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Autumn Light Perfume
After the summer pageant of odors, sounds and sights, Autumn arrives with her own unique gifts to cherish in the heart. The grand cycles of nature are always beckoning to us to slow down and pace our lives so that we can realize that we are participants in a grand mystery that gradually unravels itself to the patient and kindly heart. Autumn with the cooler temperatures, the long slant of the sun's light, the refulgent colors of the leaves of the deciduous trees, the rich odors wafting in the cooler air-encourage one to approach life with a gentle, clear reverence so that some of the deeper treasures hidden within can emerge and become part of one's life.
I thought it might be a fine exercise to locate some of the quotes on the scents of Autumn and also try to create a perfume that would in some way reflect the spirit of the season. My attempts to capture different aromatic themes in a perfume are only meant to encourage others to purse their own unique perfume visions, whatever they might be. There are countless approaches to this fragrant domain with ample room for each and every person to explore. Such endeavors are themselves part of the experience of learning to observe life with care and concentration because whenever we become an active participant in a creative process our whole approach changes as we need to personally observe the cause and effect nature of what we are doing. Such simple home activities can provide many hours of quiet entertainment, the end result being a creation that is often a personal delight and perhaps one that is enjoyed by others as well.
Autumn in Literature
Literature is a wonderful source of inspiration for perfume creation as often, writers have captured delicate feelings in word that give insights into gentle realms of beauty that are universal in nature.
"
Outside, a high wind was driving the fallen leaves in swirls and eddies, and as Abel crossed the road to the mill, he smelt the sharp autumn scent of the rotting mold under the trees. Frost still sparkled on the bright green grasses that had overgrown the mill mill-race, and the poplar log over the stream was as wet as though the dancing shallows had skimmed it. Over the motionless wheel the sycamore shed its broad yellow leaves into the brook, where they fluttered downward with a noise that was like the wind in the tree tops."
--from The Miller of Old Church
By Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow
"
For the first moments Startsev was struck now by what he saw for the first time in his life, and that he would probably never see again; a world not like anything else, a world in which the moonlight was as soft and beautiful , as though slumbering here in its cradle, where there was no life, none whatever; but in every dark poplar, in every tomb, there was felt the presence of mystery that promised a life peaceful, beautiful, eternal. The stones and faded flowers, together with the autumn scent of the leaves, all told of forgiveness, melancholy, and peace."
--from The Lady with the Dog
By Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
"The tapping of walnut boughs against the window roused him.The trees, huge and old, were planted to close to the house; in summer their thick foliage shut out air and sunshine; and on winter nights the soughing of their branches was like a perpetual mona. Francoise had often wished these sombre giants further away for the children's sake; but she had never suggested cutting them down; she knew to well how dear they were to her husband. They were bound up with the earliest memories of his babyhood, and every twig of them was sacred.
Now the tapping on the glass seemed to him a friendly hand. He rose and opened the window, and pulled off a few great yellow leaves and crushed them against his face. Though it was late autumn, their scent still lingered; to him the dearest scent of the earth."
An Interrupted Friendship
By Ethel Lillian Voynich
"September and October are very lovely months in Polchester; autumn seems to come there with a greater warmth and richness than it does elsewhere. Along all reaches of of the Pol, right down to the sea, the leaves of the woods hung with a riotous magnificences that is glorious in its recklessness. The water of the silent river are so still, so glassy, that the banks of old and flaming red are reflected in all their richest color down into the very heart of the stream, and it is only when a fish jumps or a twig falls from the overhanging trees that the mirror is broken and the colours flash into ripples and shadows of white and gray. The utter silence of all this world makes the Cathedral town sleepy, sluggish, forgotten by all men. As the autumn cones it seems to drowse away into winter to the tune of the Cathedral bells, to the scent of its burning leaves and the soft steps of the Canons and clergy."
