The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Summer Leaves arrived in 2019, part of a catalog that reads more like a diary than a product line. Where other compositions in the Siela archive lean dark or resinous, this one turned toward the season itself: the arc of summer as it bends from bright to fading. The name does what Sielaff's names tend to do, points at a feeling rather than a formula. Summer Leaves isn't trying to bottle a specific place. It bottles the specific moment when green starts thinking about gold. Sielaff approached this one with intention. The result is a green fragrance that refuses to stay green for long. Fig leaf opens with something cool and herbal, edged by neroli's citrus brightness, sharpened further by cypress.
What's interesting here is the structural choice. Most green fragrances build around a single bright material and call it done. Sielaff reached for fig leaf, neroli, and cypress in the opening, then introduced frankincense, tobacco, and vetiver as the composition deepened. Tree moss anchors the lower register, giving the green an earthy foundation that prevents it from floating away. That grounding is the move. Without something rooted underneath, this kind of fig leaf and neroli combination would drift into something purely fresh, a summer postcard.
The evolution
The first 20 minutes are the showoff phase. Fig leaf and neroli come in bright, almost milky, with cypress cutting through like cold air from an open window. There's a sweetness here that reads as the leaf's own vegetal character. Cypress gives it shape, a woody snap that keeps the green from going soft. Around the 30-minute mark, the handoff begins. Frankincense arrives with its warm, resinous breath, and tobacco follows close behind, dry and leafy rather than smoky. The cypress pulls back, and the tree moss starts speaking underneath. This is where the fragrance stops being a summer scent and becomes something more complex, something that remembers fall is coming. By hour 3 or 4, the drydown settles into a warm earthy place. Vetiver, tree moss, the ghost of tobacco. The fig leaf is still present in the background, woven into the base rather than floating on top.
Cultural impact
Summer Leaves sits comfortably among the green compositions that have found a second life through independent perfumery. Wearers who gravitate toward it tend to want green with weight, freshness with an edge. It shares that instinct with compositions like Arquiste Sydney Rock Pool and Imaginary Authors Yesterday Haze, fragrances that use place or season as a jumping-off point rather than a literal translation. What sets Summer Leaves apart from many of its peers is how far it travels from its starting point.
