Reviews of Bat (original) 
Zoologist Perfumes (2015)
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Bat is an interesting, different fruit fragrance that's not too sticky or cloying. Its got its minerality. Performances are ok.

This is an extremely interesting fragrance created to smell like the environment, food, and body of a bat. Zoologist - a very fascinating niche perfume house from Toronto - does not aim to capture just an animal's own scent, but the scents of its environment and diet as well. Thus, Bat is composed of "soft fruits, damp earth and minerals." It was developed by Dr. Ellen Covey, the owner/perfumer at the indie house Olympic Orchids, and herself a professor at the University of Washington who studied bat biology for years. Covey wanted Bat to smell like "the cool, earthy, damp limestone cave where the bats live, the fruit that they eat, and the clean, musky smell of their fur." She succeeded with me and apparently others, too; Bat won the Independent Category of the 2016 Art and Olfaction Awards. As for the scent, it is extremely spot-on to the description. It smells literally like wet earth, and is full of the geosmin chemical (the same chemical that causes the scent of 'petrichor' - the after rain smell of wet soil). The only thing this is comparable to is CB I Hate Perfume's Black March, which also has a large wet soil scent (but is far more fleeting than Bat). On the drydown, I somewhat smell the tropical fruits (mainly banana) but the wet soil scent remains throughout. It really smells like you're smelling a cave! I for one am obsessed by this sort of scent, so this is one of the best fragrances I've literally ever smelled. Sillage and projection are also both through the roof, lasting over 10 hours with just 1 spray (especially as it's an extrait de parfum). This is honestly a masterpiece of perfumery, and unparalleled as far as dark green earth scents go.

5/5

Designed by Ellen Covey, this scent is....it's just remarkable. Truly, whenever I examine it I'm at a loss for words.

Initial smells of dark, damp earth mixed with overripe fruit, headlined by banana: it somehow manages to be stringent and demanding yet light. The tartness of the musk and fruit are mellowed by the faint smell of fig in the background. It's such a demanding scent, something modern and incredibly unique. Zoologist always attempts to capture the spirit of an animal in their scent, and nowhere is it done any better than with bat: an animal many fear, dark and elusive, musky yet delicate. The drydown takes the edge off the musk and brings to the forefront the smell of ripe fruits and vetiver. It goes from demanding to alluring in the space of several hours, and I like both stages equally.

Conventional fragrance abounds: it is rare that I get to smell something that stands apart so uniquely from its competitors that I am taken aback. This is truly the case with Bat: I have never smelled anything like it. It's a very modern, very strong scent that should be in anyone's wardrobe that is daring enough to try it. For a powerful man or woman.

Strong sillage and longevity. People can smell it on you, I had many people throughout my day asking what I was wearing. The longevity is in the realm of 8 hours, which is very long on my skin.

True excellence.

10/10

If you buy into the backstory, then this bat is doing some serious flitting, from dank and musty cave to the green canopied forest and back. But, in reality of course, the earthy aspect of this scent comes nowhere close to a bat cave rank with the creature's droppings; it's more like freshly turned earth rich in humus, a scent that catches a bit at the back of the throat, matched with a powerful humidity. This is Bat's overriding theme – challenging for sure, but thrilling to see it so well captured; and its counterpoint is a singing crisp, vetiver, dressed in bright green notes.
For a large portion of its life on my skin Bat is a bit of a tropical rainstorm of a perfume, not one I'd wear for the usual pleasures of olfactory indulgence but because it takes me places. There's a basketful of fruity notes mentioned in the declared list, but on my skin there's really no trace – my bat's got them safely trapped in its gut and ain't about to burp.
But it's after a good 6-plus hours that it really begins to take flight for me. The soil tincture effect dies down and a thrillingly sour vetiver-woody reveals itself. It's a zinging tartness that the nose can't quite place (it's not really citric) that has me going ‘mmm' with pleasure and wanting to zip about with renewed energy.

