Perfumer: Sven Pritzkoleit
It's a dramatic animalic dry leather. Smell the artistic take on the hyraceum aroma (a larger than life fantasy) in this perfume and also if you visit us at Covent Garden, you can discover how natural hyraceum smells. We have a piece of this ancient fascinating material for educational purposes.
Sven used natural hyraceum as obtaining this material does not involve any animal cruelty (please see below). However, the perfumer purposeley enhanced most of the nuances of natural hyraceum to dramatic proportions: animalic, urinous, leathery, ambery and barnyard.
***
What is hyraceum?
Hyraceum is the fossilized urine of hyraxes Bloom's specimen (available to smell at our Covent Garden store) came from a mountainous area in South Africa and was harvested by local tribesmen from a hyrax’s urinal area in an ancient cave (as communal animals they have a designated communal loo - latrine). Hyraceum is exclusively fossilized urine deposits (no feces). As many desert plants and animals have water saving habits – hyraxes’ urine is not a liquid. They excrete jelly-like urine that dries in the sun to a stone.
The specimen was procured with the expert assistance of The Rising Phoenix Perfumery and could be thousands of years old.
All about this fragrance
Vibe check
This is a scent for close quarters and confident company, when the room can handle something dry, dark and a little unruly. It suits a wearer who likes their presence to arrive before they do: leathery, smoky-animalic and slightly mineral, with a vintage edge that feels deliberate rather than polished.
How to wear
Best in cool weather or evening air, where its leathery animalic core can unfold without feeling too dense. Apply sparingly at first; one or two sprays are enough for strong diffusion and a long, textured drydown. On skin it reads darker and more intimate, while in air it opens into a broader, dustier animalic aura.
Who it’s for
For lovers of animalic, leathery and old-school niche perfumes, especially those drawn to challenging materials, dry woods and unconventional musks. It will appeal to wearers who enjoy bold, conceptual fragrances with a vintage, almost feral character.
Release year
2018
The nose
Sven Pritzkoleit is a Finnish perfumer known for bold, concept-driven compositions that push animalic materials into vivid, modern shapes. His work on Hyrax shows his taste for tension: raw, leathery facets are amplified, then steered into a more textured, wearable structure rather than a simple shock effect. In the wider industry, Pritzkoleit is valued for independent, imaginative perfumery with a strong sense of movement and contrast. Hyrax reflects that approach clearly, using hyraceum as the central idea and building around it with saffron, whisky, florals and musks to create a scent that feels both primitive and composed.
Collaborators
Victor, Zoologist’s founder, helped shape the fragrance’s direction by selecting Pritzkoleit for a hyrax-centered brief after meeting him at Esxence in Milan and seeing his prototypes. The collaboration gave the perfumer room to develop an artistic interpretation of hyraceum rather than a literal animal scent.
Zoologist’s story
Zoologist builds fragrances as character studies of the animal kingdom, using unusual materials and strong concepts to create scents that are beautiful, strange and memorable. The house values creative freedom and does not chase crowd-pleasing formulas; its perfumes are meant to be distinctive, sometimes polarizing, and always imaginative.
Hyrax’s concept
Hyrax was created as an olfactory portrait of the hyrax and, more specifically, of hyraceum, the fossilized urine deposit sometimes called African stone. The idea was to turn that ancient material into a dramatic leather-animalic composition, with the perfumer deliberately magnifying its urinous, ambery and barnyard facets into something larger than life.
Extra info
Hyrax is built around hyraceum, a rare fossilized animal material sometimes called African stone. Zoologist notes that the material is not harvested through animal cruelty, and the fragrance is one of the house’s explicitly non-vegan compositions. It is also known for its highly polarizing, scorched-desert impression.
Perfumer: Sven Pritzkoleit
It's a dramatic animalic dry leather. Smell the artistic take on the hyraceum aroma (a larger than life fantasy) in this perfume and also if you visit us at Covent Garden, you can discover how natural hyraceum smells. We have a piece of this ancient fascinating material for educational purposes.
Sven used natural hyraceum as obtaining this material does not involve any animal cruelty (please see below). However, the perfumer purposeley enhanced most of the nuances of natural hyraceum to dramatic proportions: animalic, urinous, leathery, ambery and barnyard.
***
What is hyraceum?
Hyraceum is the fossilized urine of hyraxes Bloom's specimen (available to smell at our Covent Garden store) came from a mountainous area in South Africa and was harvested by local tribesmen from a hyrax’s urinal area in an ancient cave (as communal animals they have a designated communal loo - latrine). Hyraceum is exclusively fossilized urine deposits (no feces). As many desert plants and animals have water saving habits – hyraxes’ urine is not a liquid. They excrete jelly-like urine that dries in the sun to a stone.
The specimen was procured with the expert assistance of The Rising Phoenix Perfumery and could be thousands of years old.
All about this fragrance
Vibe check
This is a scent for close quarters and confident company, when the room can handle something dry, dark and a little unruly. It suits a wearer who likes their presence to arrive before they do: leathery, smoky-animalic and slightly mineral, with a vintage edge that feels deliberate rather than polished.
How to wear
Best in cool weather or evening air, where its leathery animalic core can unfold without feeling too dense. Apply sparingly at first; one or two sprays are enough for strong diffusion and a long, textured drydown. On skin it reads darker and more intimate, while in air it opens into a broader, dustier animalic aura.
Who it’s for
For lovers of animalic, leathery and old-school niche perfumes, especially those drawn to challenging materials, dry woods and unconventional musks. It will appeal to wearers who enjoy bold, conceptual fragrances with a vintage, almost feral character.
Release year
2018
The nose
Sven Pritzkoleit is a Finnish perfumer known for bold, concept-driven compositions that push animalic materials into vivid, modern shapes. His work on Hyrax shows his taste for tension: raw, leathery facets are amplified, then steered into a more textured, wearable structure rather than a simple shock effect. In the wider industry, Pritzkoleit is valued for independent, imaginative perfumery with a strong sense of movement and contrast. Hyrax reflects that approach clearly, using hyraceum as the central idea and building around it with saffron, whisky, florals and musks to create a scent that feels both primitive and composed.
Collaborators
Victor, Zoologist’s founder, helped shape the fragrance’s direction by selecting Pritzkoleit for a hyrax-centered brief after meeting him at Esxence in Milan and seeing his prototypes. The collaboration gave the perfumer room to develop an artistic interpretation of hyraceum rather than a literal animal scent.
Zoologist’s story
Zoologist builds fragrances as character studies of the animal kingdom, using unusual materials and strong concepts to create scents that are beautiful, strange and memorable. The house values creative freedom and does not chase crowd-pleasing formulas; its perfumes are meant to be distinctive, sometimes polarizing, and always imaginative.
Hyrax’s concept
Hyrax was created as an olfactory portrait of the hyrax and, more specifically, of hyraceum, the fossilized urine deposit sometimes called African stone. The idea was to turn that ancient material into a dramatic leather-animalic composition, with the perfumer deliberately magnifying its urinous, ambery and barnyard facets into something larger than life.
Extra info
Hyrax is built around hyraceum, a rare fossilized animal material sometimes called African stone. Zoologist notes that the material is not harvested through animal cruelty, and the fragrance is one of the house’s explicitly non-vegan compositions. It is also known for its highly polarizing, scorched-desert impression.