What Would Your Life Look Like Measured Out in Perfume?

Perfume, by nature, lurks in the background, often exerting unconscious effects on mood, attraction, and even cognitive function. So it makes sense that perfume may hover over people's memories of their lives like pale spirits, largely ignored or unacknowledged. Some may feel as if perfume had no effect on them at all — until prompted to remember. And then suddenly, there's the memory of what Mother or Father wore. Or their first fragrance. Or what someone's hair or skin smelled like the first time they kissed them.

I've always loved perfume, but I seem to have been more of a kid perfumista than an adult one. (Until recently, of course.) My mother was a wearer of grand fragrances, so I had a head-start there (Femme, Scherrer, Magie Noire, etc.) And I associated perfume with freedom and exploration, because it was at the mall where I was dropped off as a kid/tween that I sprayed perfume with abandon, trying everything I could get my little paws on. Between the Sanrio store, Waldenbooks, and whatever department store with a perfume counter there was in the early 80s in Fayetteville, Arkansas — it was there that my constellation of desires was borne.

There was a long period of my adult life when I wore whatever came my way, without particular gusto. My renewed interest in perfume came through reading Perfumes: The Guide, and needing to smell everything Tania and Luca wrote about. (I imagine this was many a perfume lover's gateway book.) My gateway drug perfumes? Vintage Diorella and Lutens' Muscs Koublai Khan.

So without further ado, here is a list of perfumes that have marked my life thus far. (I'm sure I'm leaving something out.) I'd love to see your list as well!

                                                                ------------

• Earliest memory of perfume: I'm five, and my father has brought back from Hawaii three "island flower" perfumes whose plastic caps are in the shape of a flower. The perfumes smell exotic. The liquid inside is viscous and sticks to the cap like egg whites.

• Cherie, a girl in my third grade class who lisps, has cute crooked teeth, and tries to kiss me at recess, wears a lemon perfume. This is a happy scent and memory.

• My mother wears Charlie and goes to university. It smells smart and daring to me.

• At the mall during one of my explorations at the perfume counter, I discover Calvin Klein's first eponymous fragrance. It smells like apples and fall to me. I'm in love with the simple bottle, too, and put it on every chance I can get.

• My beloved grandmother wears L'Air du Temps, until the very end. I can't smell it without thinking of her.

• My piano teacher smokes menthol cigarettes and wears a very strong, indolic floral that to this day I'm trying to remember. (Fracas? Joy?) Whatever it is, the combination of her mentholated cigarette breath and smokey clothes plus that perfume (plus the spearmint gum she chews to try to cover up the cigarette smell!) leave a lasting olfactory impression on me. Perhaps the most pungent one! Combined with her raspy voice, wild glasses, and smart polyester pant suits, Mrs. Foley, if she could be olfactorily summed up, smelled to me like diesel fuel and flowers.

• A cousin gives me a violet soliflore for a present. Its sweetness depresses me, and I never wear it.

• A cousin I admire wears Oscar de la Renta. My favorite aunt wears Charles of the Ritz.

• In high school, I decide I love Grey Flannel and don't care if it's for men. I feel daring wearing it with my private school jumper and little white socks. (It definitely competes with Ralph Lauren's Polo, which all the boys are wearing.) I also love Lauren, and flirt with Chanel's Cristalle, which I'm given on a trip to Paris by a family friend. I'm sure Giorgio is in the picture somewhere...

• When I move away from home, my mother sends me off with a giant bottle of Diva, with the crystal stopper. I don't (can't?) wear it.

• In my 20s in New York, at college, I'm waitressing at a restaurant and the bartender, who really wants to be a jewelry designer, brings in a perfume blotter with an odd, refreshing scent I don't know what to make of. It's Bulgari Green Tea. A waitress at an earlier job wore Calyx, which made me swoon; I loved its fruity/sour/floral personality. I'd never smelled anything like it before.