Challenging but wearable earthy fragrance

Bat has a challenging, kaleidoscopic opening that is dizzying. Sweet, tropical fruit; rich black topsoil; cold, wet, flinty stones; growling animal musks, these are all present from the beginning, vying for your attention. In rapid succession you find yourself with fleeting impressions of peeling open a ripe banana, peering into sunless caves with dripping water, thrusting your bare hands into moist earth, catching a whiff of rotting compost.

The scent settles down into a perfect balance between dank edges softened by fruity, musky sweetness that blend more and more harmoniously as time passes.

The dankness reminds me of another favourite, Dzongkha, as if you had fallen from the shadows of those airy, smoky, mountainous peaks, landed softly in clods of dirt and fallen fruit and slowly rolled into the wet mouth of a cave.

Opens musty, earthy, damp, mineralic - exact image of the interior of a cave, rocks dripping water onto an earthen floor, the atmosphere close and damp.
The fruit in the opening is over-ripe, sweaty and boozy - bananas and papaya spring to mind - with a note of sweet hay, too.
The mineralic notes vanish first but the heart retains an earthy note. The fermenting fruit sticks around for a while too, but as the transition to drydown continues, it dries out and becomes leathery.
The drydown is less challenging to wear - it says closer to the skin but is quite animalic. Oud, vetiver and a barnyard musk.
The tale of a journey into the depths of a cave on a hot day - leaving the dry grass for damp earth, moving through wet rock and rotting fruit into the depths of the cave where the furry creature hangs, warm body wrapped in leather wings.
Projection and longevity are both above average. Leans masculine imo - while I would enjoy the leather-musk smell of a man in a cave, I'm not sure I'd find it so alluring on a woman.

My husband made fun of me, for wearing this. He said, "You smell like our old basement." Yes, this is true. This has a musty, damp accord. Slight licorice smell in the middle. I get a twilight vibe from this. Like I should be flying around the neighborhood, picking off bugs, one by one. This is not a bad thing, in my opinion.

On the top I get a yummy banana note, as well as other fruit and a huge soil smell. The middle I pick out fig, myrrh, resins, and some tropical fruit, punch mix. The base is faint for me. I detect some musk, soft leather, almost like kidskin gloves. A bit of Tonka bean, too.

Creative and oddball. Right up my alley. Or should I state, belfry.

Really like this scent. It's new and wearable. The smell is exactly like that of a damp mossy cave. You do get the fruits a little bit in the beginning but they go away after about an hour.
Projection is solid as well as longevity. I got a good 8 hours before it came a skin scent. Now I'm trying to decide if I'll put it on my buy list.

7/10

Over the years of trying fragrances I've run across a few that did "Rocks and minerals" well. Black Tourmaline by Olivier Durbano comes to mind. This fragrance does it to perfection. It dries down to a wet stone ancient cave smell. Someone said "musty" but this isn't musty in a bad way, only dark wet caves where bats roost during the day. It opens with a bit of fruit, bananas, but the stone and minerals are there also. A bit of oud and myrrh adds an earthy damp ground note. There is a slight 'green' smell also like tall grass growing outside the cave entrance. This has become my favorite Zoologist fragrance so far.

