Natalie Wood as Maria West Side Story 1961

Victor Wong the founder of Zoologist Perfumes has added a new fragrance to his menagerie of fauna inspired fragrances entitled Hummingbird, and it is a wonderfully unexpected fragrance, a departure into a purely feminine territory for  the brand. Envision the prettiest girl in the room. Singing. Dancing. Wearing a brightly colored silk dress that twirls as she glides into the room. Why do I say this?  Because it is bursting with all kinds of wonderful notes (21 in all!), it jumps from giddy fruit and citrus energy at the start, into a wonderful honey-laced floral heart and ends up on a creamy green note hours later.  In short, it hits all the sweet spots for a young or “young at heart woman” who is just being introduced to indie perfume.

Hummingbird also absolutely wins this year’s Longevity Award – you will still be experiencing a drydown more than 12 hours later.  Also, the name of the perfume could not be more apt – the internal metabolic clock on this scent is operating on a much higher plane than we are.  An hour on the skin is like ten minutes in the Hummingbird Perfume World.  I first wore this at 9pm and it happily flew alongside me overnight,  and was still present (although faint) at 10am the next morning.  

Natalie Wood as Maria in West Side Story Digitalized by MC

The perfume opens in a whirl of color.  First to enter the dance are sweet bursts of citrus and fruit, with the main notes being apple, cherry and pear, with a layer of plum underneath, laced with rose and a slight whisper of violet over the citrus.   The floral notes are definitely needed at the start as the overtly dark fruit juiciness  of Hummingbird  could easily tip over into cough syrup territory without them.

But Victor Wong has chosen the best partner in perfumer Shelley Waddington and En Voyage Perfumes for this release, as her deft hand with super-juicy and bouncy top notes always keeps the focus on the comfort found in fruit notes rather than the weight.  (if you are new to Shelley Waddington, she is one of our top American indies and just knocked me out  with Frida, her brilliant homage to Frida Khalo, which does with watermelon and peach top notes what Hummingbird  does with apple and pear.)

West Side Story the Mambo Scene

The heart notes glide in and pirouette with a rose and violet bouquet at her feet.  The focus shifts from the dark tropicality of plums and pears into a honey-laced dusky floral arrangement of peonies and ylang-ylang.  The peonies take the place of the violets while the ylang-ylang takes center stage after waiting in the wings after the plum.  There’s also a bright pop of lilac and honeysuckle tangy enough to feel in the back of your throat around the edges of the peony.  I personally love how Shelley Waddington is able to do this in her work – her perfumes are built more like songs or dances, note upon note weaving intricate songs. Instead of a blunt and abrupt change from the beginning to the drydown in a scent, each transition from top note to heart to base becomes lyrics and melodies that create something incredibly artistic in her perfumes.

Natalie Wood West Side Story 

The drydown for Hummingbird is a rather offbeat and fun combination of moss, coumarin and a slightly sweet and pillowy cream note.   What better for a hummingbird, or for a pretty woman. And it’s this young dry straw and hay mixed with delicious  lactonic drydown that will stay with you for many, many hours.  When I sampled Hummingbird, there was a moment where I seriously considered requesting just the drydown accords from Zoologist to wear because of how original a pairing they are. 

Maria, West Side Story (1961) The scene when she’s dancing on the rooftop and her skirt is literally floating

All in all, Hummingbird is a fantastic new addition to the Zoologist line.  The  lovely dancing vision that Victor Wong brings into the stuffy, overwrought nomenclature of the perfume industr. Hummingbird has found such a pitch-perfect expression with Shelley Waddington’s use of citrus notes, and her understated but expert way of framing a scent story.  Or, more simply put, It’s just fun, wonderfully wearbale – ripe, juicy fun in a bottle.  What more could a girl ask for?

Top Notes: Apple, Cherry, Citrus, Lilac, Muguet, Plum, Rose, Violet Leaf, Heart Notes: Honey, Honeysuckle, Mimosa, Peony, Tulip, Ylang;  Base Notes: Amber, Coumarin, Cream, Moss, Musks, Sandalwood, White Woods

60ml/$125

Pam Barr, Senior Contributor

Art Direction and  West Side Story Theme: Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief

Thanks to the generosity of Victor Wong, we have a worldwide draw for two registered readers (please be sure to do this folks or your comment is not valid) as follows:

US and Canada: 60 ml bottle of Hummingbird

WORLDWIDE (includes US and Canada):  A Sampler set of Panda, Beaver, Hummingbird and Rhinoceros

To be eligible, please leave a comment with where you live, what you enjoyed about Pam’s review, if you have a favorite Zoologist fragrance (or one you would love to try) and which actress you can imagine wearing Hummingbird. Draw closes 11/6/2015

We announce the winners only on site and our Facebook page, so like CaFleureBon and use our RSS option…or your dream prize will just be spilled perfume.