Fallendes Laub

[doomsday_disco]

The Wissahickon is one of my favorite places in the world, and whenever we can, Ted and I lose ourselves in its winding paths. This painting calls to mind one of our favorite trails in autumn, when the leaves have begun to surrender to the earth and sunlight filters through ember, rust, and gold. The air is rich with the breath of living things, the green pulse of growth softened and deepened by the bitter sweetness of decay.

 

 

Olga Wisinger-Florian

[patina]

Leaf mold! But a very soft, sweet leaf mold. Not crisp or merely decaying, there seems to be the start of new life here.

This is hard because I think I have enough dirt, but this is soft, fresh and lovely. I'm almost getting an anise.

Edited Tuesday at 01:48 PM by patina

[leptonpyr]

I tried about a zillion dead-leaves variations this past Halloween, and while I enjoyed them for what they were, none of them were truly redolent of that sweet, vegetal decay I associate with piles of actual autumn leaves, and is one of my favorite smells in nature. Fallendes Laub is the closest approximation to what I had been hoping for all autumn long; it really smells like taking a stroll through the woods on a late October afternoon, so much so that putting it on made me a little melancholy when I opened my curtains this morning and still saw snow. A little melancholy, but also joyful to get to experience a sweet rush of autumn in the dead of winter. The other dead-leaves blends I tried were a bit sharper than what I'd been hoping for, but Fallendes Laub is a wonderfully complex incarnation of autumn leaves. It actually has that quiet, soft spice-sweetness (I agree with @patina that there's almost a hint of anise) of an autumn wood. There's something almost nutty here, in a way I'm finding hard to describe.

 

A few hours in, most of the wonderful leafy complexity fades and I'm left with a lovely soft, clean, "perfumey" musk, that very much smells like the Lab's dead leaves accord does as it fades. There's something just a touch powdery too, which is making me wonder if there's an amber in this? Or perhaps orris? Not sure where the powder is coming from (I feel like probably not orris), but I'm fascinated. Its last stages are not as beautiful as its opening, but if you enjoy the Lab's dead leaves accord, it's still quite lovely.

 

I am delighted to have found that platonic ideal of autumn leaves I'd given up on finding from BPAL, even if it took me till February, and will 100% be snagging a bottle. The Lab absolutely nailed it with this one. Fallendes Laub the perfume oil smells *exactly* the way the painting looks! 🍂