Moth Zoologist Perfumes for women and men

Since summer is getting closer and closer, I took the opportunity to wore this tonight, as it’s probably one of the last times it’ll drop below 45° for a bit. When this is first applied, it does come off a bit like moth balls like others have said. I think that is why many people are quick to label this as challenging (understandably), and while I don’t have an issue with the initial smell, it does change drastically as time progresses, going from a dark and dusty closet to something more grand. More woods begin to come into the picture, along with a powdery accord that kind of just drifts in the background, covered up by beautiful incense and deep floral notes.

It settles into itself after 30-45 minutes, where it really starts to have more of that “headshop” vibe that so many mention. I find this extremely comforting and nostalgic, almost in an idealistic way, as if my memories go through a filter and I’m left with only the positive parts of the associations I can relate to this.

Performance on my skin is well above average. I’ve still been able to detect a decent trail for 4+ hours, and it lingers on my skin 10-12 hours after applying it. Still, it never becomes cloying or overwhelming because it maintains the inherent delicate feeling this fragrance possesses.

All in all, Moth is stunning. Gothic yet warm, strong yet beautifully fragile, just like its namesake. I don’t find it particularly hard to wear but I can definitely see how this could be polarizing to some. It is undeniably unique though, and probably the furthest from blind buy safe. I highly recommend it, but only after sampling it first. Zoologist blew me away with this and easily deserves a 10/10.

Moth is the cool glooms and musty melancholy of antique lace and silks tucked away with camphoraceus mothballs, there’s a smoky rose musk aspect, the spectral embers of a rose that lit itself on fire for love, or vengeance, or maybe both, and a bittersweet powdery element, like dried honey mixed with grave dust from a tomb. But the longer this wears, the more familiar it begins to smell, and I realize I am actually just wearing the musky vanilla and dusty florals of Hypnotic Poison, or alternately, the Bewitching Yasmine from Penhaligon, or Fleur Cachée from Anatol Lebreton, which to my nose, all smell like kindred spirits. And do I really need another perfume in that vein? And then I remember that I actually only own one bottle of those three scents and that one doesn’t have the thing going for it that Moth does: ultimately, Moth smells like a twilight shadowplay of austere embraces, a haunting chorus of forgotten languages, and basically what you wear to convince the ghosts that you are in fact a ghost.

I agree with other reviews, this could be polarizing. Spicy opening, powdery scent stays and is mysterious. It leans a little feminine for me, but I love it. I would wear it anytime. It is a comforting scent. Some equate it to an older lady's house. Maybe it invokes some form of locked memory for comfort. Maybe the mystery draws me in. Or maybe "That's the way love goes".

"Like a moth to the flame
burned by the fire."

I would keep this in my rotation.

I thought I leaned hippie goth enough but this made me physically recoil and I had to scrub my hand asap. To my nose this is absolutely bitter and toxic like poison but not in a cool way. maybe in another life.

I have gotten a second sample of this fragrance because I so desperately want to love this fragrance!
I enjoy the way it smells more on other people then I enjoy the way it smells on myself.
I will continue to visit this sample as I do with all my zoologist samples and I hope to enjoy it more in the future.

Very Good Fragrance its nice and spicy, to me it smells like a Grandmas house while she has incense burning. It lasts fairly long on my skin and the projection is great. And the dry-down is amazing. such a good fragrance 9.5/10

I think moth is such a unique scent. I personally like it, but I can see somewhat how some couldn’t. It has a very old and antique smell to it that keeps you continually getting a whiff. It’s a hard to describe but a pleasant scent. Doesn’t work everywhere but I don’t think it has a particular season it works best in besides maybe fall.

Moth one of my most treasured fragrances. Haunting. Disorienting to some. Sticks to my clothes and I feel like an animal obsessively sniffing around my closet to find the source, or when I find myself with my nose to the carpet after a generous application.

For those particularly given to imagination, this is very evocative, interesting, a bit surprising. There's detail, there's imagery, and setting. It will take you somewhere, if you're that type of thinker. If you stop at "this smell like an old lady", this is definitely not for you.

But is it wearable as a regular, personal fragrance? Debatable. I would say only in very small doses, and mostly for those who like their fragrances dry and cool. There are spicy notes and powdery notes, but it's not going to strike you as any classic scents in those categories.

This sets a scene. It's a place. Not sure it's a character for me. But that's up to you, you might be that character.

Vincent Price's perfume 🖤

I would say that Zoologist Moth succeeds in smelling like a moth. On first spray youre greeted with a sweet honey almost lemon like smell. After a few minutes I would describe it as an old clothes smell. To me it smells like something a grandma would wear. Somewhat sweet, a hint of spice, and an intriguing smell. Personally I don't love it, I think it would fit much better on a woman and someone more mature than I.

moth opens with a blast of powder, spice, and sweet honey, before quickly developing in to warm spice, flowers, and heavy incense. it smells dusty, dark, and old, like an ornate gothic cabinet in someone's abandoned attic. or, in a more positive way, an old witchery shop that's been in someone's family for generations: creaky floorboards, dim lights, tables covered in dusty antiques, small crystals, dried flowers, and handmade jewelry, smoke hanging low in the air. the sweet honey and florals lift that gothic smell slightly, just enough to make this perfume wearable instead of just an art piece. it is quintessentially "moth": gothic, natural, dusty, elegant, and alluring.

1st anniversary of owning this gem.

The viscosity that comes from splashing a somehow big flying insect within your own 2 fingers.

It is a peppery spicy honey/iris bomb.
Yes, it smells vintage.
Yes, it is intricate and difficult to find occasions to spray.
Yes, 4 intelligent sprays are more than enough.
Yes, for some it may lings a bit feminine.

Still, this is just a masterpiece, one of the most complex pieces I proudly own.

Arigato Sensei Inaba-san and thank you, Victor.

It smells great. I find it more femenine than unisex. It smells like old lady, but not in a bad way. It’s just not my taste. But if you wanna smell like old lady, powder and soap then go for this.

I love this fragrance, but it’s very witchy. I might prefer it on other people, or even places. It smells just like a new age shop, like burning incense. It would make a great candle lol.

After a tiny luckyscent sample I bought this after it came out some time ago & have wore it once & it I guess has scared me away!! Maybe it’s the honey, It’s been awhile , But gonna revisit this & try to see what it is was that once impressed me enough to have spent close to $200

On me, this is more Bee than Bee. It opens powdery and feels gothic. I definitely get the cloves, resin and some deep sticky florals, similar to a honey sampling made from different flowers. Overwhelmingly, this is giving sticky, dark, alluring honey that you want to stick your fingers in and lick it off. I'm testing in very hot & humid conditions 10/10.

This fragrance is more of an art piece for most people. It’s an extremely acquired taste, but god, I love this perfume. It smells like an old antique shop, like one of the GOOD ones that has stuff crammed into every nook and cranny. I’ve worn it out, and on me it goes very woody and patchouli heavy after about an hour and becomes more “wearable” to the crowd. This one is not a safe work perfume or blind buy, but if you’re interested in smelling like a crazy old shopkeep who hasn’t seen the sun in eighty years, get a sample. It’s the most unique perfume I’ve ever smelled, and I’ll definitely be buying a full bottle.

Chic mothballs? Pretty Naphthalene? This is a scent that will evoke memories and feelings so make sure you have good ones. For me it's a carefree childhood, walking into a dimly lit old church of a small Italian town, cringing at the overpowering smell of incense. Do not blind buy.

I’ve been in search of a gothic, mysterious, dark but ethereal perfume for a long time so I blind bought it. Unfortunately it did not remind me of a moth. It felt sticky to me and the image I get is a more sweaty and filthy animal. Also the drydown is very similar to The Dark Side by Francesca Bianchi which I also dislike very much. I admit that it smells quite unique in the opening and I liked the opening more than the drydown. I also agree with the the old lady vibes describes by other people.

i genuinely hate this so much. i respect the art behind it it does smell like a moth in a gloomy and dusty attic of an old lady who died but you would never catch me wearing that. it’s also SO STRONG i sprayed it on my arm like 2 days ago and it won’t go away but in a bad way. i literally forgot i put it on before bed and when i woke up i was like wtf smells MUSTYYY and then i remembered.

Months after initially reviewing this and then revisiting my sample multiple times, I had to post a new take on this Moth.

I stand by what I originally said - it’s gorgeously artistic but (nearly) unwearable. This is the definition of niche; an acquired taste. However, just like dust gathering, its gothic quality has really grown on me over time. Moth is possibly the most unique fragrance I’ve ever smelled. It is exquisite and queer in an old fashioned way - the scent of haunted spaces, a flickering candle amongst cobwebs, or dusty wings fluttering through gray skies.

I wanted to purchase one more bottle for my Zoologist collection, and it was between Bat, Panda, and Moth. All wildly different scents. But something about Moth beckoned to me. You could even say that it…haunted me.

To me, Moth smells like a haunted house: the gorgeous manor perched on the seaside cliffs of Cornwall in 1944's unsettling black and white film The Uninvited, an Agatha Christie murder mystery set inside a decaying Victorian mansion, or most especially what The House on Haunted Hill would smell like (both the 1959 and 1999 films - in fact, this scent even recalls the soundtrack of the 1999 remake with Marilyn Manson’s breathy, raspy, gothic cover of Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams).

Gothic decay in a bottle. Musty. Old. Weird. Perverse. Moth is just so bizarre that I gotta have it - the perfect bookend to my collection of otherwise wearable Zoologist scents.

In five words or less: Moth is devilishly, addictively goth.

This smells like my memory of a butterfly house. Warm, sticky, fermenting fruit. A butterfly is decomposing in the undergrowth, turning into a sort of Lepidoptera honey. Perfectly captures the smell of the silvery, moth-wing residue left on your hands after you shoo it back out the window. It’s nice!

Smells like the attic of a deceased old lady. Coffin dust, horrible incense, ash, and vintage makeup powder.

Spectacular opening soon becomes horrific chemical naphthalene suffocation cloud.

I have to hand it to them though, this somehow is the smell of a moth.

Opening is very interesting and unique smells slightly like shoe polish but dry down is just not it ,it smells like an old senile man who keeps jizzing on himself however I don’t hate it

Oh now this is just amazing. For me it’s the perfect combination of wood, spice, and powder. This and Zoologist’s Tiger are my new Autumn and Winter perfume. Bravo!

This is so special and incredibly gorgeous. Took me a while to get a read on it, mostly because I fist smelled it in the summer heat. When I came back to it a few months later, I was in love. Great for cold, brisk fall days. A little like moth balls on my clothes, but smoky and cozy musk on the skin.

This smells EXACTLY as advertised; like opening an old cupboard in a Victorian manor house. Totally wearable and utterly unique. I love it

Zoologist does it yet again, absolutely phenomenal. On my skin, moth is incense and dusty, old, untouched library while it’s raining outside. Such a gorgeous scent, I am in LOVE with it. That being said, I am an incense fan and am constantly burning it in my house. If you don’t like incense, I’d say this is most definitely not for you. It smells like old books, it is everything I could have ever wanted from a scent called “moth”. Absolutely perfect for the right people, including me. 🖤

I keep getting called a grand parent when i wear this fragrance, WELL LISTEN UP BITCHES IM GOING TO SIT YOU DOWN AND WERE GONNA PLAY SOME FUCKING BINGO, WERE GONNA GO TO COSTCO AND GET SOME FUCKING COLESLAW, AND IM GOING TO TELL YOU STORIES ABOUT HOW I KILLED A MAN IN THE WAR AND SAW HIS LIFE SLOWLY LEAVE HIS EYES. HE VISITS ME IN MY DREAMS AT NIGHT AND TELLS ME ABOUT THE LIFE HE LOST, THE FAMILY THAT WILL NEVER FORGIVE ME, THE GIRL HE LEFT BACK HOME AND THE KIDS HE HAD LEFT, NOW HOMELESS AND HUNGRY SOME NIGHTS HE BRINGS ME TO WHAT HIS LIFE COULD OF BEEN IF I HAD SHOWN HIM MERCY, THE LITTLE MOMENTS THAT WOULD OF BROUGHT HIM JOY. THOSE ARE THE NIGHTS I CRY THE MOST. I CAN NOT GIVE BACK WHAT I HAVE TAKEN.

Moth over all is a very nice combo of sweet and smokey with a rack of spices on top, its sense of decay and age is its charm. Surprisingly wearable.

addendum: Old books.

