Fall is filled with many delightful aromas – the earthy smell of fallen leaves, cozy wood smoke, tart smell of ripe apples, warm, comforting fragrances of cinnamon-spiced apple pies, mulled cider, and roasted chestnuts. These combined scents create a harmonious symphony that captures the essence of autumn, making it a season rich in olfactory delights.
Saturday Question #185:
What Are Your Favorite Fall Scents?
What are natural aromas or smells from seasonal food and drinks that makes Autumn especially joyful? Do you like those smells as perfume notes? Do you have any perfumes with those notes? Are there any perfumes that you associate with that time of the year even though they don’t feature any fall-related notes?
My Answer
As a scent, I really like freshly fallen autumnal leaves – dry and slightly dusty rather than wet and decayed. Both the sound and the smell of crumbling leaves under my feet bring undefined nostalgic feelings. But it is not a scent I would like to either wear or have as an ambient scent in my home.
Fall aroma that found its way into my perfume wardrobe is a scent of pears. Unlike it is with many other fruits, pear note in perfumes are rarely dominant. But whatever this element contributes to perfumes, makes me like them. Looking through my database, I realized that I tried and liked at least 20 perfumes with that note (and own some of them). But one that comes to mind first is English Pear & Freesia by Jo Malone. I’ve been wearing it almost since its release in 2010, and I still enjoy it. And now I’m curious to try their new English Pear & Sweet Pea Cologne.
How about you?
Undina's Looking Glass 
Soup! Autumn smells of soup to me. Pumpkin Dahl, Butternut squash sweet potato spicy soup topped with fried chickpeas, minestrone & chicken noodle or Thai broth. Basically spicy liquid food.
Yes I want to smell spicy though not of soup!
ELDO Like This, SL Arabie & Ambre Sultan, Kalemat, Raghba, Tabu, Youth Dew etc.
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LOVE soup in Autumn Alityke. I eat it all year round but there’s something extra delicious about the smell of it cooking as the chill sets in.
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After reading Undina’s post yesterday & it being the first perishingly cold day of autumn, I made pumpkin mung dahl for dinner tonight. Going to have it with sourdough flatbreads, chicken shawarma, chutney & yoghurt. Might hunt out some baklavas or similar for pud.
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These feel like really good choices.
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Definitely diabetic friendly, other than the baklavas
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HA! Baklava is its own food group.
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I love soups! In principle, I can eat soups all year round, but in fall-winter season I especially enjoy them.
Both your SL favorites are might as well.
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Hey Undina and crew.
Fragrance wise Autumn is amber to me. I try to get through as many of my ambers as possible. LOVE it.
Portia xx
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If you had to choose one amber what would it be?
Love from one amberho to another x
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GAH! No.
There are a few I adore.
Probably Pierre Guillaume Ambre Cerulean or …..
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I enjoyed my sample of AC but never understood the name
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I just went and checked Alityke and it’s because it’s supposed to represent an airy, sunlit amber with the inclusion of lemon verbena. So the blue being the colour of the sky.
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It is still not cold enough for ambers, but I look forward to wearing them in November.
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We spend as much time as possible mountain biking in the fall. I’m not an extreme mtn biker-there’s a beautiful long stretch of trail that is based on an old railway line, so it’s either flat or one to two percent grade. Sometimes it takes us along the atlantic ocean, or perhaps a bit deeper into woods territory, with some lakes and things. It smells like leaves and fall sunlight and that slightly rotten scent of damp leaves underground, sometimes mixed with asters or apples-always with salt water in the background.
In terms of scents: this is when I start to pull out the ambers and spices. So Cuir de Russie, Coromandel, Le Lion, Filles en Aiguilles, and Daim Blond.
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So poetic! I could almost smell it!
Daim Blonde is the only perfume on your list that wouldn’t be on my, but the rest are all my favorites.
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I’m with Portia – all about amber in the fall. My most worn fall perfume is SJP Stash; mostly because I have associated it with football over the last several years. But I rotate through everything even remotely ambery (and warm/spicy) all fall.
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I look forward to SJP Stash oil in my shower (and I’ll be wearing perfume as well) – as soon as it gets cooler here.
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Spices and ambers for me, too. Fall and winter are also the time for rich rose fragrances that are often too heavy for warmer months.
Lutens Chergui, Lutens Gigembre, Lutens Encens et Lavande, Frapin “If”, Cabanel Barkhane, Hermes Ambre Narguile, Jo Malone ginger biscuit, Keiko Mecheri Damascena and Attar de Roses. Finally, a new lovely, Dusita’s Rosarine, a lovely spicy rose fragrance with great longevity and projection on my skin.