• I move to San Francisco, and a succession of perfumes worn by women I have crushes on remain favorites to this day: Angel and Gucci Rush. A girlfriend wore Aveda's Creme Brilliant hair pomade and CKOne. (Strangely, I was more fond of the Aveda than the CKOne.)

• I start wearing Poison as if it's the 80s all over again, when I'm in the mood to get into some trouble. (It always works.)

• My partner in crime/best friend at the time, Susan T., wears Hanae Mori, a wispy vanillic floral that's way too powdery and feminine to me. She insists it's better than Angel, which she thinks is the most disgusting perfume she's ever smelled.

• The only perfume I remember on a boyfriend is one I still don't know the name of. It's his mother's perfume, and it's odd and resiny and incongruous with his looks. (I'd also never met a dude who wore women's — vintage! — perfume.) Maybe that's why it sticks with me so much. So strange that I can still conjure up the memory of a perfume with no name, so many years later.

• I wear Gucci Rush, Angel, Bulgari Green Tea. And I discover Bulgari Black, which seems sexy and wild.

• Before I read Perfumes: The Guide and go perfume crazy, the last perfumes I purchase and wear are Tom Ford Black Orchid, Bulgari Eau Parfumée Au Thé Rouge, and some weird MAC perfume that smells like vanilla and booze.

And....the rest is history! I wear everything now, from vintage to niche to mainstream. But I'm about to get me some Gucci Rush. I miss that stuff, and it's going to be my summer fragrance.

What would your life look like measured out in perfume? Anything you'd still wear?

                                                                ---------

Artist Louise Bourgeois's installation Cell II, 1991 (in the above photo) is, to me, the most beautiful rendition in art of perfume's power. The first thing you see is a series of French doors. They're connected together to almost fully enclose what's inside: the table with empty/almost empty Shalimar bottles, next to which is a sculpture of hands held together as if fretful or worrying. In order to see what's inside (the doors seem to want to protect what's inside) you have to peek through an opening. You really feel like you're invading someone's privacy. The solid marble hands seem more fragile, somehow, than the empty bottles, one of the many paradoxes of perfume — how it endures like memory.

Comments

[Joan]

*The first perfume I wore was when I was about six. It was from a tiny Hello Kitty vial, which I still have. I loved that perfume so much that I diluted it with water all the time. You can barely smell it now.

*My grandmother wore anything freesia. I think she also had Madame Rochas. I used to smell all of her perfume bottles every time I visited her.

*When I was a kid, I had a scratch-and-sniff pony named Iris. She smelled exactly like Joy.

*I bought Anna Sui's Dolly Girl when I was 13.

*I used to wear a cheap goodie called Pavlova in high school. My friend and I sprayed on Caswell Massey's Casma, which came in a bottle with a bulb atomizer, before school dances.

*I had a group of gay friends in 2008 who wore Perry Ellis 360 Red, and used to fight about who wore it first. Little did they know that their community had been wearing it for years.

*One of the first perfumes I wore when I really started liking it was Lolita Lempicka. I also asked my dad for a bottle of Tabac. Not the Tabac we talk about. It's from a German brand and it comes in a 10 oz pour bottle.

[Perfumaniac]

Thanks for sharing this, Joan, I wasn't sure anyone would want to wade into the past like that! First off, it's very touching that you diluted your first love, Hello Kitty. A true perfumista in the making. I'm also very intrigued by a scratch and sniff pony named Iris...who smells like Joy. Wait, what?? And I love the story about your Perry Ellis crew arguing about who wore it first. I hope that was fun to walk (sniff) down memory lane. It was fun for me to read it!

[bloody frida]

What a fun post to read!
I had a boyfriend that wore vetiver all the time - hence, why it makes me melancholy now!

Grey Flannel - yes!! If I wasn't testing samples today I'd spray some on.

[Perfumaniac]

Hi bloody frida: Bummer that vetiver makes you melancholy, now! I wonder if there's a way to reprogram that association with it. And yeah — Grey Flannel is timeless and genderless. I wish I had some to spray on! Thanks for stopping by.

