Our Favorite Fall Scents (And Our Least Favorites As Well)

The official start of autumn is September 22, but let's face it, once the PSL has made an appearance (and it has), it's fall. And that isn't so bad! The air will be crisp, the leaves will change color, and certain evocative smells will waft on the breeze. Good smells like wood smoke from a cabin's chimney, but also not-so-good smells, like the pungent scent of mothballs that linger on your winter clothes as you unpack them from storage. Here then is the definitive olfactory playlist of fall, along with how to hit skip on the stinkers.

Football Funk

So you have a favorite football team and a favorite room to watch them play in. Then you have your favorite jersey that you need to wear when your team is playing. And of course, nothing can get washed if you have a winning streak going. Add in some spilled beer in the rug, a fine dusting of Doritos on the coffee table, and a soupçon of stale pizza that permeates the upholstery, and you have the classic fall smell known as "football funk". Not great. The solution: Yankee Candle has what you need to clear the air in the room. Light their "Moonbeams on Pumpkins" candle to get the scent of warm vanilla and nutmeg throughout your space.

Brussel Bombs

Fall cooking is one of the best things about the season. However, even the most delicious tasting recipe can pack an olfactory punch that lingers after the dishwasher has been loaded. Take for instance the humble brussel sprout, a lovely member of the cruciferous family to be sure, but also a vegetable whose overwhelming scent often overstays its welcome in the kitchen. What can be done? The solution: Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. Head over to Bed Bath & Beyond for fall baking essentials that will help to overpower the scent of any side dishes. An apple peeler can help get the kitchen smelling like apple pie (after a few more steps), or pick up a 13-piece cookie press set to help fill the air with the heady aroma of fresh sugar cookies.

Superfluous Smoke

Can you really ever get too much of a good thing? Anyone who has spent an evening at an autumn bonfire knows that the answer is yes. Sure, there's nothing as sweet as wood smoke as you're swigging your spiked apple cider and warming your hands close to the flames, but when you wake up in the morning smelling like your hair is on fire, you just want it out. Short of shaving your head, how can you come clean? The solution: Fresh, invigorating ginger in the form of Ginger Scalp Care Shampoo from The Body Shop has you covered! The scent of ginger is pure fall, and your hair and scalp will thank you for the soothing properties of birch and white willow bark extract.

Body By The Train Tracks

It's the start of fall, school is about to begin, and you overheard that there might be a dead body down by the train tracks. You're a curious kid so of course you're going to gather your friends for a seminal adventure that will illustrate your collective loss of innocence and your first tentative and stumbling steps into the ambiguous world of adulthood, but have you considered how that body is going to smell? More than 30 years after the theatrical release of one of Stephen King's most affecting coming-of-age stories (no, not the one that just got remade), "Stand By Me" has become a quintessential movie about the end of summer, and all that that theme entails. Ergo, we arrive at the fact that a decaying corpse by the side of the tracks will now and forever be an enduring smell of fall. I don't make the rules, people, I'm just here to come up with fixes. The solution: More fall-scented candles. A lot of them. After you lie to your parents about how you'll be spending the weekend, stuff your pack with such fall classics from Bath & Body Works as Leaves, Sweater Weather, and Bourbon Maple. And don't forget the leech repellant.

Wet Wool

Following the somewhat magical scent of a fall thunderstorm is the somewhat unmagical scent of damp wool. If you get caught in a shower unprepared, your socks or sweater can smell like the sheep they came from. The solution: Counter the livestock smell with a spritz of something from Sephora. Get thematic with Commodity's Wool Travel Spray, featuring a light smokey scent and touches of bourbon vanilla, or try the powerful fall smells of cedar and incense with the aptly named Incense & Cedrat from Jo Malone London. Did we forget any fall smells? Let us know in the comments!