After the Flood

The most amazingly artful bucket of wet mud ever to be formulated and sold as perfume. Absolutely fulfills the brief and lives up to its name; sludgy, startling, and spectacular, on its own terms. But certainly not a mainstream pleaser or an easy wear! This is the smell of nature done right - and so unapologetically true to life it can be hard to compute as fragrance. Radiantly humid humus with roots and tendrils sprouting out all over, and maybe a bit of mould in the mix too - the sort of patchouli which evokes damp soil effortlessly. This does for the floodscape what Zoologist's original Bat did for caves: takes you right there, whether you dare or not. And in the right moment, it absolutely sings. (What IS the right moment, though? Maybe quiet or solitary times - not for sophisticated social gatherings or hot dates, but for those days when you really want to reconnect and get back in touch with mother earth, with your trousers rolled up to your knees or your skirt hitched up to avoid getting smirched. Honestly, this one's aura could quench a desert.) Sounds hostile, and it's definitely not trying to pretty anything up; but if you're in the mood to go squelching through real natural quagmire barefoot, it does that for your nose with extreme charisma and conviction. Apoteker Tepe's defiantly original, no-compromise character in action once more. And despite not being pretty, it has an honesty that's precious and even beautiful, if you keep an open mind. My taste doesn't run often to aquatics or greens and this is as watery and sap-heavy as it gets - and even I can appreciate it. As with Anabasis, it makes you perceive the smell of nature in a whole new way.

I definitely understand why some folks smell hints of chocolate in this fragrance because chocolate also often has sweet, milky floral notes. But to me, this fragrance is the smell of ozone, salty Pacific Northwest waves crashing against eroded rocks, foggy wet moss-covered soil. To me this is a great interpretation of the moment immediately following a heavy rain; although, I'm also severely biased as a huge fan of soil tincture fragrances. The hints of violet leaf and water lily combine with patchouli to soften this a bit and make it a tiny bit too powdery or musky for my taste, but overall I really do love and appreciate this fragrance.

Natural euphoria. After the Flood is the smell of nature's rebirth after a cleansing rain. You can smell new blooms, damp earth, fresh wind. There is a sweetness that runs through - probably from the water lily and violet leaf - that unifies the development from the first spritz to the drydown. The other notes develop and wane, as you experience being on the bank of a brook, overrun with wild growth, misty from a spring shower. This perfumer has an amazing ability to bring her vision to reality. This is so realistic that it is a concept fragrance with nothing remotely synthetic in the mix. Longevity all day, sillage moderate.

this has ruined me for other aquatic and faintly floral perfumes. on first usage, this was unpleasantly chemically to me, something underlying it almost like a doll's head, and i was faintly disappointed, but after giving it some time to age, the chemical tinge has gone down for me, and instead has this really intriguing wet, slightly bitter, faintly floral smell. astonishingly compelling in humid weather, but also suits a chill. i say it's ruined me because i can't get enough of "dark aquatic", as it describes itself, despite this not really to my knowledge being an actual perfume category. where are my dank girlies at

A deep, salty sea with inky and floral notes. In the drydown, metallic and alcoholic notes (reminiscent of industrial alcohol) also emerge. I’m not sure I pick up the mushroom note, but there is definitely a slightly dirty undertone. It feels like a late winter rain just as the flowers are about to bloom. Or an 18th-century watercolor portrait of a woman. A truly original marine scent; absolutely worth trying.

Does no one else get a heavy chocolate/cacao note right at the beginning? Not sure if that’s the soil, mushroom, and patchouli playing around or what, but it’s a heavenly robust “cacao” that I haven’t found in chocolate/cacao heavy fragrances. Lovely and complex scent. One of my faves of the Pineward/Apoteker lines.

This is SO lovely. I find that often, when perfumers use mushroom or fungal notes, they drown them with intense citrus and heavy florals. This fragrance lets the mushroom shine, while still keeping it light and fresh. Immediate and intense love.

