Scent Descriptions · 13
Apoteker Tepe
The Apothecary on the Hill
00
Introduction
The founder of Apoteker Tepe, Holladay Penick Saltz, is a really cool lady who has a very impressive CV when it comes to the creative field. In 2018, the whole project was relinquished by Holladay, and in 2022 it was taken over by the creative behind Pineward. From the information on their website, the two still work together on the Apoteker Tepe project together.
In my opinion, Apoteker Tepe is proof that two minds is better than one, given just how much the house has accomplished after the acquisition, retaining its original DNA while building on it through the experience of the new owner. I can definitely say that the older fragrances (when the brand was truly owned by Holladay) were slightly different compared to the more recent releases, but in a sense that they could have benefited from the creative who practically owns the scene of oleoresins. I think Kogen is a perfect example of that.
Asides from ownership and such, this house amazes me, by just how naturally it does things. Asides from Pale Fire, everything from this house is noteworthy to a high degree; some more, some less, but this is stuff that sticks with you even if you have smelled similar things before. I think it accomplishes its vision of providing a window into the process of high quality and uniquely sourced materials done well. It captures nature and pine from a generally unique perspective – all the while staying true to being uncomplicated and achieving something in as little complexity as possible. While that may not be true for the actual process of creation – I have no way of knowing that – that is what it feels like, having smelled all of Apoteker Tepe.
Safe to say, I like them. Well done guys!
Finally, here I would also like to point you in the direction of Scentorium, a retailer who I got my samples from, including the difficult to get Brother Night. He was the source of my Pineward sample sets as well.
01 Kogen 2024, after 2018
Top
This smells like the underbrush. I imagine if you lifted some ferns near the ground of a spring forest then this is what it would smell like. It is slightly herbal and green, with a little natural wetness to it. I can kind of tell there is incense in this, or maybe smoke, but it doesn’t feel too overpowering. It also is definitely piney, and has those pine notes from the fallen thistles of the forest floor. Really, it does smell like “beneath the ferns.” I think that’s a pretty on-the-nose description.
Top-Mid
As it goes from late top to middle, it becomes sweeter. Notably sweeter. I think the smell of “under the fern” persists, but if it gets overshadowed by the sweetness, then it will lose that character and turn into a pretty well made handmade shampoo.
Mid
Well, I was kind of wrong about the shampoo, but it is really sweet. Imagine springwater had sugar in it (maybe it was from Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory), then this is what it would look or taste like. There is herbal freshness, ferns, some pine, maybe woods, and a lot of nature overall, but also this sweetness that does not compete with said nature, but rather combines with it in a quite natural way. That is quite surprising, I cannot lie.
The pine does get quite strong in this phase of the perfume, but then again starts fading away.
Dry Down
10 hours after spraying, this has a very oleoresinous character, with pine and some incense being the main components of the smell. It is a really really good dark(ish) forest smell now, and I think that this now has quite a lot of that Pineward DNA peeking through. I do mean that in a good way though, because I do not think there is any specific Pineward that comes to mind to compare this to. It smells like a dense evergreen forest during the winter, when there is no snow nor rain, and it is just abhorrently cold.
I really like this.
02 The Holy Mountain 2015, before 2018
Top
Airy, but quite woody. I think there is a combination of incense and pine, as well as an undertone of something sweet. I honestly think this is a less whole version of Fille en Aiguilles by Serge Lutens. Maybe the only difference other than this being “thinner” and having less of the whole is that this is colder at the top; it does not feel as warm spicy as Fille en Aiguilles.
This is like the smell of pine you might catch when it’s stormy outside and the particles of smell are just more aroused in the air, and so the smell is wafted to you from a pine forest that is relatively far away; and unless it was stormy and slightly cold, you would not have been able to smell it.
Mid to Dry Down
As this develops; I can see more of what I said above be true: this is like Fille en Aiguilles, but you know what? it isn’t a copy, and it isn’t a worse version of it. FeA is as strong as a perfume of that DNA gets, and this is a thinned out and more palpable, version of that. It is also not incorrect to say that this is more true to the pine character, as a result of there being less competition between the ingredients. In fact, the pine does even become a little harsh at some point.