Woahhhhh, God, let me exaggerating with the adjectives,... whatta genial earthy-acid "magically dissonant" (salty-sweet/tart/mellow) serum for "human-bats" of the metropolitan sultry "down town night" (southern tropical "seaside summer nights" jump on mind as well)!!!! Kinky. I'm realizing to be "on a rave" for this impressive new canadian creative house (a "creative workshop" with a seriously original - "animalic/actually no animal"- concept behind) managing to create the most illusorially animalic fragrances (Bat, Civet, Beaver) actually with no trace of real animal notes. Bat is one of the "naughtiest" scents I've ever tested on skin, pure hardcore "porno-oriented" olfactory eroticism, something at same time arcane (wild, caves' mustiness eliciting) and super modern (glamour). Bat is definitely one the most original "salty-fiery" hair-chested leathers I've had the pleasure to test. Pure genius. Unique, a one of a kind blend of leather, resins, fizzy mineral notes and captivating tropical fruits. An hypnotic fragrance based on a game of unexpected contrasts. In the same league (at least conceptually) as bizarre-irreverent olfactory twists a la Escentric Molecules Kinski, Zoologist Bat possesses an amazing "fizzy-molecular-swarming" salty-mineral (all at once rooty/woody and aromatic) accord of vetiver, salty/woody sandalwood, mineral elements, leafy vegetal patterns, dodgy ozonic patterns, damp earthiness, dry roots and tropical dry (tart-salty "red") or mellow fruits. The main bitter (citric)-sweet acid/salty (humid-camphoraceous) testosteronic accord masters this olfactory masterwork of synth creativity, being however finally counteracted by a sweeter/softer chord of sultry balsams, tropical fruits, visceral resins and sweated musks. The outcome is "arresting" and purely provocative in all its peculiar glory. The camphoraceous presence is "appalling", humid, rocky, mouldy, earthy, vegetal and mossy.
The contrast between rooty/mineral camphor and yummy figgy-tropical resins is simply superb. Vetiver, sandalwood and leather provide an high level of saltiness. Amazing, a sultry dark accord for a "sweated" sinny journey through the most tropical and chaotic rave party ever. Finally a more than vague "smoother" figgy (a la Ferragamo Pour Homme/ Diptyque Philosykos) creamy note (figs, banana, baksams, tonka) pops up on the scene providing a twist of fruity exotic smoothness. Addictive as few scents in this universe with its spark of musky virile fizzy/acid (balsamic) piquancy, Bat makes an "unbuttoned shirt" virile sweated man in a chaotic beach-party ideally jumping on mind. There is this salty-acid mineral rugged presence (a tart fruity grapes/pomegranate-like presence as well) conjuring me incredibly an urban juice which I love, namely the salty (and more than vaguely leathery) Bond N. 9 New York Oud, the juice I know which mostly Bat resembles at. Finally you will enjoy an immensely sexy and provocative metropolitan "clubbing-leather-salty-fragrance" which will manage to lord over all the most straightforward sexy accords of the night clubs' playground. Simply amazing.

P.S: I surely see how "Bat pays tribute to the biological characteristics of the bat–its diet and habitat–as well as the myths and legends surrounding these furry, mysterious creatures of the night". I have to say that anyway this is a surprisingly modern and "urban" leather-juice (at least in my perception) which nails down a new particularly modern concept of "glamour" in to a powerfully exotic, virile and trendy/fashionable way (not properly a caves-conjuring scenario on my mind).

Very nice. Smells similar to Dark earth by Neil Morris. Rich earthiness coupled with overripe fruits.

The opening's assortmentp of dried written fruit with a good lashing of overripe bananas, the blackish and rotten sort. Soon the aroma of a damp forest ground, the earth of a meadow, develops, but without and of the wood and forest notes that a so incomparably beautifully captured in dunhill's Blend 30. It a dark, skanky and threatening moist environment, and a world apart from the gently moist atmosphere in Apres l'Ondee.

The base adds more musky notes, a bit brightened by whiffs of a light vetiver in the backgound, and gradually the rotten and skanky side recedes to give ways for a touch of vanilla to restrainedly sweeten the end phase a bit.

I get strong sillage, excellent projection and a great longevity of ten hours in my skin.

A beastly and skanky composition, with huge lashings of geosmin that, whilst being a very nice representation of the damp earth, lacks the depth, richness and nuances of the other scents mentioned above. Still, it is original and good fun. Great for an afternoon crawling in caves. You don't have to be batty to like this one - just maybe a bit fruity. 3.25/5

Monty P., where is Eric the fruit-bat?

"Try it. It smells like a bat cave." he said.

I sprayed a bit on the strip and brought it close to my nose and... sure enough, it smelled exactly like a bat cave. Mouldy dripping walls, bat excrement, the warmth of sleeping animals, on a backdrop of cool rainforest right after a rainstorm. I have no idea how they did it, but wow.

Do you want to smell like a bat cave? I'm not sure it's a good idea. But intellectually, very impressive.

