Reviews of Rhinoceros by Zoologist Perfumes

This original iteration of Rhinoceros, by Paul Kiler, is a masterwork. It’s so assertive, so leather, so butch and yet so subtle over time. Really something to behold. It’s hard to believe this one has been discontinued in favor of Prin’s fourth or fifth take on Turkish Leather. The new one is nice. Maybe even wonderful if you don’t know this version. Superior.

Traditional masculine opening amplified to the point of being dark mixed in with various aromatics and sweetish rum giving a medical vibe to it, under this the beast is present a heavy dark rough leather which edges are cut by the aforementioned rum and a tobacco note, just cause its being tamed doesn’t subtract that this is a huge leather the kind to hit you in the face unapologetically, overtime the leather slowly calms down and hints of amber and musk come out amongst the empty fumes of a rum bottle.

This scent oozes masculinity, only “challenging” to those who become lost to current push of faceless fresh and clean scents and sugar bombs.

A beautiful mix of a big big lot of things, which opens with a lot of vegetal fragrances, along with spices and leather. The base notes are some sweet incense which I are originally gourmand.

Opens with a powerful herbal blast, like some kind of extreme essential oil blend, with an aura of turpentine or some other volatile liquid. The leather emerges, hard and slightly smoky at first, growing stronger, richer and muskier over time with a waxing vetiver note. It reminds me of the leather note in Shalimar. Remarkable.

Sprayed from an atomizer onto skin, Rhinoceros opens with a powerfully acrid aroma. To me, Rhinoceros' opening is somewhat reminiscent of Les Liquides Imaginaires Peau de Bête. Thankfully, the piercingly astringent funk lasts only a minute or two, and I begin to perceive wormwood, sage, and conifer needles, the bitter and aromatic vegetation described in the perfumer's notes. In about a half hour, the medicinal bitterness is still present, but it is now mixed with a potent vetiver, along with what I perceive to be frankincense, of a dry, smoky, and slightly sour variety. Does any of this smell like leather to me? Not really. Meanwhile some reviewers of Rhinoceros celebrate its opening notes of pure, raw leather. Perhaps the perfumers are suggesting a new idea of leather to me, the scent of a dusty rhinoceros washed with mentholated and volatile chemical spirits and rubbed down with herbs.

An hour later, Rhinoceros has changed dramatically and begins to evoke a specific dreamscape with almost cinematic clarity. In this phase, Rhinoceros is extremely beautiful, and I would wear it for this experience alone. I am visiting a very old house in New Orleans on a very hot day, as a thunderstorm impends.There is petrichor in the air. Inside, the cypress floorboards creak as I open a cedar-lined armoire containing old linens layered with bundles of vetiver roots. Everything is dry and scrupulously clean, with no mold or sourness, but I can smell old ashes in the grate, the dust of ages, and traces of cigars and pipes smoked long ago. I sniff the decanters of whiskey on a polished wood table, getting both the syrupy sweetness of bourbon and the peaty scent of an Islay single malt. And, yes, it is just possible that I am beginning to smell the crumbling leather bindings in the library.

Zoologist are interesting. They have a USP. Spray this and as your nostrils are taking it in, out of the swirling vapours you will be deafened by the charge of a rhino coming right at you up close and personal leaving no detail of his hygiene to your imagination. You yell in fright sitting up in bed waking from your horrible dream... but then was it a dream you muse as you sit sniffing what is probably the best dry leather smell I have experienced. Strong. This is doing exactly what it set out to do. Maybe you are a game hunter and its the smell of the rhino hide of the beast that charged you and the tanning process is not over yet either.
It's not something that I find pleasant but its interesting deadly accurate. No poetic license here or efforts to sanitise it . Where could you wear it? Who would you wear it for? A Hell's angel? It's fancy dress. A masterpiece and what an entree. I will keep my sample and show it for fun to fellow enthusiasts but thats it.
Note: Camel is the same thing dialed right down with some extra depth at which it fails so its much less interesting unless you enjoy smelling of a better tanned more expensive leather coat.
Fragrance: 8/10-- but not for me
Projection: 8/10
Longevity: 8/10

Like it's namesake, Rhinoceros is a hefty fragrance. It's definitely one of the more challenging fragrances from the line, but given its inspiration, it should be. The opening is punchy with a bit of funk. The oud, leather and rum combine in a way that is smokey, medicinal and very masculine.

