Today's poll was suggested by reader Juicejones, and inspired by this quote from Oscar de la Renta — tell us about a favorite smell from your childhood. If there is a perfume that reminds you of it, tell us about that too.
Note: image is Sexy Curls [cropped] by Zaqqy J. at flickr; some rights reserved.
Good morning and happy weekend!
I was fortunate enough to grow up in a small beach town here in Oregon (Lincoln City, for those who know the area). My rather liberal parents let me go for walks to the beach alone at the age of 8. My strongest scent memory as a kid is of the salty beach air mixed with pine sap, maybe smoke from fireplaces.
I am immediately transported to those long walks on my own when I get a whiff of beach and pine and smoke, but I don’t really want a fragrance that mimics it. The salty scents I’ve smelled remind me of gutted fish rather than beach freshness (ala Womanity). 🙂
Oh, and totally OT, but I am celebrating this week–as of Wednesday, I have officially lost 40 pounds (over 3 years)! I am going out to buy some cute clothes this morning in celebration. 😀
That is absolutely fantastic! Congratulations!
Finally, for those who enjoy my dating craziness, I had a big disappointment this week–a guy I was really excited to meet sent me a “I’d really like to meet, but there’s something we should discuss first” email. Turns out he has certain, uh, *activity preferences* that are highly unusual. I had to inform him that I didn’t think we’d be a match after all. I consider myself pretty openminded, but this was something I couldn’t imagine being a part of my life. So, trying to keep the faith this weekend!
You carry on keeping the faith, MR! At least he warned you … One of my best friends celebrated his 50th birthday by going on a matchmaking site, and a year later was married to a lovely woman. A year after that they had twins. And now, ten years later, they are still a very happy family. So, keep strong.
Yeah, I actually sort of admire his willingness to share before he meets a girl, even if I think it’s gonna make it very difficult for him to find a compatible match!
I wen through years of dating mishaps before I met my amazing husband. Keep persevering!
Okay, now I’m *dying* to know what those “activity preferences” might be (though I totally understand if they must remain euphemized in this forum).
Happy shopping, though, and congratulations!
Me too. 🙂
Not sure if Robin will want to delete this. . . I won’t be offended if she does! BUT, I didn’t want to post it right at the top of the thread, either!
In any case, he informed me that he’s a cross-dresser, but specifically, he enjoys dressing up as a female wrestler, with his partner in full costume as well, and acting out wrestling matches as a part of foreplay. I am struggling to wonder who might find a guy dressed as a female wrestler sexy, but I wish him all the best in finding one! 🙂
Nope. Nothing there outside the comment policy.
Yeah, it might be difficult to play along with that “activity preference” (even if I gave it a go, I’d have a hard time keeping a straight face during the proceedings). I hope he finds the WWE diva of his dreams.
In my book he gets credit for honesty and candor. It was very mature of him to warn you upfront rather that wait until you were emotionally invested. Dating is tough, online dating just adds another act to the circus. Most people I know who have tried it have been successful. They may not have ended up in marriage, but they met nice, normal, compatible people who they enjoyed spending time with. –But the ones who have horror stories…OMG, OMG. I am still stunned by some of the things people do. My sister in law is just starting online dating after a 10 year relationship. She exchanged messages with a man and thought they hit it off. He asked her to send a photo and offered to send one in return. She sent the best picture she had of herself. He sent a photo of his naked rear end. More specifically, the inside of his rear end. What the…? I can’t believe any adult thinks this is acceptable behavior (although I am thankful because now we laugh until we cry every time she talks about it). Best of luck to you and I hope you can never top this story.
Hahaha! I never, EVER email guys who don’t already have photos posted. You don’t have to be a model to attract my attention, but I do think you can tell a lot by how a fella portrays himself. No naked backsides, so far, though!
Did he take the photo himself? That’s talent, of a sort. 🙂
Emily, we must share a brain. The first words out of my mouth were “how does a person take a picture of his own…?” My other SIL said, “I know, that’s sick.” Then I had to say, “No, SIL, physically…how?”. After that (fueled with a lot of wine) we spent way too much time contorting ourselves trying to figure it out. It really was one of our most memorable family holidays.
Congrats on the weight loss! That’s worth celebrating with a shopping trip.
