Folkwinds
Crimson and Clover
The Story
Crimson and Clover is a tobacco and apple extrait built around a Vermont autumn, opening on boozy cider and boiled cranberries. Clove and ginger carry it into a drydown of green tobacco, Vietnamese oud and Mongolian musk.
Spicy
Heat that prickles the nose
A pungent, peppery warmth of black pepper, cardamom, and dry red chili that stings and tingles. It brings energy and bite, the crackle of a market spice stall, vivid and assertive, raising the temperature of everything around it.
Woody
Dry grain of cut timber
The smell of cedar shavings, sandalwood, and dry vetiver roots, a sanded, resinous warmth with a faint pencil-box rasp. It feels grounded and composed, the quiet backbone that makes a scent read as serious and lasting.
Sweet
Edible warmth on the skin
A rounded, sugary character that suggests caramel, honey, or spun candy without any single one dominating. It reads as comforting and indulgent, the gourmand pull that makes a fragrance feel soft, inviting, and almost good enough to taste.
Smoky
Charred wood and rising embers
The dry, charred scent of burning wood, smoldering incense, and lingering ash, sometimes tarry, sometimes wispy and gray. It feels brooding and atmospheric, conjuring a dying fire and a cool current of air carrying its last breath.
Green
Crushed leaves and cut stems
The sharp, sappy scent of crushed leaves, snapped stems, and bruised grass, cool and slightly bitter with a vivid living freshness. It feels vibrant and outdoorsy, like a garden just after pruning, raw and unmistakably alive.
Cranberry
Tart red berry with no extract behind it
What it is
Cranberry yields no usable essential oil or absolute, so the note is always an accord assembled to suggest the fruit. Lab builds draw on the compounds that carry real cranberry aroma: green aldehydes such as hexanal, the ester ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, beta-ionone and benzaldehyde. All-natural reconstructions reach instead for blackcurrant bud absolute, violet leaf, davana and boronia.
How it smells
Sharp and mouth-watering, a thin red juiciness with a green, faintly stewed edge and a puckering acidity. Built in the lab it snaps brighter and stays photographic, one fixed shape from first spray onward. Reconstructed from botanicals it comes across rounder and hazier, with woody and leafy shadows, and loosens as it dries.
In perfumery
Cranberry is a seasonal note, used to lift the opening of fruity-florals, gourmands and winter compositions with a festive sparkle. Aroma-chemical versions are strong, stable and survive the soap, candle and detergent bases where naturals break down. Botanical versions stay in small hand-poured work, where cost and scarcity keep the dose low.
Good to know
No cranberry is present either way, and no house can put it there. The lab route is identical batch to batch, while the botanical route drifts with each harvest and fades sooner. Blackcurrant bud and violet leaf are used across mainstream perfumery too, so a listed cranberry note reveals nothing about the formula behind it.
Apple Cider
Orchard fruit gone warm and faintly boozy
What it is
An evocative accord rather than a single raw material, built to conjure pressed apples fermenting toward cider. Perfumers reconstruct it from fruity esters, apple aroma molecules, a touch of acetic tang and warm spice, since fermented cider itself is not distilled for scent.
How it smells
Crushed ripe apple, sweet and juicy, edged with a tart vinegary sparkle and a soft yeasty, faintly boozy warmth. Mulling spices of cinnamon, clove and nutmeg often hover at the edges, giving an autumnal, just-pressed orchard impression that feels cozy and a little tipsy.
In perfumery
A heart accord driving fruity-gourmand and seasonal autumn compositions. It blends with cinnamon, caramel, brown sugar, woods and ambers, and sits naturally beside other orchard and harvest notes. It anchors cozy fall and apple-orchard themed fragrances and home scents.
Good to know
The bright apple lift in such accords often leans on alpha-damascone, a rose-ketone prized for its fruity apple effect with floral and plum nuances. So beneath the juice and spice a cider note can carry a surprising soft rosy glow from that single molecule.
Poplar
Resinous buds, honeyed and dark as a beehive
What it is
The note comes from the sticky leaf buds of balsam poplar trees, mainly Populus balsamifera, harvested in late winter before they open. The resin-coated buds are solvent-extracted into a dark, viscous absolute. This same bud resin is what bees gather and convert into propolis.