After an hour or so of this dry strong combo, the fragrance sweetens a little and becomes very green. The sudden pine influx was a bit unexpected at first, but I've really grown to love it.

As has sadly become pattern with the house, this scent has been replaced by a new composition, this time by Prin Lomros (whose work I tend to love). However, I like the original much more and think it's more fitting of the imagery. The new version pushes too hard into the dried fruit aspects of pipe tobacco and not nearly as strongly into the leather for my tastes.

Zoologist – Rhinoceras (2014)

Nineteen notes make up Rhinoceras' profile and it's a bit of a personality disorder. Leather and tobacco jump out upon application, followed by a very dry and very green accord made bitter by agarwood. I keep waiting for the agarwood to subside and the leather/tobacco accord to return. Oddly, if smelled from a distance all I get is the leather and tobacco, but up close all I get is the bitter dry green agar. Strange that with nineteen notes, all I can smell are three.

So, ultimately for the wearer (me), it's decidedly unpleasant, but for the other person in the room, it's a gentle leather with supporting tobacco. I am experiencing this with my spouse, so as to get the dual perspective. I have to reject this Jekyll and Hyde concoction as I would never wear it and to keep my spouse at a distance in order to stand it does not make for a successful marriage.

Masculine abstraction and awe-inspiring assertiveness have rarely had a bolder olfactory pillar. The stormy fury of a manifest stout smoky dominant leather (in this bold and super virile fragrance, under my miserable but stubborn and determined nose from the southern lands) is a reminiscence of powerfully aggressive woody/rubbery leathers a la Complex by Boadicea de Victorious, Profvmum Roma Arso, Santa Maria Novella Nostalgia, Tauer Lonestar Memories, Nasomatto Duro, Hashish Homme Veejaga or Mona di Orio Cuir. We are talking about a modern leather/fougerè (bergamot, lavender, sage, geranium) with a solid support from boozy notes (rum), aromatic herbs, dry woods, burnt-sugary immortelle and harsh tobacco. The standing out note of leather is in Rhinoceros definitely rubbery, smoky, finally silkier and kind of initially aromatic (pine needles, toasted tobacco and immortelle playing a key balsamic/resinous role in the general woodsy/coniferous/smokey/dry bitter atmosphere). Opening is brutal and almost off-putting (with petroleous/plastic presences lingering all around for few minutes - provided by a juxtaposition between smoky oudh and coniferous resins), it is for a while (five minutes or few more) moistened out by a splash of aged booziness (supported by hesperides and aromatic patterns) before this supreme smoky coniferous leather starts coming out kind of dominant and unapologetic. The initial rum's jet is kind of earthy, herbal (like for a tea-tree/rosemary/lavender's presence), peaty, visceral and aromatic (it's like to detect essential oils, aromatic and woodsy). Agarwood resin, peaty myrrh, peppery spices and arid woods enhance the stark bitter smokiness (vaguely a la By Kilian Pure Oudh) of the olfactory performance while the even more increasingly performing note of tobacco is more properly seasoned, toasted and dry (a cigar leaves' kind of toasted vibe). Dry down is a purely impenetrable, refined, "gentleman club like", lofty, cultured leather/tobacco/woods-accord (smoky, dusty and seasoned) although actually tobacco is more detectable along the durable central stage. This is a take no prisoners kind of bold piece of virility, basically a charismatic connection of seasoned tobacco, smoky leather, woodsy glue (pine-resins) from the forest, dry woods and animalic resins, overall combined in a sort of old-style (vintage/stuffy/moldy in nature but avant-gard in olfactory technique and sensibility) piece of leather/tobacco uncompromising abstraction. Humid aromatic booziness is kind of accessorial and focused on top notes (kind of relatively aromatic/fougerè in their fleeting initial blast). Zoologist Rhinoceros is a charismatic and intimidating fragrance that creates an aura of extreme unapologetic masculinity around its wearer. Rhinoceros is the appropriate name in order to epitomize these characteristics, a solid construction and a sombre appeal (a la Eau d'Italie Bois d'Ombrie and ever more) for a stout temperament to evercome the trials and tribulations of a man's life (as the rhino while defending his domain on his dusty territory with its tough hide as armor against relentless sand and scorching sun). Another winner from Zoologist.