Holladay Saltz has got a pretty unique voice. In this composition, Saltz is calling to my mind Francis Kurkdjian when he is at his best - which is unfortunately too infrequent. Kurkdjian has the ability to create shapes with his compositions, BR 540 - like it or not - is a great example (in terms of notes, Flood doesn't smell anything like BR 540, just to be clear). It's a very small genre I like to call geometric perfumes. After the Flood is one of the more interesting petrichor perfumes I've smelled in quite a while for its olfactive notes and also the shape they seem to take in the air. This perfume has a hyperboloid shape (asking forgiveness from math nerds reading this; I'm aware this is calculus, not geometry), smelling large and expansive at the top, then closes-in on its planar center very quickly, then lastly expanding again below the planar surface. Flood's opening notes of an extremely convincing water accord and mushroom accord is very striking. Watery notes are usually very iffy in the worst ways, especially when the vision calls for them to be overdosed as that usually means heaping amounts of sharp and shrieking calones get piled into the mix. Saltz has avoided this classic trap of the aquatic perfume, giving us instead of very smooth and fine mist that feels like clean, cool, standing rainwater instead of fetid blasts of swamp water. The mushroom note is beautiful, earthy and weightless. I honestly can't recall the last time - if ever - I've smelled this combination and particularly in such a convincing way. This watery expanse caves-in to an equally watery yet very tight white floral note that, before you can really register it, gives way completely to another large expanse of patchouli. Thankfully, this patchouli is not dank and peppery and abrasive. It's a clean and loamy topsoil that smells just as refreshing as it does earthy. There's one issue with this hyperboloid experience, and it's that it moves too quickly (err, rather, how flat it is). This progression of expanse, to tightness, to expanse happens in a matter of 2-3 hours, and is barely detectable on my skin at 3.5-4. If this is actually an EdP concentration, then something is wrong. Its behavior and longevity are far more akin to an EdC. For vision and originality, top marks indeed. The materials, iffy on their durability they might be, are superbly handled. I absolutely love what I'm smelling and the experience it brings my nose and mind's eye. If only I could enjoy the experience longer....

The opening is definitely where all the funk is – wet soil and decay. Very vegetal and realistic, like laying face down in the woods towards the end of spring when everything is damp and green and the plant matter is recycling itself back into the earth. Within the first few minutes the aquatic notes start to come through and, when combined with the wet decay scent, create this almost fruity note. It reminds me personally of how durian smells– kind of sweet and fruity, but in a way that’s rotten or overripe. That being said, if you hate the sound of this opening, just give the perfume a bit of time. Over the course of the first hour everything evens out into a more traditional aquatic fragrance. The water lily and violet leaf mix very pleasantly to the point where the scent becomes almost clean. Projection also goes WAY down in this time and the scent settles close to the skin. I’d say longevity on me is average but it’s hard to say for sure when the projection is so low. I went noseblind for a few hours before I could finally catch a whiff again. I tend to like challenging fragrances (especially wet, earthy ones) but given how tame the dry down is, I wouldn’t necessarily consider After the Flood to be challenging. I did really like this fragrance; but I wish that the opening lasted a bit longer or that the patchouli was strong enough to give the dry down a bit more earthiness. Other aquatic fragrances match the dry down just as well, if not better, than After the Flood even though the opening is unique.

After the Flood is meant to be a "rainy day" fragrance, and it's not quite what I imagined. It smells of wet mud, and then a rather delicate, sweet floral. It's really *very* floral; dewy fresh and swoony, in a clean modern way. It makes me think of "freesia" scents. A few minutes in I also get "damp tree trunk" or "wet moss" smell, which is quite beautiful. It's still balanced by that clean sweet "water lily" floral. And then underneath there's a chocolatey patchouli. But in the long run, the clean sweet floral wins. It's not a fashionable sort of scent these days -- it's a lot like L'Eau d'Issey -- but I do kind of like it. It's dewdrops and juicy petals and squeaky-clean innocence.