Sorry about the date that wasn’t. At least he was up front with you. One of these days you’ll find a good one. One of these days…
Congratulations on your weight loss! Sounds like you are doing it in a very healthy way. And how good of you to reward yourself with some cute retail. I hope you really enjoy that! Lately I’ve been choosing outfits to go with different perfumes. It’s so much fun.
And I’m glad your would be date was up front about his preferences. It takes courage to do that, and it really is the right thing to do. I hope you meet someone who is a good match for you.
Congratulations! Have fun shopping, you’ve earned it! : )
Thank you! I’m about to head out now, and I’m really looking forward to it!
Huge congratulations, Marjorie Rose! That’s quite an achievement and it sounds like you did it in a healthy way (i.e., gradually), so prospects for sustaining this trend are good. Enjoy your new look!
Thanks Noz! Honestly, it’s been pretty easy, and I think it’s because I’ve let it be so gradual. Nothing I’m doing feels like it takes much attention or willpower, and I’m completely kind to myself when I don’t live up to my “plan.” That said, that first year, down only 10 pounds, was probably the toughest. I’m glad that I didn’t give up, though!
Congrats!
Congratulations and have fun picking those new clothes!
Thank you, Abyss! It sure is more fun to shop at a size 10-12 than as a size 18-20!
What an awesome result! You go girl, keep it up!
And buy something stunning
Adding my congratulations, MR. Great going! And also sorry to hear about the non-date, but as someone else said, at least he warned you *before* hand.
But as stunning as you look and as fabulous as you smell, you’ll find the right guy. Believe. 🙂
Smelling good and looking cute can’t hurt, right? 🙂
RIGHT!
Congratulations on the weight loss! That’s the best feeling 🙂
You go girl! Congrats on the weight loss — slow and steady wins the race!
congrats on that achievement. that takes a lot of work. I need to get busy on that too.
Marjorie Rose, I know that smell! I also know Lincoln City; we had a house at Long Beach, Washington when I was growing up, and I remember the smell of seaweed, and pine trees, and salty air, and the smoky driftwood remains of last night’s bonfire.
Congrats on the weight loss, and as to your disappointment date, I’ve been married 27 years now, but I can tell you in my experience, you kiss a lot of frogs before you get there. Jeez, I hope his “activity” wasn’t actual frog-kissing. That should only ever be a figurative experience!
I really love Lincoln City. I could easily imagine going back as a retiree some day! Seaweed is a special sort of smell, too! Especially when the kelp washes up in big drifts from time to time–it’s like the smell of the sea, magnified!
Haven’t met any frog-kissers, yet, but now I’m realizing I could meet *anyone*!
Congratulations! I have just started a diet in order to loose 40 pounds, so you are an inspiration.
Oh, good luck to you and don’t forget to be kind to yourself! I have seen so many friends not succeed, and it seems that the thing they have in common is a sense that somehow this meal, this day, this weight is somehow a reflection of their value as a person. I love feeling slender and attractive, but I knew that I was worthwhile even when I was bigger. I think it really has helped me to persevere.
“I love feeling slender and attractive, but I knew that I was worthwhile even when I was bigger.” This is an elusive feeling for many who struggle! Well said, and glad you are feeling so good.
Another congrats! And lols on the extremely particular ‘fantasy-demands’ of your would-have-been-date:)
Thanks!
A friend at work keeps popping in my classroom and asking if I’d like to attend a wrestling match. . . 😀
My favourite smell from childhood has to be one of my earliest memories: sitting in the garden on a sunny day, my dad having just mown the lawn, with the fragrance of cut grass mixing with the scent of all the flowers. I think I can smell the honeyed notes of alyssum and the herbiness of lavender. But stronger than all those, the aroma of a joint of beef roasting in the kitchen, its molecules wafting out through the window and tickling my nose and appetite. I don’t think there is a perfume like that (unless Christopher Brosius has created one!), and I don’t think I’d like to wear it, but thinking about it brings back good times.
No? You don’t want to smell like roast beef? I think it could be a real man magnet. . . 😀
Reminds me of Tania at Sanchez’s comment that women ask for the one smell that drives men wild–it’s bacon!
Yes, I think my husband would just love it. He comes home and says “what’s that lovely smell?” and I tell him what I am wearing, but he means the aroma from the kitchen. Strangely I have a real thing about smelling of cooking. I have nearly waist-length hair and always wear a “mob” cap to do the cooking in. Everyone thinks it’s because I don’t want to get hair in the food, and I let them, but it’s really ‘cos I don’t want it to reek of food!
