By BR Merilyn
Don’t you think that “smell” is one of our most intriguing senses?
Just like looking at an old photo of yourself at a party from years ago where your hair, (courtesy of Madonna), outfit, (courtesy of Shanton), and bright orange lipstick, smeared halfway across your face, (courtesy of too many free rum and cokes) can instantly catapult you back to the night of that work party where you….(erm..well, never mind!).
So, can just one sniff of a fragrance have you falling back in time, the memories of where you were when you wore it, rushing back like it was yesterday.
Charlie by Revlon (God I wanted to be the girl on that skateboard in the ads) was my very first fragrance, closely followed (back in the day) by Just Musk by Jovan (musk!) and Murasaki by Shiseido polling third in the teenage assortment.
The arrival of my early 20’s (in the 80’s) and entry into the workforce, brought on the introduction of the big guns to go hand in hand with the power suits. YSL’s Opium was the fragrance of choice when I was working at one of my very first jobs and at the time I must have been on a bit of a YSL bender as the sophistication of Rive Gauche from the same house closely followed.
I just love the fragrance halls in department stores. The sheer glossiness of it all, the shiny packaging, the promise of finding something new that no one else has and in particular the fragrances themselves. There are new ones with uncapped potential that I haven’t smelt yet, and old ones containing keys to unlock memories I haven’t thought about for years.
Wandering through David Jones in Aussie recently , I pick up a bottle of Dior’s Dune – the orange bottle with a wave containing the very smell of the ocean instantly takes me back to hot summers in my 20’s flatting with girlfriends right on Takapuna Beach. We played volleyball, swam in the ocean on the hot balmy nights and had nothing better to think about then where the next Saturday’s party was going to be.
Calvin Klein’s Eternity was next, a crisp almost sharp fragrance with very lemony top notes; I wore it around the US when I did my 6-week Contiki tour. It was very distinctive and, at the time very much the fragrance of the moment. While I was in the US I fell for and wore, Safari by Ralph Lauren, one of the few spicy fragrances I have ever tried – I loved it and it very much fitted into that wandering period of my life.
Meandering across to the Estee Lauder counter was like coming home after being away for years. The crisp White Linen was my signature fragrance in the 90’s surrendering to the appropriately named Beautiful for a while, and then onto Estee Lauder Pleasures. I remember vividly wearing this to a friends wedding in Fiji, accompanied by an orange dress with flowers in my hair. Sadly the fragrance has outlived both the marriage and the bridegroom, but how amazing that one sniff of it can bring the fabulous memories of that occasion some 18 years later!
These days, I have a handful of fragrances that I switch between. My fragrance preferences have now settled firmly into favoring light fresh and fruity notes so I alternate between Clinique’s Happy (nothing like the power of positive thinking!) and Princess by Vera Wang, and Gucci Rush 2 (never the 1)
So what do you think? Do any of my fragrances bring back memories for you? If not tell us about how your favourite fragrances take you back.
Oh yes, the beuatiful 80s - my time!! I remeber wearing Max Factor's "Epris". It was divine - soft and feminine and I remember a rather rough and unpleasant fellow I walked past in a hotel telling me he loved my pefume and it made me 'smell like a woman"! Mixed feelings about that!!!! Anyway, I really loved that perfume and was broken hearted when it went off the market.