Orchid Mantis explodes onto the scene with lush greens, tropical florals, and a prominent wilderness skank that I can't pin down. This reminds me far more of Sloth and Dodo than anything else from the Zoologist. It also reminds me a bit of Olympic Orchids' Tropic of Capricorn, but Orchid Mantis is the quirky, well-managed terrarium to that perfume's feral jungle. As evidenced by the plethora of questioning/negative reviews below, this perfume is definitely going to alienate a chunk of noses right off the rip.
Once Orchid Mantis settles down, it becomes a much more approachable and even cuddly floral-green-musk fragrance. There is a bright floral note that hangs on long into the fragrance's dry down - my guess is remnants of the Ylang-Ylang that hang on to the musk. I do slightly understand the Nightingale (my beloved) comparisons during this stage, as perfumer Tomoo Inaba really seems to gravitate towards lush floral-musky bases. However, calling this perfume similar to Nightingale feels incredibly misleading. We're talking about a 20% similarity during an hour-long stretch of the perfume's wear. The opening of Orchid Mantis shares nothing in common with Nightingale, and if I didn't know the two perfumes were made by the same person, I would never have thought to compare them in the first place.
My fiancee, a massive fan of green, mineralic fragrances, really loves this one. Me? I like it, but if I'm going jungle mode, I'm going full beauty (Carnal Flower) or full wild (Tropic of Capricorn). Inaba continues to be one of my favorite voices in the perfume industry, and even though Nightingale will probably be my favorite scent of his for quite some time, this is another wonderful effort that keeps me excited to see what he does next.