[Steve Seyboth]

My first cologne was Hai Karate in the 70's. Followed by Old Spice, Tabac to name a few in the 80's. It wasn't until the late 80's that I found Aramis & Dior's Fahrenheit. Tuscany was another I grew to love in my 20's. I bought a bottle of Old Spice last week to relive my youth a little.

[Perfumaniac]

Hi Steve, I've seen Hai Karate in passing but don't know anything about it. Was it an Asian-themed cologne? As for the others in your list, I see men list Fahrenheit a lot. (And I LOVE Aramis and wear it myself.) Just last night, a friend was listing his current wardrobe: Tobacco Vanille by Tom Ford...and Old Spice. It's a favorite! Thanks for leaving a comment.

[Steve Seyboth]

It was some sort of oriental. From what I remember, it lasted an hour or so before it had completely vanished.

[Jonno]

I love this post.

[Perfumaniac]

Jonno! More, more. You're supposed to answer the question!

[Anna in Edinburgh]

I recall using my mother's "Magie Noire" and "Myrugia" when I was at secondary school, simply because she didn't use them for some reason.
When I was working, I wore "Lauren" (which came in a sample vial when I bought a RL holdall so I got a second holdall to get another perfume vial!); it took a while to get hold of a bottle.
I also wore "Climat" (until the bottle leaked) at work and then at university. I've still got "Lauren" and "Anais Anais" from those long-ago days.
You recently wrote about "Blue Carnation" and I wore a dupe of that during post-grad studies, and an oil dupe of "Opium" called "Poppy" (still got it, still good). And Body Shop oils ("Vanilla" and "Chypre" date back to mid-80s, I think, and are still fine; "Dewberry" and "Winter Dew" date to 1990). I've even got some original vials of Cosmetics To Go frags, as well as initial Lush ones, but I think I've monopolised this long enough so I won't keep going!

Thanks for indulging my stroll down Memory Lane. Funny how I keep the old scents but don't often wear them: onwards and upwards instead!

[Anna in Edinburgh]

Oops - I meant to write "Maja" by Myrugia ... time for bed it seems!

[Perfumaniac]

Hi Anna in Edinburgh: You're not monopolizing anything! I love that you gave me an inside look into your perfume history; it's as if I got to peek into the L.Bourgeois-esque French doors to see what empty bottles were lying around. So we've got some Chypres, aldehydic florals and Dewberry, which I recall liking too. And god bless perfume samples and specials; I love Lauren, too! (Its reformulation, not so much). What are you wearing these days? Anything you used to? Thanks for stopping by!

[Barbara]

I have no real early perfume memories. My mother wore no perfume. She had a bottle of Evening in Paris and kept it in its box in her top dresser drawer.

In my teens I babysat for a family and the woman would wear Chanel No.5 when they went out, so every time I smell it I think of her!

When I was 18 I got a job at a drugstore and was in charge of the candy and perfume sections (my loves to this day!). I started wearing Calvin Klein (the original and only Calvin Klein scent I've ever liked). Some others I remember wearing were Jontue, Tatiana, Bonne Bell Skin Musk, Jovan Musk, Alyssa Ashley Ambergis, Alyssa Ashley Musk, Coty Earth Scents (compact of solid perfumes) and something with Bleue in the name that I loved but wasn't around long.

Then I graduated to department store perfumes. My favorite scent was Charles of the Ritz (your aunt's). I went through at least 3 bottles of it and have no recollection of what it smells like and could kick myself for using it up and not keeping the last bottle of it. I guess I didn't know I would become such a fumehead!

Opium was my other love and alas it doesn't smell the same now! Read about Eau Savage somewhere and sought it out and loved it. Oscar de la Renta, Shalimar, Guess, Bill Blass Nude, Samsara. Bijan (donut-hole bottle) was in heavy use - men loved that one! Can you tell I was in my twenties in the '80s? My best friend wore Giorgio,
an istant migraine for me!