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If you like spices and ambers, Laura Mercier’s Minuit Enchante is gorgeous.
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I also like heavy roses in cooler weather. I usually start wearing them before the weather gets cool enough for ambers.
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Fall scents are among my favorites, I love the lighter version of Fendi’s Theorema, Esprit d’ete, Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan or Shiseido’s Feminite du Bois, Gucci’s L’ Arte di Gucci edp (more oriental), Gucci III, and Chanel’s Coromandel. Halston Couture (bone dry woody/chypre) is a long time love as well. It blooms nicely in cool, crisp air. Sikkim, from Lancome’s Sikkim (mossy/green/chypre). Knowing, Niki de St Phalle, and Safari are also beloved green chypres for Fall.
Another scent that I think is wonderful for Fall, is Sonoma Scent Studio’s Jour Ensoleille-an absolutely beautiful golden chypre-it has a warm vibe that practically sings in our Northern California Fall weather (Millbrae).
I’ve taken to wearing Bandit more in Summer but the galbanum is also perfect for Fall, as is vintage Magie Noire (a life long fave.).
After reading this, I’ve realized I so fickle, I can’t really ever have a top Fall scent, but more like top 15 list!
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That’s a good list of favorites, and it looks like most of them are not current releases/formulations. I’m curious: is it true just for fall and winter seasons, or do you wear vintage or older releases perfumes all year round?
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The majority are vintage (Shiseido’s Murasaki, Feminite du Bois extrait and AG’s Eau de Camille are lovely in Summer heat) that I wear year-round.
For some reason, the newer releases don’t work on me, they fall apart on my skin or give me really bad headaches. It may be that my skin is much drier and sensitive… (I’m guessing). So for the most part, I stick with what I already love. They work on my skin and I don’t get ill wearing them.
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I’m with smokeytoes on the strong greens that work for me in the fall; I’d add Silences to the list. I love Ambre des Merveilles in the fall too. EL’s Azurée and Clinique Aromatics are good for the season. I like carnation scents in the fall too, as they are often spicy; LAP’s Oeillet Sauvage is a fave, and SL’s Vitriol d’Oeillet. Adam Levine for Her is great in the fall, to add another bargain beauty to MMKinPA’s Stash. Dark roses — yes please! I’ll have to try Rosarine.
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I’m with you on Azuree and Aromatics Elixir. They have that beautiful herbal/moss vibe that’s great for cool mornings and warmer afternoons.
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Love Adam Levine, cheap as chips as well…I also wear Stash and tabu
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The crisp air and associated dry leafy smells. Fragrance wise, I gravitate toward the leather and ambery ones but can be pretty fickle as well…
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I should start wearing those several leathers that I own and enjoy: for me, those are not winter perfumes, so I should probably wear them now before it’s too cold.
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Great question! For what it’s worth, I don’t necessarily categorize perfumes by season as this would be too much for treating perfumista-ing as “work”. In any case, I tend to wear more resinous perfumes in the fall but they are also candidates for other seasons.
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When I was thinking about this question, for some reason, from you I expected “pumpkin latte.” I didn’t ask to categorize perfumes: I was asking about fall smells – those that naturally belong to that time of the year, regardless of any categorizations. And then, as a continuation, was a question about perfumes that fit those smells. Clearly, I need to work on my ability to explain a question in the post instead of comments :)
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I don’t majorly classify scents by seasons, but I am finding myself increasingly drawn to woody and resinous scents, including the “furry animalic” kind. Also spicy and peppery fragrances – nearly drained FM Noir Epices the other day, and was lamenting my lack of Le Labo Poivre 23.
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I do need to work on my questions: too many respondents didn’t get what I was asking. For example, fallen or burning leaves or ripen pears do not have to be classified by a season – those smells naturally happen during that season. So, the idea was to 1) identify a fall smell you like; 2) see if there are any perfumes that smell like that.
I think I still have a couple of ml in my decant of Poivre 23, but since I bought it for my vSO, I don’t remember how it smells. I need to refresh my memory.
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Fall is the time when I start wearing sweeter and spicier perfumes. My latest love is Supergloss by Costume National, also Cuir Cuba by Patricia de Nicolai.
Soft leather and woody perfumes also fit in the atmosphere so well: Feminite du Bois, Bottega Veneta in all variations, Bois Belize by Patricia de Nicolai, Ramon Monegal’s Mon Cuir.
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I need to get out all of my leathers: I neglected most of them during warmer months. Leather (as in leather jackets) is one of the favorite Fall smells for me.
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