On the very late mid or dry down, it just loses more and more of the incense, and then turns lighter and lighter. This is literally a powerpoint transition of “fade out” if done in a fragrance.
03 Brother Night 2022, after 2018
Top
From the very beginning this is a wonderful iteration of a wet smoke profile. The very first few seconds are as strong as a forest fire in the rain happening just a few meters from your nose, but then after some initial stabilization, it turns way more palpable, somewhat sweet, and somewhat floral (?) smoke.
I’m becoming a huge fan of this, because it feels it has a character unlike most wet smokes. If I were to compare this to something like Parfumum Roma’s Fumidis (if memory serves), then this has definitely a way fuller and more holistic character. This feels like an expanded version of the simple and many-times-overdone wet smoke. I can smell flowers; I can smell some incense; I can smell more than smoke.
In the late top part, it does start to lose that density even more and the florals become more and more apparent. This is really wonderful. 10/10 so far.
Mid
This maintains the character of being wet smoke with florals; and develops really slowly. At about 30 minutes in though, I find that it is leaning a little too much and too classically into the wet smoke character. This is something I was worried about, because so far any perfume that explored this character fell into the same hole of smelling like nothing but wet smoke, but alas: we will see.
Mid 2
There is less of the smoke, and more incense. It feels like a unique incense though, slightly different than other ones. I can’t quite put my finger on why though.
It really does smell like burnt flowers now. In a sad sort of way.
Dry Down
At this point, the smoke is still present, the incense isn’t, the florals aren’t, and it feels just kind of like wet smoke. One thing I would say however to differentiate it from other fragrances of this DNA is that this is lighter, and definitely not as dense. With the other fragrances, they are very much close to smelling like a wet cigarette tray, but this, this smells like a river with burnt debris in it after a fire near it. I quite like this over others (at the time of writing this and one Adi Ale Van are the only exceptions to a good fragrance of this DNA).
04 Karasu 2016, before 2018
Top
This smells like some pharmaceutical made from one specific herb and I cannot put my finger on which herb it is. This smell feels like it has healing properties, and I would fully believe that if I saw a white paste that is claimed to heal all wounds when applied by some traditional medicine or village medicine shaman or whatever, and it smelled like this, then it would absolutely heal me. It is strong and decisive. “Decisive” is a weird word to use to describe perfume I feel but truly that is what you get: a perfume with a single character and apparently not wanting to diverge the least bit from it (impression I get from the top note only; this is subject to change later ofc).
If I were to assign notes to this; something powdery like orris root or maybe violet? I cannot tell because there the powderiness is slightly sweet, but a like paper that had lactose free milk spilled on it. I don’t know how else to describe it. Deal with it dear reader.
Mid
Smells like an old medicine cabinet that would house throat strips and lozenges that would smell powdery and sweet; probably somewhere in eastern Europe during the cold war. I can practically smell this being a smell common to every household in a country under communist rule. This is the type of stuff that your grandma would claim will help your sore throat; stuff that I am 99% sure was unregulated and contained at least 5 different carcinogens per lozenge.
Dry Down
In the dry down, this surprisingly smells similar to the dry down of some of the Middle Eastern perfumes, the ones that have oud and a lot of ambers in them. It is a sharp and deep and slightly dark smell. I can tell it isn’t exactly 1:1, but more herbal and less dense, but the character is the same pretty much.
05 The Peradam 2015, before 2018
Top
This smells of something I have smelled in real life and as of writing this I cannot for the life of me remember what.
It smells wonderfully of orris and white florals. It is jasmine-y rather than tuberose-y and it does have a very smooth overall character. It is quite a pleasure to smell. The vibe I get from this is like a 1950s lady of aristocratic heritage, dressed in all white with perfumed skin, somewhere in the manor of her house.
