Beauty Care: Maison Margiela Autumn Vibes Perfume Review

Maison Margiela Autumn Vibes Eau de Toilette begins with a swirl of aromatic spices–pepper, cardamom, coriander, nutmeg–but ultimately shifts into a dry, warm cedar within a few minutes that sweetens with maple syrup over the next several huors of wear. There are hints of pine, darker resins, and rooty sweetness at different points in development, but Autumn Vibes is largely a cedar fragrance. The notes are listed as:

top notes: pink peppercorns essence, cardamom essence, coriander essence
heart notes: carrot seeds essence, nutmeg essence, olibanum essence
base notes: cedarwood essence, moss accord, fir balsam absolute, labdanum resinoid

It has a harsh, peppery hit that tickled my nose initially, before sweetening with freshly dug-up carrots and flanked by spicy cardamom ad nutty coriander that combined with the dry cedar smelled almost cumin-like. The opening was quite aromatic, but the intensity dropped as the cedar and fir amplified, which made the spices run together and seem more like a piquant, nutty blend of savory spice. The carroty sweetness popped in and out over the first five minutes before settling against the dry cedar adding an earthy sweetness.

After 15 minutes, a dry, warm cedar took centerstage and remained the focal point of Autumn Vibes through its drydown. The sweetness shifted from rooty and earthy to darker, thicker, and more resinous, like maple syrup.

Application

For testing, I used 1/3 of a 0.7ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise.

Longevity

It lasted for seven hours until it was a skin-scent and about 10 hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage and projection were moderate with the sillage dropping faster than the projection after three hours of wear.

Personal Thoughts

I thought I’d love “maple syrup” as a sweetener against cedar, but it felt almost less like pure maple syrup and more like the idea of maple syrup, not quite thick and dark enough to satisfy my preferences. For someone who loves dry cedar but perhaps finds other fragrances too dry with cedar, the sweetness of this definitely gave it a smoother feel.