Free Shipping + Free Returns

Current Season:
Spring 24
Next release:
calculating...
Waiting List:
Open

Join Waiting List

REGION:
downArrow
£
Ffern Autumn 20 bottle image
Blended + barrel-aged
in SW England

Autumn 20

£89

Organic eau de parfum twice aged and bottled in Somerset, England. 32ml.

Release Date22/09/20 13:09
Barrel-ageing days21/27
Archive stock levelSold out
LOCKED
Autumn 20 is composed of 16 natural ingredients: 1 top notes, 6 mid notes, and 9 base notes. Click on an ingredient below to find out more about our sourcing approach, and the ingredient's history.
  • Top
  • Mid
  • Base
Click on any of the ingredients listed above to learn more about it.
Click on any of the ingredients listed to the left to learn more about it.
Film by Sam FinneyBolex 16mmThe Autumn 20 movie was shot on 16mm film by Sam Finney in woodlands around the Ffern studio in Somerset.

There is a word for the way the air smells after the rain: petrichor. It is a marriage of two Greek words, ‘petra’, meaning stone, and ‘ichor’, the fluid that flows through the veins of Gods. It occurs when plant oils, trapped within the soil, are released by the rain into the air. 

The air, washed and heavy with new scents, holds within it something of the landscape. When it rains within a wood, the result is perhaps the most compelling of all. For Autumn 20, it is this we have sought to capture.

Our beginning was Autumn 19, set in a Scottish pine forest. This season, we find ourselves in a wilder woodland. Older, darker, richer. More alive. Here the sky hangs low and the woodland floor, dampened by fresh rain, is varied and intimate, with lush green shoots emerging from the shade of a once-great oak tree. 

We’ve rebalanced the wood notes, softening the balsam fir and introducing oud, an ancient, resinous base note derived from the heartwood of the aquilaria tree. The oud, together with the red cedar and guaiac offers up a tapestry of smokey, sylvan notes, reflecting the diversity of the woodland. The fresh growth is caught in the bay leaf, which brings a culinary liveliness, and the davana, with a herbal, berry-like quality. 


Distilling the essence of petrichor was an entirely different challenge. After countless iterations, we discovered that rose absolute, cognac oil and oak moss made for an earthy, succulent combination - the honeyish, floral tones of the rose enhanced by the cognac oil and balanced by the musk of the moss. Yet while they captured the heady fullness of the air after rain, we were missing the fresh, sweet burst that appears just as the rain has passed.

The solution came in the form of rosewater. For some time we have been hoping to experiment with replacing the base of pure water in our fragrances with scented water and Autumn 20 gave us this chance - we are delighted with the result and equally happy to be using a byproduct of the rose extraction process.

Each fragrance arrives with a complementary sample vial for you to try at home before deciding whether or not to keep the main bottle.
Lauren Emily Wilson
Pastel on paper
07/08/20
To begin the series, we asked Lauren Emily Wilson to respond to Autumn 20. The result is an ethereal family of pastel drawings that capture the evolution of a scent.
Learn More
Ffern Artist Lauren Emily Wilson in the garden Autumn 20.

Join Waiting List

+

Join the Waiting List

Allergen Information

NB: For a full breakdown of our ingredients, please refer to the ingredient list on the main fragrance page. The list below is for the identification of potentially allergenic molecules - our natural perfume oils are grouped under the term ‘Parfum’.

Alcohol denat (77%), Parfum (18%), Rosa damascena flower water (2.5%), Aqua (2.5%), Limonene*, Linalol*, Evernia Prunastri*, Eugenol*, Benzyl Benzoate*, Citronellol*, Cinnamal*, Citral*, Geraniol*, Benzyl Alcohol*, Farnesol*, Isoeugenol*

* Scientific names for molecules found inside our natural ingredients.