-- from Jeremy
By Hugh Walpole
"The reed-warbler, which make up in Wales for the absence of the nightingale, was trilling in the willows, and a softly churring goat-sucker would occasionally glide past as silently as the moth which it was chasing. The lights of distance farmhouses shone in the hillsides like stars, and the smell of burning peat hung in the night air. The air was the air of summer, yet there was that indescribable something in it that reminded one of the first touch of autumn. Softly in the dark, quiet night the dew laid a refreshing hand upon the leaves and flowers to preserve them yet a little while longer; but nevertheless there was the autumn scent which told one only too plainly that the drooping harebells and half-blown foxgloves would in the morning be covered by a glistening network of 'dew-strung gossamer.' "
--from Longman's Magazine
By Charles James Longman
"The two picturesque beings were treading the sandy road, absorbed in the childish pleasure of hearing their footsteps sounding together, pleased that the same spring-like rays of sunlight should envelop them both, glad to breathe the same air with the autumn scent of fallen leaves in it, which seemed to be a nourishment brought by the breeze for the sentimental melancholy of their growing love."
--from The Works of Honoré de Balzac
By Honoré de Balzac
"Jenny and I have been out driving all this lovely afternoon. It was unspeakably beautiful,--the trees with their rich and softened color, the river and every pond as still as a mirror, reflecting all their glowing banks in a shimmer which was almost fairy-like; hills fading away into the tender sky so that it was hard to catch the outline; apple trees bending to the very ground with their lovely fruit; great golden pumpkins scattered over the corn-fields or gathered in great piles about the little farmhouses; children gathering apples and chestnuts; corn in bending sheaves, like graceful old ladies; blue jays an crows calling through the woods, and the little gray birds fluttering so softly through the bushes by the roadsides; here and there an exquisite branch of purple aster; and over all the warm autumn haze, transfiguring every unsightly thing, air laden with autumn perfume,--all making it bliss to live and move and have one's being on this fair earth!"
--from Reminiscences and Letters of Caroline C. Briggs
By Caroline Clapp Briggs
"September's goldenrod yellowed the grasses along the Sedge county roads. Thistledown floated airily across the browning fields, and the fine gossamer of cobwebs laced the air. The first frost had just pinched the maples with red here and there, and there was the scent of burning stubble, and that indefinable autumn perfume which draws a sweetly gentle sadness in its wake."
--from Virginia's Inheritance
By Cooke Don-Carlos
"...They all sat on idly content in the sweet, lengthening shadows of the autumn afternoon, while the air cooled, and in the long shafts of reddening sunlight, through oaks and eucalyptus, bees shot to and fro, and little clouds of black flies wove and circled. The odours of tarweed, of grapes, of the small dusty apples, came pleasantly across the dilapidated old garden."
--from Certain People of Importance
By Kathleen Thompson Norris
"It was charming to kneel there in the warm October sunlight, at the edge of the rustling wood, pounding away the prickly husks from the brown, smooth chestnuts. A fresh, pleasant scent rose from the bruised hulls. The breath of the autumn wood was keenly sweet. It smelt of wild grapes and mushrooms. From a filed close by stole the odour of pumpkins that had been lying in the sun all day. And this mingled fragrance, so deliciously of the earth, seemed just the perfume that would be shaken from October's russet smock as he strode across the land."
--from Shadows of Flames
By Amélie Rives
Autumn Light Perfume
For Autumn Light Perfume I have chosen essential oils, absolutes etc that will convey some of the deep and rich feeling of the season with accents on the return of the aromatic smoke drifting from newly kindled chimney and wood stove fires; the smell of colorful fall leaves as they gather about the roots of the grand trees that held them through the spring and summer months; the rich resinous forest odours that arise as the rains return and activate the natural composting process which proceeds from year to year and generation to generation and acts as a stimulus for the colorful fall display of mushrooms many of which have unique odours. There is an overall perfume which permeates the atmosphere during this time of year which speaks of a mellow, deep and elegant aromatic richness which celebrates the harvest of the year on all levels of life.
1 ounce Hops CO2 select
1/8th ounce Choya Loban
1/4th ounce Western Red Cedar Leaf eo
1/8 ounce Peppermint eo
3/4 ounce Grand Fir eo
1/8th ounce Cinnamon bark eo
1/4 ounce Styrax eo
1/16th ounce Cade eo
1/8th ounce Wintergreen eo
1/2 ounce Blue Spruce Abs
1/8th ounce Hay Abs
1/8th ounce Mushroom abs
1/2ounce Frankincense abs
1/2 ounce Fir Balsam Abs
1/8th ounce Galbanum eo