Given some of Zoologist's other signature scents, I'm somewhat surprised that Rhinoceros isn't more powerful on opening as I would expect. Yes, rum and leather-boozy and strong-but it doesn't push those boundaries as much as I would have expected. It seems domesticated! It's the vetiver note that smooths it out, and rather unnecessarily: the pine and leather that starts out so prominent gets muddled as the drydown phase begins. I would have expected a rampaging scent, charging and crass: instead, I get a somewhat strong leather-rum scent without the depth and complexity as other Zoologist scents (Bat, Moth, Camel).

I enjoy it, and it has moderate longevity (5-6 hours) and above average sillage. But is it worth 145 dollars a bottle? Not in my opinion. It has a decent enough starting punch but doesn't fulfill its promise as a powerful beast in the wild.

6/10

This one was challenging for me. Not in the normal challenging way that it does not smell good. This just took me a couple samples to understand what I was thinking. It is leather, strong, and in your face. This one is not playing around, and is far from the common fare. No sweetness here. There is a medicinal quality that I thought at first maybe was a facet of the fake oud, but it turns out it was wintergreen. Wintergreen and leather is the basic definition of what we have here. There are background players of little booze, and little smoke. I applaud this creation. This truly feels like a rhinoceros themed fragrance to me. I totally get it. The longevity and performance in general suffer from its bombastic opening, and I'd saw 1-10 they are a 4 on both, with the caveat that it opens for the first hour at a projection 10. Thumbs up in the creative category!

Boozy, green, pungent. Piney and forest like. Woody, dry heat. Later on, some tobacco and leather. The beast tames down at the base. Yet another Zoologist I have fallen in love with. I love the rum and pine needle notes best.

Rhinoceros. Not the first thing that comes to mind when I think of something I want to smell like. I'm sure this frag doesn't smell like a Rhino, so maybe it smells like a Rhino Virus, because that always leaves me cold.

The list of notes is staggering. That may be one of the problems I have with this one...there is a lot going on here. I do get some leather, some musk, some smoke, and some elemi. Other than that, this all homogenizes into a funk of smell that doesn't really work for me. I don't want to work as hard as I will need to work to find enjoyment from wearing Rhinoceros. Perhaps I'm just being near sighted, but I don't get a charge out of this one.

This is my first leather fragrance I've tried so far and I love it. I like how zoologist blends the green earthy notes with the leather. I am wearing it in cold weather, I don't think I could pull this fragrance off if I was hot out. I love how the amber, leather, and vetiver interact with each other on the dry down. This could be a beautiful everyday scent in colder months because the conifer notes just give it such a winter vibe.
I got solid 9 hours out of this fragrance with a little bit above average projection. I don't know if I'll add this to my collection because of how many other great fragrances there are in the Zoologist collection and the money for a full bottle is to be taken into consideration.


7/10

Rino goes on with a blast of rum and leather. Tobacco also is mixed in. It reminds me of a Gentleman's Study- Leather chairs, books lining the walls, a glass of rum and Coke on the desk, and a pouch of tobacco beside it. A few minutes into it, there is a sharp green note from the sage, conifer, and geranium. This is very complex, and never seems to clash with itself. I love leather scents, and this is a great one. NOT pure leather like Montale Leather Aoud, but a mixture of many other notes. If you like Vetiver, this has a healthy dose of it upon dry-down, I'm not a vetiver fan, and this has a tiny bit too much for me to get a Full bottle. For 5 stars this would need a bit more smoke and leather, and a bit less vetiver.

I figured Rhinoceros would be a rough ride, but geez--people are wearing this stuff?