Very Unique. I got this as a few sample when ordering some pineward samples. The mushroom definitely comes through, and the soil notes were what I was looking for in the pineward scents in the first place. It's very well named, I got very little of the flower or leave notes, but just earthy rotting wood. Bonus points for not just making another citrus aquatic, or a rose and oud clone. Overall 6/10 Stillage (scents are weak on my skin) - 4/10 Longevity - 4 hours This definitely scratched an itch in what I was looking for. I just want a little bit more to soften up the earthy notes, and ideally something that lasts a bit longer. Give it a sample, do not blind buy.

Start - white chocolate smell mixed with crushed weedy stem juice and mushroom juice in a forest After a bit - dry plant juice smell, like wet dust mixed with mushroom air, with just a hint of crushed flower petal juice. Dry down - a faint sweet smell, 20% flower and 80% crushed flower petal. More wearable and interesting at this point Pretty good but too distinctive for daily wear, also comes across as a bit feminine to me. More juicy smelling than anabasis.

Well, this is some amazing alchemy - I've never smelled such a realistic earthy mushroom note. It does what it says on the bottle - it's the smell of damp soil in the woods after a thoroughly soaking rain. The mushroom is VERY strong up front and the earth notes come in later. Is it interesting? Hell yes. Is it something I want to smell on a person? Uh...in all honesty, not really. This is the smell of a place, not a living thing.

After the Flood opens with a dark very earthy note with a hint of sweetness and floral in the background. Strangely this dark earthy note fades almost entirely 45 minutes in. Leaving behind a slightly musk tinged floral scent with hints of violet and something green in it. Both parts are enjoyable but it’s a very strange 2-part fragrance. The first 45ish minutes and the rest of After the Floods life span are almost entirely opposite to each other. There are still slight hints of the earthiness that pop up occasionally but After the Flood becomes a predominantly floral fragrance. Perfomace wise After the Flood really impressed. Longevity wise it lasted almost 6 hours on my skin but only maybe 2 hours at max on my clothes. A 7/10 here. The projection wasn’t as good unfortunately, it never really became more than a skin scent. At the strongest rising maybe an inch off my skin, a 2/10. I’m really not quite sure what to make of After the Flood, to me it very much feels like two diametrically opposite fragrances combined into one. Unfortunately I find myself thinking more and more that the two parts that make After the Flood just don’t mix together, in the fragrance itself and less so scent wise. I think if the two sides had mixed together nicely if could’ve been a very interesting fragrance but without the mix After the Flood is slightly unpleasant in the opening and generally off not very enjoyable. A 3/10 overall, the idea is interesting but the balance is just to far off.

OMG this is something unholy, haunted and totally warped. i've always thought that the TRULY scary is when something beautiful is mixed with something that is not. the same with heartbreak and anything else like that. for example, dying on your way to your wedding is heartbreaking, whereas being run over by a bus when you're doing stage 4 chemo less so. okay, my examples are convoluted at the best of times, but this scent is a mix of these two; the fetid and the sublime. for me, the mix of vegetal, rotting matter and wonderful floral unnerves me. the smell of bile, faecal matter and vomit mixed in together is disgusting, but, throw in the jasmine into the mix and it becomes unholy. that's what this here is. it's moreso art than perfume. the fact that i can detect some white floral prettiness under this mess is a little offsetting. the fact that the earthy funk is muting the conventional notes throws me, and as such, this is hard to wear. it's okay to experience, but to wear is a tough ask.

Submerged green florals. I don't know what is giving this the aquatic vibes, but it's mixed with green notes, and florals, and it is SUCH a unique pairing, that I can't stop sniffing, and I GENUINELY do NOT like this! It's the kind of 'weird' I usually ask for, and when I get it, I usually respond with "Okay, not THAT weird!", but I'm glad I got it, even though I don't like it. I wish more perfumers made 'weird' scents like this -- even though I personally wouldn't go for it. I can totally get that mushroom vibe here, along with the violet leaf (which always came across as cold, mechanical and distant), but those two, paired with lily notes creates an AMAZING accord. This is a mood, I must say. A mood and a vibe, which, whilst unpleasant, does what perfume art like this is meant to do...

Not really feeling it. Up front I get a weird impression of Andes mints dipped in house paint. Then pretty quickly it settles into a not-unpleasant woodsy soil accord that sticks around for the duration. The drydown's definitely my favorite part. Not a love for me, but if uniqueness is the main thing you look for in a fragrance, this is probably worth a sample.