Bat, as anybody who's reading this probably knows, was constructed as an interpretation of a bat cave, complete with damp stone walls, dark musty corners, and bat-food--deposits of tropical fruits the furry little creatures can feast on as they hang upside down and do bat stuff. And Zoologist nailed it. Or more specifically, Ellen Covey, perfumer and avid bat enthusiast, nailed it. The first thing you'll notice about Bat is that it smells different. The opening is almost cold in its effect--immediately conjuring mineralic properties of stones and earth. It feels damp and has a sort of mustiness about it that contributes to the dark, cave-like atmosphere that's established. This seems mostly achieved by a very earthy, rooty vetiver. But this isn't a dreary, foreboding cave; there are signs of brighter things ahead. Namely, a kind of general tropical fruit (papaya, guanabana, etc.) that starts to appear shortly after the opening. The fruit is ripe and fresh, but as indicated in the pyramid above, it's soft. It's not sharp. It doesn't jump out and bite you or reach into a very high register. In fact, as the fruit develops it takes on the smell of bananas, which blend surprisingly well with the earthy vetiver of the cave. Still, this would not work without the final element in place--the bats! A very warm musk develops in the base, almost seamlessly, and it holds everything in a very comfortable embrace. This "furry musk" as described by the perfumer does indeed have a warm, living sort of quality. But it's not animalic in the typical sense of the term. It lacks any kind of objectionable stink--civet, castoreum, cumin--they're not here. Instead it's just a very warm, soothing musk that takes any impersonal element from the cave and draws it in to a more comfortable space. This is the perfect conclusion to a very dynamic and interesting perfume.

While the development of bat is certainly interesting, and really flawless as far as its transitions and stages, it's also important to note the quality of the perfume itself. It is completely void of any harsh synthetic elements. The vetiver is raw and real, as if uprooted from the soil and the fruit has a soft, natural sort of glow. The musk is fantastic, exuding an incredible warmth and depth, melding with the skin just as it should. It feels as though it was made with very carefully chosen, high quality ingredients, and an eye toward avoiding a synthetic edge which would pull it out of character. As far as its performance is concerned, I would give Bat a 10/10. It projects very strongly for the first couple of hours (you really have to watch how heavy you go). And even after it settles in, it still projects with significant intensity. Regarding its longevity, Bat lasts over 10 hours.

In conclusion, this is an excellent fragrance as it's not only unique and made with quality ingredients, but it's also fun to wear. While you may need an open mind, and some affinity for the strange and different, Bat really isn't that difficult to pull off. If you can wear a true vetiver fragrance you can wear Bat. The same goes for those who can wear hardcore fruity scents, or unique stuff like Fahrenheit. As long as you don't over-apply it and choke everyone out, Bat should be an easy, enjoyable wear. Thumbs up! with a 9/10 rating.

Have you ever just encountered that fragrance that you just find it difficult to explain? Well this is it. Let me just say it smells quite nice in my opinion and I will be buying a bottle because it is so unique (I have a large sample of it now only). I just wanted to get my upfront opinion on it out of the way, because the way I am going to describe it, it may not sound so appealing- but IT IS! It may not appeal to the majority, but I still have gotten compliments on it.

So when I instantly spray it, I get a big whiff of bananas (imagine like you're walking by unpeeled bananas in the grocery store, not like banana flavored laffy taffy smell). It is mixed in with a musky, fresh potting soil scent that smells nice.

OVERALL- It just reminds me of a very manly spring scent due to the banana in this, and has a cool smell (like temperature wise) if you get what I mean- no spices or anything like that. It honestly does smell like a cave in a sense.

After reading the other views, a few comments I have about their description is as follows:
1. There is no doubt an animalic scent, but it isn't a gross animalic scent (I much prefer this animalic than kouros by YSL).
2.I do not really detect much leather at all in here, and would honestly not guess that was a note unless reading the description.

Bat may be the single strangest fragrance I have tried all year. It smells like tropical fruits and tufts of dried grass at the bottom of a freshly dug grave. It is soft but persistent, and even after hours, nearing the rootsy vetiver and leather finish, I can still detect a small tang from the fresh fruit lurking in the sides. I don't see too many people loving this but I find it very pleasant.