How it smells
Deeply balsamic and honeyed, opening with sour plum, raisin and fortified wine before warm propolis, tobacco, hay and labdanum emerge. A faint lactic, wild-yeast tang runs beneath, alongside soft leather and a churchy, incense-adjacent resinous depth that lingers for hours.
In perfumery
A base note prized in natural perfumery as both fixative and signature, anchoring amber, balsamic and incense accords with honeyed warmth. It harmonizes with labdanum, beeswax, tobacco and immortelle, and appears in artisanal work such as Wild Veil's balsam poplar bud soliflore.
Good to know
The familiar smell of propolis is essentially the smell of poplar bud resin: bees collect it to seal and sterilize their hives. The absolute is a small-batch material, often hand-harvested from wild northern trees, which keeps it rare and costly.
Clove
Warm spice with a numbing, dentist-chair bite
What it is
Clove is the dried unopened flower bud of Syzygium aromaticum, an evergreen myrtle-family tree native to Indonesia's Maluku Islands and now grown in Madagascar, Tanzania and Sri Lanka. Buds are hand-picked as they flush pink and before they open, sun-dried to brown nails, then steam-distilled into clove bud oil, the grade perfumery works with; the leaves and stems give coarser oils of their own.
How it smells
Hot, dry and intensely spicy, dominated by eugenol, the same compound used in dental anaesthetic, which lends a medicinal, faintly numbing tingle. Beneath the burn sits a sweet, woody-fruity warmth with peppery edges and a slow, balsamic trail recalling pomanders and mulled wine.
In perfumery
A heart and upper-base spice adding heat, lift and old-world richness, traditionally paired with carnation, rose, vanilla and amber. It defines spicy florals and orientals such as Caron's Poivre, whose clove-and-pepper opening lifts a carnation heart, and warms many classic men's chypres and fougeres.
Good to know
Cloves once outvalued their weight in gold and drove centuries of colonial war over the Spice Islands, where the Dutch razed groves to control supply. Eugenol is now restricted by IFRA as a skin sensitiser, and the limit counts eugenol from any source, so perfumers dose clove oil cautiously rather than substituting the synthetic.
Ginger
Fresh peppery zing with a fibrous warmth
What it is
Ginger is the underground rhizome of Zingiber officinale, a reed-like tropical herb cultivated in India, China and Nigeria. The knobby root is steam-distilled or CO2-extracted; distillation gives a fresh, sparkling oil, while the CO2 extract captures the warm, pungent gingerol of the fresh root more fully.
How it smells
Bright, dry and peppery, with a fizzy lemon-pine sparkle over earthy, fibrous warmth. The top is fresh and zesty, almost soapy-citrus; underneath sits a spicy heat without the sweetness of cooked ginger. CO2 extracts smell rounder, juicier and closer to the raw rhizome.
In perfumery
A top-to-heart spice that injects vitality and a clean, modern warmth, lifting citrus, sharpening woods and animating aquatic and fougere structures. Ginger drives the heart of crisp peppery masculines, the candied facets of bright floral colognes, and the watery spice of monsoon-inspired garden scents.
Good to know
Ginger has been a prized trade spice for over five thousand years, valued in Asian medicine long before it reached European kitchens. The plant rarely flowers in cultivation and is propagated entirely from rhizome cuttings, so harvested gingers are essentially clones of one another.
Green Tobacco
Raw leaf before the fire and the cure
What it is
The scent of the unburned, uncured tobacco plant, Nicotiana tabacum, rather than finished cigar leaf. It evokes the fresh, recently harvested leaf and stem. Perfumers approximate it with hay-like coumarin, clary sage, fig leaf and green aroma-chemicals layered over a touch of tobacco absolute.
How it smells
Vegetal and slightly bitter, with crushed-leaf sharpness over a faint herbaceous sweetness. There is sappy greenery up top, a dry hay and tea undertone beneath, and only a whisper of the nutty, honeyed warmth that cured tobacco develops. Cooler and rawer than cigar notes.
In perfumery
A heart note bridging green and warm accords, adding natural leafy realism without smoke. It pairs with hay, clary sage, fig and honey. It appears in green-tobacco compositions and the fresher leafy facets of tobacco scents.
