October

[tigermilking]

2023 Version

 

Wet and on the arm, it’s all green, almost camphorous sap. Very quickly, that dies down and I get hit with leaves — red and orange leaves, not yet dry and crunchy. The smoke comes later but when it does, it’s absolutely beautiful. It reminds me of walking slowly through my old neighborhood, with fires in the fireplace, stomping through piles of leaves before they get swept up. 
 

This perfume has very little throw on me, and lingers for about 6 hours close to the skin. It’ll be a neck pulse wear for sure since I can’t smell it to save my life on my wrists.  
 

I am a little concerned though because I can smell the sap even with the bottle closed tightly. My cabinet was super sappy this morning. Hoping the cap is okay! 

[Hazelluna]

This is seriously one of my favorites. It smells just like you baked some sort of cinnamon cake, and the scent of it lingered on your sweater and you went on a walk after. There is a scent of crisp, cool, air and autumn leaves. The is also something green about it. It's amazing!

[indigokid]

Im testing my sample of the 2023 version!

In the bottle and wet, it is a really nice vegetal and leafy scent.

As I let it sit on my skin a bit more, there is that little bit of smoke. It whispers in the background and is blended in really nicely! I think the sap in this is what keeps the scent from going really dry. It does kinda have a men's cologne kind of smell. However, it's all blended together really well!

Overall, it smells like the perfect fall scent for someone with more masculine tastes! 

[Claire-of-the-Valley]

This is for the 2025 version. This is a lot more sharply sour than I was expecting, and I'm not sure which note is causing it. Probably the leaf scent, but I usually like the leaf scent from BPAL. When I first opened the bottle, I really didn't like it, and it didn't get better when I was wearing it. That sour note just stuck around. It's kind of like rotting vegetation, but a sharp, pungent version. I tried it again a few days later, and it's better, some of that intensity faded for something closer to fallen leaves, but still not ideal. The description sounds so lovely, but the actual scent isn't for me.

Edited October 30 by Claire-of-the-Valley

[leptonpyr]

2025 version! On me it goes on very, very green/fresh and a touch camphorous. I associate what I'm smelling with pine needles more than I do with autumn leaves but then again, I'm not yet familiar with BPAL's pine note, so YMMV. It's got just a touch of sweetness from the sap, and the overall effect is very warm and dark; it feels like a very cozy scent to me, like an autumnal scented candle. I'm not sure if I'm getting any smokiness, but I'll report back once my decant has had some more time to settle. 

 

The pine-camphor and greenness brought to mind The Woman at the Edge of the Woods, but this is a *much* gentler, softer scent, and the green here feels a lot brighter and fresher. There is a LOT going on in The Woman at the Edge, and I'd describe that one as quite intense, whereas October is much simpler and more straightforward. Kind of like a cottagecore version of The Woman: The Woman at the Edge of the Woods is unabashedly intense and unapologetically complicated, and totally unconcerned with whether she comes off as intimidating (which feels entirely appropriate for what the scent was inspired by!). In October '25, that wildness has been tamed into something much more approachable. If it's not already clear, I absolutely adore The Woman, but I'm enjoying my decant of this as well. Not sure I'll need a bottle, but it's a really nice, cozy-feeling scent to curl up in, feels like a warm, relaxing afternoon spent with friends.

 

October goes on fairly strong, but recedes fairly quickly, as most things do on my dry-ass skin. A few hours in, the green champhor sort of wears off and the blend gets sweeter and more "perfumey", losing most of its sharpness. About average longevity for me, 4-6 hours.