Zoologist — Olm
Essence
Olm is a 2025/2026 extrait de parfum by Spyros Drosopoulos for Canadian indie house Zoologist, built as an olfactory portrait of the olm, the pale, blind, cave-dwelling salamander of Slovenia’s limestone karst caves. It is a mineral-aquatic of wet limestone, briny iodine, algae and cave water over soft amber, sandalwood, oily musks, cashmeran and Iso E Super. Rather than a pretty beach aquatic, it aims to smell like the actual underground habitat: cold stone, still water and damp earth. It is among Zoologist’s most concept-forward and polarizing releases.
Scent Profile
Wearers are strikingly consistent in their read: this smells like a dark, wet, earthy cave. The opening is algae-water, wet limestone, concrete and cement, with a salty-briny iodine facet, and several noses catch an unlisted fir or pine, a spicy-green or even licorice-like top flicker that fades fast.
The middle keeps morphing for roughly the first one to two hours, with an oily, almost mineral-oil or flea-medicine facet that many remark on. It then settles into a drier, more verdant mineral-woody character, with sandalwood and amber adding texture and Iso E Super and cashmeran lending an atmospheric, slightly abstract haze. Some report an intangible sweetness underneath, reminiscent of designer fresh scents.
The drydown is the most blendable and wearable stage. Overall, Olm is an environment more than a linear pyramid, wet, cool, stony and faintly funky in an uncanny, don’t-make-eye-contact way that one widely-shared account captured well.
Performance
For a Zoologist, a line whose longevity is often criticized, Olm is repeatedly reported as a strong performer for the wearer, with several noting it still going strong at around 5 hours when other Zoologists fade, while staying in a roughly two-foot personal bubble rather than projecting loudly. As an extrait it can project with surprising clarity if oversprayed, so a light hand is advised. Specific longevity data is still limited given the small first run, but the early pattern is good longevity, intimate-to-moderate projection, and a couple of hours of morphing up front.
Wearing Context
Olm is best understood as a cool-to-mild-weather, low-light, close-quarters scent where its mineral coolness reads as atmospheric rather than loud. It is explicitly not a crowd-pleaser or office-safe compliment machine; one wearer’s mother recoiled in horror. It suits those who treat fragrance as wearable art and want an uncanny, composed presence, and several note it layers well to add funk and texture beneath more comforting scents. It is genuinely unisex, and for most it is not a summer-party or date-bait fragrance.
Comparisons & DNA
Olm’s closest in-house reference, by both wearers and Zoologist’s own framing, is the original Zoologist Bat from 2016: Olm was conceived as a kind of ode to it, and one reviewer called it the diurnal version of Bat’s olfactory world. Outside the house, comparisons are sparse given how unusual it is; one wearer linked it to St. Clair Scents Blue Marble, a 2025 Art and Olfaction finalist that shares aquatic, green and wet-soil territory while being more floral and complex. Beyond that, true comparators are thin. Olm sits in the small niche of realistic mineral and cave aquatics rather than the mainstream fresh-aquatic lane, and no designer clone exists.
Reception
Early reception is polarized but skews fascinated-positive among those who have tried it. Praise centers on a stunning, fully committed concept that smells exactly like a wet cave yet stays oddly wearable; some call it Zoologist’s best gothic scent, ahead of Moth and Bat, and a return to the brand’s daring roots. Criticism falls into three groups: that it is genuinely challenging and not very wearable, that the oily and briny facets put some off, and, loudest of all, anger at the release model. The first run was a tiny 140-bottle shadow drop with no widely available samples, which scalpers immediately flipped at extreme prices; one writer flatly said this is why such launches put them off. Another captured the surprise that what looked like a safe blind buy turned out to be one of the less safe ones. It is recommended only for adventurous, concept-driven buyers, with sampling now possible thanks to travel sizes.
Versions & Reformulation
Olm is a single composition. It first appeared as a limited 140-bottle preview in 2025, which sold out near-instantly, then was re-released into the regular line in early 2026. Founder Victor Wong stated that the limited run was a packaging matter rather than a formula test, explaining that he was running out of packaging boxes. No reformulation is documented; the 2025 and 2026 releases are the same juice, presented in Zoologist’s newer cylindrical deluxe bottle.
Acquisition Notes
Olm sits at niche-indie pricing. The current 2026 regular-line price is $200 for the 60 ml extrait, with a 10 ml travel spray at $54 and small samples available; note that the original 2025 limited run was priced at $175 for 60 ml, so older references differ. It is sold primarily direct through Zoologist and select stockists such as Bloom Perfumery in the UK, with samples and decants via splitting services. Because the first run was so small, secondhand bottles briefly commanded extreme prices before the wide 2026 re-release normalized supply, so it is best bought from Zoologist or authorized retailers now that it is back in stock. No counterfeit problem or batch decoder is documented, and it is vegan per the house.
Notable Facts & Lore
- Olm is part of Zoologist’s animal-as-character concept, with each scent built around a creature’s habitat and behavior by creative director Victor Wong.
- The olm is a real Slovenian cave amphibian, blind and nearly colorless, able to live around 100 years and survive years without food by slowing its metabolism.
- Locals historically called olms “baby dragons,” and the dragon became a symbol of Ljubljana.
- Wong has said the project began when Drosopoulos proposed a follow-up to their Koala collaboration, and Wong suggested a soup of special-effect aromachemicals that led to the cave-dwelling olm.
- The release became a talking point in the hobby for its scalper-bait limited drop.
- Zoologist’s next releases were teased as Orchid Mantis and Portuguese Man O’ War.