Sacred Scarab
Zoologist Perfumes (2022)

Sacred Scarab reminds me a LOT of the old style Avon chyrpes, when they were considered elegant perfume and not drug store quality trash. It has the elements of a classic: Neroli, galbanum, seriously strong soapy aldehydes, civet. This is probably the closest you'll get to a vintage fragrance in a new one. It could use a little more oomph in the base to duplicate the heavy, sultry, multilayered mysteries of the old classics, but it's pretty darn close. If you hoard ancient bottles of fragrance that are gently going off with age, wishing you could step back in time and purchase them new, give this a try: Something somewhere back in the mists of history smelled exactly like this when the bottle was first opened.

I'm old enough to remember when just about everyone wafted aldehydes and funky spices, bong water and sour dishcloths, but to wear a big, bold chypre today is to approach the level of rebel-rebel, at least among those who aren't INTO perfume, but who merely want to wear it to work and not get sent home.

Back then, though, a perfume like Sacred Scarab would have sat on the counter at Goldwaters or The Broadway, shoulder to shoulder with Dioressence, Magie Noir, and No. 19. Teen girls who saved their pennies from their Orange Julius jobs would have bought it without a second thought—or stolen spritzes from their moms' bottles.

Today, it's "niche," maybe even tongue-in-niche (I never know with Zoologist), but if you want to smell like a perfume revival, like an assertion, like a plea to once again consider (literal) piss elegance as a viable aesthetic choice, an antidote to an overload of both oud and of athleisure, snag yourself a bottle of this.

It took a while for me to come around to this one.

Sacred Scarab starts out with a wallop, gets a bit sickly sweet, but ends packing a real punch. It has distinct "redolent-of-old-lady" times throughout its transmogrification, to be sure, but the whole package is totally worth it.

I chased a horsefly down the street with a bottle of Sacred Scarab only to fall into a hole, twist my ankle, scuff a new shoe, break the bottle, and get stung. But it was worth it. Because I smelled great.

aldehydes, civet, wine, plum with a thick base of raisins olibanum myrrh, labdanum and amber is all I got.
Charming creation which spells oriental kind of scent . A very good juice!

I received a sample of this from an order in May. At first I thought it was beautifully blended, but wasn't sure how much I actually enjoyed it, and it sat in a drawer for a while. A month later, I'm now on my third wear I'm completely falling in love. It feels unique among what I've tried in being a true oriental, complex, potent and packed with ingredients and not sheer in the least - yet somehow retaining a lightness and brightness that makes it comfortable to wear in summer.
Really beautiful and I hope it sticks around sans reformulation for a long while yet. The first full bottle worthy zoologist I've tried.

I received a sample of this recently and I’m really impressed, it’s a complex, layered floral Chypre in old school style. It opens with a hint of lemony airy aldehydes but quickly morphs into a rich resiny floral incense. It’s rich, deep and sexy and a far cry from modern cashmeran vanilla creations and for me it reminds me of proper perfume that was around 40 years ago before the ban on oak moss. Sultan Pasha has managed to create a beautiful perfume reminiscent of the 1970’s for the 21st century.