Does anyone else notice that each season has a smell?
Distinct but often indescribable, the changing of the calendar is always marked with a new perfume in the air.
Summer smells hot and heady, like that first whiff of air when you step off a plane in foreign climes.
Winter smells crisp, like a strong mint wafting up your nasal passages. Spring has a strange smell. Some say it's like cut grass, or some other obvious verdant garden item, but I think it's more subtle than that. Spring smells clean – a bit like fresh washing on the line.
Autumn has a beautiful smell. One of sweet decay, as the auburn leaves turn to crumpled mush on the ground and wet buildings, after heavy rain showers, begin to dry out.
Each shift in nature's natural perfumes tends to precipitate a change in my own scent preferences.
For summer I love nothing more than a spicy headstrong scent, for spring (somewhat predictably) I opt for crisp florals and green notes.
Autumn, though, poses a scent conundrum every year. Too early to embrace the heady perfumes reminiscent of Christmas, and too cold to revel any longer in the exotic of summer, autumn brings up a series of scent-inspired questions. I normally settle for something a bit warming, a bit spiced or with a hint of fruit.
This year I'm trying to narrow the field a little and opt for an autumnal scent that fits both the season and my own romanticised view of it.
So I've picked my favourites from some of the latest perfumes on the block and assembled a list that includes both classic autumnal fruity scents and a few more modern concoctions.
These are my picks: Jo Malone Blackberry and Bay Cologne (£76 for 100ml); Illamasqua Freak (£59 for 75ml); Valentino Valentina Assoluto (£61 for 100ml); Tom Ford Cafe Rose (£135 for 50ml).
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