Sacred Scarab
by Zoologist
Woody
Top Notesaldehydeslemon
Heartlotusplumwine
Base Notesamberbenzoincedarwoodcivetfrankincensegalbanumincensejuniperkyphilabdanummuskmyrrhoakmossstyrax
Style
unisex
The dogged prospector strikes gold. Upon discovering a payload rich with nutrients, the scarab returns home. Face down, guided by the sun, it propels the tightly-packed dung backwards to a burrow lined with dusky spheres. Underground, it tunnels into the ball to deposit a precious egg. In time, the larva hatches and feeds, until it emerges, fully formed, and instinct drives it down the same dusty trail to repeat the cycle.
Like Egyptians entrusting sacred mummies to tombs for the journey to the next life, a scarab burying its treasure marks the dawn of new life. Zoologist Sacred Scarab captures the mystique of Kyphi incense, a blend of blue lotus, raisins, plums, olibanum, myrrh, and juniper. Once bound with wine and burned in ancient rituals, today this divine scent guides your spirit on a path to discovery and rebirth.
Perfumer: Sultan Pasha
All about this fragrance
Vibe check
An evening spent turning the pages of an old illustrated book, with conversation kept close and unhurried. Wine-dark fruit gives the incense a lived-in warmth, while the civet shadow introduces something less polished: intimate, earthy and slightly unsettling.
How to wear
Cool weather is a natural setting for its plum, resins and animalic warmth. Start with one or two sprays on skin, allowing the composition to settle before adding more. In warmer conditions, use a lighter application to keep the sweet incense from dominating a close space.
Who it’s for
For those drawn to resinous incense, mossy chypres and the tension between ripe fruit and animalic depth. It will particularly interest attar enthusiasts and wearers who enjoy dense, historically inspired compositions rather than transparent woods or uncomplicated sweetness.
Release year
2022
The nose
Sultan Pasha is an independent perfumer known for intricate attars: concentrated oil compositions with richly layered florals, resins and animalic textures. His work draws on traditional perfumery while embracing an unusually broad palette of materials. For Sacred Scarab, he translated that oil-based approach into an alcohol spray, adjusting proportions rather than simply diluting an attar. He conceived the fragrance as a modern floral chypre with ancient roots, using Kyphi’s wine-like sweetness as its backbone.
Collaborators
Johanna Venables of NOT Perfumes helped supply incense for Sultan Pasha’s research, contributing reference material to his exploration of historical Kyphi and the fragrance’s incense character.
Zoologist’s story
Founded in Toronto by Victor Wong, Zoologist turns animal behavior, habitats and sensory worlds into adventurous perfumes. Its compositions embrace beauty alongside stranger, sometimes challenging textures, using synthetic substitutes rather than animal-derived musks. Sacred Scarab connects that approach to the beetle’s cycle of burial and renewal.
Sacred Scarab’s concept
Sultan Pasha’s childhood fascination with Egyptology shaped the image of a scarab rolling a fragrant Kyphi ball into an underground tomb. He studied historical formulas, attended Egyptologist Dora Goldsmith’s seminars and made Kyphi himself. The resulting perfume interprets its fermented sweetness, flowers and resins through a modern chypre structure rather than attempting a literal reconstruction.
Extra info
The aldehydes were chosen to suggest sunlight, while blue lotus was recreated as an accord after Pasha studied natural extracts. Despite its civet and musk notes, Sacred Scarab contains no animal products. A separate alcohol-free attar version is also available.
Top Notesaldehydeslemon
Heartlotusplumwine
Base Notesamberbenzoincedarwoodcivetfrankincensegalbanumincensejuniperkyphilabdanummuskmyrrhoakmossstyrax
Style
unisex
The dogged prospector strikes gold. Upon discovering a payload rich with nutrients, the scarab returns home. Face down, guided by the sun, it propels the tightly-packed dung backwards to a burrow lined with dusky spheres. Underground, it tunnels into the ball to deposit a precious egg. In time, the larva hatches and feeds, until it emerges, fully formed, and instinct drives it down the same dusty trail to repeat the cycle.
Like Egyptians entrusting sacred mummies to tombs for the journey to the next life, a scarab burying its treasure marks the dawn of new life. Zoologist Sacred Scarab captures the mystique of Kyphi incense, a blend of blue lotus, raisins, plums, olibanum, myrrh, and juniper. Once bound with wine and burned in ancient rituals, today this divine scent guides your spirit on a path to discovery and rebirth.
Perfumer: Sultan Pasha
All about this fragrance
Vibe check
An evening spent turning the pages of an old illustrated book, with conversation kept close and unhurried. Wine-dark fruit gives the incense a lived-in warmth, while the civet shadow introduces something less polished: intimate, earthy and slightly unsettling.
How to wear
Cool weather is a natural setting for its plum, resins and animalic warmth. Start with one or two sprays on skin, allowing the composition to settle before adding more. In warmer conditions, use a lighter application to keep the sweet incense from dominating a close space.
Who it’s for
For those drawn to resinous incense, mossy chypres and the tension between ripe fruit and animalic depth. It will particularly interest attar enthusiasts and wearers who enjoy dense, historically inspired compositions rather than transparent woods or uncomplicated sweetness.
Release year
2022
The nose
Sultan Pasha is an independent perfumer known for intricate attars: concentrated oil compositions with richly layered florals, resins and animalic textures. His work draws on traditional perfumery while embracing an unusually broad palette of materials. For Sacred Scarab, he translated that oil-based approach into an alcohol spray, adjusting proportions rather than simply diluting an attar. He conceived the fragrance as a modern floral chypre with ancient roots, using Kyphi’s wine-like sweetness as its backbone.
Collaborators
Johanna Venables of NOT Perfumes helped supply incense for Sultan Pasha’s research, contributing reference material to his exploration of historical Kyphi and the fragrance’s incense character.
Zoologist’s story
Founded in Toronto by Victor Wong, Zoologist turns animal behavior, habitats and sensory worlds into adventurous perfumes. Its compositions embrace beauty alongside stranger, sometimes challenging textures, using synthetic substitutes rather than animal-derived musks. Sacred Scarab connects that approach to the beetle’s cycle of burial and renewal.
Sacred Scarab’s concept
Sultan Pasha’s childhood fascination with Egyptology shaped the image of a scarab rolling a fragrant Kyphi ball into an underground tomb. He studied historical formulas, attended Egyptologist Dora Goldsmith’s seminars and made Kyphi himself. The resulting perfume interprets its fermented sweetness, flowers and resins through a modern chypre structure rather than attempting a literal reconstruction.
Extra info
The aldehydes were chosen to suggest sunlight, while blue lotus was recreated as an accord after Pasha studied natural extracts. Despite its civet and musk notes, Sacred Scarab contains no animal products. A separate alcohol-free attar version is also available.