I like this! It's very wet and earthy. I'd say it's super wearable. It's equally fresh and earthy, reminding me of a clean elementary school hallway on a super rainy and muddy day after recess.

I think the patchouli overpowers the perfume for me. I like the earthiness but it comes off more like incense. I wanted more of the soil and mushroom notes.

super enamored by this fragrance!! but the loud squishy mushroom flavor is too prominent

I ordered the smallest bottle possible--a bit larger than your standard sample, and wore it as my only fragrance on a two-week trip through western europe in autumn. It is one of the few fragrances I have worn that received negative feedback from friends and family. My sister described it as an "old lady smell"...it didn't smell that way to me, but it is a bit cloying and carries a miasma of rotten foliage. I would not consider this a safe blind-buy, and would not buy it and wear it again. I was also told it was so strong that it lingered in the room I was staying in even days after I left. Even if you love this scent be aware that others may not. '

I appreciate this creation and it is very earthy, mushroomy, ozonic and aquatic. The realism is quite amazing, this is a talented lady who can blend her visions into a bottle. Do I want smell like this though?....not really, not like her other creations, The Peredam is beautiful and much more wearable for me as is The Holy Mountain but maybe that is just my perfume taste? I think everyone who appreciates perfume should at least test this. I couldn't get a sample being in the u.k so bought a bottle and I know I won't wear this sadly.

Disappointed by this one. Stuffy and slightly waxy sweet, like when the plastics/rubber/synthetics of the interior back seat of a hot car warm up enough to emit fumes. Can faintly sense a note of mushroom & ozone hovering above a cough-syrupy sticky flatness.

This has been another edition of "LittleDinkums Reductive Reviews." Yea we get it, you're funny. Now quit copy and pasting this on literally every review you write.

Smells like a wet rock. Kind of depressing. I might spray it to trick someone that it is raining on their patio but I would not wear it for another reason.

Moldy opening with earthy notes. Then immediately became sharp sourness on my skin. This also happened when I was sampling Le Labo Baie 19. Maybe my skin just does not work with earthy aquatic scents. Anyway for me this one is the worst of the whole line.

Mold. smells like your basement flooded while you were on holiday and returned a month or so later. i guess this may appeal to someone, but not this guy.

One of the most compelling scent openings I’ve smelled in some time. Given the notes, this should smell somewhat disgusting, or at least fashionably unwearable — but that’s not the case; its gorgeous. It’s mushroom, vetiver, and orris (according to my nose). It somehow manages to build a warm coziness into a dank, swampy feel, splitting the difference between Slumberhouse’s difficult Mare and Amouage’s Memoir Man. It’s not nearly as rancid as Mare, nor is it as mardy as Memoir Man, yet it has the same appeal as both — earthy, grounded, and atypical. The mushroom is vivid, yet folded into the blend perfectly (think crisp, white, freshly rinsed raw mushrooms). The soil accord sidesteps the predictability of geosmin, and smells more like the soil effect in Serge’s De Profundis than the petrichor that belabors many of CBIHP's releases. The whole thing is spun the color of illuminated obsidian; rich without being too dense while smelling alive and present. The tragedy is that none of this lasts, and the scent winds its way down to a respectable yet far less interesting rooty accord which is where it stays for the rest of the wear. I’m almost inclined to forgive the performance (a concentration issue, I’m guessing) because the opening was so brilliantly rendered. However, I already own bottles of the much-coveted Mare and Memoir Man, so that goopy, swampy aspect of my collection is already filled. Despite the opening’s collapse, I’d still recommend that fragrance aficionados get their nose on this just for the nose-catching, standout opening. Hopefully the brand will tweak a few things in the future to make their ideas a tad more durable, but they’ve secured my attention with this release.

