October Beauty Sampler - Set of Seven 1/2ml Samples

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.  

1. Solstice Scents Gunnerson's Pumpkin Patch Perfume Oil - A coumarin heavy fougere with gourmand overtones. It is an atmospheric concept that features damp and cool Earthy autumn scents of leaves, dirt, raw pumpkin flesh and vines, moss, balsam and mushroom paired with coumarin-rich notes from hay, lavender and tonka bean, sweetened with a ripple of caramel and the faintest hint of spice and finally enhanced with a warm, soft, wood smoke in the distance. This scent is an interpretation of the pumpkin patch experience itself, rather than a pumpkin pie spice focused gourmand. With notes of leaves, vines, Autumn air, pumpkin flesh, lavender, moss, balsam, tonka, hay, caramel, dirt, patchouli and mushroom.
2. Nui Cobalt Appalachian Autumn Perfume Oil - An homage to the Nature Spirits. With notes of deer musk accord, campfire smoke, birch trees, angelica, ripe pears and rain. 
3. Obscura Hortus Midnight at the Seven Gables Perfume Oil - Inspired by a trip to Salem and a walk along Derby Street to the Seven Gables to wander the area between the ocean and the house. The perfumer said that if you’ve ever visited this place you know how magical it is— standing there “conceived in the grotesqueness of a Gothic fancy” as Hawthorne described. The house is dark, and even darker at night, only outlined by a few spotlights. So on this night, and in this place, a perfect October moment occurred. We stood staring up at this huge dark house against the backdrop of a black starless sky— heard the sound of the waves from the ocean in the harbor across the street, and the faint footsteps and laughter in the distance echoing. Then the wind picked up, bringing with it the dying breath of leaves, sweet candied apples, woodsmoke, and the lively scents of Essex Street. There it danced, practically punching me in the nose, mixing with the old wooden house, salty ocean, and perhaps even the ghost of Hawthorne himself— stinking of tobacco, ink, and old parchment that held the words to his timeless novel. With notes of sandalwood, warm stewed apples, an old cedar chest, the faintest hint of ocean salt mingling with forest, the sweetness of leather bound books, a fragrant cigar and October (you know that smell).
4. Moonlight Cove Finery Dead of Autumn Perfume Oil - The time of year when the sky darkens early in the evening and a deeper chill sets in. Tree trunks painted nearly black in their rain-dampened bark, splashed with the golden, burnt orange and dark red colors of dying leaves, and only the evergreens retain their verdant hue. Earthy moss regains new life and the grass is laid to rest beneath a blanket of fallen leaves. The dead of Autumn. With notes of rain, earth, wet bark, musty cedarwood, oak, pine, dead leaves, roots, soft moss, amber, spice, and hints of late harvest apple and pear. 
5. Frankly Try This Giant Pumpkin Perfume Oil - With notes of sweet spicy maple pumpkin butter spiced with sweet cinnamon sugar, garnished with a few red berries, melted caramel, aged patchouli, tobacco leaves and warm amber.
6. Frankly Try This Steamy Pumpkin Mallow Perfume Oil - Smells like a creamy pumpkin pie s’more. With strong notes of marshmallow and chocolate with the pumpkin being a creamy background note. With notes of pumpkin, chocolate, marshmallow, pumpkin, cinnamon, clove, tonka and a waft of a graham cracker cookie.
7. Sixteen92 Bad Witch Parfum - Part of the September 2024 Legacy Collection. This was originally released with the Halloween 2020 Collection. Are you a good witch or a bad witch? One could argue that there are no bad witches - only misunderstood ones. Bad Witch is a dark and woody atmospheric fragrance, reminiscent of a brisk Halloween night with the air full of chills and thrills. It features notes of honeyed tobacco leaf, black soot, stormy late fall air, cherry wood, dried golden straw bales, crunchy leaves, black spruce, ancient parchment and a puff of smoke.