Snowy Owl Zoologist 2021

"Such filthy cold, and in the middle of April!" grumbled Max, as he went to the shed early in the morning at sunrise to fetch a spade. "Can't I wait till noon to do the job? The ground's still all firm and frozen?" he asked into the glassy sky streaked with soft rays of sunshine. "No! It has to be now, while it's still cool and frosty!" came the voice of his maker out of nowhere with a rumble.
"What's it for anyway? And can't I dig the hole over there in the slightly softer potting soil?" inquired Max further. "No! It must be here, where the soil is clay, and adorned with beautiful snowdrops and the fresh grass!" spoke his Maker. "Good heavens, but what for? Why this fuss in the middle of the morning? Besides, these flowers look much more like lilies of the valley!" continued poor Max, whining to himself.
The earth vibrated and his slowly growing angry creator answered, "Max! When Moses was told by his Creator to climb the holy mountain, he didn't ask any questions either...he just did it and that's that!"
"Oh shit, but I'm hungry, I need breakfast to have enough strength to dig a hole here!" the Chosen One continued to complain, like a petulant child.
The bright blue of the canopy of the sky opened up with thunderous sounds to form a crack that for a brief moment allowed a glimpse into the utter infinity of existence. A small object fell out of the crack and landed directly in front of Max. It was a coconut flavored Corny cereal bar. Max ate the bar and began to dig until his maker finally spoke "Stop! Take this frozen piece of clay with the clumps of grass on it covered in dew in your hands!"
"All right boss...now do you want me to mold Adam and Eve 2.0 out of it or what?" the Chosen One wanted to know further. "It's enough if you smell it and tell me what it smells like"
Max brought the lump to his nose and said "Well, just smells like a damn lump of frozen earth with a few tufts of grass on it....and now?"
"Nothing now....your order is hereby terminated!" boomed out the Creator's reply.
"Waaaaas, you've got to be kidding me!!!" roared Max.

Poor Max will never know that I, his almighty creator, only had him dig the hole in the frozen clay so that I would have a suitable example scenario for this review to better describe Zoologist's "Snowy Owl" fragrance.

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So, the scent starts off absolutely great with an indefinable, very dry coldness (you can't tell it's mint and coconut unless you read it's in there). There's no telling how this snow accord is made, but it certainly seems authentic to me.
Green, grassy elements follow, which might appeal to friends of, say, "French Lover", but all much lighter and drier.
After about 2 hours, the whole thing falls apart and all that remains is an inconsequential musk base, accompanied by the mysterious dirtiness that accompanies head, heart and base note from the beginning. This earthiness somehow floats along in the sillage independently of the actual scent and is gone as soon as you smell it directly on your arm. It's not the smell of potting soil, as in Figment Man by Amouage, and it's not the smell of dark peat, as in Nightcap by Dunhill (have fun people asking for a bottle of that at Douglas).
So In Snowy Owl, it's dry, frozen clay that is the complete sillage characteristic of this perfume. The rest of the magic takes place up close and personal on your arm for you!

So! And now I went outside today sprayed with it, happened to meet my aunt and said "Here smell my arm"
She sniffed and said "Mhm smells funny...it doesn't smell bad but good either, what is that?"
I replied, "It's a perfume that is supposed to reflect the scent of a snowy owl's habitat....fascinating isn't it?"
She said, "Mhm...well okay...." and walked on, unimpressed.

And that's the crux of why I give the fragrance a 7.5 and not an 8 or 9. It doesn't manage to retain an emotional component over a longer wear time. I want a perfume to touch my feelings. That can be negative sometimes and you are stirred up and say "Ewww" or you are moved to tears because a fragrance creates beautiful, atmospheric images in your head that make you dream. Unfortunately, Snow Owl only manages to do just that for the first 5 minutes with the snow accord. The rest is a somewhat green musky ground noise with floating clay particles. Quiet and disappeared after 7 hours anyway.

I'm not a professional and what I'm about to say is already petty whining on a high level, but perhaps an ozonic note symbolizing the flying of the owl would have given it a bit more emotional depth.

So it remains a quite nice, but for Zoologist mediocre fragrance. Too bad, because I would have rather identified with a snowy owl instead of a sloth, but Sloth scores much higher with me right now