Moth is something of a let down for me. I adore nightingale to pieces so I was excited to try moth. Moth smells like a medical ointment one puts on cuts. It is very reminiscent of a herbal salve my grandmother made for all of our cuts etc... like if you put that salve in a wooden drawer with talc powder and a bottle of old spice and left it there for a couple of decades. When you opened that drawer to clean it out this is the smell you would get. All of the tragedy and none of the romance of the moth burned by the flame story.

I recommend this for cold winter or spring nights. But one must be very goth to wear it.

My extreme respect for this is equal to my extreme dislike. They have rendered the environment of a moth perfectly: a dusty, musty, dark place where I don’t want to spend any time at all.

My Fable:
Upon entering the room, you are immediately seized by a mysterious, alluring scent. It wafts towards you like a secret whispered in hushed tones, compelling you to seek its source. The origin a mystery, a puzzle waiting to be solved.
You find yourself drawn towards it, captivated by its complexity, its enigma, and its indefiniteness. As you inch closer to the origin of the scent — the light — you find yourself yearning for it even more.
Its intoxicating sweetness, shrouding the mystery, reminiscent of honey, is an irresistible lure, drawing you in deeper, captivating your senses and holding them hostage.


Rating:
Moth by Zoologist is, in my opinion, a masterpiece of olfactory art. It's an exquisite representation of its namesake, weaving a mysterious and beguiling tale with its scent.
The powerful notes of honey and florals act as a potent lure, while the powdery, smoky undertones add layers of intrigue and mystery.

• Scent: 10/10
• Longevity: 10/10
• Sillage: 9/10
• Season: All year round (especially perfect at night)
• Gender: More Male
• Price-Value: Fairly priced for the quality and experience it offers.

I don't really understand the comments saying that it's weird or unpleasant.
For any north african or someone who has traveled there this smells like moroccan incense, smoky resinous and spicy, then it dries down sweet flowery and woody.
It's mysterious, elegant and really well done.

Absolutely in love but it is a hard to pull perfume, would be perfect for a gothic or older person in the winter.

I love Moth. It is an artistic concoction reminiscent of dark fairy tales, folklore, and old university libraries. Hidden amongst the many notes, I can detect rose, powdery mimosa, mildly sweetened honey, incense, and a background blast of unidentified rooty herbs. It is a witches brew that unfurls slowly on skin, and is weird, potent and powdery in the best possible way. Moth is the perfect companion for arts students, historians, goths, and those with very specific and peculiar interests.

I prefer honey in this one rather than the Bee. But overall, I do not have that much positive to say about this, it is warm, dusty/powdery, sweet and has some piss smell to it. Agree it is atmospheric, etc. But definitely must be sampled first - do not recommend blindly buying anything from this brand. Also would like to add, Moth smells a bit too mature for my liking. And I am detecting some tomato leaf note.

You know what it reminds me of?
After a long night out in the club you went back home and realize your floral perfume has now been wrapped inside a thick smoke from other vaping and smoking clubbers, someone puked on you, the sour fruits smell from an alcoholic drink now stuck on you after it has been spilled all over the walls and floors of the club. There is also some heavy spices in that puke too.
Thick and complex, dark and borderline trashy.

I appreciate the art in here and wanted to love it so much for the concept, but it is not something wearable for me.

Oppressive smoke, wet sneakers, and green undertones on my skin. Felt like choking for air in a burning forest. I hated it the first time I sprayed it, but it smells completely different on clothing. Starting to come around to the deep, dark, and mysterious qualities of it on fabric.

Had it not been for a video of "the strangest-smelling" fragrances, I wouldn't have discovered this. I'm not going to say much - just one word: naphthalene.

just picked this up the other day as a sample along with sacred scarab, and this is definitely the more 'agreeable' between the two. has an opening bordering on sickly sweet, definitely with major honey notes although lacking in that sort of biological pukey-ness you can get with honey sometimes. then, i find the opening and dry-down blur between each other until settling down to a powdery finish that reads to me as a sort of mix between unburnt incense and talc. if i had to boil it down to descriptions that don't reference physical materials, i'd say it opens very sweet and organic, before drying down to an extremely pleasant, mysterious, delicate and high-performing dusty smell. i'm extremely impressed with the longevity of it, as more delicate aromas tend to blend in after a while. i've gotten around 6 hours of high-sillage, and it can still be smelled up close for around an entire day. i'm probably gonna pick up at least a travel spray of this one.

yes it is resinous, yes it is dusty, yes it is spicy

and yes I'm in love. I am goth so I might be biased but this is a work of art that I find very wearable!

typically out of all the zoologist fragrances, with the minor exception of my one friend who cannot get over the salt note in squid, I've found that moth, squid, and dragonfly are the most wearable ones. with zoologist, I'm typically the only one who likes the fragrance and my friends all hate it (sacred scarab and bat) but people actually like this one! "it smells like a dusty gothic attic" is what I hear.

I smell a dusty, haunted, and rebellious moth that likes to sit in my closet on my black clothing and chew little annoying holes in my clothing. no but for real it as beautiful ghostly scent, honestly like a true authentic abandoned haunted house. the resin and honey scent smells like untouched furniture and books left in a hurry in a home, while the incense and spices in the top note smell like a haunted home full of secrets and hidden treasure. the middle floral notes leave an almost dead flower bouquet aspect to this fragrance that is very underrated! (this is everything I wanted from bat)

if you love dark and spooky fragrances, get a sample!

Clove, black pepper, cumin and nutmeg. Has a honied overtone. Very animalic, but in a refined, uniquely Zoologist way. Smells like a subtle version of something you might get from ALD. Very nice scent. Deep and dank, but not obscure.

I wanted to like this one, but it wasn't meant to be. On initial spray, this is a wonderful and unique perfume. I can smell the smoke of a fire and a hint of dust. I thought this could be a signature. However, after about an hour, that fire fades off and I was left with thick dust. The type of dust that you would smell when walking into an abandoned building that is rotting. It made me remember some bad moments. Somehow, it was also sickeningly sweet. It made me nauseous. The staying power is amazing and lasted on my skin for days, which would be great if I actually liked it. This probably just didn't work out with my skin chemistry. If this perfume had stayed at the initial spray, it likely would have been a favorite.

Questo profumo viene presentato dappertutto come una fragranza gotica, spaventosa, che evoca una seduta spiritica,
Uno spruzzo sul mio braccio e quello che ne sento è inizialmente un odore confuso, pungente,ricorda lo spray contro le zanzare,poi si raffina ed ecco apparire Miel de bois di Lutens. Quel miele chiaro mescolato con pollini leggeri,fiori delicati,e così prosegue fino alla fine. E' inutile andare oltre perchè è uguale a Miel de bois, non ci vedo niente di gotico ne di spaventoso. Oggi ne ho messo un leggero spruzzo sulla mano prima di uscire e devo dire che è molto bello,si espande nell'aria questo odore di miele e pollini di fiori gialli,mi ha accompagnato tuto il pomeriggio fuori,ma di gotico,spaventoso e oscuro non c'era proprio niente. Solo ad un certo punto mi ha creato nella mente l'immagine di candele che vengono spente e sale un filo di fumo.

As someone who absolutely despises the smell of a bag of moth balls, this is exactly what this perfume is. The name accompanies and describes this scent so accurately, it should have been a warning. I couldn’t bring myself to spray this on my wrist, but I can just walk into my grandparents closet (which somehow brings up a sense of nostalgia, but one that doesn’t keep you coming back for more), pick up an old sweater, put it on, and that’d be exactly what this perfume smells like. This one is not for me yet it lives rent free in my head ever since I put my nose on the bottle’s nozzle, so well done and good job, Zoologist (I guess)

Smells like walking into the lobby of an independent living senior's building after dinner. Clean, but elderly people skin scent and warm after dinner scents wafting through the air.

This scent reminds me of decaying plant matter in the autumn months after heavy rainfall. It’s not a lived in rot that can be acrid but rather sticky sweet rot, akin to that of decomposing wood and the humus of a forest floor. A heavy mist wisps and settles, the trees slick with sap, insects swarm and devour the last of the fallen fruit. You should feel uneasy but instead you’re filled with a calmness, a romantic melancholy - this is the smell of the afterlife, your soul moving through from the living to the dead. I get something medicinal as well, it hits the roof of my mouth and then drips down the back of my throat. So beautiful.

More powdery, smokey & no vanilla tonka cola. Warmer than de profundis (less wood too tbh) I only want to wear this in the winter, the sillage is stronger than the longevity by far. I get that with a lot of the zoologist perfumes which hurts because I have a couple I would love to purchase. Back to this perfume, I think it's beautiful. She's a romantic goth, but she spends most of her time alone. Cold exterior, warm center. I wouldn't recommend as a blind buy! It's also hard to wear this in dense crowds, unless your goal is make sure people get out of your way. Sigh, I love it nonetheless.

A dusty and decrepit attic with rotting flowers.

Sadly, I wanted to love this, but just couldn't. I read the reviews below and was incredibly excited to try a scent that was described as gothic or like a haunted Victorian manor. It was all of those things, but it was also one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever smelled.

Hats off to Zoologist for perfectly nailing exactly what a moth's environment might smell like it. Haunted house, indeed. The Bride in Black from the Insidious film series would probably wear this and feel right at home.

That isn’t to say I dislike it, but it is to say that I don’t think it’s wearable. It’s gorgeously artistic but it works better as a creative experiment, as it’s too overpowering and ultimately too unpleasant to wear. I sprayed it on at noon and could still smell it the next morning, so that tells you just what performance this beast-mode of a fragrance has.

In five words or less: Artistic, gothic, musty, and unwearable.

Moth by Zoologist

Moth is a beautiful hauntingly gothic scent that transcends to Art.

However, this is not a blind buy! For me personally, I love dark perfumes and this one most certainly is!

The honey note is very dominant and two sprite is more then enough!

Must sample first.

 
    

Opens with a vanilla-like note (guessing it is the honey + mimosa/heliotrope combinations), that is potent, a hint smoky (=hidden in darkness) and gives off a dark, mysterious vibe but is also a little dirty
Definitely very unique scent that embodies the moth, because moths are nocturnal and mysterious
Reminds me of an old dusty, powdery place (where you could possibly find moths)
Besides that the scent is also woody and resinous, ambery
Initially i hated it and i still don't like it completely but i keep coming back to it and wanting to smell it

I smell most of the notes listed, but overwhelmingly Honey, Smoke, and Clove.
3/5

Moth is a perfume that recalls a very precious jar of talcum powder forgotten in a drawer full of make-up, lace and old love letters. Very dark, smoky and super goth! I LOVE IT!

There are a billion notes, but I think that is part of the beauty of this fragrance. It reminds me of living in Morocco and walking through the souks. You're confronted with tons of spices and perfumes and dusty walkways and leather goods and wool carpets and freshly polished metal goods. It dries down to a honey note on me.

It is a bit too confusing for me to appreciate as a wearable fragrance, but I can appreciate the distinct sensation it brings.

This fragrance was frustrating for me. I had high hopes for it, but it is difficult for me to wear because of the sharp presentation of a camphor top note that reminds me of bug spray. The rest of the fragrance is lovely but does not adequately balance the top note. The longevity and sillage are great, but even after drying, the camphor scent is distracting.

Dusty attic. In the best way possible. Reminds of Kilian’s Straight to Heaven. But warmer. I like you, Moth.

super sweet on me, i get cinnamon and honey at first and the honey doesn’t go anywhere, it stays on my skin till the dry down. similar to under my skin by Francesca Bianchi but sweeter and with a honey note. not as dark as i was expecting. i like the scent but Francesca’s work is one of my favorites and way more interesting than this ssso don’t need it.

Not sure how to review this one. It's probably one of the most intense perfume I have ever smelled. It's extremely long lasting. Unfortunately I adore the dry-down, dry-down that I can smell the day after (yes, the day after) and I'm not fond of the opening that last 12 hours (on clothes). That's an issue since I like to enjoy my perfume the day I'm wearing them. I truly admire anyone who can confidently wear Moth. Something for the braves and confident for sure. Fall and Winter only.