I know what you mean–hair really holds a fragrance! For me, I think my hands permanently smell like garlic. Wouldn’t mind finding a guy who thinks that’s a good thing!
My favourite childhood smell is the scent linden blossoms. I stayed with my grandparents every summer holiday and they lived in a tiny town where there were linden trees everywhere. They come into flower at the start of the summer so that’s the smell that I associate with the prospect of 3 months of complete freedom (we, too, were allowed to roam the outdoors).
I am always on the lookout for a linden fragrance but I’m yet to find one that matches the beauty of the real thing.
Abyss, I have not tried it in person but many people say good things about April Aromatics Unter den Linden as a lovely linden blossom scent.
Lucasai, I’m not familiar with the brand but I’ll look into it. Thanks!
D’Orsay Tilleul is the linden scent you want. The Latin for that tree is Tilia, and the French is Tilleul – they make a really great soporific tea form the leaves. I just planted a Tilia! 15 feet tall. I’m looking forward to bnoth blossoms and tea. See NST’s review: https://nstperfume.com/2005/07/18/he-saysshe-says-parfums-dorsay-tilleul/
Good luck with your tree – I know you’ll love it. One of the best parts of living in my condo is that there are rows of linden trees around the property. In another month this place will smell fantastic!
Aftelier Honey Blossom has a prominent linden note, so that might be worth trying too. I also find that one a bit longer-lasting than some of her others.. maybe because of the ambergris in the base.
There was a laundry place my grandma took me a few times, it smelled clean and metallic with a vague hint of flowers, probably jasmin, but really vague, and a mix between hot and cold. My grandma was the most important person for me and I never let her know… a few years ago I went to Paris for the first time and entered the Comme des Garçons store, tried Odeur 53 and it smells exactly like that. I have a huge bottle that doesn’t smell like the first one I bought, there is a sweat note or it went bad probably, but that was my favorite smell.
Regarding fragrances, I adored By Dolce & Gabbana and Extravagance d’Amarige, everything from the 90’s smelled different and special as every brand was trying to stand out from the others…
What a wonderful memory, and a great way to honor your grandma. I lost my grandma a couple of years ago and regret not expressing how I felt about her, too. It’s easy for me to be hard on myself, so it has taken a lot of work to become at peace with all of the things I didn’t say. Ultimately I’ve come to realize that awesome grandmas love you unconditionally, think you’re the greatest kid in the world, and light up when they see you. All they want in return is a few hugs and kisses and to be able to brag to their friends about you. While it might be nice to have told her how you feel, she may have already known because she could feel your love and admiration. I really hope a new bottle of Odeur 53 will bring that vivid memory back to you.
Lindens are beautiful, I agree. The flower smell I most recall is lilacs. And again, no perfume quite captures the beauty. Another smell I loved was hunting for wild strawberries in the early spring heat, where you could smell their sweetness in the sunshine as you bent down to collect the ripe ones.
That is a fantastic scent memory to have!
That’s a lovely experience, I can almost feel the sunshine 🙂
Calypso, have you tried En Passant? That’s probably the most realistic lilac perfume that I’ve come across.
No, I do need to try that one.
I grew up in a small town in Southern Ontario, and my strongest scent memory is from walking to the school bus stop on spring mornings and smelling the blooming lilacs that grew in profusion, and a damp sort of earthy smell.
Nice! Nothing else smells like a profusion of lilacs.
Me too! Lilacs always make me so happy because they bloomed in New England in later spring, so I associate their scent with school letting out for the year! What’s happier than that?
My grandmother’s house, in Québec, was surrounded on 3 sides by tall hedges of lilac trees. In the spring she would open all the windows and let the scent come in the house. It was magical!
Off topic but intriguing perfume note: Chilean author Isabel Allende was in Washington, DC, promoting her latest novel Maya’s Notebook. In an interview with the Washington Post, “She apologizes, again, for being sick [with bronchitis]. She says she is so out of sorts that she isn’t even wearing her signature perfume: a combination of a men’s cologne and a women’s fragrance. She finally agrees to jot down the names of the scents and does so in a perfectly feminine cursive. She swears a reporter to secrecy.”
How tantalizing! I wonder what the might be?
And BTW, a little googling reveals that her book Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses makes 23 references to perfume. Is anyone else an Isabel Allende fan?
