Summer to Fall Transitional
Fall back on some old favorites
It’s September, and while it isn’t officially autumn, the first day is looming closer, temps are dropping, and kids are back in school. So what to reach for if you’re trying to get into a fall mindset but still have the lingering warmth of summer on your back? Here are a few I’ve been reaching for during this little transitional period.
Chanel - Le Lion
Concentration: Eau de Parfum
Perfumer: Olivier Polge
Look, I love this freak. It feels so unlike Chanel, a huge departure from the sweet, airy aldehydes brought to mind with Chance or No. 5, but also very Chanel if we lean into the tweed, vintage aesthetic and the history of the brand. Le Lion is that lovely side of musty that you get in stuffy bookstores or stepping into a room that has a rug older than you. The fragrance is named after Coco Chanel’s zodiac sign and perfumer Olivier Polge (retired Chanel head perfumer Jacques Polge’s son) tried to capture less the animal and more the concept of the Chanel lion and the vision it provided the house.
The core of this fragrance, it’s pillars, are labdanum, patchouli, musk, and amber, and they hit hard. It is a rich fragrance, opulent without being overwhelming, stately without being stiff. It starts out powdery on me, but a leathery powder, the heavy air of a cobbler shop or opening an old book, the smell of the binding thrown dryly in the air by the rustling of the crisp paper. It’s a very yellowy brown fragrance, perfect to mirror the leaves of fall or the colors in a lion’s mane. After the powder dissipates, the leather sinks into the skin, the patchouli and amber creating this wonderful, earthy, lived-in aspect. There’s a warmth here too, twining together with the twinge of animalic to create a dry down reminiscent of sheep’s wool, the medicinal smell of the lanolin mixing with the gentle heat and slight funk of a living animal. Not dirty but the general smell of a mammal, the same smell you and I have, the heat of blood pumping under skin that creates oil and sweat.
The Chanel copy says the “ambery, leathery notes” are “softened” by the vanilla, but immediately calls the fragrance “carnal and refined.” I can excuse a lot of contradictory descriptions, but there is no world in which a carnal fragrance can be soft, and the vanilla does not soften anything here. This is no sweet gourmand, the vanilla is just as stern and sensual as the leather. However, don’t imagine this is a sexy, nightclub fragrance, sweaty and cruising. It is refined, the quiet but notable confidence of a lion in repose, the sort of tight refrain that Charles Dance exudes as Tywin Lannister. The kids call it aura, I think.
I won’t call this a challenging perfume, but I don’t think it’s a fragrance you can just throw on and run out the door. I feel there’s has to be a certain intention to put it on. However, the elegant, cultured powder lends an air of regality to anyone who chooses to wear it. After all, not everyone can be the king of the jungle.
Snif - Show Pony
Concentration: Eau de Toilette
I love a black tea scent for fall time. The desiccated tea leaf note saturating the air with tannins, the astringent smell pulling the moisture from your mouth, the aroma reflecting the dead leaves scudding along the ground as they fall off the trees in preparation for winter. It’s just such a nice sensory experience if you’re someone who gets really excited about semi-dreary, chilly weather and the sun going down before 6pm. Even when it’s still warm outside, a black tea fragrance makes me think of wrapping a scarf around my neck and sitting outside until my nose gets cold.
This particular black tea scent is enhanced with earthy black pepper and vetiver to create this very rich, spicy blend. It’s like if you brewed double strength Masala chai and served it with no milk. It has plum and bergamot notes on top, but I don’t get a ton of fruitiness from the scent. If you go looking for a fruit in the perfume, inhaling deeply and sifting past the tea and vetiver you’ll find a deep, jammy pit of plum preserves congealed at the bottom of the sniff. It’s a dark purple ribbon of scent, an olfactory equivalent of the getting the gooey flesh of a dried plum stuck in your teeth. Not too much sweetness and the natural flavor of the fruit has been concentrated into something rich and full.
The perfume is very linear on me, settling quickly into the earthy base and staying there for several hours. I have to be a little refrained with the amount I spray, as black tea scents in general can snowball into a migraine for me, but a little goes a long way, despite being an eau de toilette. There is sandalwood listed but don’t expect a ton of creaminess here. I don’t notice too much of it, at best it’s used to balance out how earthy and dirty the fragrance might otherwise get. The vetiver and tea combo settle down to create this plush nest of dry greenery, a big pile of sweet leaves to jump into as fall arrives.
Lush - 1000 Kisses Deep
Concentration: Eau de Parfum
Perfumer: Mark Constantine
Warm amber powder feels like lingering sunlight. I love this fragrance and every time I reach for it I remember how comfortable it is to wear, wrapping around me like a big brown sweater. It’s a labdanum and amber focused fragrance, medicinal and somewhat stuffy, with myrrh giving it even more dusty depth. The Lush website copy says that the note is “apricot-like” with a quote on Fragrantica saying that the perfumer, Mark Constantine, made “an exquisite and delicate apricot-note from osmanthus blossoms, combined with a touch of mandarin and deep resins.” If you are looking at the accord and worried it’s summertime fruity, like some apricot fragrances that lean quite candy, it’s not. The leathery labdanum makes it much more of a dried apricot, concentrated, jammy, and rich. I would use the word “vintage” to describe this fragrance before I use a word like “juicy.”
This perfume was made to represent the complexity of a long term relationship, the ease and comfort that both parties feel with each other but also the continual shifting of the accord and the surprises still to be found with one another. I find this concept to be exemplified quite nicely. After the unexpected dried apricot marriage of osmanthus, labdanum, and myrrh, the perfume dries down to classic vanilla via coumarin, creating a very familiar, warm, comforting base. Despite the “surprise” of the apricot construction, I don’t find this to be a very challenging fragrance. It’s easy and delicious to wear, simple and refined. My only complaint is that, like some Lush fragrances, it has very little longevity. The apricot accord wears away after only a couple of hours and the vanilla base is so quiet next to the skin it’s almost like I’m not wearing anything at all. However, I enjoy the opening experience of the fragrance so much, I continue to reach for the bottle anyway. A lovely warm powder to wear as days get incrementally cooler and we start to think about yellow leaves and pumpkin patches.
Overall
What can I say? Labdanum and amber roaring together in both Le Lion and 1000 Kisses Deep, dried fruits preserved in Show Pony and 1000 Kisses, I have a theme for fall fragrances and it’s dried fruits and leaves, resins, and a puff of vintage powder. These fragrances can be worn comfortably through winter’s chill as well, but since they aren’t incredibly heavy I like to wear them to ease through the gentle curve of summer to fall. I hope you try one and imagine yourself wrapped in a scarf with your hands around a mug of spiced tea or hot apple cider, bright beautiful foliage around you as autumn arrives!
If you would like to read a very thorough write up on Le Lion, the one that inspired my own trip to a Chanel boutique, please click through to Miccaeli’s article below!