Good to know
Tobacco's signature warmth is not in the living plant. It develops during curing and fermentation, when enzymes break down sugars and proteins. Green tobacco captures the leaf before that transformation, which is why it reads herbal and fresh rather than sweet.
Hay
Sun-dried meadow grass bottled at golden hour
What it is
Hay is dried meadow grass, and its perfume scent comes largely from coumarin, a sweet lactone that develops as cut grasses, clover and sweet vernal grass wilt and dry. It is captured as hay absolute, solvent-extracted from such grasses, or recreated with synthetic coumarin.
How it smells
Warm, sweet and dry, like a sunlit barn loft: cut grass tipping toward almond and vanilla, with a faintly nutty, tobacco-like underside. It opens green and golden, then dries into soft, powdery warmth. Comparable to fresh-mown lawn left to bake in summer heat.
In perfumery
A heart-to-base note lending rustic, sun-warmed character to fougeres, chypres and tobacco blends. It pairs with lavender, tobacco, oakmoss and tonka, bridging green tops to warm bases. The earliest fougeres and the whole fougere family lean on the coumarin-hay accord that defines them.
Good to know
Coumarin, the molecule behind hay's sweetness, was first isolated from tonka beans in 1820 and synthesized by William Perkin in 1868, among the earliest aroma-chemicals in modern perfumery. The new-mown-hay smell of drying grass is largely coumarin released as plant cells rupture.
Amyris
Caribbean wood that whispers like soft sandalwood
What it is
Amyris is the essential oil steam-distilled from the heartwood of Amyris balsamifera, a small tropical tree of the citrus family native to Haiti and the Caribbean. Called West Indian sandalwood, it is botanically unrelated to true sandalwood. Aged, fallen wood, dense with oil, is slowly distilled.
How it smells
Soft, dry and woody with a faint balsamic, resinous warmth and a light peppery smokiness. It is quieter and less creamy than true sandalwood, a touch oily and slightly sweet, with a clean cedar-like dryness that settles into a muted, grounding woody base.
In perfumery
A base note used mainly as an affordable fixative and woody extender, prolonging and grounding lighter materials. It pairs with citrus, lavender, cedar and sandalwood. It rounds out countless colognes and soliflores and props up the woody base of many mass-market and natural fragrances.
Good to know
Its nickname West Indian sandalwood is purely commercial; chemically it shares little with Santalum sandalwood, which sells for many times the price. The wood is so oil-rich that dried branches were once lit as natural torches, earning the tree the names candlewood and torchwood.
Sweet Clover
Sun-dried hay sweetened with almond and vanilla
What it is
A wild legume, Melilotus officinalis, growing across temperate Europe and Asia with tall stems of small yellow flowers. Its flowers and leaves are rich in coumarin, which develops as the plant dries. The dried herb yields an absolute, though most fragrances use cleaner synthetic coumarin instead.
How it smells
Soft, sweet and hay-like, the scent of a sunlit meadow drying in summer. Coumarin gives almond, fresh-mown grass and a creamy vanilla warmth. In small doses it suggests new-cut hay; concentrated it turns gourmand, nutty and balsamic, sitting close to tonka bean and woodruff.
In perfumery
A soft heart-to-base modifier that sweetens and rounds compositions without sugariness. It adds body to florals, warmth to fougeres and a hay bridge between fresh tops and woody bases. It pairs with lavender, tonka, oakmoss and tobacco, underpinning the classic fougere and chypre families.
Good to know
Moldy sweet clover hay sickened cattle with internal bleeding, leading to the discovery of dicoumarol and the blood thinner warfarin. Historically the dried herb scented linens and snuff tobacco, and in Quebec white sweet clover is nicknamed boreal vanilla for its warm aroma.
Thai Oud
Smoky leather and embered medicinal woods
What it is
Thai oud is distilled from Aquilaria crassna grown in eastern Thailand, with Trat province on the Cambodian border its most celebrated source, the same Cardamom Mountains range that yields Khmer oud. Wood is often aged for years before distillation, building the depth that defines the region's character.