On opening I unfortunately get mothball. Yeah ... I cannot get that association out of my head so that is an issue. This has the same kind of sour that you can find in Nightingale from the same perfumer btw. I love Nightingale though. It is also present in the dry-down. I get lots of clove, some cinnamon. Iris. Smokey dark honey. Like a good quality honey candle that you just light up and through its smoke around. The woody background is there. It has a note which I would describes as an antique cedar closet. There's a shankiness to it as well from the musk I guess.

It's a dark perfume. I get the goth association. Intensely spicy. For sure it is a work of art but how wearable it is. You decide :) I won't buy a bottle but will smell my sample sometimes to get surprised. To me this is an "ok" because I get the mothball accord on opening. Other than that would have been a like.

i purchased Zoologist's full current array of samples (September 2023), I've been interested in them for years and decided to treat myself, and am planning to resell samples I did not care for (for anyone interested).

Powdery, cherry menthol throat spray. Smells like the inside of my mom's purse lol

I don’t get dark and gothic from this at all. It starts off with a blast of screechy white chalk, yellow citrus, and in the far background a veil of something lilac (the colour, not the note). The next few minutes, while the chalkiness is still taking up most of the space, it’s like the citrus is pulling in two different directions at once. It wants to give a sharp and bitter freshness, but it also carries a funkiness that soon reveals a sweaty note. I’m assuming that’s the cumin. The saffron may be what's contributing with a hint of warm sweetness as well.

An hour later, this is a floral with some fresh spiciness. It reminds me a bit of some Ralph Lauren fragrance that my first crush used to wear in the 2000’s. The chalkiness is still there, only partly blending in with the rest to create some floral powderyness, but also contributing to a fleeting layer of something really special that I can’t put my finger on, and I have to really focus to detect it at all.

After five hours, it has turned into something warm and sweet, a bit woody and a bit boring. The chalkiness is less prominent but still there, and it's starting to annoy me. At this point I’m tired of the cognitive strain it takes for me to look past the off-putting aspects of it just to get a whiff of that intriguing note I can’t describe. So I wash it off.

So yeah, to me this is neither goth nor moth. It’s giving me slightly sweaty, rich teenage girl, maybe in the 1950's or something like that, dropping a huge box of blackboard chalk. It's a very interesting experience, and I will be putting it on my skin again for fun, but not something I would wear regularly.

I love the concept and aesthetic of this house and I am on a mission to find one that is wearable to me. Unfortunately, I do not think this is the one.

Moth's opening is nearly unbearable-- a jarring mix of dust and spice. After a while, it settles into a dusty, powdery dried floral. The heart of this fragrance smells like an old woman's shuttered and abandoned closet - her family, after grieving her death for a decade, finally worked up the heart to clear it out. It is musky, dusty fabrics, decaying wood, powder, and dried, dead florals.

It softens up nicely for a bit, but changes yet again in the deep dry down. A mix of saffron, resinous honey, patchouli, and vetiver. I like all of those notes, but this goes weirdly sour on my skin.

I thought this would be the goth girl scent of my dreams - the one to finally make me smell like a haunted house. There is certainly something gothic and haunted about it, yet there are issues every step of the way for me.

Picture that you are a candle. Picture that you are a flame. Picture that you are smoke. Picture that you are the moon. Picture that you are drawn to all these things at the same time. That is what Moth smells like. Before Harvest Mouse, this was my number 1 of this brand. The mystical sweet incense of Moth makes me feel inhuman. If witches would be chanting during a full moon ritual to call upon an ancient trickster/dual deity, this is how that would smell. I can not get enough of the first blast of this scent, perfect smokeshow. The drydown is very woody (oud) and musky and is quite overpowering, so 1 spray should be more then enough but I ignore this in favor of constantly smelling the first blast. Oh Moth, you are so worth it that my neighbors ask worriedly if there is something on fire.

Lilith would have worn this once was cast out of the Garden of Eden and Persephone would wear this too. The Queen of the Underworld/Goddess of seasons duality is very well done in Moth. With Liliths refusal to conform to Gods and Adams will she shows a strenght and sensuality that Moth perfectly evokes.

Very dusty, spicy, and animalic on first spray. Made me cough. Really regretted it until it started to dry. Dries down into an old cabinet smell, one that has traveled all over the world and contained many secrets until finding residence in an antique store. Someone else described it like old paint/wallpaper absorbing years of smells, and I agree. Overpowering. The smoke gives it a very dry smell so it is not cloying, but it has immense presence. The individual floral and woody notes sneak out from time to time. Evolves a lot on the skin, and after a while it becomes pleasantly interesting, though not really wearable for me. I kept sniffing it out of fascination rather than enjoyment.

It smells to me like visiting one of the old 5 stories panel houses in Moscow. The smell of old wooden doors and furniture, and wallpapers absorbed food and cats' odours. Powder and perfume mixed with a fur coat smell on old women going out for a walk with their small dogs. Very olfactive but not wearable for me personally though it’s a definite art

That's a proper niche fragrance! Smells like wax, like an old dusty cupboard painted with mordant. Smells spicy yet flowery, sweet yet dry. The more it dries down the sweeter it gets.

Sillage and longevity are really decent.

If you want to be more approachable wearing this you can always layer it with something sweeter and still remain interesting and unconventional.

Wow. Sooooo different. It reminds me of nothing else, I can only say 'the smoke note reminds me of the smoke note in the Fantomas' etc.

let's start with basics: unisex, colder months, a great nighttime position. Lasting, powerful, with a trail, not cloying. Daring? A bit, I guess, but wearable.

Someone mentioned this smells like a haunted house and I can't agree. It might smell of a haunted house themed park. It is smoky, but more in a dark smoke mist or fog than cade or a burning house. It's powdery, juicy purple under the smoke. It smells like Skeletor - the skeleton wearing a purple outfit :D it really does! Orris butter with juicy aromatic Vetiver, Heliotrope/almond with a fog/mist like white smoke.

While this is immensely daring, it also smells identical to a hot glue gun in the opening if you've ever used one. Once I made this association it was difficult to smell anything else. I get the powdery notes and sort of an overripe/rotting flower tincture smell as it settles. It smells like Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. A dusty old woman in a motheaten wedding dress wearing stale talcum powder surrounded by vases of long dead flowers and candelabras covered in cobwebs. As a mood scent I think it would work on a woman only. Maybe a woman giving a guided ghost tour on Halloween, or a woman working at an oddities shop that sells animal fetuses with two heads in jars, haunted dolls etc. It's interesting but I can't wear it properly. I will occasionally smell my sample to appreciate it as art.

The more I wear this sample the more conventional and therefore wearable I find it, but having applied it in my parents house promptly resulting in them attempting to fumigate the hallway, I’ve come to realise that it’s probably just me adjusting to it. So yes, sillage is off the charts. I do quite like this but I do tend to gravitate towards more unique and unwearable scents. I have worn this to work a couple of times and had no bother but I don’t think I’d recommend it for such everyday use, definitely an occasion kind of scent. It does smell exactly like moths, or rather an old library in an old house owned by a widow where moths gather. Maybe even the smell of an open casket lined with dried flowers and chemical preservation. Be prepared to smell a bit morbid. After the overpowering top note dissipates there’s not much of a distinction between any of the notes on my skin, blends together into a powdery somewhat sweet scent.

I'm a little disappointed with Moth. It opens with bitter liquorice, dust, and cloves. It dries down to a sort of thrift store smell with a subtle musk, and maybe a bit of honey and vanilla. It smells fine, I just find it sort of boring. Not the perfect gothic scent I was led to expect.

Update (11/12/23): I gave Moth a second chance today and I'm really enjoying it. I'm still picking up on the same notes, but I think I sprayed too much on my first try; a half spray on my wrists is doing the trick. It's charmingly weird. So much 80s goth energy in this one. Hairspray and cigarettes in a musty club on a cool autumn night. I get it now.

I'm new to niche so this perfume *challenged* me, but in a good way! I don't care for honey notes in perfume so I wanted to try a new take on it. This smells of decaying vegetation and spices, like rotting autumn leaves... where Squid reminds me of winter on the WA/OR coast in the salty ocean, Moth reminds me of a dry, dead November in the forest. The smokey honey in the base really won me over, and as the scent changes over the hours it just kept pulling me back in.

It does smell OLD and dusty, but the spices and florals make it fresh somehow? I'm excited to get a travel spray to wear in the autumn - as much as I'd love a big bottle for my vanity, this is a special 'mood' perfume and I definitely wouldn't be able to finish a bottle before it turned.

Beautiful love at first sniff wonder from Zoologist. Very spicy opening followed by honey and a whole lot of flowers. Lasted well over fourteen hours on my skin alone. On clothing should last well over two three days at least. Great work!

Starts off strongly of decaying plants in cold weather, and quickly settles into rich, dark honey. None of the other notes come through on my skin.

🍯 🪦🥀

Since I prefer it as an atmospheric scent rather than a body fragrance, I'll keep it for moody nights.

I try to be open minded when it comes to creativity and fragrances. I can really appreciate the effort and conscious dedication it takes to create a unique yet focused perfume line. For some reason I cannot for the life of me find inspiration from any fragrance from this house. I purchased the entire specimen collection and tried every animal. I am currently wearing Moth. There is nothing wrong with it. It smells fine. It smells good in fact. But there is something missing. Something missing in the entire identity. In my opinion fragrances should make you feel attractive. Isn't that the whole point? I do not see any evidence in this brand. That is disappointing. But it also makes sense. Why would an animal be attractive? Makes sense if you want to adhere to the brand, but unfortunately, no matter how good a fragrance can smell from Zoologist, there will always be something missing that is essential to Ultimate satisfaction.

Oh wow, I looooove this scent!

Engineered for fall, this unisex gothic fragrance has nailed its demographic. Powdery, incense/smokey and dark with a slightly sweet finish. I could see it being overpowering in warmer weather so I will save this special scent for evenings & colder months, but snagging this sample has me pining for a bottle. A little goes a long way with this fragrance so spray sparingly.

This scent 100% will become a permanent part of my collection.

I appreciate the visuals Tomoo tried to portray with Moth. I definitely see a damp basement with some mothballs around and moth appearing here and there around a dimly lit single bulb. That said I dont get any of the middle notes. I get powdery mothbally oud. Not my jam but Im glad I tested it.

I havent had much luck with the Zoologist offering Ive sample thus far, many of them are awesome but then one note takes me out of ever considering a full bottle. I was so sure Hummingbird would be the one for me upon spray, but after testing a sample for a week it's just a indolic bomb to me and if not careful with sprays makes me nauseous. Sacred Scrab was just terrible, Nightingale has a note that I hate and im trying to figure that out, sam with Snowy Owl. If I had to pick a bottle, it would be Camel and a decant of chipmunk. Still need to try Civet, Panda, Elephant and Dragonfly so I know once and for all whether this house just isnt for me.

One of my favorite fragrances ever. I recently purchased a ton of samples from Zoologist. All of them were very well done and interesting, but Moth seems to invoke the strongest imagery in my mind while also being wearable. I think this scent is perfect for fall but could be worn any season at night. It's a very dark scent, but it's comforting and sweet. Longevity is pretty good too.

I live for this scent. Begins with a blast of oily, resinous honey. Then it goes through a phase that makes me think of of slowly burning paper, scented stationary that was sitting way too close to the fire. This eventually transforms into a powdery burst of woodsy florals. To me, it is mysterious rather than dark, classic rather than vintage.

Terrible. A vaguely interesting powder is buried under a cloying glob of honey-scented hand soap. Not good. Scrubbed off.

Orientation- You are wealthy beyond imagination and you want your baby to smell as such. You have found the world's most expensive baby wipes/powder and this is what they smell like.

This one has the wow factor that I’ve been searching for in Zoologist, and have found in a few other of their offerings. This is why I kept sampling all their perfumes, because I knew they were capable of such heights.
It starts out waaaay more animalic on me that expected, but then it becomes this unapproachable, distant, powdered honey. It seems like it should be cozy, but it’s somehow aloof and flutters just out of reach. There is palpable tension in the fragrance, and it keeps you coming back to smell more. On the surface it seems simple, but there’s a lot of nuance here.
I find it to be completely unisex, it’s just an experience of a scent, not really something one assigns a gender or even an ideal application to. One of those rare cases where a fragrance is understood as an artistic expression.

The more I keep sampling and smelling this one, the more I am drawn in. An artistic triumph.
I like a few Zoologists quite a bit, but this is the only one that really moves me.

Moth by Zoologist: Dead flowers, lace and spiderweb,
or, a vanta-black powder bomb.