I’m ashamed to say I haven’t read any of Allende’s books, but sampled some of her writing as extracts in magazines. She seems to be an extremely sensual writer, and I remember one passage in particular where she dreams of a milky pudding (tapioca?) into which she dives and then describes it as an amazing experience on all levels. I can just imagine that she loves perfume, and now I want to know what she wears too!
I adore Isabel Allende! Didn’t realize she was a perfume fan though. Interesting.
My favorite childhood smell is a cool day with the windows open, a football game as background noise and my mom cooking a gumbo on the gas stove. It’s so comforting!
Yum, gumbo. Food is certainly comforting, especially when you’re a kid and it’s all wrapped up with love.
When I was a child, we spent our summers in a quaint new england village, complete with an old-fashioned country store. The store featured a separate year-round “Christmas Shoppe,” and I was enthralled by the twinkling lights, ornaments, and especially the tantalizing aromas of pine, orange & clove. The scents must have been routinely sprayed/diffused by the employees, but they didn’t smell at all artificial–at least to me. Funny how even now, those Christmasy smells remind me of sunny summers spent on a lake.
How funny!
Hello scented friends–happy Saturday! It’s a lovely spring day here in my neck of the woods making it easy to recall the smells of my youth. My mom was a florist and an awesome gardener–some say she could put a stick in the ground and it would blossom!. At home, I remember the smell of our garden with lily of valley (her fave), a hugh lilac bush and old fashioned roses, especially Peace roses which smelled like orange baby asprin. Her flower shop had that deep green and wet smell of plant material in water….very much like CB’s Black March, only with less dirt. Thanks for the memories!
By the way, wish me luck–just applied for a new job and hopes are high!
Sending lots of positive thoughts your way! Good luck!
Good luck! Crossing fingers and toes for you.
Good luck Jepster!
Holding thumbs:)
One of my favorite scent memories is the smell of silk tree blossoms, known in Texas as mimosa. There were trees in every yard, all blooming at once during the summer. I would love to find that fragrance in a bottle, but I haven’t found it yet. Any help out there? Any suggestions from fellow Southerners?
Sorry, no help with perfume but I lived in Texas for years and the beautiful mimosa trees were my favorite. We had a couple of them in our yard and they smelled wonderful.
PrisE, I love the smell of mimosa, or wattle, although where I live it’s mainly an autumn/winter smell. Mimosa by Acca Kappa smells just like it to me, it’s beautiful.
Good evening fragrant folks!
I don’t have any perfume-related memories from the past. When I was a young boy my Mum didn’t wear perfume then (in her college times she used to wear Coty White Musk). But there were many scents in my past.
The one I remember the most is the smell of a baking cake. My Mum always loved baking so each weekend she prepared a cake for a family. Once it was an apple cake, sometimes a cheese-cake but usually she baked a yeast-cake for us and it always smelled divine!
SotD was Andy Tauer Noontide Petals, later (after a lovely bike ride and a shower) changed for By Kilian Flower of Immortality.
Hello dear Lucas! I love the scent of baking, too! I just got my decant of Noontide Petals (bought unsniffed, a lemming based on your review) and it will probably be SOTD tomorrow — the baggie it came in smells of orange so it would be absolutely perfect for the sunny day we expect to have tomorrow!
I’m curious…with the Flowers of Immortality, how long did it last on you? On me, it went pouff after a few minutes.
You like that smell of hot cake too? That’s lovely!
Yay for Noontide Petals, if you wear it tomorrow I hope that you’ll enjoy it and tell me what you think about it.
Flower of Immortality – lasted like 3 hours. And it smells like a peach ice tea on me. I give it a NAY.
I thought Flower of Immortality was really weak too. It is nice layered with SL Bas de Soie though, and that seems to help the lasting power too. But still, way too expensive for something that’s not worth wearing on its own.
I haven’t tried Noontide Petals yet, but what I’ve read about it sounds really nice.. Need to remember that in my next sample order.
Ah, how the smell of tar always takes me back…
Many days of my childhood summers were spent at my elementary school with my mom, who was a teacher and would be busy preparing her classroom for the next year. I would play with the blocks and books in her room, run the hallways of the school, swing on the rope that hung from the beams on the stage that overlooked the gymnasium, and, of course, play on the playground which was next to the parking lot which was always paved in the summer.The smell of tar always takes me back to those summer days at school with my mom.