Another scent I wish I still had was Om by the Gap - my first incensey fragrance.

Got married in my 30's and wore Coco Chanel for my husband cause he loved it ( and sometimes still do!). Black Cashmere was my favorite for a long time.

Then came the interwebernets and I started ordering things on-line.
Perfume blog reading followed and now I am drowning in sample vials.
My tastes have evolved to Guerlains, Carons, Malles, L'Artisans, and others to numerous to mention!

Thanks for a great post and allowing me to stroll down memory lane!

[Barbara]

Oh no - menopause brain! Forgot about Obsession, a Calvin Klein scent I do like and wore in the 80's!

[Perfumaniac]

Hi Barbara. Thanks for your comment! (I'm Barbara, too. :-)

I wonder why your mother didn't wear the Evening in Paris she had in her dresser. Did she not like it, or did she not want to waste it? Whatever the case, it sounds like you made up for all the perfume she didn't wear!

Your job as a teenager selling candy and perfume sounds
dreamy! I didn't realize they sold Calvin Klein's first perfume at drugstores, too. I saw my first bottle at the mall. That stuff is great! I found a mini a few years ago I
treasure, and it's one of the few vintages I've worn out that people have said they loved. It's a pity no one talks about it!

It sounds like you got heavily into musks! I have a lot of the ones you're talking about. I love them, and I'm about to do a Coty Wild Musk review. I really want to get some Charles of the Ritz, for myself, and for my aunt! I remember I liked it and the metallic gold (?) bottle? Ritzy! I also want to try Bill Blass Nude, Bijan, and Om. And yes, Obsession's nice. Don't think I ever did a review though! Thanks for
walking down PerfuMEMORY Lane with us!

[Barbara]

I knew you were Barbara from your profile and I believe I've read your posts on other blogs. After I stopped lurking and started some commenting I realized I should have used a different name!

I think my mother didn't wear it because she just doesn't wear perfume. I started giving her some testers during my drugstore days and she never wore any of them! She's an Ivory Soap and that's it woman!

Yes - I have definitely made up for her between the perfumes and my shower gels!

[Perfumaniac]

Barbara, that makes me feel better that she just wasn't into it rather than that she held onto it not using it. I think I've done that before and it actually makes no sense. Life is short. Spray that perfume! (And use that gel!) And then get more. No worries about calling yourself your own name, Barbara! I'm strictly Perfumaniac around these here parts, anyway. Glad you stopped lurking and started commenting!

[Anna in Edinburgh]

PerfuMemory Lane is a nifty bit of naming, Perfumaniac!

I've recently been given a vial of old "Maja" to play with, and I was in two minds about using it - would I morph into the awkward teen I was when I wore it if I put it on? Would it smell the same? (See, this is why I don't generally seek more of a scent when I no longer have it, just as I don't wear My Mother's Scents. Potentially too weird.)

Being brave, I dabbed it on my wrist, and it smells totally different to the late-70s version I have in mind. I'll have to try it again because it was completely unfamiliar. Perplexing.

I like the sound of some of Barbara's Past Perfumes: imagine working on a counter with sweets and perfumes *and* getting paid for it! Heaven.

[Perfumaniac]

Anna, Was Maja different because it had been reformulated, or because it didn't conform to your memory — or is it hard to say? I agree with you that some scents are too loaded with (weird and/or negative) personal associations to wear again without being a little masochistic. And yes — my fantasy perfume shop would definitely have candies (and kewdra sp? essence) and aromatic oddities. From my lips to Gods ears...

[Anna in Edinburgh]

Hi Perfumaniac,

Maja in my memory was spicy and reckless and exotic, so a little went a long way; the vial of vintage Maja seemed rosy and oily, somehow, when I tried it. Not familiar to my nose/memory. It's very strange!

I don't know if the vintage was older than the late 70s version I knew (which was in a little bottle, not very broad and narrow in the width, with a flamenco dancer in a red dress on the label, I think) but it was like a different scent altogether. Intriguing enough for me to have to follow it up some more.