Mid
This continues down the path of orris root and jasmine whilst being sweet. I can see this as being a lipstick or something along the lines of the latter. It is really really wonderful, and I think a head turner, in that it is unique, and super wearable. I myself am a huge fan of this. 10/10.
Dry Down
It is still the same character. More or less the same description as above will apply.
NOTE: this is NOT a linear fragrance. It does have the same character but develops in a way that change the concentrations of this. On the skin, I imagine this to be even more emphasized. Sometimes it’s the jasmine doing a lot of the work, while other times it is the orris. It is also milky and powdery both at the same time (maybe orris butter was used in combination with orris, albeit definitely not as much as in something like My Doll’s Makeup by Ataraxia or Vintage Memoir by Grande Parfums), and these two qualities also change throughout the life of this fragrance (I feel generally speaking from powdery to milky).
06 Pale Fire 2016, before 2018
Top
Such a cool name, and it does not smell like fire in any capacity whatsoever. It smells of cocoa and whiskey, and is kinda just a sweet and ambery perfume. Not much to say about the top honestly. It comes off a little synthetic from a gourmand perspective.
If I can say, this feels like a notably worse Ore by Slumberhouse.
Mid and Dry down
Just ambers here. Any and all other things were lost.
I honestly do not know what this perfume is, it does not fit into the Apoteker Tepe line, it does not come close to any of the others, and it just does not feel like it has any of the DNA present in the other Apoteker Tepes. This is a weird one.
07 Anabasis 2015, before 2018
Top
Pine, mint and citrus. This does feel like a pharmacy product (though quite differently from Karasu). The mint really predominates, and is quite harsh – an effect I suspect to be amplified by the pine facets. Also not much more to say about this. If sasquatch had a toothpaste, this is what I imagine it to smell like.
Mid
Still the same in the mid, albeit a lot more refined. It smells like a nice mint and citruses and pine combination. There is not much to say, it is good. Not spectacular, but pretty good.
Dry Down
This now smells like some green plant with spiky leaves and a green/herbal smell. It also smells like mint without the trigeminal activation (there is some of it left, but nothing compared to earlier). There is a little powdery character to this too. It smells like chewing gum that you put in your mouth, chewed once, and then took it out and left it out for a good 3 days before smelling it. (I am not talking from experience btw)
08 After the Flood 2015, before 2018
This is the perfume that I was most excited to smell from this house.
Top
This starts off quite unique as far as water-themed perfumes go: it is herbal and airy, and smells like a strong and moist wind carrying parts of some faraway disaster with it, like the smell of what could be broken trees, upturned soil and smashed concrete. I can tell that there is some ambrocinide, but it is NOT overwhelming in any capacity. There are notes of earthiness, and slight powder too. Maybe florals too.
I could also interpret this as being a naturally occurring smell of a fougère, where it ticks off a lot of the characteristics of being one, without actually smelling like the classical French lavender-based thing. It smells fresh and almost barbershoppy, but more so like a hermit barber, or even a personified animal barber (or idk).
Mid
This does start turning sweet, and not in a rancid or discomforting way, rather a quite nice and airy and expected way. I admit I am not the biggest fan of this: I was hoping it would really start smelling like the rot of nature and infrastructure alike after a flood, but this is what we get.
When the mid develops fully (about 30 minutes in I think), it is sweet, and it is super on theme. Despite my hopes of it going in the slightly morbid direction, this turns into a very sunshine with a lot of water and blurry vision fragrance. I imagine this is what a butterfly must smell while flying through rain from flower to flower; combining the smell of sweet pollen with the wet earth and wet atmosphere.
The fougère thing I said about After the Flood in the top still applies in my opinion, albeit less so given the sweetness.
Later on in the middle, the sweetness does die down a little.
Dry Down
This settles really nicely. I now do see this being the smell of an aftermath of a flood. There is smoke, a little bit of rot (coming from ambrocinide), and some of the aromatics. Something I particularly like is the ambrocinide character actually, because that is normally very very pungent, but here it plays the role of unease. Really nicely done!