I sampled Moth when it came out in 2018. Back then i was not used to wearing powdery scents and often thought of them as «old granny scents». When I sprayed Moth for the first time I thought it was so extreme, so challenging, so powdery, so dusty.. I thought: This is not even a granny scent, it’s a perfume for a 111 year old, at least! Someone like Grandma Death in Donnie Darko!

While I still think it is quite extreme, I love to wear it now. It is really powerful and projects a lot, I would call it a SILLAGE MONSTER. 1 spray is ENOUGH, 2 is A LOT. 4 is WAY TO MUCH. It opens with some spicy freshness giving way to sweet, dusty dried flowers. It’s gothic and heavy, but in an unusual way. I get mostly a very sweet Heliotrope-Mimosa-Honey concoction with dark and smokey notes of Guaïac over an overdose of modern molecules like Cashmeran that help diffuse this witches powder and makes it smell kind of toxic, in a very alluring way. The base notes provide further darkness, a night sky for the main notes to shine in grays, silver, moonlight and the deepest black. When I sprayed 4 times (the most I ever wore), indolic facets from Lily-of-the-valley and Jasmine-notes came out with naphtalene/mothball like aromas (only right when thinking about Moth being the name and theme of this perfume). The pairing of classical flowers with heavy honey, smoked woody darkness, modern molecules and vintage inspirations, really makes this scent unisex and a truly unique experience for the wearer.

This is easily in my top 5 out of all zoologist, I have tried most of them. It is in the same league of their "challenging and artistic scents» together with the old Bat, Hyrax and T-rex. Moth is also one of the two most long lasting in the Zoologist range with Bee being the second. Not often do perfumes last over 12 hours on my skin! This is for nighttime only, when you want to feel like the richest vampire in the whole kingdom. I think wearing it on a summer day would make you and everyone around drop dead :)

I have to applaud Tomoo Inaba, the perfumer, who also made one of my top 5 from Zoologist, Nightingale. With such a short portfolio of work (fragrantica has listed 4 perfumes under his name), being self taught and to be putting out quality like this!! Not only is he an artist of exceptional olfactive talent, he really understand classical perfume history and draws from it to cater for the real perfume lovers with his spectacular creations.

Perfect halloween scent, very gothic and I could imagine someone working at an antique store wearing this. I do like very dark and gothic scents, I also do like insence and heliotrope. So I thought that I could like this one but well... Unfortunatly it does smell a lot like saliva and old clothes from the attic. There is something morbid and beautiful about it tho, super unique. Like the powdery wings of a moth, they nailed this theme. You can smell the dark honey, it does feel sticky and very heavy so its appropiate only for cold weather and nighttime. Its not totally unwearable but you must be ok with smelling a bit off putting and old. I would say its unisex but slightly more feminine. Somehow this one is beautiful and gross at the same time. Its worth checking out if you like truly dark and morbid stuff. I like it for what it is but sadly I dont enjoy it enough because of that strange saliva note, in the opening it also does smell a bit aggressive and strong.
rating would be
10/10 for the theme but a 3/10 on me

The perfect fragrance for a Grey Gardens viewing.

Smells like an eccentric agoraphobic rich old woman living in her derelict haunted mansion.
I think its a lot more wearable than some people say it is. But you gotta be able to lean into it. I didnt find the animalic notes pissy or indolic at all. Has more of an old mink coat vibe than too many cats in one house vibe if you catch my drift.

EDIT:
In my eyes
Indisposed
In disguises no one knows

Nagarmotha Mothra! Beast of beasts. The foetid smell of Mothra's nest. The top layer is intense spicy, honeyed, powdery floral. All the flowers are here — saffron, mimosa, heliotrope, rose, jasmine with plenty of clove and cumin — chewy, hypnotic and thick over a dense base of greasy, smoky cypriol oil, earthy oud / guaiac and patchouli and salty ambergris. Vetiver for lift. An absolute animal but too, too much. Unwearable art. It must be experienced but don't spray it anywhere you're not prepared to live with it for a week.

So some people are bothered by Zoologists shtick. Apparently according to people who frequent online 'community' stuff they are fanboy/girl/personed about pretty hard as well and clearly they have commercial success because they keep knockin' animals out.
I however, am indifferent. I don't really have much of an opinion either way, I see what it is they are trying to do and I've been largely complementary about them when they achieve what I see as the brief and I'm slightly perplexed when they do hit a brief but make an unwearable (in my opinion) perfume.
So anyway Moth was sent to me as a kind of 'you probably won't like this but...' sort of a fragrance, but to his and my surprise, I thought it was not only wearable but pretty fantastic to boot!
It's largely a big, oldskool feeling castoreum focused perfume, dark, animalic but also quite classical and in the image of a floral chypre but I feel that's a bit of a lazy description too. It has a nocturnal feel perfect for the moth, but the castoreum and all it's savory, meatiness is complimented with a honied floral accord which works a treat.
I'm a big fan of Moth, I think it's one of the better ones from the brand and there's been some excellent examples of this kind of faithful, vintage recreation stuff from Beaver to Nightingale. Really good.

As someone who loves gothic and somewhat morbid scents, this is the perfect fragrance for fall/Halloween. Everything about it screams OLD but in a good way that is reminiscent of an upscale antique store or a victorian mansion. The oud, smoke, and spicy notes give it that sophisticated and mysterious edge, while honeyed florals remind you of the underlying delicate beauty of a moth, the shadow of a butterfly. This might be a little offputting to some people so make sure you are wearing it for the right occasion. This is not a warm weather or office scent. It does last long and project very far (it actually overpowered the brand new air freshener in my car) so be aware of that before putting it on.

V.C. Andrews, Nicole Dollanganger, John Keats, Miss Havisham, and Florence Welch would all enjoy this fragrance in my mind. It's romantic. It's giving gothic via a dusty funeral parlour, the air thick with the scent of rotting flowers, and if you can smell something else rotting then it's probably best to just politely ignore it. It's like if Musc Ravageur was a rich old Victorian woman dying of tuberculosis. I don't believe anyone is actually wearing this but it is a lot of fun conceptually

A good fragrance to wear if you're by yourself the whole day. Unfortunately, I *was* with people, and so had to scrub it off. Despite this, I could still smell it. It's strong, I'll give it that.

It’s October. Time to start wearing Moth again 👻

Moth is a piece of art, not a perfume everybody likes. It makes me think of (not necessarily smells like) white bone meal, cold ashes of incense, dead skin, old people's pale skin, talc powder mixed with dust, dried bugs, sweet mould at corner, and quiet empty old house in dark. Mendittorosa's Orlo, which is a perfume inspired by the poem titled 'Edge' by Sylvia Plath. I think the scent of Moth matches the theme of this poem a lot.

Edge
BY SYLVIA PLATH

The woman is perfected.
Her dead

Body wears the smile of accomplishment,
The illusion of a Greek necessity

Flows in the scrolls of her toga,
Her bare

Feet seem to be saying:
We have come so far, it is over.

Each dead child coiled, a white serpent,
One at each little

Pitcher of milk, now empty.
She has folded

Them back into her body as petals
Of a rose close when the garden

Stiffens and odors bleed
From the sweet, deep throats of the night flower.

The moon has nothing to be sad about,
Staring from her hood of bone.

She is used to this sort of thing.
Her blacks crackle and drag.

FIRSTLY: I LOVE Zoologist, got Bee & def planning on getting more, many faves from the house. Really enjoyed exploring & sampling their frags & been pleasantly surprised by almost all my samples (after reading zoologist reviews I didn’t know what to expect from most!), super impressed w longevity, sillage, wearability of most I’ve tried. However that being said…

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
no… just NO! Waaaay too woody, the oud is overpowering, blew my nose up next to the cow sample - just knocked it over. Couldn’t smell anything besides
Moth. Big mistake trying these two @ same time (on diff arms!) Drydown was super strong, long lasting, way too much OUD! Powder is non existent, lots of smoke, pepper, patchouli, vetiver, very base note heavy. The spice is top heavy, the floral heart is non existent & does nothing to soften it.

Bravely kept it on the WHOLE time too see if it would somehow dramatically soften/evolve w time (like lots of zoologist do) & it never changed lol - was just as offensive & brash hours later as @initial application. From the listed notes I thought I would love this one… Hard pass :(

This is one of those perfumes that reminds me of how subjective perfumery really is. I put off testing this one for a long time because of the mixed reviews, and it's easily one of my favorites from the Zoologist line. As is typical of Zoologist, they're less interested in creating a pretty smelling perfume, and more interested in creating a unique sensory experience: and they've accomplished that goal marvelously. Moth is mysterious and full of subtle, complex beauty. Personally, I love the heavy indole. I find it to be a perfect counterpoint to the sweetness of the honey and the frivolousness of the florals. Moth has even managed to use the overly astringent, synthetic woody note that is so popular these days (which I usually abhor) so cleverly that I find I actually kind of like it. What I normally find to be a screeching assault on my senses, I find rather intriguing in its unpleasantness. I highly recommend getting yourself a sample to test because you're either going to love it or hate it, but either way it's going to be an interesting experience!

So I mean this in the nicest possible way but it smells like a haunted victorian mansion where an old woman recently died. I appreciate the scent story and it really captures the essence of the name, it’s very interesting. A+ to Zoologist for that and the uniqueness, I do enjoy having a sample vial in my scent collection, but I find this to be completely unwearable as a personal fragrance. It’s more of a curiosity.

The shop assistant gave me a look when I asked to try this. On first sniff I reeled back and read the label again. How did this combination of notes of things I liked combine to become THIS?

It smells like a hospital, doesn't it, shop assistant said. And yes, it does. Or detergent, or antibacterial spray. Or, and then it clicked... *mothballs*.
So I learned today that zoologist perfumes are not subtle.

Moth is terrifying that I never sprayed it on my skin. Maybe it settles into something actually pleasant? I didn't wait around to find out.

Based on the whiff from the vial of my sample I thought it's best to wait for my guest to leave to bomb this one on myself. Good call, it is a BOMB! Smells like some really potent insect saliva, sweet, sour, earthy, a little acidic...Mellows a bit, but definitely not one looking for a pleasant easy on the nose experience. I find this one challenging, interesting certainly but there are too many rancid organic elements to this one for me to enjoy personally. Something rotten comes to mind, a carcass of some sort with lots of flies on it. Not exactly my idea of smelling great, zoologist is A+ for creativity and scent journey however I'm really curious if there is anyone out there who is able to use up a bottle (or even a generous sample) of this one beyond testing. A brave goth maybe, who works in a haunted house, or a morgue diener...

Smells like Tattered Velvet Drapes in a Haunted House. Morbid like Hearse Curtains & Coffin Satin. Smells like the dark ambience in a Mediums home. Smells like 60's Tweed & Plaid Suits. Smells Johnny from "Night Of The Living Dead" would've wore this.

I absolutely love it.

Key🔑 players ;
Saffron , pepper 🌶, smoke 💨
Opens up very spicy 🥵 I get a lot of _saffron _ pepper and smoke 💨…. The volatility of the lemon 🍋 is very present too
Later Dry down I get traces of Nassomato black afgano , and civet
Iris pops out in the heart , doesn’t really last long
Overall , well am not good with moths 🦋 not sure whether this profile and scent depicts the lifestyle and habitant of the moth 🦋

On first spray, this was way too "grandma's bathroom," and I was prepared to give it a thumbs down.
However, after it settles a bit, it becomes a whole lot more interesting. Indeed, even complex.
This is powdery, floral, a little sweet, a little smoky, and a little musky.
There is a lot going on here, but it works. The combination of flowers is just so pretty.


Update... Have to change my review, since the far dry-down is pretty much 100% cumin BO. I sprayed this on my hand, and six or seven hours later, it just smells like I forgot to wash my hand every time I bathed for the last couple of weeks. Not nice.

