A Cave Best Left Unexplored

My eyes crinkled and my teeth bared when I first tried Bat. This is up there with some of the least pleasant perfumes I've ever tried. But credit where credit's due: the perfumer has done an astounding job at replicating the scent of a guano-saturated bat cave.

Dripping stalactites hang ominously from the damp ceiling; the air thick with an unnervingly photorealistic earthiness: mineralic soil, fermented fruits, and the acrid sting of animal urine. If anyone's come across guano, then you know how gross it smells.

The initial assault does subside somewhat - we leave behind the deepest abyss, and enter a chamber less caked in grime. Here, ancient animal hides cling to rocky crags, and the fruit, although far from juicy and playful, is at an earlier stage of decay.

A whisper of air filters through unseen fissures, offering the faintest reprieve, but for anyone raised in daylight, Bat is still a profoundly alienating scent.