I like the smell of tar too.
Me three.
My favorite scent memory from my childhood is the smell of all the perfumes on my mother’s dressing table. I was always sneaking whiffs of them, and dabs or sprays when I could get away with it.
A favorite non-perfume scent memory is the smell of my grandparent’s house. Every once in a while a get of whiff of something that reminds me of it, and it takes me right back to their house. I can’t describe it exactly, but their house had wool carpets, which may have had something to do with it. Every time we would visit them, that scent would be the first thing I would notice. My grandparents were pretty well-to-do, and they had a beautiful two-story 1930’s house with glass doorknobs, real keyholes in the doors, and crystal chandeliers in most of the rooms, including the bedrooms. The staircase had a beautiful wrought iron banister, and there was a sun porch in the back of the house which had a view of the rose garden. The street they lived on was lined with trees whose branches met in the middle, so going down their street was like going through a green tunnel.
What a beautiful picture you paint. And I know exactly what you mean about that certain indescribable scent of a house.
I used to lurk in the drugstore when I was a preteen and smell all the testers of toilet water. I remember my favorite was lilac. I even tried to gargle with it after seeing Scarlett O”Hara do it in Gone With the Wind when she was trying to hide the liquor on her breath when Rhett showed up unannounced. GACK!! My mouth was outraged. I can’t believe he kissed her in that scene. She had to taste revolting.
Anyway, back to lilac. I just found Ineke One From My Heart. It’s just a beautiful rendering of that flower. Maybe I’ll gargle with it.
Congratulations on feeling better about your body, marjorie rose! That’s got to feel so wonderful, and the springtime is a lovely time of year to enjoy it!
There are several smells that instantly transport me back to my childhood, although I don’t really know if I can identify them as specific things. We had a lilac bush in our backyard when I was really little, and I remember really liking that. I don’t know if I’d really want a perfume that reminded me too much of my childhood, though–not because I didn’t like it, but more for the opposite reason: I would long a little too achingly for such a carefree time once again, and the smell of it might just break my heart a little bit. I also couldn’t wait for this thread to tell you guys that I received my OJ discovery set in the mail a few days ago! So far, I’ve only smelled Osmanthus, and have fallen in love. i was so worried when I first received the box, because I’m only starting to enter the world of niche fragrances, and am so afraid that many of them will be inaccessible to me, but so far, that hasn’t been the case. Granted I’ve only smelled one perfume by OJ, but it was a great one to start off with! Do you guys have any other suggestions for box sample sets that come as sprays that you think would be accessible to an up and coming fumie? I do prefer sprays to dabbers, though. I just can’t seem to dab no matter what! LOL.
Oh, and i’m in sample heaven at the moment, because I also received some samples I ordered from the perfumed court as well, so I’ll have a lot of sniffing to do these next few weeks! Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!
I’m always happy to enable so check out the very reasonably priced set of all 13 PdE scents here-
http://www.parfumdempire.fr/en/creation/22/Sample_set_the_Collection.html
Hi Key Change, welcome to the rabbit hole. I suggest getting the Ineke sample set — it comes beautifully packaged and you get 8 x 1.5 mL spray samples for $25 including the shipping and handling. For other samples, you may want to check out Lorraine’s blog (Dear Scent Diary, go to the March Archives – Best Niche Perfume Sample Programs and Discovery Sets).
Thank you, KC! Of the sample sets I’ve purchased, I’ve been most pleased with the OJ one. There are some real masterpieces in that set, imo! There are individual frags from other niche lines that I adore, but fewer collections that I am so enthralled with. I will say that Andy Tauer makes lovely sample sets of 5–you can choose the scents you want to try. I love Une Rose Chypree, but there are several others that get a lot of love! It is a shame he doesn’t to a coffret of the complete collection!
Thanks to all three of you from another newbie! I set out to find a new perfume a few months ago, and started looking online for recommendations. Now I want to try everything, but my budget only stretches so far.
One of my very favorite smells from childhood was mom’s Jergens Lotion with that almond scent. I also loved the smell of spritz cookies baking at Christmas, but when I think about it, I realize that they contain almond also. Hmm… I detect a pattern here.
SOTD: Voleur de Roses in honor of Derby Day.
I love the smell of Jergen’s lotion!
Nice SOTD pick! I was just trying to decide what I should wear to a Derby party later today.
Spritz cookies *do* smell amazing, don’t they?
