"They sift the human storm for souls, eat flesh of reason, fill tombs with sinners. They frenzy forth....Such are the autumn people." - Ray Bradbury.
i'm not sure if the horror and crime stories in this paperback collection had been part of the inspiration for this scent, but Stereoplasm's The Autumn People is a perfume that goes perfectly with their theme, setting a dark halloween mood on point with the same aesthetic and emotions.
with notes of grinning jack-o-lanterns, dripping red wax, fallen leaves, croaking mulch, shivering cardamom pods, a freshly hanged juju bag glittering in the rafters and an old page from the Witch's Almanac, The Autumn People masterfully blends a realistic crispness of dried leaves underfoot with seasonal spiced pumpkin on a spooky halloween night. this... this is a niche perfume that is definitely not for the faint of heart.
to me, The Autumn People vividly evokes the imagery of walking past an abandoned house on the edge of town, its lawn carpeted with fallen leaves that crunch underfoot despite your best efforts to be silent. the wet loamy earth seems to clutch at your feet with every step, slowing you down as you approach the house. gnarled branches stand in sharp profile against the full moon on a starless night, looking for all the world like bony fingers seeking to pluck it from the sky and plunge the night into complete blackness. one of the windows of the house creaks and you jump - was it a breeze? was that a shadow? did something in the house just... move? you don't want to stick around to find out.
notwithstanding the sinister yet realistic extent of this atmospheric, it's actually surprisingly wearable. its relatively low throw makes this a scent that's best suited for personal enjoyment only, but a few drops are sufficient to transform me for a few hours into one of the lurking autumn people watching from the shadows, allowing the barest hint of a smirk to play on my lips even as my quarry makes an unsuccessful attempt to flee in terror. 8/10.
"Beware the autumn people."
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this review is of a perfume that i had won in a random giveaway on Instagram. i wasn’t asked to review this scent as a condition of receipt and didn’t receive any incentives for writing this. i’m not affiliated with Stereoplasm and as always, all opinions remain my own.
Stereoplasm's catalogue is available here. prices are CAD $6.50 (about US$4.90) for a 1.8ml bottle, CAD $16.50 (about US$12.44) for a 4.5ml bottle and CAD $26.50 (about US$20) for a 7.5ml bottle (before shipping).
all information correct at time of publishing.
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