Beaver (original)
Zoologist Perfumes (2014)

A lot f blue freshness that clashes with dark dirtiness in a way no one would expect. Leans towards masculinity. Good performances.

The opening is a crisp and fairly bright floral-green impression, but the main ingredient soon takes centre stage - a pleasant castoreum, with the latter's synthetic component kept in check by notes of iris and whiffs of violet.

Later on a restrainedly early ambery notes underpins and equally unobtrusive vanilla, with a somewhat generic woodsy note lurking in the background.

The sillage is moderate, the projection very good and the longevity an excellent eleven hours on my skin.

Nice in autumn, this is a castoreum-centric cent worth trying for lovers of this note. At times a bit too synthetic and a tad generic, it is otherwise a respectable creation. 3/25/5

This scent has received a lot of negative reviews. Here's a positive one. Full disclosure here -- I did not work at a zoo nor am zoo phobic. I consider myself sensitive to powerful scents. I don't particularly like musk as note. Yet, I like this scent.
It is in three stages. (1) A light fresh floral. A bit ozonic but OK, and the floral is not sweet. (2) Interesting development into this phase. Green and stalky. Good silvery iris, and a lovely, haunting smoke note. I quite like it. (3) Animalic, but not tortuous. Rather mild, and marries well with the smoke.
Perhaps a key is to under-apply and see how it suits. In massive doses it could get difficult.
I like this (2014) version with the smoke note, I'm glad to have the sample. I probably wouldn't want any more musks, which evidently appear in the 2016 version.

Sometimes I wonder if we're all smelling the same thing, or whether my beak is broke... ever wonder that?

Beaver is a delightful light, whispy, ozonic, airy floral. It reminds me of a bed linen spray I once used. It's polite, floral, and much too fem for me. Yes, it seems to be anchored with a bit of animalic musk and ashtray but that bit's all so close to the skin that I really have to go digging to sense them. Further, these accords serve to round off the edges of an otherwise sharp floral. It all seems to have been done well and is pleasant enough, but in the end I look to wear things more classically masculine and the linen spray association is a distraction.

My expectation of a musky/castoreum-prominent mix with all the heft and density of something such as Kiehl's was wildly off mark. Makes sense, as the intended interpretation is that of the Beavers' typical surrounds rather than specifically of Beaver (castoreum). This, I think, is what I'm conceptually at odds with -- give me something like 60:40, musky animal to floral and not the other way around at what seems 90:10, and pursuit would be much more likely.

So, as it is, Zoologist's owner has candidly expressed low sales of Beaver and a reformulation is now available: less ashtray, added some leather, modified the floral and musks. Understandable.

Animalic musk. Castoreum. Smoke.

This is pretty much all I get from this fragrance... I am fan of the House, but definitely NOT a fan of Beaver. This is literally the most animalic scent I have ever tried before. It took everything I had not to wash it off, but after 3 hours I could not stand it anymore and scrubbed and scrubbed...

I worked at the Dallas Zoo as a keeper aide and none of our animals smells this musky.

I do highly recommend trying Bat as an alternative to this.

Beaver starts off very light and airy (probably too much so), and slowly but surely the charred wood notes trickle in. It's much like walking by a river and finding last night's campfire, only the whole scent is haunted by what feels like an out-of-place animal musk unbalancing the clean, open-air feel of the rest of it. In time an earthy vanilla emerges and ties things together a bit but ultimately can not save the fragrance from being too light and weirdly gross.