I'm not shocked by the basic idea: it's a massive, smoky, terpey thing on top of a woody base, and (as we say in Texas) the woods is full of these. Rhinoceros stands out from the pack, because it piles on loads of pretty much every single note from today's modern "masculine" scents into a clashing accord of bitterness and chemical smoke, pushing the idea beyond conceit into parody--pine (and more pine), booze, artemesia (why call it "armoise" here? I don't understand. Zoologist is an American house, no?), cedar, smoke (oud, tobacco, and just straight-up "smoke"), plus leather and immortelle (presumably because it's 2017, dangit).

The result smells a lot like the odor that fills our kitchen when I overload our inexpensive blender with smoothie ingredients--scorched rubber and the threat of electrical fire, which I know are not bad things to some noses. Where I come from, people smell like this after a hard day on the job site--a scent that some of the hipster fellas out there might be after. If Absolue pour le Soir and Rien Intense Incense are too wussy for you, give Rhinoceros a try.

This is a pungent and sharp opening blast - bergamot, bitter artemisia, lavender, and oud sharpness with a herbal and slightly boozy undertone.

Soon this is combined with the crisp impression of a leather workshop with tannin and the aroma of new leader ware stacked against the wall. A sharp chemical musky impression is quite overwhelming; this is not a gasoline sharpness like in Knize 10; and at times it has a nigh-urinal characteristic, but after the first hours the pungency softens and the leather takes centre stage.

Now other elements are discernible: coniferous notes, a whiff of light smokiness and and amber; and for the subsequent hours this is more pleasant and traditional. Woodsy notes become a bit stronger towards the end.


I get moderate to strong sillage, excellent projection and ten hours of longevity on my skin.

A real character, this rhinoceros, a good winter scent. At times overly skanky and chemical, is is complex and original enough to deserve a positive score - albeit just, as it is a tad too unbalanced at times. For the times when you play with your pet rhino. 3/5.

Can't believe I am going to say this... But yeah I like it... WOW very cool scent. Leather (LOTS OF IT) for sure along with the conifers, cedarwood, pine, amber... OMG I can't stop smelling it. I think it smells like new electronics out of the box (Weird I know lol). A Winner in my opinion. As for as price ($125 for 60ml) for a juice that does have a Rhino on the bottle (kinda kid like but I get it) I can look past the presentation and will most likely be adding this to my collection. Enjoy!

Even before I tried Rhinoceros I expected it to be somewhat rugged and rather butch because those were always the exact impressions I had when I visited the actual animals in the zoo. When I wore it for the first time I was totally blown away by its commanding presence as the strong leather aroma forcefully demanded my attention. The leather aroma was considerably raw, dark and smoky which led to the creation of a fragrant aura so dominant that it remained strikingly apparent for the entire life span of the fragrance.

Contrary to my belief that rhinoceroses were just gentle giants, this Rhino had proved me wrong. It wasn't just a rugged creature, it was rather authoritative and fierce when in charge. And while wearing the fragrance, a hallucination hovered over me as if I were Maximus Decimus Meridius wearing an impenetrable invisible armor leading my army into battle as if I was actually in Gladiator. For once, I assured myself that I was going to intimidate rather than simply being intimidated.

It was quite obvious and convincing that deep down inside this Rhino was a warrior and a general of his Legions. However, it did have a softer side to balance its fearsome nature.

Though I did not find anything particularly sweet about Rhinoceros, it did display an occasional refreshing quality, perhaps a combination of bergamot, pine and vetiver; the juxtaposition of these fresh, aromatic accords with the woody notes in the composition conjuring a vision of the forest just after a midsummer's rainstorm. This subtle undertone created a certain dampness that kept the overall concoction from being too dry; therefore, it gracefully tempered the beast from within. The usage of musks in Rhinoceros' was very civilized, so I wouldn't go as far as calling it dirty or animalic, in fact it wasn't at all but simply a subtle undercurrent of warmth as a delicate foil to the Rhinoceros' intrinsic ferocity.