How it smells
Leathery, smoky and medicinal, opening with a plush full-bodied smokiness like smouldering embers. A distinctive fruity sweetness threads through tannic leather, warm spice and honeyed tobacco, with camphorous, almost antiseptic facets that give Thai oud its bracing, resinous edge and a faint animalic warmth.
In perfumery
Thai oud bridges the sweet Cambodian and animalic Hindi styles, offering smoky leather depth without overwhelming funk, which makes it valued by artisanal distillers and blenders alike. Trat oils in particular are sought for a balanced, full-bodied profile that wears richly on skin.
Good to know
Sharing the Cardamom range with Cambodian crassna, Thai border ouds can echo Khmer sweetness while carrying more leather and smoke. Long pre-distillation ageing rounds the medicinal sharpness, and the best sustainably sourced Trat oil rivals far costlier origins for complexity.
Cassia
Fierce red-hot cinnamon with a balsamic bite
What it is
Cassia is the bark of Cinnamomum cassia, an evergreen tree native to southern China and cultivated across Guangxi, Guangdong and Vietnam. The coarse, thick bark is stripped from trunk and branches, often with leaves and twigs, then steam-distilled into a dark, viscous oil that runs 70 to 90 percent cinnamaldehyde.
How it smells
Hotter and rougher than true cinnamon, cassia opens with a sharp red-candy heat driven by abundant cinnamaldehyde. Beneath the fiery spice sits a woody, earthy, faintly leathery body and a sweet balsamic undertone. It dries warm and resinous, less powdery and more aggressive than Ceylon bark.
In perfumery
A top-to-heart spice that injects warmth and animation into orientals, gourmands and fougeres. It marries with clove, tonka, vanilla, rose and patchouli to build festive accords. This cinnamaldehyde-led heat animates classic carnation compositions and the spicy-sweet drydowns of modern gourmands, used in small doses for its force.
Good to know
Most supermarket cinnamon is actually cassia, not true cinnamon. It carries higher coumarin, prompting health limits on heavy culinary intake. In perfumery its cinnamaldehyde is a recognized skin sensitizer, and the IFRA restriction sits on cinnamaldehyde itself, which is what limits how much cassia oil a formula can carry.
Vetiver
Cool damp earth pulled from tangled roots
What it is
Vetiver is a tall tropical bunchgrass, Chrysopogon zizanioides, native to India and now grown mainly in Haiti and Java; Réunion's famed Bourbon oil has become scarce. The prized part is its dense network of fibrous underground roots, which are dug up, washed, dried, and steam-distilled into a thick amber-brown essential oil.
How it smells
Cool, damp earth and freshly cut grass over a woody, rooty base. Haitian oil reads smooth, bright, and faintly hazelnut-sweet; Java leans darker, smokier and more leathery. Beneath sit dry cedar, grapefruit-like bitterness, and a persistent green minerality that lingers for hours as it dries down.
In perfumery
A base note valued for tenacity, grounding earthiness, and natural fixative power. It anchors chypres and fougères, pairing with citrus, leather, and tobacco. Many vetiver soliflores are built around it, while its smokier, ashier side is showcased beside cypress and cedar.
Good to know
Haiti supplies roughly half the world's vetiver oil, most of it grown by smallholder farmers. The same deep roots that perfume a bottle are planted on hillsides worldwide as living barriers, gripping soil against erosion and stabilizing slopes where little else will hold.
Smuggler's Notch
a Vermont mountain pass folded into the base
What it is
Smuggler's Notch names a mountain pass in northern Vermont, cut through the Green Mountains between Mount Mansfield and Spruce Peak. The note is not a material. It is Folkwinds citing a place, and its own earlier perfume of that name, as a single line in the base of Crimson and Clover.
How it smells
The idea it carries is a cold northern wood with something lit in it. Red spruce and sugar maple over toasted oak, cigar tobacco, aged orris and malted barley, held down by deer musk and castoreum. Dark, resinous and faintly boozy, sweet at the edges rather than fresh.
In perfumery
A place note is assembled, never harvested. Folkwinds built this one from North American materials, red spruce, sugar maple, American oak and Vermont apple among them, with agarwood, sandalwood and animalic bases underneath. In Crimson and Clover it sits in the base, giving the apple and tobacco a floor of cold wood to rest on.