これは美しいゴスの香りです。それは暗く、ほこりっぽい、粘性のある蜂蜜の甘さを持っています。
私はハニーノートの香水としてアクア・ディ・キューバとチェルギを持っていますが、圧倒的に粉末状で肌のような香りがします。これはとてもおいしいです。

This is such an interesting fragrance. Recommended by a woman in Bloom who was helping me explore some niche fragrances when I said "the weirder the better". Absolutely loved it on the card and was instantly intrigued so bought a sample.
The opening blast is actual mothballs. An aroma that is definitely not for everyone. The whole vibe is old, musty and gothic. Although I did like it.... on me, as with another reviewer below, the honey note was super prevalent throughout and it just gave off a bit too much of a "fusty" vibe which overpowered the deep juicy purple undertones I could detect peeking out. A colleague said I smelt like his grandma. I'll use up this sample but wouldn't buy more.
Keen to try out other Zoologist scents now though. Super long longevity

Picture yourself in New Orleans during Mardi Gras.The streets are packed with pepole shouting, dancing basically having a very good time or so it seems. But you have had your fair share of it, and you are more or less seeking refuge in a back alley, just to get away from it all. Suddenly you stumble upon a sign saying "Fortune teller". As you wearily open the door to the unknown, you are being greeted by a hauntingly beatiful smell. Honey, cinnamon, rose and smoky mimosa in the shape of Moth, welcomes you. This may sound as a contradiction in terms when I am saying that the notes are very easy pick out, yet at times very illusive. The prominent base notes of the sweet and soft musk, playing together with the ambergris and cypriol oil, is a match made in heaven. Projection and sillage are well above average as we are talking about "extrait de parfum".

I really like this. Deep and complex, but alas, also far too sweet for me. The honey is very dominant to my nose(I am very sensitive to sweet scents) Maybe will try to layer it with some more smoke or leather to make it less sweet...

Moth is a particular vibe. A fragrance for practicing chaos magick, draped in velvet and candle-lit … for reading Crowley while the rain patters on the windows and the hallucinogens finally start to taper off …

I may be past the days of enjoying such a vibe myself, and ultimately I find Moth too busy, like multiple fragrances layered together to partial success. But I’ll tuck my sample into the spine of The Equinox of the Gods and perhaps it’ll fall into my lap one day when I need it most.

This is a fragrance for people who scrape frosting off their cake because it is outside too sweet.

I didn't understand moth. But the more I tried my sample, the more I discovered. The musty powder was a mix of resinous woods, incense, and musky flowers. I think this is a complex and nicely blended fragrance, and an inexperienced nose might not be able to detect the notes when they are blended so well.

This is technically actually a sweet scent. It isn't sugary, it isn't cloy, this is for people who scrape the frosting off their cake otherwise it would be too sweet. But the honey adds a touch of sweetness to this resinous, incensey, powdery scent.

People call it gothic, but I feel like dark academia might better describe it. I think of mall goths, or hot topic during 2005. This is for people who love books, but the book is about necromancy. This is for art students who only wear black.

Moth is an infectious disease specialist and by the time you meet her, you know things aren't good. She spends most her time researching, and she knows all the weird stuff. She takes health histories so thorough they will get your Apgar scores.

It is worth a sample. And give it a few tries before you make your final decision. Moth can be shy, and it might take a few tries to appreciate it's beauty.

Strangest opening I've ever smelled, exactly like opening a dusty old wardrobe and releasing a cloud of panicked moths. Develops quickly into an abandoned, once-fancy house (ghosts included), with some slightly sinister honey. Absolutely gorgeous, and probably to the dismay of everyone around me, this is now my favourite and most-worn. In a cold climate you could wear this year round, but one spritz is enough and probably not for the office in the summer. Takes you on a strange little journey.

So... I bought it. My first Zoologist. I bought it without testing another time. Risky, given my frequent changing of mind when it comes to what I like and don't. The first time wearing it, I couldn't stand it. I was baffled. However, I wore it for a second time... and a third time and it all came back to me, the powdery florals... the honey... and the oud that gave me so much trouble for the first time wearing it out of my newly acquired bottle. It turns out that I probably overapplied it; it is an extrait after all. It's smoky, it's resinous, it's spicy, floral, woody, earthy. Everything. This has the complexity of a vintage, old world fragrance and I love it. People call it "gothic" and they're right. Just gorgeous. The note pyramid does kind of do it justice, but you need to try it to believe it. Just don't spray too much! Two sprays will do. 💕

I don’t smell anything urinous or animalic here at all. In my opinion it opens strange kind of like pimentos or olives. That dies down a bit but not completely and I can tell it’s a combo of a lot of things including spices but it just ends up smelling industrial on me. Like you’d walk into a factory of some kind and smell this smell. Not my cup of tea.

This is very unique and interesting. Will not please a crowd at all. I really despise the opening as there is some weird animalic urine note that made me want to scrub it off. But I was too lazy, so it rested. A couple hours later that gross note disappeared and left a woody, piney, dusty and aluring thing that will surely drive a lot of people away, but may attract all the goths and oddballs. The only people you want around anyway lol. Amateurs might call this "old lady", but it's much more woody than floral.

Edit: Hours after the gorgeous, smokey dry down, the honey comes through completely and solely. For me, this changes my 'love' to a dislike. Sadly.

I llllove moth for what it is and yet i rarely wear it. I love smoky, dark, gothic, spicy, insensy, earthy, sticky, powdery/dusty, scents. all of it! I love a bit (or a bunch) of skank and i don't need to smell typically "feminine". Yet, even though i love this deeply. I don't feel too comfortable wearing this. On me, it is veeery spicy. And i don't mean peppery, i mean i can smell the spices in here quite harshly and very dry. I get a ton of dry burnt cumin that slowly turns more sticky and honeyed. It smells amazing, like a gothic fairy tale. Like a dusty, ashy attic and dried out spice jars in an abandoned warehouse. Unfortunately as i never would have expected, this turns my stomach a little bit. It is an extrait therefore it sticks all day. But this renains surprisingly close the skin after the dry down. It affects my nose more than others. I can't stress enough, i deeply respect this fragrance. And i absolutely love the smell. I jusy phisically can't wear it as i will feel nauseous after an hour or so. :( i wish i could handle this better. Maybe if it was less dry and if it projected more so it wouldnt stay so close to my nose the entire time. Maybe then i could digest this better. But allas. I have fallen deeply in love with a perfume i can not wear. :'(

I love the art of this, even if I don't find it exactly my taste. It's this odorous, ranky, deepened (not naturally deep, but rather preserved with age, lack of air, and maybe a sweet natural balm-- perhaps that's the honey?) floral, wood, and smoke scent that evokes a very old house, stuffy cabinets filled with dried flora. The "rank" twist to this composition is the key characteristic, and I can also picture it being the smell of a vacant, unfurnished, all-wood shack perspiring a heated wood smell in the middle of a 100-degree summer day. That might be the hot spices and smoke at the top communicating to me. It's a very smooth and smoky aroma aside from that preserved floral quality, which is filled with texture and implication that may not be for everyone. You have to be comfortable smelling sort of aged, or perhaps gothic, in order to wear this. Not a crowd-pleaser sort of fragrance whatsoever, but very fascinating and creative. A powerfully antique aroma, both familiar and novel. I'd give this a 7.5/10.

a better Caron Infini 1970 (vintage) version, upgraded!

Dark, powdery and spicy. The cumin adds a little animalic note. This is mysterious and beautiful. Something about this reminds me of Shanghai Lily by Tom Ford. Another winner from the house.

Dark floral with lots of dust. Moth conveys this obscure climate, in which florals dominate the fragrance, with a lot of powder, a touch of honey and an iris that leaves the aroma rounded in my nose. Very persistent on the skin, it projects well and is very masculine. Definitely a moth dropping pollen while flying over a floral field at night

Haunted house smell. Love it. So much depth and darkness. Best used for cold nights. This is potent so be careful.

My favourite zoologist.

It’s funky, powdery, and spicy. Super long lasting, projection is just right. Simply amazing.

I want to make it my signature scent but the average person is just going to think you smell like spicy baby powder.

Moth is a powdery resin fragrance with a twist. Soft but complex. First spray is a very powdery amber/resin, reminiscent of your grandma's perfumes from the 80's/90's. Give it a minute and the myriad of other notes come waltzing in, one by one. Honey, nutmeg, saffron and soft iris are noticeable in the beginning. This fragrance feels soft but chaotic, there is so much going on your nose goes into overdrive trying to settle on any dominant notes. I suppose it's reminiscent of a soft moth haphazardly fluttering towards a light source, so Zoologist have done a great job capturing the essence of a moth.

Half an hour in, it's a lightly sweetened version of the opening. Soft powdery resin with some deep spices. A light musky rose and a powdery yellow mimosa floral note can be noticed. There is a shadow of honey that comes and goes. At the six hour mark, it's a light powder which reminds me of a dusty old closet. Moth balls come to mind here.

It actually feels pretty spot on in terms of it being a scent example of a moth, with the dustiness, the old fashioned amber and the spices. It ventures a bit too far into art fragrance territory for me to want to wear it outside the house, but it is an amazing art fragrance at that. It would suit those who prefer powdery or moody fragrances.

Beautiful but I made the mistake of wearing this fragrance to a happy family event and it felt a little too moody and dark for the tone of the gathering. Oops! I would happily wear this on my own, with a coven, or if I was feeling moody and mysterious. The smokiness is strong on my skin, there's a powdery sweetness that smells more dusty rather than baby powdery which I like, though I've heard around the grapevine that powdery scents are making a comeback. Definitely a dark moody scent that I could easily wear.

I am in love with this scent. It is a challenging perfume for sure—get ready to smell every single one of its zillion notes upon application. On me it dries down to cinnamon, oud, patchouli, and just a hint of citrus. It gets deeper and darker over the hours, and eventually becomes a friendly, warm amber. If this fragrance had a tinder profile it would identify as sapiosexual. It’s sexy, but in such a quirky and curious way. I wouldn’t wear it on a first date except as a litmus test. Fortunately I’ve given up on men and am celebrating my amazing single life. I’m thinking of making this my signature scent.

I don't usually write or comment on perfumes.

BUT
This fragrance is a masterpiece.
Uniqeness. Creativity. Superb. and unusal.
I could not understand the fact that this has not won Art and Olfaction prize for complexity and artisitry.
Tomoo Inaba, we want more, please!

I have 2ml samples of both Moth and Bee. After reading the reviews, I checked the bottle labels again, because posted comments seem exactly the opposite for these two fragrances.

Moth is subtle and sweet, not overpowering at all. Bee is powdery and pervasive. I find the honey scent more dominate in Moth. I put down that it's a night fragrance, but I like it for daytime too. Bee gets up my snoot: I can't wear it and work.

To me this ends up smelling close to Casanova by T Terenzi (the cypriol rose powder), but with a touch of Porpora underneath (the woodsy-oudy part), and a waxy honeyed facet to round them (same honey wax as in Bee), with a very thin veil of noble smoke over nutmeg and spices (a la Comme Garçons Dover Street Market or JM Nutmeg and Ginger) to finish the symphony.
The rose part (only the rose part) reminds me also of Zara Parc Floral and if you find Moth too complicated or mature but there’s something about its floral side that you like - try Parc Floral and Casanova, if you like the spicy side try JM Nutmeg and CG Dover Street Market. If you like the resinous base Amouage Opus 6 does it. The honey-oud (which falls into the background here) could found in Oud de Cartagena - and for similar saffron - Noir de Noir by TF has it (has, however a velvety dark rose too). The honey itself is not as much as Honey Oud by Montale, it’s more like in Black to Black by Kilian. And in their drydown - Back to Black and Moth become very very similar - Moth just a bit sharper and thinner in a good way.

Zoologist creations are not what everyone expects from a perfume, but it’s all that one should be able to expect from a perfume, rather than few catchy notes rounded in ambroxan and topped with iso super e. There was a time for me when I would smell Moth and wouldn’t get it. I wouldn’t have even had the patience to care to go through its stages etc … It’s not that I absolutely can guarantee to myself that I’m getting it now at a 100%, but at least it’s not lost on me as it would have been with certain sure 10-15 years ago. I can tell it’s good quality, I can tell it’s a good perfume too. I also actually like it, and I like it on me (wearing it) as well. It’s not for everyone and not for oversprayers. Zoologist are real journeys. And thank God they arrived on the perfume scene just in time to fill the void which Amouage used to occupy for me before “the change”…

Definitely not what I was expecting. I had such high hopes for this one, but it is a truly complex scent that I can't fully understand in just one wearing.

Like @Josu01 mentioned, there are definite phases to moth. I enjoyed the opening spice phase, but the floral phase I found to be challenging. I have a difficult relationship with heliotrope AND iris, both of which feature quite heavily in this second phase. Patience is rewarded though, for the drydown is composed of a number of notes that are right up my alley.