What intrigued me the most about this fragrance, and this brand in general, was how masterfully the elements were blended together in a way that the olfactory experience really reminded me of this animal's habitat. They absolutely delivered on a very true-to-life journey into the animal kingdom, which in turn convinced me to believe the artistry and creativity of Zoologist products were unparalleled.

I have always been a fan of the 80s and 90s masculine powerhouse genre, so it wasn't a hard decision to add Rhinoceros into my collection. Even among the undisputed champions of the classics such as YSL Kouros, Chanel Antaeus and Guerlain Derby it is still a force to be reckoned with.

This is a scent for a manly man and a manly man only. Upon the initial spray, I was NOT a fan of it- wayyyy too much of a dark liquor poured over leather smell. If that's your thing though, I am sure you would like it, the liquor was just a little much for me.

About 30 minutes after the booze calms down, it turns into a much more enjoyable scent. It has an obvious strong leather scent, combined with some tobacco and only a slight bit of liquor.

Not for everyday wear in my opinion, but would be good for a black tie event or to a sports bar.

The opening salvo of Rhinoceros has a little too much going on. The fresh herbal components seem to be locked in combat with the smoky, incensey bits and the leathery musks - very bitter, with what I suspect is simply too much elemi, geranium, and wormwood, which work wonders in very dry scents, but in this saturated mix-up they are a bit clumsy.It's a spiky beginning reminiscent of some kind of furniture varnish with a medicinal bent. Once the first 45-60 minutes are out of the way is softens into a warm and respectable semi-sweet leather scent with a hint of that almost-mintiness evergreen balsams give off. This stage is very agreeable. Certainly this is the hulking beast of the bunch.

After letting Rhinoceros dry down, I'd best classify it as a leather, but it definitely seems to involve aspects of animalic, woody, smoky, and boozy notes. Leather, tobacco, and resin all seem to have a part to play here. Projection and longevity are good for an EDP.

Rhinoceros is powerful--a bit too acerbic at the opening, more bite than I'd prefer. The drydown is a bit more pleasant and balanced with the several categories mentioned above. Still, this isn't something I would reach for, let alone buy. There are more refined leathers (Bowmakers) and more interesting animalics (IA's Bull's Blood) that do the job better than Rhinoceros. Still, leather fans might find this interesting---it's clearly the most popular offering of the Zoologist trio, it's just not quite what I want out of a leather.

6 out of 10

My wife and I could not be more different in the way we process aromas. Ninety Nine percent of fragrances that I find pleasurable, she finds undesirable. It's an amazing thing. Rhinoceros by Paul Kiler is a case in point. She finds it smelling like a mans locker room, whilst I interpret it as a slightly boozy, leathery wood with smoke. His other release named PANDA, on the other hand, is a scent my wife is delighted by. I experience a borderline urinous accord the entire wearing and unlike my wife, I wish it cease and desist after only 5 minutes. Sadly, it does not comply.

Back to Rhinoceros.........

Rhino spreads out on the skin, upon application, like a well groomed and clean shaven football team lining up at the scrimmage line in tight formation. The notes are packed tightly together and then once released, courtesy of the sprayer, they begin to fan out like an audible was called and the formation stretches out. There's energy coming out of that initial huddle and it's tangible.

There's a period of time, approximately 2-3 minutes after application, that I can almost detect every listed note, in some fashion, before it all vanishes and then morphs into a more dense and less lucid state. This is the heart of Rhinoceros and it apparently pumps the suggestion of whiskey soaked suede, pepper, moist forest earth and wood that has been forever changed by heat and fire. Up from the subtle smokiness, a charred leather rears its head and supplants what once smelled like suede to me.

A noticeable transition if I may say so and I rather enjoyed attempting to analyze what it was I smelled in real time. That said, Rhinoceros spends the time it has remaining, on my skin, as a smoke-infused woody leather, accented intermittently by earth tones. The rendition of smoke here, once the base and drydown commence, is actually one of the more superior and wearable versions I've sampled in awhile.

Sillage is average or slightly better than that, with longevity approximately 4-5 hours with moderate sprays. Thumbs up from SS for Paul Kiler's Rhinoceros.