Hot matcha lattes, sweaters pulled out of storage, leaves turning: fall has arrived, and with the -ber months comes the annual urge to look back at the year before it closes. Smell is one of the fastest routes to that feeling. A single whiff of a particular perfume can drop you into a specific December, a specific coat, a specific person. It makes sense that this is the season when people start rethinking what they wear on their skin.
The season-one finale of the podcast Nose Dive leans into that impulse. Host Asia Grant sits down with celebrity astrologer Aliza Kelly, who hosts the Astrolotea podcast, to talk about fragrance and the zodiac, and about what 2027 holds for each sign. The framing is playful: a cosmic shopping guide for anyone who wants a scent that feels written in the stars.
Why perfume and astrology keep meeting
On paper, the two have little in common. One is chemistry and craft, the other is a calendar of birth dates. In practice, both are ways of talking about personality without having to be literal. Nobody wears a perfume to announce their job title, and nobody reads a horoscope for logistics. Both are about mood, temperament, and the story you’d like to tell about yourself.
Kelly puts the purpose of her work plainly. “Astrology is about embodiment [and] celebrating yourself,” she says. “It’s about building confidence, knowing what makes you special, and understanding other people.” A signature scent fits that description well. It’s a small, daily decision about how you want to be perceived at arm’s length, which makes it a natural companion to a practice built around self-knowledge.
Fire signs: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
Grant and Kelly start with the fire signs, and the brief is bold and passionate. “This is giving something that’s pretty, spicy, and warm,” Grant says. Her own picks for this group are incense, leather, and ginger, three notes that each carry heat in a different way.
Incense brings smoke and ritual, a sense of occasion. Leather adds a lived-in, slightly dangerous edge. Ginger is the sparkplug, bright and biting, the note that keeps a warm fragrance from going sleepy. Together they sketch a scent that walks into a room before the person does, which suits signs known for being impossible to overlook.
Ylang-ylang also makes the list, and Grant’s reasoning is more about era than ingredient. “Something about it is so ’90s perfume coded,” she says. “It feels very solar and fiery to me.”
That is a useful clue for shoppers. The fire-sign profile isn’t only about spice. It also covers the sunny, unapologetic florals associated with 1990s perfume counters, so a fire sign who finds leather and ginger too severe has another way in.
Earth signs: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
The conversation then moves to the earth signs, whose grounded, no-nonsense temperament calls for something equally distinctive. Grant describes the group with the phrase “a control and unyieldingness,” and she wants scents with a strong, specific point of view. For her, that means vetiver.
Kelly agrees, and her explanation is the most quotable moment of the segment. “It’s because it’s such a straightforward note. What you see is what you get,” she says. “It’s like there’s not really that much wiggle room with a vetiver.” The translation is that an earth sign’s fragrance doesn’t need to do much to make its point. It simply needs to be clear about what it is.
How to use a zodiac scent guide without overthinking it
Treat the pairings as a starting point for sampling rather than a rulebook. A sign-based shortlist narrows an overwhelming wall of bottles into a handful of notes worth testing: incense, leather, ginger, and ylang-ylang if you’re a fire sign, vetiver if you’re an earth sign. Spray them on skin, wait an hour, and see whether the description still fits the person wearing it.
There’s also a case for ignoring your own sign entirely. Kelly’s point that astrology is about understanding other people suggests another use: a gift. If someone you love is a Leo or a Capricorn, their sign gives you a place to begin when buying for them. If a bottle is on your shopping list this season, Sephora’s holiday sale is one place to look.
The idea underneath all of it is that your perfume wardrobe is allowed to change as the year does. Fall invites something warmer, and a new year invites a reset. Whether the stars have any say in it, 2027 is arriving either way, and you’ll need something to wear into it.
