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.
- Nui Cobalt Corn Maze Perfume Oil - The warm, golden scent of sweet corn, hay bales, toasted oats, homemade caramel and a distant memory of woodsmoke.
- Paranormal Perfumes Autumn Aura Perfume Oil - This morbidly beautiful creation was inspired by the aromatic and awe-inspiring magic of Autumn. Base notes of spiced apples and mulled berries are reminiscent of hot apple cider and fall pastries. Middle notes of cinnamon and star anise add a special October spice. Top notes of brown sugar add just a hint of sweetness to this fragrance.
- Obscura Hortus The Autumn People Perfume Oil - Inspired by Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, the strangeness of its characters, and the sheer mystery of autumn; the beauty in foreboding and death, comfort in the unknown, and bewitching tales whispered into the breeze. Autumn is a season of inspiration, constant wonder, and a feeling of contentment for the autumn person. The scent opens with the strong scent of disturbed earth, moss, and spice as though Mr. Dark and his horrible carnival clawed their way out through the forest floor. Ancient frankincense and amber create a strange fog that billows from the midnight steam engine. It mixes with hints of sweet apples, pumpkins and black tea that hover in the atmosphere around the sleepy autumn town. The presence of dark patchouli and vanilla lingers in the shadows with the dust witch.
- Moonlight Cove Finery One Dark Autumn Evening Perfume Oil - Misty light paints a dark sky with a soft, almost eerie amber glow behind the black silhouette of trees shedding their last leaves, while the cold wind whips them about and sends them dancing down the street. You can hear them rustling and crunching beneath your feet as you walk. The air smells faintly of an earthy sweetness, mixed with the scent of wood - firewood and a whisper of evergreen - and a waft of spice. You walk more briskly, longing to get inside to warmth. With notes of red cedarwood, juniper berry, orange peel, cloves, cinnamon bark, plum, fig, spiced pear, amber, vanilla, a hint of earth, seasoned pine, cocoa and woodsmoke.
- Frankly Try This Flying Broomsticks Perfume Oil - With notes of spicy cinnamon broomsticks, crushed almonds, caramel glaze, sweet pumpkin pulp, buttered vanilla beans, sugared tonka beans, sandalwood and patchouli.
- Frankly Try This Pumpkin Trot Perfume Oil - With notes of seasonal spice mix, creamy pumpkin batter, dark berries, butter pecans, crushed tonka beans, sugared vanilla bean, a spoonful of chocolate chips, cedarwood and dark musk.
- Lovesick Witchery Haunted Hayride Perfume Oil - A small town haunted hayride. An old tractor pulling an even older wooden cart that creaks with every dip in the forest trail. Seats fashioned out of bales of scratchy hay. After the ride, you're offered to-go cups of hazelnut hot cocoa and paper plates of homemade donuts rolled in cinnamon and sugar. A sweet, nostalgic blend of hazelnut, hot cocoa, cinnamon sugar donuts, brown sugar, maple syrup, creaky old wood and hay bales.
