Whether you like to douse yourself in a cloud of signature scent each morning or prefer to peruse your perfume wardrobe and decide what suits your mood, autumn is the perfect time to invest in a new fragrance.
The start of the season is when perfumeries and fashion houses bring out the big guns – major new launches vying for a place on your dressing table, plus exciting twists on bestselling juices, and limited editions you need to snap up before they disappear.
Richer than their spring/summer counterparts, these long-lasting aromas offer more bang for your buck. Just a few spritzes is all it takes to keep you sweetly scented all day long.
Here are seven much-hyped scents to get to know this season…
1. Prada Paradoxe Eau de Parfum Refillable Spray, £83 for 50ml (£59 for 30ml also available), Escentual
Co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons collaborated with a trio of well-known noses to concoct this pale pink ode to contradictions. A sophisticated blend of neroli, amber and musk, it dries down to a leave a wonderfully warm, powdery floral trail.
2. Molton Brown Rose Dunes Eau de Parfum, £120 for 100ml
Rose and oud are often combined by perfumers, and with good reason. The queen of flowers and the eye-wateringly expensive resin mingle beautifully in this heady juice, which also adds spicy saffron and zingy geranium into the mix. Topped with a pink marble-effect cap, the bottle is a thing of beauty too.
3. Jo Malone English Pear & Freesia Cologne, £110 for 100ml (£55 for 30ml also available)
Arriving just in time for pear season, this fruity fragrance teams ripe King William pear and delicate freesia notes with the warmth of amber and patchouli, evoking the scent of an English orchard at the start of autumn.
4. Miller Harris Myrica Muse, £95 for 50ml
Inspired by an indulgent aperitif, the key ingredient in this delectable cocktail is myrica – or the bayberry plant – which is joined by juicy strawberry and tangerine, a bouquet of rose and white florals, and sandalwood to create a musky melange.
5. Boy Smells Hinoki Fantôme Eau de Parfum, £105 for 65ml, Harrods
After customers clamoured for a wearable version of the much-loved Hinoki Fantôme candle, Boy Smells obliged, and the result is just as intoxicating. With notes of resin, leather, tobacco and hinoki wood, it’s a smoky sensation.
6. Paco Rabanne Fame Eau de Parfum, £86 for 50ml (£60 for 30ml also available), The Perfume Shop
Not only is this the coolest perfume bottle of the season – the gold robot dressed in a signature Paco Rabanne chainmail frock – the fragrance is incredibly chic too, with lush jasmine, mango and vanilla notes giving it a sassy, tropical sweetness.
7. YSL Beauty Libre Le Parfum, £88 for 50ml (£62 for 30ml also available), The Perfume Shop
The latest addition to the Libre fragrance family, Le Parfum is a spicier, more intense take on the original eau. Adding Moroccan saffron, ginger, orange blossom and amber into the mix, plus honey and vetiver base notes, it’s an elegant, enigmatic fusion.