Props to @hollymichaelm, who nailed the resemblance to Nightingale, and to which I agree heavily.

Longevity, as with many other Zoologists that I've tried, is solid--lasting a good 10 hours on my skin. That being said, I was surprised that I found the projection to be intimate for all but the first two hours of wearing. Moth is a strange one, and a fragrance I’d like to spend more time with before truly “ranking” it amongst the other Zoologists.

I have already acquired a full bottle of Beaver, and I intend to acquire a full bottle of Sloth in the future. As stated before, I need more time with Moth. I have too many incense and spice fragrances that I like far more that can be obtained for less to justify a full bottle right now. However, because I need/want more time with it, it has jumped towards the top of my list for the Natural Selection Set as a travel spray.

Current Ranking: TBD Overall; 2nd Top Contender for Natural Selection Set

To me, Moth smells like walking into one of those shops that sell crystals, new age books and incense. A lot of different incense scents filling the air, but also the smell of an old, dirty, and dusty shop.

I know this is not gonna be a popular opinion about this perfume as this particular scent tends to get rave reviews and is a favorite of many.
Let me start off by saying. I had high hopes for Moth. I was overly excited to try it based off the reviews.
Why wouldn’t I be? I love goth themes and gothic perfumes. Love moths and all things dark and creepy.
I so wanted to like this and was epically disappointed that this scent did not work with my skin chemistry.

Upon first spray, the opening smelled exactly like a hotel air freshener from the early 90s, and I would know because I was a maid back in the day and this is exactly what the air freshener smelled like that we had to spray in the rooms after cleaning them. Was a sickly sweet chemical floral concoction that always smelled slightly rancid. It made me gag. This scent wasn’t much better.
The perfume did not improve or evolve much as it sat on my skin.
Thankfully it only lasted about 6 hours before it faded away.
This one is probably the worst perfume I have come across in awhile. Certainly did not smell good on me or to me.
Not trying to offend anyone, as it could truly just be a skin chemistry dependent scent.
Best to try a sample of this one and find out if it is compatible with your skin before going all out on a blind buy.

Moth by Zoologist is like a Symphony in 3 movements.

1st Movement: A blast of spices. Strong and in your face. I can detect honey and oud in the background, but the spices take all the attention. This is a quick movement, and on me it lasts no more than 5 minutes.

2nd Movement: Suddenly the spices are gone and then you are in a floral garden. A clean floral garden. A soapy floral garden. Flowers, flowers, flowers. All the flowers in the description are there and they make their presence be noticed: heliotrope, mimosa, rose, iris, muguet, jasmine, all playing in unison to make a perfect floral accord. Then it sort of feels like the flowers wilt before continuing to the third movement. This lasts on me some 20-30 minutes.

3rd and last movement: Honey, smoke, oud, resins. The dry down is very nice. This lasts, and lasts, and lasts (this is after all a long lasting perfume). On me it lasts easily 10-12 h. After the 6th hour it's like a honeyed safe smoky oud that clings and lingers on my skin.

This is a symphony of olfactory notes, where all the "instruments" (notes) make one irresistible music (perfume).

I love it. It is definitely not for everyone. This is one of the few perfumes where you can clearly notice its distinct phases.

If you like cypriol then you may love this. For me it wasn’t terrible but I was hoping to get more of the other scents as I’m not a huge cypriol fan.

This is the most challenging fragrance I have ever put on my skin. I sprayed it on and all I could envision was a restroom at a park. Have you ever walked in to a cool, dark restroom that doesn’t get used often? I smell the steel, cold doors of the restroom and the very faint smell of stale water with just a hint of sewage in the background. This one definitely transported me but to a cold, uncomfortable place. I stayed with it for a couple hours and then I had to wash it off:(.

I had this idea that Moth would tip its hat to classic dusty attic mansion fragrances like L’Heure Bleue or Apres L’Ondee. I guess when I think of an actual moth I think of these powdery older fragrances. Billowy, fluttering, fuzzy with a dark underside.

Zoologist Moth smells nothing like I had imagined. It is indeed a smoky, burning ball of woody oud. Zero sweetness on me. No honey. No florals. Just woody, smoky oud all day long. I can’t stand oud, so this is not my thing. That said, I think it’s interesting and I’m glad I tried it. (But make no mistake I won’t be trying it twice!).

PS: the darkest fragrance I’ve ever loved is Annick Goutal Ambre Fetiche. Now that I’m re-reading the notes for Moth I might have guessed it smells a bit like that one. But even AG AF has more sweetness and amber while being smoky and dark.

I was genuinely looking forward to this one but it doesn't sit well on my skin at all. No matter how much you like the notes sample first, this scent can go either way.

The opening is pungent. Heavy saffron, a bit campherous, powdery more dust than powder and smoke.

I never really got any honey just the urine note I was dreading from some of the reviews. I got the vague dustyness, the dry pollen rich flowers, smoke and burnt wood.

I was hoping for woods and incense juxtaposed with sweet honey but it didn't play out that way on my skin.

Incredible
The second Beautiful scent by the brand after bee
There is something creamy about it
The honey is masterfully used
It stays for a whole work day
But if it wasn’t for the price I would definitely buy a full bottle still not worth it unfortunately

Smells like....a beautiful bouquet of flowers thrown on a bonfire. Not in a bad way? Fascinating. I probably won't wear this much (just had a sample to try it), but I respect it as a work of art.

First putting this on, it's very powdery, full of spice, and a bit floral. I think the saffron is strongest, as well as some clove and nutmeg. Even with those spices though, there's a bit of a 'coolness' to it I feel, with some dry earthiness and sweetness. Most likely, again, due to saffron.

10 minutes later it's more dusty, floral, and a sweet undertone from their classic honey. A heaviness is there too, but at the same time a delicateness. There's something introverted and contemplative here as well, like if you sitting alone in your attic at night, enjoying the moon by yourself and feeling pensive.

I will say, this is strong and fills up a room with not much even applied, but there's a softness to it that makes it a bit more bearable. So I advise you to not be heavy handed with this.

25 minutes later, dark, sweet flowers come out, turning into smokiness mixed with wood and resins. Nighttime in an old, nearly dilapidated wooden shed or house in the woods. A lantern set out with moths orbiting around its light.

1 hour later it's oud, guaiac wood, resin, some smoke. At 2 hours, there's a dustiness, smokiness, and woodiness that smells like you're smelling a very old weathered 2x4. There really is a mysteriousness, oddness, darkness, and sexiness to this. In the beginning I thought this might have leaned slightly feminine with the powderiness, floral, and sweet elements, but now I think it's very unisex.

4 hours later and it's projecting significantly less, but is very much still there on the skin. Still wood and smoke, a touch of sweetness as well.

9 hours later and it's been mostly oud and has been for the last couple hours. Still decently strong on the skin though, especially for how long it's been.

13 hours later and I can still smell this fine on one arm, and a bit more faintly on the other. At this point I have to go to bed so not sure exactly how long it lasts for, but this is a very impressive wear time.

Oh wow: it’s Song of India incense to the final note, with an addition of some tuberose or super juicy jasmine underneath to make it tart. But mostly it’s that crumbly, orange, cheap Indian incense. This is like walking into an import store. Not sure I’ll wear this as a perfume, but it sure is a clear memory.

Open with strong incense, then develops into sweet dusty moth ball supplement by a hint of rose. Definitely has the gothic vibes marketed by the brand. Feels like walking into a dusty antique attic. Great longevity and nuclear sillage. Could be difficult to wear but really interesting.

First impression "musty mothballs". After some time it morphed into a spicy peppery baby powder smell on my skin. 1/5 - not for me.

I feel like this is nightingales dark, twisted cousin. This fragrance, for all it’s dark wonder, is extremely elegant. There is a sense of something “disgusting” and it certainly conjures the image of a dry, dusty moth body. However, despite that, or maybe even because of that, this is a beautiful and elegant fragrance. Technically I suppose you’d call it a mellow-spiced, smoked honey with a lot of powder.. but it some how transcends the sum of those lovely parts, to telling a story with a challenging heart but beautiful, dark, elegant edges softening it. Definitely a witchy fragrance, or the fragrance of an experienced, refined, gentle person - I had to buy it. I wear nightingale on one arm and this on the other, because to me they are two sides of the same coin.

Honey with flowers and spices.

It feels dense and rich but still somewhat clean, the floral aspects border on soapy.
Something feels a bit dry and dusty, which together with a very subtle smokiness gives me an impression of tea.
The subtle smokiness in combination with flowers and spice also gives an impression of floral headshop incense, or like omrii said: a fortune teller's room.

After 3-4 hours, most of the florals are gone and what's left is a dusty, slightly woody, spicy honey.

Overall, it's sweet and pleasant.
Unique, and kind of odd - in a good way.

A very interesting fragrance with a lot going on, while still very well balanced and smooth.
No single note stands out to me (except maybe the honey), and everything works very well together.

Unisex, but the florals might make it feminine-leaning.

This is one of the strongest perfumes I've tried in a while, two sprays from a small sample atomizer on my collar was almost overwhelming, quite literally tickling my nose.

On my skin this smells like a specific rosy bathroom soap they have at a bunch of fancy restaurants in my area which makes me so so sad.

On sample paper it smells like entering a fortune teller's room? It has this witch-like magical quality to it. Floral (heavy on the rose), woody backing (I'd describe as "inside a dry forest wood-cabin"), a little spiciness with a lot of warmth (clove and cinnamon) and a natural sweet honey that rounds it off. The warm notes give it mustiness but the florals and honey keep it clean and open at the same time (You're sitting in a witch's bedroom next to an open window during spring). Reminds me of some scented products they have out during Halloween. This is a very orange-y brown fall scent.

This fragrance isn't bad by any means, but all the restaurants in my area (San Jose) have ruined it for me by association. If you live in the Bay Area and you eat out a bunch you'd know what I'm talking about.

After more than half a year on Zoologist, most of them are strong fragrances, e.g. Bee, Rax, Hyrax, Sloth and Chameleon..., and now l'm certain Moth is not only so strong, it has the most lasting power among them all, what left on the fabric screams till now when others long faded to nowhere! Just it's kinda rancid with time and finally smells like on the pillow someone found the trace of saliva overnight.

Destory, she says! He is a no-easy creature. I really enjoy to smell her/his traces on the handkerchief to observe the development, l sense more bright elements, secret flowers and the honey. On skin it's a smokey oud fragrance, very much potent and rusty, dusty, dark! dark! dark!

11/27/22 post-Covid edit, after more than a year certified: Civet is another real longevity animal, Long Live the King, the Queen for Moth. Bee is the One Queen. (Just I'm not that into C & B;)

Edit:
This is a gorgeous gothic smoky dusty honey floral experience. The perfumer Tamoo Inaba quoted the following poem and it fits. Perfectly.

Like the warder's fires
At the Imperial gateway kept,
Burning through the night,
Through the day in ashes dulled,
Is the love aglow in me.
- Onakatomi no Yoshinobu Ason

Opens dusty and floral. I can smell spices but somehow they combine as dusty and floral... living up to its name. I also get honey very quickly, despite it being listed as a base note. After a while the floral notes are pretty much gone and this settles into smoky honey and wood.

There's a dark complexity to this. I feel like a witch in my own dark world. It's unusual and won't be for everyone.. I would wear this for me, not on a date or to expect compliments. I know I will wear this regularly.

As an aside - and this doesn't figure into my rating - the deluxe bottle is really nicely packaged and is well made. It's a heavy bottle with a beautiful label and the sprayer is top notch as well. It makes me want more from Zoologist. Even some more expensive fragrances I've gotten have the sprayer top loose or fall off or there's some manufacturing mistake with the label or bottle construction. It's a nice touch from Zoologist... that they've paid attention to presentation. Adds to the likelihood that I'll keep this on my dresser and use it regularly.

Woody, dusty, stale attic with a touch seasoning, I detect the cumin, clove and black pepper. With a slight hint of camphor. Masculine leaning, brilliant interpretation of a moth but not wearable for me

It’s like an intense version of Vivienne Westwood Boudoir when it dries down on me! The opening is spicy with I get what people mean with urinelike honey, but it doesn’t bother me! It smells like an old grunpy rich lady with a dusty fur coat on and I love it! Hints of vintage make up powdered spicy florals! Exactly how I imagined it to be when I blind bought the sample

This seems to be a divisive fragrance and I can see that many people adore it. Zoologist is a Canadian brand and truly exceptionally creative so I love that they are succeeding with it, but it's not for me. This one opens astringent, dusty plum and spice. Very sour ammonia note which persists while it turns overall to sickly sweet. Smells like diabetic urine to me and to make things worse.... it lingers. 3/10. I tried passing it along to DH, and it didn't bother him as much, he said he smells lilac and pepper. But I can't bear it even on him. A scrubber....

