When you step outside one cold winter day, a familiar scent fills your nose. You can’t explain why, but you know that it can only mean one thing: snow. No, it’s not just your imagination; the air really does smell different right before it snows. According to olfactory scientist Pamela Dalton, that unmistakable snow “scent” can be boiled down to three things: cold weather, humidity, and a stimulated nerve in your brain. As temperatures drop to freezing, the molecules in the air slow down, making certain smells less pungent. Like rain and sleet, an impending snowstorm increases the humidity in the air. And while that humidity is what causes the flakes to fall, it also boosts your olfactory system, making your nose feel warm and moist. Lastly, the scent of snow is also linked to the stimulation of your trigeminal nerve. Although it is separate from your olfactory system—and typically only interprets sensations like mint and spices—this nerve gets turned on when you breathe in cold air, too. That’s also why our brains link snow with a distinctive “scent.” The scent and appearance of snow is highly associative in Europe and Northern America: it resembles the smoky wafts from stoves and fireplaces, where coal and birch or pine wood is burning, and childhood years with the innocent, milky smells of ones body, of wet wool and winter games and sports. It most certainly smells like Christmas eve and festive delights.
You will receive a 1/2ml sample (1ml sample vial filled half full) of each of the fragrances in this sampler.
- Morari 4 a.m. Flurries Perfume Oil - You wake up in the wee hours of the morning - long before the sun is supposed to rise, but there's an ambient glow coming from your window. You pull aside the curtains, and a peaceful sight awaits you: gentle snow flurries, seeming lit up by the streetlamps. You open your window, sit on the bed, and breathe in the crisp air as the curtains flutter gently. 4 a.m. Flurries is the perfumer’s take on how coldness can be comforting - the peppermint bark accord is smooth and creamy, but undeniably cold. The orris lends an elegant powdery note, her fantasy take on snow. And the cashmere? A reminder that if you get too chilly, your comfy blankets are right there. With notes of peppermint bark, orris butter and cashmere.
- Firebird Snow & Ashes Perfume - Bracing winter air, snow clinging to branches, smoke from the wood stove carried on the bitter wind. Smoky, cold, green. Snow & Ashes is going out into the cold to collect more firewood, your breath making little clouds in the air, the muffled silence of the falling snow, damp evergreen branches dipping overhead.
- Alkemia Perfumes Dust of Snow Perfume - Fresh fallen snow falling from bare tree branches, subtle whispers of hemlock pine, galbanum, ginger, lemonwood, witch hazel flowers and damp wool.
- Lunar Life Apothecary Haute Frosty Perfume Oil - This frosty delight captures the magic of a snowy day with a playful twist. Cool, crisp notes of fresh snow and icy buttermints melt into fluffy marshmallow crème and sparkling sugar crystals. Wrap it all up in the softness of a cashmere scarf, and you’ve got a scent as enchanting as a winter wonderland. Haute Frosty features top notes of fresh snow and sugar crystals; middle notes of buttermints and marshmallow creme; and a base note of cashmere scarf.
- Bluebird Scent First Snowfall EDT - Fresh, sparkling, winter snow entices your inner child. Cool peppermint and pine needles with hints of vanilla, cedarwood and clove.
- Frankly Try This Frost Bite Perfume Oil - It's the snow of the season you have waited for. Smells like: fresh snowy winter woods, berries, citrus, balsam and smoke tinged winter gear drying in front of a holiday fire.
- Solstice Scents White Fox EDP - An elegant skin scent featuring a soft vanilla core accentuated with notes evocative of clean silky white fur. The scent of a white fox as he pads through snow laced with veins of frozen dirt. It is heavy on ethereal vanilla with traces of woody-vanilla musk. A cool subtle frozen dirt note swirls intimately through the scent, along with the carefully restrained addition of cedar and woods notes.