Good to know
Folkwinds released a fragrance called Smuggler's Notch in 2023, and describes Crimson and Clover as an evolution of its DNA, so the note is the house quoting itself. The pass is real, on Vermont Route 108, and closes to traffic each winter. Nothing in the bottle comes from the mountain.
Amber
A warm resinous glow built, not harvested
What it is
Amber is not one ingredient but a perfumer's accord, most often blending labdanum (a sticky resin from the Mediterranean rockrose shrub Cistus ladanifer), benzoin and vanilla, sometimes with tonka or Peru balsam. Despite the name, it has no link to fossilized tree amber, which stays odorless on skin.
How it smells
Warm, soft and balsamic, a powdery sweetness sitting over dry resin. It opens honeyed and faintly animalic from labdanum, then settles into rounded golden warmth recalling beeswax, tobacco and worn leather, threaded with a quiet smoky, incense-like undertone that lingers close to the skin.
In perfumery
A base note prized for warmth, depth and long persistence, anchoring oriental and amber compositions. It pairs naturally with vanilla, patchouli, sandalwood and spices. The sweet vanilla-amber template is a perfumery classic, while drier, resin-forward and herbal readings show its other face.
Good to know
The word once meant ambergris, the waxy intestinal secretion of sperm whales, fueling centuries of confusion among three unrelated things: fossil tree amber, whale ambergris and the resin accord. Modern amber bases are wholly plant and synthetic, leaning on molecules like Ambroxan rather than any animal source.
Castoreum
Leather and warmth drawn from the beaver
What it is
An animal secretion from the castor sacs, paired cavities under the skin between the pelvis and tail base in both male and female beavers, whose contents blend with urine to mark territory. Trappers dry the sacs, then extract a tincture, resinoid or absolute. Most modern perfumery now relies on synthetic recreations.
How it smells
Dark, warm and leathery, with smoky, tar-like and faintly medicinal birch-tar facets. Beneath the animalic depth sit sweeter tones of dried fruit, hay and vanilla, plus a whiff of new leather and woodsmoke. Heavily diluted, it turns soft, suede-like and skin-warm.
In perfumery
A base-note fixative bringing leather, animalic warmth and long tenacity. It anchors chypres, fougeres and leather scents, pairing with birch tar, labdanum, oakmoss and tobacco. Castoreum builds the hide of leather scents, the warm drydown of classic orientals and the smoky depth of vintage Russian-leather styles.
Good to know
Beavers eat willow and poplar bark rich in salicin, giving castoreum a salicylate, almost aspirin-like character. It has long been used as a flavouring material as well as a perfumery one, though falling use and ethical concerns mean genuine castoreum is now rare and mostly synthetic.
Santalol
The single molecule that is sandalwood itself
What it is
Santalol is the principal aroma compound of natural sandalwood oil, a sesquiterpene alcohol existing as two isomers, alpha and beta. Together they make up roughly sixty to eighty-five percent of Santalum album oil. It is isolated from that oil or, increasingly, brewed by engineered yeast fermentation.
How it smells
Deeply woody and creamy, the unmistakable signature of sandalwood. The alpha isomer carries soft, smooth, milky warmth; the beta isomer adds a drier, spicier woody bite. Together they read rounded, lactonic and long-lasting, with none of the harshness or sharpness of many woody chemicals.
In perfumery
A base-note material and fixative used to rebuild or reinforce sandalwood character with a consistency natural oil cannot guarantee. It deepens woods, ambers and florals and lends creamy persistence, underpinning most modern sandalwood accords now that pure Santalum oil is scarce and costly.
Good to know
Because natural sandalwood is overharvested and expensive, researchers reconstructed the santalol pathway in baker's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, brewing the alpha and beta isomers from sugar by fermentation. This avoids felling mature trees and yields a traceable material of consistent origin, though the published yeast work produced a mixture of sesquiterpenols and remains a proof of concept.
Sugar Maple
Forest woodiness boiled down to golden syrup
What it is
The note evokes Acer saccharum, the North American sugar maple whose late-winter sap is tapped and boiled down to maple syrup. The tree itself yields no usable essential oil, so the perfumery note is an accord reconstructed from caramelized-sugar, woody and vanillic aroma molecules rather than an extract.
