everything a bit sweeter and sultry again. Amber is probably also already involved here.
More beautiful and spicy it is then only when patch and moss join and strangely enough, I perceive only then a slightly fermented, alcoholic fruit note, which others already discover at the beginning. I don't find it as unpleasant as it might sound now though. Sandalwood and musk cream and fluff around and amber comes in as well. The base is nice and even portable.
The fragrance itself, however, I would not want to wear. Much too exhausting and I also do not want to smell like a bird, extinct or not.

Thanks to the Schalkerin!

Small literature tip: Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See / The last of their kind
.
35 Comments
10
Bottle
9
Sillage
10
Longevity
9.5
Scent
Yharnam79

65 Reviews
Translated Show original Show translation
Yharnam79
Yharnam79
Top Review 18  
Attractive-rejecting.
It's a matter of expectations and anticipation. One always makes oneself unintentionally nevertheless a certain idea of what may come there.
In the case of Dodo, it was clear to me (despite my extensive zooligist experience, which should have taught me a better lesson) that the fragrance would turn green, possibly a bit fruity and, above all, a rather light fragrance compared to candidates like Moth or Tyrannosaurus Rex.
One suspects it already since the introduction; I was wrong there thoroughly...
Dodo is a direct dirty side to your ears, that may lead to shouting and shrugging from the back of your hand. The direct prelude is already very... demanding.

Deep green, but not like rich green forests and grasses. Deep green pond water is more like it. A paddle boat that has become rotten from the water weighs on it, algae proliferate under its belly, the wood is already waterlogged. A wind train carries a mixture of salt and wet moss past me...

Sounds equally romantic and somewhat repulsive in the details of the fragrances mentioned. But also Dodo indeed seems (to me) attracting and repulsive at the same time (however attracting here clearly prevails).
Dodo is certainly not a fragrance for everyone. He makes a statement and does not want to be tender, flattering and beautiful in the classical sense.
Personally, it took me a while to get used to Dodo and to classify his "dirtiness" correctly. It does not pass us by in the course of the fragrance but remains present from beginning to end.

Should I (have to) make a scent comparison (which is even more difficult with Zoologist than with some other representatives), then this would be rather daring and exclusively an attempt at visualization. And then I would say a mixture of echoes of Fahrenheit, Santal Blush, Oud Minérale and Stercus. But as I said, under reserve.

However, one thing is beyond question, namely that Dodo is a courageously composed and unique fragrance with a unique message
2 Comments
9
Sillage
10
Longevity
7.5
Scent
HeiiRa

2 Reviews
Translated Show original Show translation
HeiiRa
HeiiRa
Top Review 18  
The dodo is dead, long live the dodo!
A bird, then... interesting model for a scent, because I don't associate scents with birds now, which I would like to have attached to me.

Thanks to Accolon for the successful sharing!

Back to the scent... naive as I am now and then, I went straight to full contact. For me as a right-hander, the left wrist was virtually predestined for this. After the first sprayer, the protective reflex occurred, which removed my wrist from the nose faster than overly hairy men would probably want to remove the wax strip. Now the dead bird was my first zoologist experience and I wanted to experience it. So washing up after two minutes was out of the question. He's potent, knows how to assert himself, and he's not the quiet kind. So if that corresponded to the bird around 1600, then I wonder how the creature could die out! Because on my wrist, the good bird has shown zeal for life, after 22 hours it has retired for the sake of my nose. Don't get me wrong, the prelude is very pungent in my nose, but as with many fragrances, when the top note subsides, the fragrance begins to present its true self. This is interesting for Dodo, green and wooded. Imagine a flightless bird running in a monkey's tooth through a mossy forest area... the moss, the fallen bark of nearby trees, ferns, fermented forest fruits and the like is whirled up by the metre-sized Speedy Gonzales... the heart note looked like this (about three to 15 hours - after that I fell asleep). I actually liked him quite a lot. It remains to be seen that this was perhaps seen relative to the top note.
After getting up and another six and a half hours (seems to have been a nocturnal bird) the scent changed a bit and got a lot warmer, I think Patchouli and Amber did the rest.

Conclusion: Dodo is not an everyday scent, at least not for me. Dodo is an experience scent. One of those fragrances that I spray on to let my mind wander and to get out of everyday life. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that Joseph DeLapp used oil as a base again, but it's said to be of alcoholic nature. I'm looking forward to every further comment and every statement inspired by Dodo!
7 Comments
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Statements

1 short view on the fragrance
ValentinTValentinT 3 years ago
10
Bottle
6
Sillage
7
Longevity
3
Scent
Feminine-leaning, sweet, soft, floral amber. This is what average smells like.
0 Comments

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