Phenylacetic Acid - that's the urine honey note that has me a little offput?

First blast of spicy amber, lifted by peppery and cinnamon sweet florals.. I get heliotrope and jasmine mostly. It smells sweetly dusty, like the makeup vanity in a satin-filled boudoir, a bouquet of soft purple flowers carelessly tossed on the bed. This smells the way velvet brocade feels. After about 20 minutes the subtle smoke and honey note starts to get stronger. Decidedly feminine and I think would work for all weather.

6+ hours later: The scent has taken on a deeper musky tone, and even more smoke than the heart phase, losing its sweetness and strength.

Moth starts off quite amazing, i get spice a hint of lemon and my favourite floral iris and im thinking this is magnificent. Then the dry drown comes with a very wax heavy smell that just ruins this fragrance. I am not quite sure what is causing the strong wax note, oud does produce wax notes at the very end but even then its faint on pure oud oils. This wax note was dominant in the dry down and it just killed the fragrance for me. It’s a shame because it started off so promising. Performance again really poor 5 hours in and really have to bury my nose into my arm to even pick it up and no sillage. 😔

Powdered saffron in a bottle
I just dont get what they're going for with this one
Pass for me, I hope someone gets it better than me with this one

Wow. Holy holy wow. So...as usual, this obviously comes down to your chemistry. On me, this was pulling major mothball throughout the entire wear. I was actively trying to avoid the association, but it legitimately brought up memories of playing in my mom’s closet...and smelling those little white poison spheres. It did morph throughout the day, but the common thread was mothball. In the front half, there was a sort of sweet red vermouth thing going on. Towards the end, it was just dusty stale honey and paper spitballs. This is not for my skin, but it was super interesting to experience. I think it could be really cool as part of a costume, or even as some sort of sensory installation.

Zoologist often gets a reputation for being unwearable, and I've seen several people describe Moth as 'challenging'. I honestly don't get it. To me, Moth is beautiful. It reminds me of a church, but not in a dusty or 'old' smelling way. It's incense, honey and oud. It's dark and heady, but not nearly as strange as some people would have you believe. If shipping from the zoologist website wasn't as insane as it is, especially considering I'd be slammed with customs as well, I would 100 pct get the travel size of this stunner.

I had the weirdest experience with this one. The initial scent was so horrifying that I washed my arm four times (sharp overpowering moth ball). But now; even with all the washing, the scent is still heavy! And I kind of love it. But not worth an addition to my collection. Definitely a deep collectors piece. Like absinthe in the liquor cabinet.

-Opens with a blast of dry, musty mothballs.
-Smells like a room that hasn't been occupied in the past two decades.
-Unless you enjoy smelling like mothballs all day, I'd suggest steering clear of this funky one.
-Not fbw (-)

“𝘚𝘦𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬, 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘮, 𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶
𝘊𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘱𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶”

— Sneaker Pimps, “Small Town Witch”


Zoologist’s Moth is a gothic novel and black velvet dress liquified into olfactory form. Both equal parts ethereal and vamp, Moth is a bewitching beauty who is veiled in an air of perilous and elegiac intrigue. The scent initially ignites with bold rich top notes of golden saffron, lemon, and peppery nutmeg before settling down into an intoxicating and velvety smooth mix of honeyed kerosene and powdery florals, later fading away into a soft dirty base of woody resinous ashes.

I like to think of Moth as Bee’s broody older sibling and the official “goth cousin” in the Zoologist Family (Sorry, Bat, but despite the cape you’re too crustpunk to hold the title). Both Moth and Bee are definitely related as they hold the same underlying warmth and sweetness that any pollinator would have with their mix of honey, heliotrope, and benzoin notes. However, Moth is definitely the darker of the two; they are a dusky lamp oil tinged mirror to their regal younger sibling’s cloyingly bright and clean burning beeswax scent.

Overall, I adore this fragrance. It hits all the right spots for me as a lover of saffron, powdery sweet florals, and dirty resins. I ended up purchasing a deluxe bottle after finishing my initial sample and I look forward to bringing it into my regular rotation.

The taste of blood lingers on in her mouth as she approaches the castle grounds. Grey clouds rule the sky; she crosses through a monumental granite archway. Her bloodlusted eyes follow the marble staircase as she makes her way to the auditorium. Thousands of empty, dust-covered leather armchairs and meters long ruby-red silk curtains touch the ceiling and surround a stage where a grand, midnight black piano plays a melancholic tune. Moth-surrounded flickers of candlelight brightens the area, and as she sits down, the metallic taste of blood sweetens in her mouth. As the melody slowly invigorates her mind, the world seems darker as it ever was before; a hopeless endeavor, where the only thing she can conquer is her prey.

Moth by @zoologistperfumes is a stunningly beautiful perfume, quite melancholic and definitely dark in nature; master perfumer Tomoo Inaba composed a fragrance that had a profound effect on me; dark images started to pour into my mind and I was immediately grasped by it.

A base of oud and smokiness that is sweetened by resinous honey, a truly floral heart of powdery heliotrope and mimosa, with a spicy saffrony and peppery top - it is just a blend that captures you. So incredibly beautiful; so sensual but at that same time, sad. This is bottled sadness and I mean that in the best possible way - this is how art is supposed to work. And Moth stirs your emotions like nothing else. Stunning.

Moth is so artistically done, and the development is a wild and interesting ride. It’s one of the few perfumes where I can palpably smell and viscerally feel the wafting up of a slowly developing, viscous, vaporous cloud, as the light and heavy elements swirl against one another due to differing densities, creating a slow, undulating volatile movement of scent development.

The opening is a very bright lemon with pronounced saffron, cinnamon, cumin, and other spices, but there is a camphorous element already there, as well. Next, the honey and bright mimosa comes forth, sweetening the composition.

When the patchouli, oud and vetiver come forward a bit, with a deepening of the cypriol oil, the impression is of mothballs in a cedar closet in a mildewy attic, together with the stinky animalic oud and bright honey and mimosa. It’s complex and beautiful, dark and bright all at once. If I could pause here, I’d choose this unique phase to end with. I like the description “gothic honey” that someone used to describe it, below. It seems fitting for something that seems to incorporate decay and unpleasantness and brightness all in one composition. It is compelling.

Unfortunately, the ultimate drydown is not nearly as interesting as the development. It settles as a powdery and somewhat salty oud with some underlying honey and heliotrope, and goes quieter over time. It’s pleasant, but I’m not sure I need to own it.

On me this opens with a petrol note. A massively smoky, dirty, velvety, oiliness. Surprised to see no other commenters get petrol; it’s extremely prominent on me for the first ten minutes or so—a soft yet volatile pall.

Then the smoky oil note eases a bit, and for the next hour or two I get fuzzy moth wings. I guess I would describe the actual scent itself as velvety soft and sooty. It's smoky, woody, and distinctly animalic. Unfortunately, as Moth ages, I increasingly get a sweet urine note (the other side of the animalic coin). So danny94, you and your GF are definitely not the only ones who get that note.

By the two hour mark, the velvety moth smell has faded to more of a den-of-cats smell: soft, dense, animalic fur, and traces of sweet urine.

Despite there being plenty of florals and spices in here, I mostly get smoke, musk, and honey. Though I suspect it’s the spices combining with those base notes that give Moth its smoothly volatile opening.

I wouldn’t buy a bottle of this, but it’s certainly an experience. I’d love to give out samples of Moth at parties, just to break the ice and get people talking. As long as everyone was drinking, it’d be fine. :P

I smell carnation, incense, and woody notes supported by green leaves in the opening. The notes list is so populous but I'm not smelling all of them.

I'm surprised by this fragrance. It smells really nice. I was expecting something way more polarising. I'm noticing sweet Trex vibes. nfbw for me personally but I'm enjoying the sample! -

My sample is being dabbed and not sprayed.

Upon application, it’s a Smokey flowery powderbomb for me with a hint of mothball. It’s interesting but not for me. It’s a cloying old lady smell.

The heart notes started showing up in the 10-15 minute range. At this point, the flowers steadied out and the powderyness fades into a very light musk. Predominant heart notes are the rose and Iris to my nose which is quite a nice combination. The lily and jasmin give it a little sharpness that is softened and sweetened by the honey & heliotrope.

An hour and a half in, the dry down into the base began and you start to get the smoky resins and patchouli. The musk stays extremely light through the whole fragrance. At the 4 hour mark you are left with honey-sweetened Smokey oud, with resins. This is definitely my favorite part of the fragrance and I would honestly consider signature scenting this if the flowers weren’t the main projection of the perfume when it’s at its peak.

Moth projected for about 6 hours in total for me before becoming a skin scent for another 4-5 hours.

It’s a warm scent, but it does lean feminine because of its’ opening and heart notes. I might wear this on occasion, but only leave my house after 3 hours post-application. I don’t really see it pulling any compliments, but those base notes are so nice and make me feel cozy. Not full bottle worthy.

3.75/5. Well blended and designed as a concept piece, but I can do without.

On dry down it's a witchy smoked honey that conjures an inky, hedonistic night scene. On first spray it's a musty basement. Like the other zoologist perfumes I've tried it'll take your mind somewhere, but you might not necessarily want to leave your apartment smelling like it.

Edit: After a few days I couldn't get this one out of my mind and kept spraying it and I think I'm entering a complicated love story with Moth. Maybe I can even picture myself waking myself up with its opening screech before a night out and let it dry down to its full glory before hitting the door.

Insane😘

I was almost in love! It went sideways on me after a couple hours, which was so disappointing. While it lasted, this was a smokey, spicy, mysterious trip that had me constantly sniffing my arm and prepping to buy the FB. I'll try again in a bit and see if maybe things change. This one deserves multiple chances, for sure!

Wow. Never smelt anything quite like it. Whilst wearing this, I smell like I am the burning honey wax candle, the hot flame and the dusty moth all at once. It actually makes me check the house to make sure nothing is burning. It smells warm - in the temperature sense of the word. Just incredible perfumery.

I tested it in the store in midsummer, but it gave me up on the top note alone.
A few years later in the fall I was able to get another sample and I came across that crimson rose heart note. A wonderful unisex perfume of roses and incense.

if I have an office room of my own certainly I would like to throw my Musc Ravageur away. but I don't, I need MR for its unoffensive and unnoticeable on my daily routines. just when it's time the more I put off Moth I become more picky to lukewarm something.

Sloth is my singature, better to be said it's my in-bed-with-me personal bedtime story; I choose the woody tone Moth as my singature outfit, it's like I re-own a vintage Poison of last century to cherish and walk with me. Hummingbird for me is the worker-bee side of Bee, Moth is the dark side, you can detect the honey in their blood with the Zoologist trademark. for Moth dresses in black makes it more wearable.

it's not little flying things around the flame, it's the Queen of the night as awesome as an unforgettable fire. sillage and longevity are both to the degrees of a REAL Poison to my comprehension, and Moth is even better! I say I'll love Poison, vintage, all my life and in the same feelings I found Moth to wear when the time is my own.

lasting forever... forever there... PS Nightingale is the other work from the same perfumer.

This grey and daring fragrance really captures the essence of a moth!
The opening is SO dark and pungent, an extremely gothic and powdery blend of spices with smoke, oud, musk and honey hitting you like a punch in the face at first sniff. But hold on! After maybe 30 minutes, the smoke and darkness starts to brighten up and it becomes a gorgeous floral with a lot of iris, heliotrope, lily-of-the-valley, and rose. It really smells like a flower garden, with some funk lingering beneath the flowers.
In the end, after about three hours, it dries down to a sweet, smoky, and animalic woody base, that to me smells like a classic women's powdery animalic perfume, but with a healthy amount of oud added.
Recommended for anyone looking for gothic florals, honey-dripping oud, and difficult fragrances with clear phases.

I wanted to adore this. Look at the little moth lady. She’s so cute, I love her.

I have no problem with dark or smoky or strange florals. But what comes to mind, immediately, is an old church rec hall. It smells like dark corners and mold, smoke and plastic, rotting wood, mildew, the one solitary window cracked open to let in the smell of the late spring trees, green and verdant in the night air.

