Here are the ten best fall perfumes that are worth a spot on your vanity! Now that autumn has arrived, you can swap out your breezy summer scents for richer concentration, warmer, and protective fragrances. For the autumn season, think of enveloping notes like woods, moss, vetiver, amber, musk, spices, vanilla, and leather-faceted and chypre fragrances. Basically, any scent that recalls the smell of the forest, the woods, the mosses, the smell of mushrooms, the smell of green grass, and the smell of fire in the chimney.
Fall is the perfect season to opt for a spicier, woodsier, creamier, and all-around richer perfume. And to help you make the decision of which scent to wear this season, I’ve rounded up the best fall perfumes that truly conjure the coziness of the season. Keep scrolling to find your new signature scent for the fall season.
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1. Hermès Vétiver Tonka
Vétiver Tonka is a woody chypre fragrance for women and men. It was created by Jean-Claude Ellena in 2004. This fragrance is tender vetiver, enveloping and warm, smoothed out by velvety hazelnut. A hint of praline is mixed with the sweetness of Tonka beans to soften the earthy, rough effect of the roots.
2. Trudon Aphélie
Aphélie is a fragrance for women created in 2021 by Antoine Lie. Borrowing its name from a star that returns to the light after reaching the furthest point of the star around which it revolves, Aphélie, personified, is mysterious. The top notes are rose, ivy, cassis, and oakmoss, and the base notes are tonka bean and sandalwood. It’s one of my favorite perfumes to wear in the autumn season!
3. Diptyque Fleur de Peau
Fleur de Peau is a floral aldehyde fragrance for women and is one of my favorite perfumes for fall. If you love musk, you’ll love this very enveloping and comforting fragrance. Notes are aldehydes, pink pepper, angelica, bergamot, iris, and Turkish rose, and base notes are musk, ambrette, carrot, ambergris, sandalwood, leather, and amberwood.
4. Sisley Eau du Soir
Eau du Soir is a chypre floral fragrance for women and created by Jeannine Mongin, Hubert d’Ornano and Isabelle d’Ornano. This fragrance is complex and based on the perfect harmony of contrasted lines: fresh citrus, sensual flowers, warm amber, and musk.
For the little story, Countess Isabelle d’Ornano was given Eau de Soir as a gift by her husband, Count Hubert d’Ornano, in 1990. The perfume was created to remind the countess of her childhood in Spain. For several years, Eau de Soir was the Countess’ perfume, and it was no sooner than 1999 that it was released to the public.
5. Diptyque L’Eau Papier
L’Eau Papier is a woody fragrance for women and men launched in 2023 and created by Fabrice Pellegrin. This fragrance celebrates a creative encounter, a deep dive into the essence of white musks in all their myriad facets. A luminous mimosa, plus accords of blonde wood and rice steam. It’s one of my favorite new fragrances for the autumnal season.
6. Le Labo Santal 33
Santal 33 is a woody, aromatic fragrance for women and men. This fragrance was created in 2011 by Frank Voelkl. This Eau de Parfum is born from a memory of an old Marlboro advert —its defining image of the spirit of the American West and all its implied ideals of masculinity and personal freedom.
Let yourself be carried away by notes of cardamom iris, violet, and ambroxan, combined with Australian sandalwood, papyrus, and cedarwood. As a finishing touch, accords of leather, musk, and spices make their way into the experience.
7. Frédéric Malle Portrait of a Lady
Portrait of a Lady is an amber floral fragrance for women. This fragrance was launched in 2010 and created by Dominique Ropion. Portrait of a Lady is a modern, elegant, and unusual expression of the Victorian novel by Henry James from 1881, its heroine, Isabel Archer, her fate, and the quest for freedom. The perfume deals with rose notes, spices, and patchouli in a modern way that varies between the oriental and chypre themes.
8. Rochas Femme
I absolutely love this perfume for fall! Femme is a fruity, spicy chypre fragrance that was created by perfumier Marcel Rochas in 1945 for his wife Hélène as an homage to her feminity and an expression of his great love for her. This fragrance has been described as “an opulent chypre scent fit for a femme fatal.” Legend has it that Audrey Hepburn fell in love with the scent.
9. Chanel Sycomore
Sycomore is a woody fragrance for women and men. It was launched in September 2022 and was created by Jacques Polge. This fragrance features vetiver, iris, cedar, vanilla, and leather. This fragrance was originally created by Gabrielle Chanel in 1930. Sycomore is an echo of Mademoiselle’s childhood, which was spent near Auvergne, France.
10. Le Galion Bourrasque
Bourrasque is a chypre floral fragrance for women and men that was launched in 2020. This fragrance was first created in 1983 by Paul Vacher and recreated by Rodrigo Flores-Roux. The top notes are cardamom, ginger, pepper, night blooming jasmine, and Sicilian citruses; the middle notes are opoponax, Bulgarian rose, styrax, wild strawberry, and osmanthus; the base notes are patchouli, Spanish labdanum, earthy notes, oakmoss, hyrax, and oak.
Thank you for your focus on spring/summer and autumn/winter perfumes. I decided I loved this idea and went on a “sampling spree” (sounds nicer than “smelling spree” at the Chanel counter at my local Nordstrom. I’ve always liked the idea of signature scents too, so I wanted to take the time to really figure out which ones I loved. Coco has been a long time favorite of mine, but always felt like a “night out” perfume (ie, a bit too heavy on me for everyday use), that I never ended up getting enough use out it of before the perfume expired. I focused on Chanel because of the quality, range of selection, beautiful bottles, and all of them that I’ve tried worked well on me in terms of staying true to scent (something about my mam and sisters chemistry, but they change on them and not for the better) and having good staying power too.
Coco Mademoiselle is a lighter version of Coco but with all the same notes that I loved, so that will be my autumn/winter, with Paris-Venise in the Les Eaux collection my decision for spring/summer. Its still too warm here in the San Francisco bay area to switch to my autumn scent, probably a month to go yet, but I can’t wait!
Really fun though to have this seasonal shift, and one I’d not have thought of, so thank you again!