Give off an air of cool as temperatures drop, with invigorating, frosty scents
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older weather may make us instinctively nuzzle into warm, ambery scents, but as the temperature dips I’m all for steering into the skid with herbaceous, frosty, invigorating scents that somehow smell cold. Tom Ford Soleil Neige (£69 for 10ml) was inspired by snow and made for this mood. If I were someone for whom a skiing holiday was even a remote ambition (I am certainly not), I would wear this crisp, airy but downright sexy vanilla musk to counteract the misery of padded clothing and sunburn.
Gin holds as little appeal for me as skiing, and yet I also inexplicably love Penhaligon’s Juniper Sling (£85 for 30ml), which manages to filter out the boozy whiff of Gordon’s and tonic while retaining its bracing botanical punch. This is refined and wearable on a cold day and sits as comfortably over casual knits and jeans as it would in a more formal, professional setting.
Cold doesn’t always mean wet, of course, but autumn invariably brings plenty of both – and no one conveys a sense of rain-soaked British landscape like perfumer Lyn Harris. Her Perfumer H Rain Wood fragrance combines notes of angelica (the classic “rain note”), more of that vibrant juniper, sappy woods and patchouli leaves that give the whole thing a rich, almost peaty, base. It is perfectly balanced – a delicate watercolour of a rugged setting, and among my most worn scents of the past few autumns.