I do really admire the artistry that went into this. The scent does transport me to a moth’s environment. But in regards to the actual perfume, it’s fine, but not something I would want to smell like. But, also, not terrible smelling.

'Moth' makes me envision a place: dark, antique, gothic, dusty, quite possibly haunted, yet manages to be one of the most comforting scents I've ever smelled. Zoologist really captured the realistic environment of a moth here. I'm assuming the dustiness comes from the smoke, but there's also a slight sweetness from the honey that carries throughout the life of the fragrance. Oud is usually very overpowering and overtakes most scents, but here it's blended beautifully and in the perfect amount, lingering in the background. There are lots of spices too. 'Moth' is a complex, unique, and hauntingly dark fragrance that truly tells a story on your skin.

SLAM...smoke, spices, originality right in your face. Time passes and you sense a bit of honey, powder, dried flowers and appreciation. Art that I stand in awe of.

Oooh, I am loving Moth! Golden rich honey smoked over oud with resins and mimosa. Warm, spicy, cozy, and a little powdery. A moth would definitely be drawn to this beauty. This is my #2 fave by Zoologist behind Camel. I bet this will smell even better in cooler weather. Can't wait!

Zoologist is one of my favorite houses to sample because they really do make art. Even if you get something that's not a wearable perfume per se, you will get a memorable olfactory art experience.

Moth went on very smoky and after about twenty minutes, everything settled and balanced out which brought on a very specific place memory for me. The clapboard sided boathouse on the lake where I spent vacation time as a child. The linens on the bed, clean but unused for many months. The oil burning lamp on the table. The curious old dresser with drawers nearly empty other than a deck of playing cards, some beeswax candles, maybe a box of campfire matches.

And when I think of the boathouse, there is always a moth somewhere in the picture, usually a live one, resting on the screen, beating its wings demanding to be let in so it can dance with the light of the oil lamp.

Zoologist Moth brings to life every detail of the boathouse, a place I have not actually been in years.

Musty smelling like being in a stale room that hasn't had any airing out in some time. But its a nice room, dried flowers are in a vase, the bed has been made with a well worn heavy coat thrown over it, everything is in order including some antique perfume bottles and old books on a dresser. You look around and notice there is dust around and maybe a few cobwebs, but you feel it is a pleasant, comforting room, just a bit musty. This is how Moth smells to me.

Man this is gross to me, it smells exactly like a public bathroom. The overpowering mixed floral accord, layered with the fecal smell of oud - literally puts me in a bathroom. I could never wear this, scrubbed it off.

This should be called Lioness. It reminds me so much of snuggling in my cat's fur. That warm sweet freshly licked-by a-cat-tongue fur. I will keep this sample just to think of my cat when she's not around.

Exquisite, nocturnal, gothic, beautiful interpretation of a nocturnal butterfly. The opening is smoked and medicinal due to the oud, dryingdown is sweet, powdery floral. Slightly more feminine than masculine but certainly unisex. Personally one of my favorite by Zoologist.

Scent: 10
Originality: 10
Versatility: 7.5
Climate: autumn and winter
Quality: 10
Price: 7
Sillage: 10
Longevity: 10
Design (bottle): 10
Total Rating: 9

this is all musty roses to begin...a slight hint of moth...balls. makes sense. also something oddly synthetic and almost boozy-plastic. i smell other florals, but rose seems to be the most prominent. i think maybe it's mimosa? and later iris, definitely. the smoke in this is not typical. more like old smoke left behind, permeating old velvet curtains. this scent is definitely funereal...strong victorian vibes.

One of the most beautiful and unusual (yet wearable) perfumes I've ever encountered. Discoveries like Moth are why I'm so hooked on fragrance, and why I can't stop searching for the next fix.
I enjoy Zoologist's Bee, but find it a little cloying/sickly. Moth is perfect: too much of everything yet not too much of anything.
I smell: an outdoor gathering at the end of summer, people keeping warm around open fires, beards and cigarettes, gothic girls smelling of oud and patchouli hanging around, meat cooking on the fires, leather jackets and smoke and booze. This and so much more.
Total masterpiece.

Honey animalic. Touch of flowers. I don't like it, it seems stuffy.

This can come off as baby powder after about two hours. It's not baby powder, you can still get the nuances of honey and oud, but it creates a baby powder accord to passers-by.

To my nose it smells like wood polish - big yuck. Zoologist Bee has the honey notes I enjoy without the woody/incense combo I find unpleasant.

Dark gothic honey sums it up. If you like The dark side by franchesca bianchi I think it's a safe buy. To me it is The wrong kind of incense, dusty but sweet. Ink like even.

Tried it five times now and is a big no for me.
I would call it a scrubber and i had to get rid of the bottle.
I feel it nauseating.
Every time i try it, i have to wash it off with soap within half an hour.

Moth is so weird but so good!
In the opening I get smoke but really it dominates the entire time. It just makes every single note smell slightly smoky, which works quite well! Florals are also present but since they're smoky, I find them rather dark - like a forest at night. Where moths live. See, it's already making sense. Then I also get something that reminds me of graphite! Quite pleasant and works really well. I also get some nice woody notes and combined with the graphite and smoke they just work so well!
Moth is dark but not overly dark. As if the Moth itself would rather be a butterfly. But it's not. So it just pretends to be one at night. The florals get balanced out with the smoke and wood and Moth becomes a nice, wearable unisex scent. I think it's one of the best offerings Zoologist has! I feel like I need a bottle of this very soon.

I absolutely love this perfume. It is the most unique perfume I have ever tried (apart from maybe zoologist bat) but it is so wonderfully smoky and weirdly wonderful. I don't know if anyone else will get this but to me moth smells like an expensive, smoky perfume with an underlying note of dried saliva. This would have to be the first time I have smelled this in a perfume and I dont hate it!

The opening is really weird and it doesn't really change much (at least on me) throughout the day. I will say the scent does remind me of a moth, although this experience has made me realize that I don't like smelling like a moth.

A pungent honeyed floral opening...did I say floral???

I sense jasmine/lily of the valley/mimosa/iris combo...but it is a "smokey" floral combo....due to the added cumin/clove/resins/saffron. The heliotrope provides smokey powdery effect..

While the opening was kinda too-too much 80's floral, the mid and drydown is where this scent shines for me.

A BIG like for this one so far, but it could change into a love.

This house has no problem with sillage/projection/longevity...IMO....so all good.

Unique scent !! Well done.

edit: After several "wearings" of this.....it has jumped to one of my favorite buys of this year !!!! Almost "masterpiece" for me !!!!!!

Moths (to me) are ugly repulsive insects.
Although the notes at first glance seem interesting, sadly the fragrance is as ugly and repulsive as the little buggers.

* this is my opinion, on my skin and to my nose.

This is a miss for me. The only zoologist scent I loath.

Scent: 8/10

Quality: 9/10

Originality: 7/10

Sillage: 7/10

Projection: 7/10

Longevity: 7/10

Price VS Size: 7/10

This is Erotic.

Moth starts with rose, resin, smoke and animalica. Dry and spicy in the beginning.

Then I smell honey and more flowers coming through. After 3-4 hours the scent settles into a warm and dark jasmine and woody accord, which is quite nice. I'm comforted by sparkly jasmine, makes me feel cozy. However, I'm not sure I would be able to tell this scent apart from some other jasmine-rose-oud-spices perfumes. Or maybe I just tested too many similar scents recently.

I love Moth! Didn't think I would like a gothy perfume, and after having read reviews I imagined it would still be too heavy/thick for me, but this is just beautiful. Peculiar in the best way, this is definitely a cold-weather perfume that I think most people would like to smell, even if it is unusual. There isn't anything unpleasant about Moth, although I see how not everybody could pull it off: I can't picture someone wearing colorful clothes along with this scent, which would explain the gothy quality of it.

When your lover leaves in the morning but you find their pants wrapped in the sheets. All the perfume and comfort of their presence nostalgic like an afternoon matinee....sweet and tenacious bodily addictive.

I like sweet and/or medicinal, but this is too sweet and medicinal. It's really dense and it performs quite well, for whoever likes it. I didn't, unfortunately. It's weird, since I love honey, oud, smoke, and especially the combination of the three..

I was really hoping to like this one, and was excited to try it. However, despite a nice opening, the dry down smelled very cat urine-like- from the honey- and when I asked my partner if she liked it, she said the exact same thing, recoiling as she said it... Other reviews on here make no reference to this so it's definitely still worth a try for anyone with doubts who read this. It's more than likely my skin chemistry, sadly. Longevity was huge for me and I could still detect it hours and hours later. Projection was fair.

I wanted to try a few fragrances from this house because the concept and of course all the hype got me curious. This is my first test from this house and Wow is this scent ever bizarre! I never thought you could capture the essence of the Moth and here it is!

It's a disturbing scent to me. I get a feeling of brittle gray moth wings, dusty corridors, darkness, very little light, stone walls. Someplace I'd rather not be. There's a feeling of desolation to it.

I haven't looked at the notes yet and I can't even venture a guess as to what they are. Mainly because this scent is about atmosphere rather than aesthetics. But what I can make out from it is a bit of a dry spice, maybe a little amber, I'm not sure but after I post this I'm gonna eagerly review the notes.

What an experience! I just could never wear this. But I can see someone like Marilyn Manson wearing it well. We're talking full on goth.

I just adore this fragrance, in fact the whole line up of these fragrances is so appealing to me that I’ve been deliberating over a full bottle purchase. I received a sample and the opening is a real dilemma, which is ok, I like a challenge. There’s a contrast at play between the dark rich spices and the delicacy of the soft powdery florals and there’s something in the opening that at the beginning I was unsure about. The dry down however is sublime; there’s a real sensual smoky gothic honey undertone with just the right amount of animalic addictive pleasure. It’s definitely got my attention.

Imagine Moths as big as Monarch Butterflies, with the dark brown and grey markings on their wings. I suppose nuances reticent of sappy gardens and beautiful flames are composed, but I smell nothing very animalic, nor anstract. Moth smells like a more accessible Oriental perfume, full of sweet amber, a spoon of floral honey, and aoud, in the sweet style of Dark Aoud by Mancera. Very botanical smelling. I am not huge on ambers or aouds in general, but this does smell lovely. Recommended for amber and aoud lovers.

This is perhaps a little unfair, but I probably would have responds to Moth differently if I hadn’t smelled Tobacco Vanille, Tabac Rouge, Roaring Radcliffe, etc. Moth is every bit as elegant and alluring as those scents, but I expect a Zoologist offering to be singular and just a little off-kilter. Moth has some very fleeting “damp leaves in the forest” notes, but quickly dries into a smoky spiced honey. It’s lovely, but you can buy quite a few scents that are quite similar, and the only things that make Moth different are the opening notes that some would find unpleasant.

Imagine you are a moth living in the interminable twilight of a shuttered and decaying mansion. You spend your solitary existence feeding on antique bridal gowns and shuffling about in the damp dust until you go a bit mad. One night you find a flaming candle upon the attic window ledge, lit, perhaps, by a ghost. You've never seen anything so beautiful. As you circle the flames, closer and closer, your heart soars, and your wings begin to glow.

This is Moth. It smells like a haunted house radiating with repressed emotions and frustrated love. It smells like a tango with fiery death. It smells like the jilted Miss Havisham catching fire in her decaying wedding dress. If you love Gothic novels, the darkly gorgeous Moth is the scent for you. Moth is Gothic perfection in a bottle.

This is a case of wanting to like a fragrance based on the notes, but really not liking it after multiple tries for me. The smoky note overpowers the spices and makes them all mush together into an elderly melange.

This whole thing doesn't take me to a smoky temple or the mysterious parlor of a palm reader... it takes me to a mothbally closet where someone hid some pissy bedsheets then burned a stick of incense to try to cover it up.

Hard pass. Gave it two solid tries, but this is a scrubber IMO. I disliked it less as it dried down, but a single drop of this from a dram vial tester, not even a spray, on the back of my hand is too much for me at arm's length after an hour.

In contrast, I did like Panda by Zoologist. It was musky but still retained a dewy freshness.

Dark, smoky, mysterious. I love this one. Despite all the notes, I mostly detect a smoky strong honey with powder in the dry down. Excellent longevity and you will fill a room with this one.