Here's to Fantasy Perfume Shops that stock all your kinds of goodies;-)

[noetic owl]

This was a great read! I laughed at your story about Greay Flannel as I was caught wearing it by a gay businessman who sensing my embarrassment when he discovered my perfume choice confessed that he wore Sweet Honesty in private!
My perfume history has been long and extensive (40 plus years). And I have my own little book of every scent I ever wore (400+ )alphabetized. When I peruse it I can recollect just about every scent and where I was in my life when I wore them. Some I have revisited and the nostalgia they create can be bittersweet.

My mother wore anything gifted to her and shared it all with me so as a child/tween I wore many classics (Diors, Lauders, Chanels,etc).

My best friend in high school was up on all the latest scents so in my attempt to keep up with her I had bottles of Chloe, Halston, Oscar de la Renta, Giorgio,etc.

My first love insisted I wear only three fragrances- Nocturnes, Calyx and Nikki de Sainte Phalle and they were staples in my early 20s.

I introduced my best friend in college to Annick Goutal and we had a terrrible influence on each other-as in we ended up with 8 full bottles each from all our visits to SFA in NYC.

Three years ago I discovered the world of perfume blogging and was introduced to many niche/indie lines- my favorites now are Sonoma Scent Studio, Ineke and 100o Flowers.

However, I always go back to my vintage roots- I have a stash of vintage vials and my husband swears I look like an addict hovering over my pile of vials, sniffing away!

Perfume has and will always continue to be a ubiquitous part of my life!

[50_Roses]

I have loved perfume for as long as I can remember. My earliest perfume memories are of sniffing all the perfume bottles on my mother's dressing table and dabbing them on when I could. Strangely, my mother had quite a lot of perfume for her time and generation--at least 15 or 20 full bottles--but seldom wore any of them. She had Arpege, no. 5, Blue Carnation, l'Origan, Blue Grass, D'Orsay Divine, and others I have forgotten the names of.

My very first perfume of my own was an Avon rollerball. I don't even know if it had a name. I just remember it labeled as "fragrance rollette".

The first perfume I had that *did* have a name was a bottle of Coty Muguet des Bois that was a Christmas gift from my great-aunt when I was about 10. I wore it sparingly, not knowing when or if the next bottle would come along. I still wear this from time to time (I tracked down some vintage, as I understand the current formulation is terrible), as I love it for its freshness and simplicity.

In junior high I had Shulton Blue Jeans and a Coty Sweet Earth solid perfume compact. When the Blue Jeans ran out, I debated getting another bottle, but decided against it as I had gotten a bottle of Love's Baby Soft and though they smelled too much alike to justify having both. I should have bought up all the Blue Jeans I could and stored it away. When it shows up on eBay, it goes for truly astonishing prices.

In high school, I acquired Emeraude and Heaven Sent, as well as another bottle of Muguet des Bois (the bottle from my great-aunt having run dry). I think I had some sort of musk, as well, perhaps Coty Wild Musk. I was definitely on a drugstore budget.

In college, I began to acquire my own bottles of some of the classics I had learned to love from my mother's dressing table--no. 5, Arpege, Blue Grass, and My Sin. I got a bottle of Pheromone, partly because I liked the Egyptology angle, and partly because I was intrigued by the idea of owning the most expensive anything in the world, even if it was only the much less expensive EdT. It turned out to be one of the few perfumes my hyposmic boyfriend (now husband of 21 years) could smell clearly.

In grad school, I wore Poison. I fell in love with it from a scent strip in a magazine (not always a good idea, I know) and ordered a bottle of it my mail, as it was exclusive to Bloomingdale's at the time and there was no Bloomie's near me. I still had my Arpege, no. 5, etc., so I really had a true perfume wardrobe. I also loved visiting the Crabtree and Evelyn store at the mall in San Antonio, loved to pamper myself with their soaps--one of the few splurges I could afford. My boyfriend gave me Tabu for Christmas one year, and I loved it. I also had a dupe of Coco. I was definitely on an Oriental kick.