How it smells
Sweet and toasted, like warm maple syrup over a woody base. There is caramelized brown sugar, a buttery roundness, faint smoke and a dry cedar-like wood beneath. It opens rich and gourmand, then dries into a cozy, candied warmth without turning cloying.
In perfumery
A heart-to-base gourmand note adding edible sweetness, warmth and foody comfort. It pairs with cedar, Peru balsam, vanilla, tobacco and praline, grounding sugary accords in real wood. Showcased in Scents of Wood Praline in Maple, which candies maple syrup against cedar, guaiac wood and clove.
Good to know
It takes roughly forty liters of clear maple sap, boiled for hours, to make a single liter of syrup, and trees must be decades old before tapping. Maple's candied scent comes partly from sotolon, the same molecule behind fenugreek's curry-like aroma.
Vietnamese Oud
Refined, sweet Vietnamese agarwood approaching kinam grade
What it is
Oud from Aquilaria crassna grown in central Vietnam, with Khanh Hoa province and the city of Nha Trang holding legendary status among collectors. This is the homeland of kinam, also called kyara or ky nam, the rarest and most prized grade of agarwood ever formed.
How it smells
The most refined of the regional ouds: sweet and honeyed, with candied citrus, creamy milk and buttered-raisin warmth, cool floral lift and clean resinous depth rather than barnyard funk. The finest material turns kinamic, an almost crystalline sweetness that reads spiritual and serene.
In perfumery
Reserved for the highest tier of natural oud work. Its polished sweetness needs little correcting, making it a centerpiece in artisanal mukhallats and rare attars. True Vietnamese oud, and especially kinam, is hoarded by collectors and almost never appears in commercial perfumery.
Good to know
Kinam forms only by an extreme, unpredictable natural accident, which is why connoisseurs say good agarwood is so hard to obtain. Sinking-grade Vietnamese wood now sells by the gram at prices rivaling precious stones, distilled in tiny lots by a handful of artisanal natural-oud houses.
Mongolian Musk
Sweet, chocolatey, earthy grade of deer musk
What it is
Mongolian musk is genuine deer musk from the Siberian musk deer of the Mongolian and southern Siberian mountain taiga, a CITES-listed regional grade distinct from the prized Tonkin musk of Vietnam. Like all real deer musk it is the dried pod secretion of the male animal, collected as dark grains and tinctured patiently by artisanal natural perfumers.
How it smells
Connoisseurs describe a sweet, almost chocolatey character laced with earthy, spicy and resinous depth, a sandy ambergris-like warmth turned more animalic. It is funkier and muddier than the prettier, more floral Tonkin profile, yet calmer and softer than the darkest, most feral Siberian musk.
In perfumery
Its weight and animalic richness make it a powerful fixative and a centerpiece note in all-natural compositions, where a trace lends brooding sensuality. A handful of artisanal natural houses have offered Mongolian musk tinctures, often pairing them with oud, whose smoky resin its earthy backbone complements beautifully.
Good to know
Tonkin has long been judged the finest musk, with steppe musks read as rougher and more barnyard, too funky for some daily wear. As real deer musk it is CITES restricted and used only by tiny artisanal natural houses. Most so-called musk on the market is unrelated synthetic material.
Fragrance Character
The opening crackles with tart fruit and spice, projecting with real force before green tobacco and amyris draw it inward. In the heart, oud and cassia add dry resinous heat while hay and vetiver keep it grounded and slightly wild. The drydown is long and enveloping, all woodsmoke, beeswax, musk, and amber, wearing close to skin but never quite releasing its grip.
Longevity
how long it stays on skin
This gauge reads the expected wear time, how many hours the fragrance keeps speaking on skin before it fades. A marker near the low end means a few fleeting hours, while a marker pushed to the far end promises a scent still present from morning into night.
Sillage
the size of its scent trail
This reads how far the fragrance reaches beyond you and the trail it leaves behind. Low sits soft against the skin, an intimate whisper noticed only up close; high climbs through moderate and strong toward enormous, filling a room and lingering in the air after you have left it.
