Wherever you sit on the birk-to-boot scale, Autumn’s crisp winds have blown in for a welcome change that’ll have you unzipping your underbed storage cases. While you’re wondering which width of jean is in this season, consider layering one of these recent-release fragrances.
Jump To:
Penhaligon’s – Bold Blend
Aromatic Officewear
Don’t let the name fool you: this addition to the Potions collection is a smooth and soft minty violet, which dries out to an aromatic and energising, ahem, blend. You’ve just shaken off the morning chills after fetching a spring of mint from under the cypress trees in the garden. Gentlemanly, peppery, and pleasantly zingy.
NOTES:
TOP: Peppermint, Black Pepper
MIDDLE: Violet Leaf, Clary Sage
BASE: Palo Santo, Cypress, Cypriol
Comme Des Garcons – Max Richter 01
Resins to Spice Up Your Day
Autumn fragrances can be a daring act of revealing, or hiding, what you have spritzed underneath. Keep Comme’s Max Richter 01 to yourself– it’s surprise and delight between meetings, on the bus, when reaching for your coffee. Designed after the famous composer and musician, the fragrance was modelled after his studio– polished floorboards, a just-warm piano, violin rosin. Smelling it will give you a ‘woah’ moment– it opens with a dusty but creamy ylang-ylang and develops into a warm and resinous wood.
NOTES:
TOP: Ylang-Ylang, Cumin
MIDDLE: Black Pepper, Allspice, Marigold
BASE: Graphite, Resins, Cedar, Vetiver, Patchouli
Balenciaga – Twenty Four Seven
Snug As A Vanilla Pod
If Balenciaga’s raised a few eyebrows with you over the years, you’re not alone. Their newest fragrance line hit all the marks aesthetically, and the best blended, and most wearable, is Twenty Four Seven. It’s a cotton-soft vanilla pod without any of the syrupy assets. Dependable, understated, consistent, and comforting. Well if Balenciaga does anything right it’s the element of surprise. NB: The AU site doesn’t show this product so best bet is to test and buy in-store.
NOTES:
ALL: Vanilla Absolute, Musk, Amber
Tamburins – Blue Hinoki
Musky Aquatic For A Mid-Week Dip
Take a walk on the wild side – namely, a conifer forest by a thrashing ocean. Blue Hinoki is a masterfully blended woody aquatic– not the glistening salt waters of Dolce & Gabbana or Davidoff, but a greater swell, drying to a musky driftwood. Wearable, realistic, and a nice reminder of what you’re missing come Autumn rains. Perfect for fans of Le Labo’s Another 13.
NOTES:
TOP: Bergamot, Pine, Hibiscus
MIDDLE: Aquatic Notes, Hinoki
BASE: Cedar, Driftwood, Olibanum
Roja Dove – Isola Snow
For Planning Your Winter Getaway
Maybe you’re craving winter– take a knee-deep step into fresh pow with Isola Snow. Somehow capturing the essence of drifts of fresh snow, this is a crisp, light bergamot which dries into a subtle floral pear and woody combo. Long lasting but by no means pungent.
NOTES:
TOP: Snow, Peppermint, Hedione, Bergamot
MIDDLE: Pear, Lily of the Valley, Hivernal, Rose
BASE: Musk, Ambroxan, Rhubarb, Amber Xtreme, Sandalwood, Cashmeran, Cardamom, Cypress, Orris
Maison Crivelli – Safran Secret
Something To Gatekeep
Sometimes all you want to do is go for a walk to grab an overpriced coffee. Safran Secret, a re-release of Maison Crivelli’s Ingredients 07-2012 is up for the task. With an opening of saffron that settles into spice and shaven blonde woods (think akigalawood and pine), with a “ironed shirt” vibe. Beastly in its performance but a fantastic companion for errands, and one that had me burying my nose on my wrist all day.
NOTES:
TOP: Spices
MIDDLE: Saffron
BASE: Blonde Woods
Aesop – Above Us, Steorra
To Curb Sweet Cravings
Not entirely in keeping with Aesop’s aromatic freshies, Above Us, Steorra is a spicy, resinous, sweet amber fragrance. “Steorra” is Old English for stars, said to be a nod to the “constellation” of ingredients therein. The cumin note is quite strong, and worth trying on in person (as cumin can sometimes read B.O. on some skin chemistry). For me, it’s a spiced vanilla bean, like I’ve just walked out of Gewürzhaus.
NOTES:
HEAD: Cardamom, Bergamot, Elemi
MIDDLE: Frankincense, Labdanum, Cypriol Heart
BASE: Vanilla Bean, Cinnamon, Cypriol Heart