In the mid-90's I picked up a copy of Jan Moran's "Fabulous Fragrances". It was a real eye-opener. I had no idea there were that many perfumes out there! I started seeking out some of these wonderful scents previously unknown to me. I found a really good Guerlain counter at one of the Houston area malls, and bought Apres l'Ondee, Jicky, Parure, Vol de Nuit (instant love!), Liu, and l'Heure Bleue. I fell head-over-heels for Feminite du Bois during the (seemingly) five minutes that it was offered for sale in the U.S., and bought it on the spot. I sniffed a few Annick Goutals. By this time, my collection had grown to probably 20 or 30 bottles.

Two years ago, I finally got home internet access, and with it, found the online perfume community and internet perfume shopping. I haven't counted my bottles lately. I almost don't want to know. I think it is about 50 or 60, but it could be more. Add in 200 or 300 sample vials, and I am definitly a full-fledged crazy perfumista. I am finding that as I get older, my tastes are changing, and not in the way you might expect. I used to be crazy about heavy orientals, but now, not so much. The Poison I loved 25 years ago is unbearable now. Tabu is just too much. I still love Vol de Nuit, but can only wear it in cold weather. Feminite du Bois is still gorgeous (I have backup bottles of the Shiseido version), but also only for cooler weather. I wasn't crazy about green scents, and I used to wear Pheromone mainly because my husband could smell it, but now I have finally learned to love it--now that my original bottle has run dry. I still love floral aldehydes, and probably always will. I try to wear perfume whenever I can. I have so much that there is not way I will ever run out. Perfume is meant to be worn and loved and enjoyed, not hoarded for "special occasions" that never seem to arrive.

[Lydia Fox]

Oh I love this post. I'm 71 raising 4 grandchildren, 2 of them girls, 8 and 14. I began wearing perfume at 10 when I went into the restroom at the Paramount Theater in Cincinnati. This was 1951. My dad was having choir rehearsal at a local church and my folks could drop me off as the theater manager always kept an eye on me. In the restroom was INTOXICATION by D'orsay. I sprayed some on, immediately fell in love and was hooked on perfume ever since. I've been through so many I cannot remember all the names. Right now, I've got some of my favorites, Raffinee, Royal Secret, Shalimar, Chantilly, Ciara, Windsong, Nude, Private Collection, and more. My girls love perfume too. I have the Cotton Candy spray and the Lemon Sugar spray and some others that are light and happy! I love different ones all the time. I could never just settle on one. Perfume is one of God's gifts to womankind. Maybe to mankind to, but I wear it for me!

[Perfumaniac]

I love that you wore Grey Flannel, too, and I want my little paws on that book, noetic owl! That would be some awesome reading. It sounds like you HAVE measured your life in perfume, and I find that so incredibly beautiful. You basically have a perfume diary that marks important points in your life. (By the way, I really need to find some Sweet Honesty. That perfume has come up a few times in comments.) Thanks for stopping by, wise owl!

[Perfumaniac]

Epic, 50_Roses. Your life has been steeped to the gills in perfume. I asked this of another commenter, but I wonder why your mother didn't wear all those perfumes? Did she not like them? Did she buy them just to decorate her dresser? Did she want to save them as you say poignantly "for special occasions that never seem to arrive'? It's interesting how, for many of us, our first forays into perfume were what mom had. Your mention of Crabtree & Evelyn soaps (I grew up in Texas too! I was a teen in Ft. Worth) makes me want to rush out and buy their Jojoba shell-shaped soap. That scent will definitely take me back in time. I LOOOOOVED that soap. And I'm very curious about Shulton Blue Jeans and the Coty Sweet Earth scents. Interesting that the drugstore stuff is so expensive on eBay now...Thanks for sharing your wonderful scent history with us.