I’m going to *bet* that you ended up wearing your new Nahema – another great rose scent. Have a great time.
Haha! I thought about Nahema, but ended up going with Manoumalia. No rose or horse connection; I was just in the mood for it.
I loved the smell of that Jergens lotion too.
Have you tried Serge Lutens’s Louve? It smells very similar. I wore Louve when I visited my mother at Christmas and she asked me where I got my bottle of Jergens original scent…
When I was little, my mom let me play in the spice cabinet and mix up all sorts of concoctions which probably contributed to my love of spice scents. Wearing Trayee today, one of the best spice perfumes ever.
What fun!
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but my favorite childhood scent memory is the frangipani trees in Sydney that grew alongside a street I took everyday on my walk to and from school. I’d always stop and pick up a few blossoms if any particularly eye-catching ones had fallen. The smell was just magical — we’d moved to Sydney from an exceptionally dry and dusty corner of Wyoming where the principal vegetation was tumbleweeds, so the frangipani trees were unlike anything I’d ever encountered. And here they were just a part of my daily routine, while I was doing nothing more exciting than walking to and from school. I think that juxtaposition of the magical and the quotidian made the experience especially memorable.
(adding that I still haven’t found the frangipani perfume of my dreams, so suggestions are welcome! Unfortunately, I can barely smell the oft-mentioned OJ Frangipani.)
Nor can I, so I’m glad to hear you say that. I grew up in Tasmania, too cold for frangipani, but once on a trip to Sydney when I was about nine, I smelled some frangipani (in Manly, as I recall it). I was absolutely enchanted, could hardly believe that there could be scent so magical. I envy your having the chance to smell them every day!
I didn’t smell frangipani again until last June when I visited Darwin and was delighted to see them in parks and on the side of the road.
After trying the OJ frangipani I have not continued the hunt for a frangipani perfume, but I do love the frangipani soaps from this Australian company:
http://www.australianbotanicalsoap.com.au/
And Nuxe’s Huile Prodigiuese has a frangipani note in it too. (Jessica reviewed it yesterday.)
Thanks for the soap rec, Annemarie! Interestingly enough, the best frangipani notes I’ve found so far have been in soaps. I have a couple that I bought in Australia when I went back a few years ago, and I’ve been reluctant to use them because my next trip is probably a good while off!
We went to Tasmania on vacation when I was a kid — such a beautiful place.
Emily, I’m not a huge white flower fan, but I do like Guerlain’s Mahora, which is primarily frangipani. I’m sure you’ve tried it, but if not, let me know.
Thanks to your generosity, I have indeed tried Mahora and now own a FB. I like it very much, and I do pick up on some frangipani in the mix, but I mostly smell tuberose and ylang. You’re right that it’s a great scent — in fact, I was wearing it just the other evening.
In the previous article where Jessica reviewed the Nuxe and Caudalie body oils someone mentioned the Elemis Frangipani Monoi oil. It’s not perfume, but it is a beautiful product if you want to check it out.
The smell of bread baking takes me back to mom’s kitchen when I was a kid. The smell of lilac takes me back too because we had huge bushes on the side of the house.
There’s not much that smells better than baking bread. I didn’t list that because my mother never baked bread. But I give the woman a pass – she had six kids!
Hey, that’s En Passant!
When I was little we lived in a log home. When the weather got warmer in the spring, the logs used to give off the sweetest, warmest wood smell imaginable. It was a magical smell for me and a signal that warm weather and summer holidays were just around the corner. To this day I love woody perfumes, I guess I’m always trying to recapture that wonderful feeling of a house breathing sweet perfume.
Oh, Sanjini, that *does* sound wonderful! Wood homes and wood stoves have a special place in my heart, but I’ve never been lucky enough to have one. I have strongly considered installing a small wood stove in my home, just so that I can have the scent of it in the wintertime!
You should get a wood burning stove if you can. They’re not too complicated to install. And the smell is wonderful. They also are handy for burning up mail that has personal info in it (from credit card companies and banks, etc) instead of having to shred stuff. And they keep the tea pot warm!
The yesterday, today and tomorrow plant in our garden – or brunfelsia grandiflora or pauciflora? The fragrant blooms cycle through the colors violet, powdery violet and white over 3 days — so at any time, there are flowers of all three colors on the shrub. Isn’t that amazing! It has the most feminine floral fragrance – and just mentioning it takes me straight back to our mossy garden in Durban, South Africa – where I played with sticks and stones beneath this bush. Whenever I smell yesterday, today and tomorrow now, my eyes well up with emotion over the memories and carefree childhood days.
