From smoky tobacco to rich spices and crisp vetiver, these scents blend warmth and depth, capturing the essence of our favorite season for fragrance.
I have to leave the house around 6:45 each morning to beat the traffic and make it to school on time. Last week, halfway to work, my wife texted me, What cologne are you wearing? I haven’t been able to go back to sleep since you kissed me goodbye because it smells so good. And that, gentlemen, is how you know you have a scent that works for your skin.
I say “works for your skin” because not every fragrance smells heady on every skin type. Tobacco, cypress, vanilla, citrus, these smell fantastic on my skin. Intense cedar and oud make me smell like a middle-school boy who put on some of his older brother’s aerosol deodorant.
As we come into fall (if it would ever cool down on the East Coast), it’s a good idea to have a fall fragrance or two for those days at the office as well as nights out on the town. But first, let’s get a refresher on the gradation of fragrances.
In terms of quality, performance (a.k.a. projection), and longevity, it goes…
- Eau de Cologne: Lowest concentration of perfume oils (2-6%). You’ll need to reapply throughout the day.
- Eau de Toilette: Enough perfume oil to last you through the work day (5-15%), but you’ll need another quick spray before you hit the town.
- Eau de Parfum: The highest concentration of perfume oil that most luxury fragrance companies make (15-20%). This will last throughout the work day and well into the evening. It will also cost you quite a bit.
- Pure Perfume: Also called extrait de parfum, this has the highest concentration you can buy (20-30%).
Read more about the difference between cologne and Eau de Toilette here
In keeping with my cry-once philosophy, I only buy eau de parfum when I buy a fragrance. I’d rather have a few long-lasting scents that will last me years than have to keep reapplying and thus rebuying.
Fall fragrances are all about warmth, earthiness, and texture. And while I recommend each of these, I don’t recommend that you blind buy. Go to microperfume, scentsplit, or any other website that sells samples, and try a sample on your skin first. Or at the very least, go to a store that sells the fragrance you want to try, and throw a spray on your wrist, walk around for an hour, and see how you like the dry down.
Here are the fragrances I like for this season.
This was my first expensive fragrance, and I’m just about to finish my second bottle. The opening is sweet vanilla with the warmth of tonka bean. The dry down brings the tobacco, with cocoa, dried fruit, and a wood sap headiness.
This fragrance was actually designed with the goal of encapsulating autumn. The main note is vetiver, which is a type of grass. The earthy, almost peppery, vetiver is stunning and sharp, but it’s rounded out with with notes of vanilla and cedar.
The scent is in the name, but it’s not like the pepper you put on your dinner last night. There’s something magical about this fragrance. It’s black pepper, myrtle pepper, vetiver, cardamom, and cedarwood. Call me crazy, but this is the embodiment of Earth, wind, and fire. Want to start small? Try the bodywash; it’s outstanding.
Creed has been making perfumes in France for 265 years, and when you smell their perfumes, you understand how they’ve made it this far (and charge this much). There are literally too many fragrance notes to name here, so let’s just say this is an amber scent with pepper and floral notes. Creed says this fragrance is inspired by the stars in the night sky, and when you smell it, somehow that makes perfect sense.
When I first met Katie, The One was my signature fragrance. I wore the eau de toilette version, which lasted well through the workday for me. But the EDP version is so reasonably priced, you may as well get the best. I’m not sure exactly how to describe this fragrance: It’s orange, and sage, and basil and tobacco, and for lack of a better description, it just smells so damn good.
Harlem Perfume Co., a division of Harlem Candle Co., is a relatively new player in the fragrance game, but they’re doing something right. Langston, inspired by the Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes, is the writer’s perfume. With notes of cinnamon, orange brandy, and sandalwood, it sings of mahogany bookshelves and leather journals filled with fountain-pen printed thoughts. Oh, and the bottle is stunning.
Imagine Tobacco Vanille, but with cinnamon and rum. Side Effect is a compliment getter; it’s the one that causes strangers to ask what in the world you’re wearing. Just make sure you sample it first; the leather notes may land warm on your skin, or they may turn you off.
I’ve heard it said that Ombre Nomade is the smell of royalty. The oud wood, raspberry, and incense come together to create a journey through the desert. I’ve yet to find an oud that compliments my skin, but luckily when you order a bottle, Louis Vuitton sends you a small sampler with it. So if you realize the scent doesn’t work on your skin, you can return the unopened full-sized bottle.
This is the cologne that Jay Gatsby would’ve worn. It croons of parties with famous socialites, endless bottles of champagne, and black ties. The Dandy opens with whiskey on the rocks with a touch of raspberry and bergamot (which is a type of orange). The base consists of oak, cedarwood and musk. It’s masculinity at its fanciest.
While shopping with a friend last year I sampled this fragrance at a Niemen Marcus about two hours from my house. It was intoxicating, but I couldn’t decide if my wife would like it or not. When I got home, she said, “My God, what is that scent? Please tell me you bought that.” Someday I’ll get a bottle, but for now, it’s the one that got away. Giorgio Armani designed this fragrance himself, striving to capture the scent of the Italian church he attended as a boy. Somehow, he managed to do it. It’s incense, vetiver, cedar, and cool pepper. It is, in short, pulchritudinous. Look that up.
→ Ready to dive deeper into you fall style? Check out our full style section for the season.