Photorealistic smell of a lily pond. Stagnant water, Algae, Lilly pad on top and all. This is a magical fragrance and executed to perfection. No weird nuances, just an authentic smell of a stagnant body of water with a dose of floral water lily without any detectable notes of calone or ozone which are synthetic, inaccurate and frankly, ruin a fragrance. This is a meditative perfume. For me it reminds me precisely of a large Lily Pond in this beautiful, peaceful Asian temple we have here that is near a beach. It is a little oasis retreat, away from suburbia and the city and even though is near a highway is always silent and secluded by a bamboo wall and an oriental garden. It always has this ethereal, surreal and peaceful vibe that refreshes the soul and when i wear this i think of being there. It also reminds me of the scene in Atonement when Keira Knightly dives into that little pond/water fountain to retrieve something (forgive me, it has been a while since i've watched it). I was not in the market for a lily-pond smelling perfume but once I got my nose on this, it haunted me and eventually became part of my collection. It is one of the best photorealistic scents I have with Empty Wishes Well by Tosovat and After the rain by Solstice Scents. If you wear this in the real world, you will always feel calm and grounded, it is transportative.

I just ordered a sample from Twisted Lilly, Brooklyn NY. Will review next week. I loved the name, and I like unusual earthy fragrances. There is a very popular fragrance like this, Caron Yatogan. I laughed when I first smelled it, thinking it was unwearable, then became a favorite. The best fragrances can be very challenging at first, till we aquire a taste for them. The Perfumer who made this lives in NYC, and it's her company, and she composed her own fragrances. Good for her! OK, got my samples from Twisted Lilly who sent me a few free samples from the same house. After the flood settled to a light Oriental, it's green, fresh, herbal, balsamic, and earthy in a nice unique way, enjoyable and wearable. EL is a very nice aquatic for Summer, Holy mountain is a very realistic burnt wood smell, not like your usual incense.. "After the Flood" is a little like Yatogan, but much fresher. This has a crunchy aquatic vib, I guess from the violet leaf and water lilly. The mushroom and dirt notes make it pleasantly unique, but it's not just a gimicky fragrance. It's a classy aquatic, something like the fragrance, "Wet Wood".

I received a sample of this from a recent Pineward Perfumes order. For those unaware, Pineward will be bringing back the full line of Apopteker Tepe in the original formulation. It really does smell like damp earth, wet foliage, and atmospheric mushrooms. Thanks to a heavy dose of patchouli creating the wet almost metallic soil effect, I get a similar vibe from Le Labo - Baie 19 but this is a little lighter and less patchouli heavy? Returning to my sample I can pick out more of the violets and violet leaves bringing the florals out. A really lovely take, even if aquatic scents aren't my thing

I definitely get the petrichor in the beginning, but it's tempered with a floral laundry detergent element for the first many hours. Full dry down, I get a gorgeous watery true floral, like actual flowers in water, with still a hint of the petrichor, but the aggressively synthetic floral at the beginning sort of soured me on it. It took nearly 7 hours to get to the bit I love.

Apoteker Tepe is a great house, but unfortunately After the Flood feels like a letdown to me. It’s too simple — more like a raw accord or a perfume base than a fully realized composition. Conceptually, it doesn’t quite deliver either, because I struggle to see the supposed image of mud and flowers. To my nose, the scent mostly resembles the smell of a sandwich wrapper.

This one’s for the goths out there. It’s a graveyard fragrance. Sour earth, wet fungus, eyes filled with tears, drooping sweet lily over a pauper’s pine coffin, rain on the headstone. Ahead of the curve. Hope it gets found by the PIBs

If I focus I get all the notes listed but if I smell the aroma passingly like as I’m busy working on something it reeks of popcorn. And that really bothers me throughout the day. I hate popcorn lol

This is hard to find. It is a great aquatic. Jovoy has a frag that is 90% like this, but even better, deeper, performance. It's L'Art de la Guerre. This is also like Dsquared Wet Wood.

Smells like a golf course at the crack of dawn. 6/10 This has been another edition of "LittleDinkums Reductive Reviews."

This is a marvelous fragrance! I would love to get a bottle if anyone has one they'd like to part with :-)

It is soil with mushrooms true. It has patchouli as well & leaves. the name describes the smell so well.

no need to read any other review, this smells like ass.