We all can get a nostalgic flashback when we smell the scents of autumn (leaves, campfire smoke, damp earth, mushrooms, cooked marshmallows, apple cider, pumpkin, cinnamon, etc.). Words like cozy, crackling, crisp and crunchy describe the season. It turns out there's a scientific reason that people have a smell inextricably linked to the season in their head: it's a confluence of chemistry, biology and psychology that can trigger different emotions like anxiety, sadness or excitement depending on your personal collection of memories associated with the time of year.
"In summer, we have just more of a mixture of scent and sort of a wide blend of scent ... we smell a lot more of everything around us," said Rachel Herz, a neuroscientist and author of The Scent of Desire. "When it gets cooler and drier, specific scents tend to stand out more — we're able to kind of pull out the scent of leaves, the scent of bark, the scent of grass in more distinct ways."
Beyond the man-made and commercial scents of pumpkin spice and apple pie, autumn has its own, much more natural smell. It’s the musty, earthy smell of dying and decomposing leaves blended with wet earth and maybe a bit of smoke from burning leaves. The dominant earthy smells are largely the product of plants hunkering down for the winter. Fallen leaves begin to decay and the sugars and organic compounds in the leaf break down, creating the classic musky-sweet smell of a leaf pile. Maple leaves, for example, have high contents of sugars and when decaying they release a pleasantly sweet, almost syrup-like scent.
You will receive a 1/2ml sample (1ml sample vial filled half full) of each of the fragrances in this sampler.
- Lunar Life Apothecary Irving's Hollow Perfume Oil - Venture into the autumnal world of Sleepy Hollow. Washington Irving, the master storyteller of early America, penned his legendary tale The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with the landscape of New York’s Hudson Valley as his muse. With notes of aged paper, pumpkins in the fields, dried goldenrod and sweet hay, Irving’s Hollow transports you to the writer’s world—a place where folklore and reality blur, and every breath is filled with the whispers of ghosts and legends. Perfect for those who love the nostalgic pull of autumn and the eerie allure of forgotten tales. With top notes of pumpkins in the fields and fresh goldenrod; middle notes of smoking Leaves, fresh hay and tobacco; and base notes of sweet balsam and haunted-tree sap.
- Possets Dancing With The Sprites In The Fall Rain Perfume Oil - A fabulously dry and sophisticated take on fallen leaves, wet days and overcast autumn skies. There is a hint of mushroom musk and the ozone/water scent of dank air. Overall there is a huge resemblance to lavender but it is not lavender. As a huge wood hides its secrets from you, this blend is a morpher for sure.
- Siren Song Elixirs Burning Leaves Perfume Oil – A beautiful fall fragrance of dried, windblown leaves set ablaze at dusk, creating an amber glow of embers and the sweet aroma of smoke in the evening air. It's the indescribable scent that is the herald of fall. It is an evocative, complex fragrance that combines top notes of dried leaves, charred wood and smoked sandalwood, with mid notes of toasted pecan and smoked vanilla, birch leaf and cinnamon leaf, and bottom notes of citrus, patchouli, cedar, vetiver and chrysanthemum.
- Solstice Scents Foxcroft EDP - The essence of a late-afternoon autumn day. An incredible blend of wet decaying leaves, rich black soil, dry rustling leaves, fall air, woods and chimney smoke, Foxcroft is cool air coupled with fiery red, orange and golden leaves, a sweet sharp green note, fertile wet dirt and a touch of woods laced with the intoxicating smoke from fireplaces burning throughout the countryside. It is very potent on first sniff. The smell of very wet decaying leaves on the skin will evolve into a softer and more wearable scent with dry leaves and the soft smoke and wood notes coming out. With notes of decaying leaves, rich black soil, dry leaves, fall air, woods and chimney smoke. Created as part of a collection of fragrances based on the fictional town of Foxcroft, Maine.
- Zelda's Cauldron Jack in The Grove Perfume Oil – A warm blend of nutmeg, brown sugar, pumpkin walnut muffin, dried hay, smoky incense, creamy caramel and woods.
