NATURAL PERFUMERY AND THE POETICS OF AUTUMN

By Andrej Babicky, IPF Natural Perfumery Expert and Teacher

Autumn arrives like a whispered secret, a soft sigh from the earth as it prepares to rest. The world around us slowly transforms, as if painted by an unseen hand—leaves turn amber, orange, and red, setting the trees aglow against the cooling sky. Shrubs and bushes swell with berries, their vibrant colors a final exhale before winter descends. This is the season of last-minute magic, when nature both dazzles and retreats, leaving us, the observers, with a fleeting sense of wonder. The air thickens with nostalgia, filled with the smoky sweetness of burnt wood, the damp freshness of rain-soaked leaves, and the earthy embrace of freshly ploughed soil.

Andrej Babicky

For a natural perfumer, autumn is more than just a time of transition. It’s a canvas painted with the richest, deepest hues, a sensory feast begging to be captured and transformed. Every step through the forest becomes an invitation to imagine, to interpret, to distill the very essence of the season into fragrance. Picture a walk through a deciduous forest after a rain—damp earth cradles your feet, leaves glisten under the weight of water, and the air hums with the warmth of decay, the richness of life ebbing into the soil. Mushrooms, hidden jewels of the undergrowth, spring up unexpectedly from beneath fallen leaves, while moss-covered bark invites your fingers to trace its rough texture.

To bottle this moment is to capture not just a scent, but a memory—a story. The earthy notes of patchouli echo the scent of damp soil, grounding you in the depths of the forest floor.. The dry, almost salty touch of oakmoss reminds you of fallen leaves, crisp and delicate in their final moments. Dark, amber woods like Buddha wood lend a smoky warmth, like a fire crackling in the distance, while cedar and juniper add a sharp, resinous freshness, cutting through the earthy haze. And there, hidden in the heart of it all, is a softness, a velvety touch of labdanum, like a forgotten scarf wrapped tight against the chill, while artemisia brings a breath of herbal lightness, its slightly fruity aroma a playful contrast to the richness of the woods.

Autumn’s gift to the natural perfumer is this harmonious dance of contrasts—deep earthiness interwoven with fresh, aromatic notes. In every blend, there is the potential to tell a story of transition, of the slow turning inward that autumn encourages. The scents are complex, layered, and full of nostalgia, yet they also hint at the freshness and life still brimming beneath the surface, waiting for another season to bloom.

But autumn is also a time of preparation, a quiet gathering before the long rest of winter. Fruits are plucked from the trees, mushrooms foraged from the forest floor, herbs carefully cut and laid out to dry. These are the treasures of the season, to be preserved and transformed into tinctures, essential oils, and absolutes—each one capturing a moment of autumn’s fleeting beauty, ready to be released in the depths of winter. The garden, too, undergoes its ritual pruning, as old growth is cut away to make space for the new. Bulbs are planted, tucked beneath the cooling soil, their springtime blooms nothing more than a promise in the dark earth.

​In this way, autumn mirrors the process of natural perfumery. Just as we prune the garden to encourage growth, we distill our inspirations, our raw materials, stripping away the unnecessary until we are left with the pure essence. It’s a process of transformation, of preserving the life and vitality of the season, even as the world around us grows quieter. What we gather now, whether through distillation, enfleurage, or extraction, becomes the heart of our creations in the months to come.

There’s something almost magical about the methods of extraction during autumn. The cool, crisp air makes each step in the process feel deliberate, intimate, a conversation with nature. Through the ancient method of enfleurage, we press the last of autumn’s flowers and herbs into fat, capturing their delicate essence as if freezing a moment in time. The fragrant oils and resins distilled from woods and shrubs are rich with the scent of a forest retreating into itself, a fragrant echo of the season’s end.

And yet, autumn is not without its playfulness. Beneath the surface of stillness and retreat, there is joy, a sense of childlike wonder that beckons us to experiment and explore. What if we combined the green, spicy scent of freshly cut hay with the sweetness of overripe apples, or mingled the warming spices of cinnamon and clove with the surprising freshness of rain-soaked petals? There’s room for creativity here, for the unexpected, for the playful mingling of scents that mirror the dance of falling leaves, the fluttering breeze, the surprise of sunlight breaking through gray skies.

As autumn slips toward winter, we are reminded that everything in nature is cyclical. The seeds we plant now—both literal and metaphorical—will one day burst forth in bloom. The fragrances we blend in this golden, fleeting season will carry the warmth and color of autumn with us, even as the snow falls and the earth grows still. In natural perfumery, we become the keepers of this cycle, gathering the essence of the moment and preserving it, ready to share it again when the world outside is frozen and quiet.

Autumn teaches us to pause, to gather inspiration, and to create something that outlasts the season. Each blend of notes, each drop of precious oil, carries within it the memory of amber leaves, the scent of wet earth, and the warmth of the last rays of autumn sun. As the world prepares to rest, we too prepare, knowing that the fragrances we craft now will bloom in the hearts of those who wear them, long after the last leaf has fallen.

If you want to learn more about Natural Perfumery, enroll for the next Natural Perfumery Course and the Natural Raw Material Extraction Methods Master Class taught by the author.