The Death of Autumn

[talula_fairie]

Dark amber, dead leaves, khus, saffron, bitter clove, chrysanthemum, camellia, galangal, and a drop of oud.

Starts off as dead leaves mixed with a dark floral. As it dries, the amber comes out and it becomes a soft, smoky scent. Yum.

ETA: Just have to say, the more I wear this, the more I love it. It is so evocative of autumn leaves that I am plauged with memories of playing in ivy as a little girl, and chasing my own kids through it as an adult.

And then, the drydown is sexy and smoky and dark, which is everything I look for in a perfume. It's wearable...it's just ME. Another instant favorite. 5/5

[DifferentDances]

Bottle: Dead leaves, ozone, and saffron spice.

Wet: Dead, damp, mushy leaves.

Drydown: There's a throw of soggy, cold tea leaves. Burnt coffee?

Dry: This is a bit of a disappointment - the scent reminds me of our coffee maker after it's been used for making coffee and then tea. There IS a creamy, beautiful scent interlaced with the tea/coffee, but my nose keeps fixating on the tea/coffee remnants. BAH.

 

My rating: 2/5

[Lyzz13]

In Bottle: Wet, green, with tons of mast.

 

 

 

Wet on skin: This is what forests should smell like. Chrysanthemum peeks through, but this is still strong on the vetiver and leaves. 5 minutes in, the amber shows up, making this more powdery and perfumey.

 

 

 

Drydown: This one is a serious morpher. It starts off with the forest smell, but burns down to spicy amber with oud after a few hours. It's also has a serious lasting power. I still smell it on my wrist the morning after.

 

 

 

Similar: n/a

 

 

 

Final Verdict: It's really strong to start off with, but I'm in love with the drydown. I can't really see myself wearing it on a regular basis though.

[zmulls]

I was given a half-decant at a Meet-and-Sniff and tested it today. It's heady. When it went on I was in love with the autumn spices, but in mere moments there was something offputting and sharp, and moments later *that* disappeared. It's certainly a morpher as noted above.

 

It settled into a pungent and redolent scent, not unpleasant but not too sweet or cloying, with a little decay mixed in. It was very, very interesting. Ultimately, this isn't going on my "want a bottle" list (and too bad, as there are a few bottles on sale in the For Sale forum), but I liked it a lot.

[Juushika]

In the vial: The dark scent of leaf litter and smoke.

 

On me: Resins and saffron come out on application, followed by smoke and clove—and then dead leaves, and a touch of floral. It's a spicy, dark, organic scent, cloves and leaf litter, warm and smoky, with something almost citric, golden and sweet, at its heart. The citric/floral note makes for a more wearable scent, and well compliments the clove, but it also makes The Death of Autumn less deep and dark than it original appears, which is a little disappointing. After a few hours the scent grows more traditionally dark sweet autumnal BPAL: the cloves fade and there's a boozy wetness, dark and resinous and sweet; it's lovely, but not nearly as unique. Scent-color is golden brown. Throw is moderate high, and wear length is long.

 

Verdict: The Death of Autumn goes on as a thing of beauty, a dark walk in an autumn forest, resinous and organic, smoky and spicy—but it loses itself along the way. The golden heat it develops is lovely, but not as dark and bold as its earlier stages; the resinous sweetness it has near the end is pretty traditional BPAL, dark and palatable, but familiar. Its not a bad scent on the whole, but I'm sad to see it morph. Still I think I'll keep it, and try to adjust my expectations to enjoy the bulk of the scent rather than mourning the loss of its drydown.

[ladyflash]

Prologue: I purchased a bottle from a forum sale. The description sounded beautiful; definitely something I've not experienced, living in the desert. All this dead leaves business is foreign to me.

 

Intro: In the bottle, it is super earthy, yet sharp. I hope this sharpness goes away.

 

Exposition: I applied this to my chest & the back of my neck before I left for work. Pretty strong throw! Seems like the sillage was pretty good, too: the BF asked me what I was wearing, and mentioned that he liked it. I could smell musky, dark amber goodness all day. The sharpness either comes from the clove (which I could smell) or the saffron (which I couldn't really smell). It lasted almost all day; after 6 or so hours, I could still get whiffs of it. By the time I left work, it was mostly gone. I'm not too familiar with most of the notes in this; I had to look most of them up to understand them all.

 

Epilogue: This was a total sleeper hit! I love this! Got a compliment from the BF when I wore this, so that's also a plus!

[voodoocatwoman]

This definitely smelled like a woods in autumn as the leaves fall and the air turns crisp. Unfortunately, it turned into something so incredibly heavy and overpowering that I had to wash it off because it was invading my nostrils and making it difficult to breathe.

[phoenix1558]

Sadly, I never appreciated The Death of Autumn, until now, when the bottle is almost finished. I've got a wee bit left, and I plan to revel in it for its few remaining days. In earlier times, it smelt of smokey burnt leaves and something dead like. Now it's gloriously filled with a brief a hint of leaves then full on amber and clove. Maybe it's just that these are the last scents left alive in a very old bottle. But their rich, darkly sweet, revelries righteously call forth the time of the season as Fall moves into Thanksgiving and beyond. Swirling leaves, early nights, apple spices, and cloves kindly offering their scent in a potpourri. It's taken me years, but now I see its glorious late season beauty.

[Lucchesa]

I have what must now be a decade-old decant of Death of Autumn. It's very evocative of late autumn. At first I get amber and dead leaves, which is a note that always has a hint of high-end perfume to me. Then there's a little smokiness from the vetiver and saffron, and I can definitely smell the chrysanthemum. Chysanthemums smell kind of weird, a little musty, and that blends with the other notes and with a touch of spice which must be the clove. Foul weather, crunchy leaves, dark forests going dormant for the winter -- I don't love it as much as I love Samhain, but it is very nice.