Experimental
For the bold and curious
Unconventional, boundary-pushing scents for someone who wants to provoke a reaction and stand apart. Suited to artistic, challenging compositions: inky tar, rubber, fermented fruit, metallic or animalic facets that defy easy liking. On this wheel a glowing coin means it rewards the adventurous nose, a dim one means it plays things safe.
Office
Polished but never overpowering
Close-quarters professional settings where a scent should be noticed only by those near you. Suited to restrained, clean compositions with modest projection: tidy citrus, soft musk, pale woods that read competent and considerate. On this wheel a glowing coin means it works in shared workspaces, a dim one means it carries too far.
Evening
After dark, turned up
Dinners, drinks, and nights out when a fragrance can deepen and project with confidence. Suited to richer, warmer compositions: ambers, resins, smoky woods, or plush florals that bloom under low light. On this wheel a glowing coin means the scent comes alive after sundown, a dim one means it stays better suited to daytime.
Romantic
Close enough to be felt
Intimate moments and date nights meant to draw someone nearer. Suited to warm, sensual compositions that hum against skin: creamy florals, vanilla, soft musk, a touch of spice or amber that invites closeness. On this wheel a glowing coin means it sets an alluring mood, a dim one means it leans more practical than seductive.
Formal
Refined for the occasion that matters
Weddings, ceremonies, galas, and dressed-up affairs that call for composure and elegance. Suited to polished, structured scents with quiet authority: smooth woods, refined florals, soft leather, nothing loud or playful. On this wheel a glowing coin means it carries the right gravitas, a dim one means it feels too casual for the room.
Casual
Easy comfort for unhurried days
Everyday wear with no agenda: errands, coffee, friends, a slow weekend. Suited to soft, approachable scents that feel clean and natural, like fresh citrus, light woods, or a gentle skin warmth. On this wheel a glowing coin means the fragrance fits these laid-back moments, a dim one means it asks for more.
Day to Night
where its mood naturally falls
This slider reads the hour the fragrance was made for. A marker to the left leans luminous and bright, easy in daylight and open air; slide it right and the character turns deeper and warmer, the kind of presence that belongs to evening and candlelit rooms.
Winter
Warmth that carries through cold air
Cold air mutes and slows a fragrance, so winter rewards the dense and the warm: resins, smoke, vanilla, leather, and ambered spice that radiate heat against the chill. The bar shows how strongly this particular scent holds up and glows in cold weather.
Spring
Fresh blooms in mild, rising warmth
Mild, humid air lifts lighter compositions beautifully, so spring favors dewy florals, green stems, soft powder, and transparent citrus that feel alive rather than heavy. The bar shows how well this particular scent matches that fresh, gently warming season.
Summer
Bright and airy in real heat
Heat amplifies and projects scent hard, so summer calls for cool, crisp, breathable things: sharp citrus, salty marine air, aromatic herbs, and watery freshness that refresh instead of cloy. The bar shows how comfortably this particular scent wears in real warmth.
Fall
Spiced warmth for cooling days
As temperatures drop, richer materials read clearly without smothering, so autumn suits dry woods, warm spice, tobacco, amber, and golden fruit that feel cozy and contemplative. The bar shows how naturally this particular scent settles into crisp, cooling days.
Best Worn
Made for the cold half of the year and the hours after dark, for wood fires, wool, and the specific pleasure of a room that smells like it has history.
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The Vibe
The Nose
Jono Bornstein
Founder and perfumer
Founder and perfumer of Folkwinds, launched in 2022 to showcase North American aromatic materials. He works over 90 percent natural and American sourced, on Folkwinds American Pharoah, Folkwinds Cloud Illusions, Folkwinds Santi Ana, Folkwinds Jasper No Kodo and Folkwinds Smoke Jumping.
More by this noseJasper No Kodo 2Midwinter StormJasper no Kodō III
The Maison
Folkwinds
Foraged perfumery: wild herbs, resins and woods gathered before they are distilled.
Folkwinds smells like the edge of a forest after weather has moved through it. Real foraged materials and stacked oud registers, leaning strange and beautiful rather than polite. Expect fermented fruit, cold resins, damp bark, smoke, and orris so dense it reads as a texture instead of a note. Runs vary between batches, which is part of the point.
- Known for
- Foraged naturals, stacked oud
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