WHAT I SMELL:  Afrika-Olifant opens like an interesting incense and smoky mystery.  I can’t help think of a wrestler walking through clouds of smoke at a WWE event as they walk in the arena.  It’s spicy, rather sour and in your face without being heavy-handed.  However, there’s a primal male sexuality that’s powerfully overt.  The perfume screams SEX.  After a few minutes, the leather makes it way in, but as if like a stranger snuck in through the back alley, come up behind you and you feel their presence but can’t see them.  That initial rush of smoldering sex, starts to tone down after 10 minutes, but that doesn’t mean the perfume is any less provocative or subdued.  The animalic, smoky, spiced and civet laden creation smolders like burning embers.  The heat is there and if you get to close you’re going to get burned.  After 30 minutes, the musk comes to the forefront, adding another layer of pure sex.  Yes…this perfume is all about sex.  And as I try to find in my mind descriptors, I just end up back with “damn this is pure sex.”  In the end, Afrika-Olifant dries out to leave this layer of burning ash hinting at the power that came before but is now subtle, subdued, but still all that magnetic.

From the Nishane website:

Stimulates hidden desires… The fragrance opens with frankincense and myrrh. As animalic notes castoreum and civet settle down, leather and oud dominate the battlefield. Timid and audacious at the same time… 

TOP NOTES:  ambergris, frankincense, myrrhe, labdanum

HEART NOTES: castoreum, civet, leather, oud

BASE NOTES:  muscenone, thibetone, muscone, civetone

WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME:   As you can see from above, this perfume is all SEX.  So many images conjure in my mind, but I’ll go for the G-rated version:  the power, the leather, and the viral men of 300!

THREE ADJECTIVES THAT DESCRIBE AFRIKA-OLIFANT:  smoldering, sexy, primal

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT AFRIKA-OLIFANT: Fashion Lifestyle, Pierre de Nishapur

BOTTOM LINE: Afrika-Olifant is not an office scent and it’s not a fragrance for going on a picnic.  It is for wearing when you’re out on the prowl or if you want to create an aura of mystery.  In the end, the perfume leaves just enough of a trail to leave those around you wondering where that incredibly sexy smell is coming from.   This is my first introduction to the Nishane line, a niche brand from Istanbul, but it won’t be my last because they have some incredible varying perfumes in the line. Duft Bluhten, an beautiful magnolia and gardenia creation is the polar opposite of Afrika-Olifant, but equally as wonderful.  Actually, the pretty floral is probably more my style than this perfume which would be on my full bottle list if I was still single and needed to add a layer of testosterone to my Saturday night bar hopping wardrobe.

• Bone Rating:  4 out of possible 5 bones
• Scent:  Oriental
• Nose: Jorge Lee
• Classification:  Classified as unisex, but to me, this is completely masculine.
• Expense: $230 for 50 ml parfum extrait.  Sold exclusively at Twisted Lily in the U.S.