When the Rain Stops

I normally try not to read reviews of a fragrance before I write my own because I don’t want the groups opinions to influence my own, but for this fragrance I couldn’t help it i was so excited to see what other people were saying and as I scrolled further and further down I began to get discouraged. Let me be the dissenting voice in the crowd to say that this fragrance does have some redeeming qualities, and I for one love it dearly. When I first splashed my dabber vial onto my arms (aren’t those just the worst, for this scent I’m choosing to overlook that) I was almost moved to tears. Something about this scent brings me back in time and it slams me down hard into a childhood memory, or experience. This to me smells like a cold rainy autumn day, you’re home from school and there’s nothing better to do (this was before TV, video games, internet) so you go outside and play in the rain. You splash and jump around, feeling the cold rain on your skin and soaking your hair and clothes. After a few minutes of this your mom calls you back inside and meets you at the door with a warm fluffy towel. You hug the towel around you tight while you peel off layers to get dry. Then she runs you a warm bubble bath, and you wash the “dirt” off of you and get sterile clean again. The dry down of this fragrance smells like the cleanliness you feel “after the rain” has stopped, but the opening, and even just so delicately peeking through the dry down there’s that wet earthy scent lingering like a phantom off of your skin, or maybe it’s just in the air. You look outside, now in your fuzzy pajamas and see foggy windows and lightning cracking across the sky, but you’re in your nice warm house, safe and sound. Notes I can detect are the wet notes, rose, oak moss and maybe just a touch of bergamot. There’s also a bit of musk underneath, a salty skin musk not unlike Lazy Sunday Morning. As a matter of fact I detect a lot of similarities between these two scents, except this is more of a Lazy Sunday Night during a thunderstorm. If you didn’t like that scent you may not like this, and vice versa. This would also explain the people who say it’s similar to Aqua Divina, although that one has a lot more salty oceanic accords going on. I am baffled at the amount of reviews and votes saying this leans masculine. When did roses, musk, and the literal scent of water become gendered? Do these things that are found in nature belong to one sex over the other? This must be a case of skin chemistry trickery that does not appear on my skin, luckily. As a woman, I’m finding it 1000000% unisex, I would laugh at anyone who smelled me and said otherwise. It’s the equivalent of standing outside in the rain and refusing to carry an umbrella because those are for women: total absurdity. Don’t let these reviews discourage you until you’ve tried it personally on your skin. And if you haven’t yet, you’re really missing out on a potential gem. I don’t care if anyone else on this entire site feels the same way I do about this scent, something in this is nostalgic and magical to me. I don’t know what sorcery Maison Margiela used to create this but it’s clear that we are on the same olfactive wavelength. I will be trying every single fragrance this house makes that I can get my nose on. And I never want to be without this scent. Love this so much it makes my heart ache (in a good way).

I’ll admit I’m pretty attached to this, my first fragrance I brought with my own money and my first fragrance that made me buy it upon smelling it for the first time. I’ll be the first to admit it’s a very “nice smelling man candle” smell and you will have smelled it before in soaps, candles and colognes - If you ever had the black candle “Midsummer night (I think?)” by Yankee candle, this is very similar. However what I love is A) that it’s so much lighter and airy and b) the projection and longevity is really good for an EDT. I get 4-5 hours with this with good projection even with my dry skin. Whilst the scent itself it’s not unique, I do think the airiness does provide its own standing in the market, most scents of this kind are much stronger or soapy. This is my favourite perfume for job interviews, presentations, work conferences, etc. A fragrance that’s fresh, professional and not cloying without fading into nothing in 20 minutes. Masculine leaning most definitely but I very much enjoy it as a woman. I think the dislike for this perfume is because it’s very true to the when the rain STOPS. You don’t smell rain, you smell fresh dewy plants which you get here with the pine and moss in my opinion being at the forefront. I do just really like it and considering I’m an iris, tonka, vanilla, coconut, honey, etc kind of girl, it’s the most different perfume in my collection (ironic considering that it is so generic.) I do feel this will sadly be discontinued due to unpopularity which is a shame because this is the only fragrance I actually like left from replica (RIP matcha meditation and lipstick on.) I wish they’d stop binning the good ones and keeping the smoky or overly floral / citrus horrors.

At first spray, I was greeted by an incredibly fresh floral note, reminiscent of the aroma when you walk into a flower shop. However, I don’t think this fragrance leans feminine at all; the floral notes feel very unisex. After about two minutes, I began to notice the water notes blending in, which made sense considering the name. That said, I didn’t sense a typical rain smell from the water; instead, it gave off a slightly salty note—think of a Sailing Day by the same house but less salty. After about 10 minutes, the middle notes developed, bringing in a green note that blended beautifully with the floral and water notes. At this point, you can detect the fresh scent of fresh and wet grass. This addition was lovely, creating a fresh and clean aroma that persisted throughout the entire wearing period. By the end, when all the notes came together, the fragrance resembled a wet, grassy field dotted with flowers. I’ll be honest: at first, the name didn’t make sense to me, but once the green notes joined the water and floral components, everything came together beautifully. Regarding performance, this one excels for a fresh Maison Margiela scent. The scent projected well for the first four hours and continued to be noticeable up until the sixth hour. After the sixth hour, it transformed into a more subtle skin scent that lasted well into the eighth hour. This fragrance has outstanding performance, particularly for spring or summer. I really like this one; for me, it feels like a combination of a Sailing Day and a Lazy Sunday Morning, but with more longevity and projection. If you’re a fan of fresh and watery scents, this one is definitely worth a try.

WtRS is not a photorealistic scent, unless interpreted with a touch of whimsy; it is perhaps a fantasy of what it might smell like when the rain stops. With barely a trace of geosmin, it is not particularly reminiscent of petrichor. Suits me fine as someone who finds beetroot repelling. If I wanted that, I’d get DS & Durga’s Steamed Rainbow which conjures up images of Cantonese steamed fish—and is equally unwearable. Personally, WtRS smells like a green elf slipping into an indulgent rose bath. It is serene, a little glowy, but still casual. It's wearable and inoffensive, but distinct enough to feel personal. No trailblazer, but a quietly feminine take on aquatic-green compositions, which often lean more traditionally masculine. I can see why the perfume gets such low ratings on Fragrantica—it falls flat when you compare the product to the concept it promises. But I’ve yet to find another aquatic perfume that wears like this on my skin or complements my personality as well. After owning 2.5 bottles, I’ve noticed that the perfume sweetens as it macerates. To my nose, WtRS opens with watery greens and transitions into a gentle, sweet rose, accented by a touch of pink peppercorn. The drydown is clean and aquatic, with a lingering rosy softness that stays close to the skin.

So this scent is called "when the rain STOPS" so why do people expect it to smell like the rain? It smells like nice clean air after a rainy summer afternoon. It's aquatic, but it also smells like wet branches and there's a vague floral ghost in there, like you would find after it rains in a nice neighborhood in Europe, where people predominantly grow flowers, not manicured lawns. It's not a question of masculine or feminine, because it's a niche concept, where scent sits beyond this division. Mainstream perfumes are yummy or flowery for girls and foresty for boys. It's the wrong paradigm here. My advice is to never blind buy niche perfume, especially not replica. They're supposed to be an experience for YOU, not crowd pleasers. I love it, by the way. It really does capture the feeling after a storm in a neighborhood where people cultivate flowers and trees, especially old trees. It's ... restful, centering. If you know what to look for, it smells like the good life, real luxury for those who know that it isn't clothes and purses, but a 2 million euros antebellum mansion in an old neighbour where life stood still before social media, where people have time to think and relax, and dream.