SOTD is EL White Linen
I love Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow! I have two different varieties of it in my garden, a normal sized variety and a smaller, dwarf variety. The large one has finished blooming now, but the smaller ones still have flowers. It does have a wonderful scent, and I love the effect of three different colors on one bush at the same time. I have to admit, though, that I first bought it for its common name. Anything called “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” I had to have in my garden. Fortunately, it does well here in our hot, humid Gulf Coast climate.
Lovely scent memory , and love being in the garden ! I adore White Linen by the way , happy planting .
Yes, 50 R and Sinnerman, the name alone! Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow …
When I was in high school the play grounds were flooded with the smell of roasted coffee beans. Thick, toasty and slightly burnt. It blanketed the entire school ! Just across the st was a coffee roaster and by 11 am (first break) the daily brew was pumping its tune. When ever I smell it it brings back many the emotions that I felt in high school and also a feeling of times past . it’s very powerful and unmistakeable, not really a fan of coffee notes in fragrance though!
This week I bought some co co soap for my bath ! And now I need a bottle for winter. I have not been able to stop sniffing the soap box so I have decided this is proof the fragrance should join my collection. I’m not sure if I should get the edt of p ? I have read the p is spicier and the edt is more powdery . Perhaps dear all u may confirm this … Co co fans speak up .
Wow, that coffee roast smell must be imprinted on your scent-mind! Sounds pretty amazing …
Very deep. Instant butterfly’s in tummy! My school on King St Newtown, Sydney was a dusty concrete jungle, all the other aromas of inner city grime and high school cantine smell over a base of dark brewed beans.
I live in the area now and the place is still there some Ahh ? …….15 years later , same smell!
I have Coco EDP but don’t think I have ever seen the EDT… I don’t get any powdery notes from the EDP. When I first got it I used it whenever and wherever but now it seems quite formal and somewhat classical to my nose! Its spicy, but not in a bohemian way at all – rather I see it as a disciplined fragrance and one that can give me confidence and a sense of professionalism when I need it – severe, but in a full, rich and resinous way.
Merlin , thanks – I tested both over the weekend and they are much the same , I think It comes down to cost for me now . Pay more for beautiful bottle or less for more juice . I can’t decide,
You describe it beautifully and I agree . It is somewhat classic(al), I’m looking forward to wearing it during the cold months here in Sydney. Thanks for your input .
I bought mine at a discount pharmacy so it was quite a bit less than an ordinary department store. I’m not sure what its like there but perhaps you can also find it at a discount.
More than 40 years ago if my memory does not betray me it even happened in the sixties. So once upon a time when my sister and I were still in kindergarten we had those little dolls in coloured plastic bottles. They were drenched in different perfumes and decorated with matching plastic blossoms. And my sister is quite sure that the fragrance of these dolls is the reason why we love Miss Dior Chérie…
I had the lily of the valley doll in the perfume bottle!! I loved that thing. Never thought about it before, but that could be a reason for my fragrance obsession. Thanks for the scent memory!
Ahhh! Childhood scent memories…what a great topic! Every summer, my mom and dad literally shipped my brother and me off to the farm: my grandparents’ Southern Illinois corn/soybean/dairy farm not far from the Mississippi River. The smell of the “beans” (as my grandma called them) and corn fields shimmering in the oppressive summer humidity was grassy and sweet and utterly unique to that area. That scent is representative of my happy summers spent with my grandparents. Fast forward to my teen years spent in Hawaii, and there, my dominant olfactory memory is the two plumeria trees (frangipani) in our yard and the scent of the crushed and fallen blossoms on the ground after a passing tropical downpour. Mmmmmmmm….green and earthy and tropical floral. Ormonde Jayne’s Franginpani really captures that scent and I absolutely love it for the scent memories it induces.
Perfume smells from the past… 4711 definitely.. My grandmother wore it as did many of her friends who’d come to play Scrabble on her enclosed porch, on the 21st floor of her Manhattan apartment… and my mother wore Bill Blass, that double BB bottle… it is the smell I associate with her dressed up for dinner.
But my scent story comes from when I was about 20 years old, traveling in China after being on the road for nearly a year. A traveling companion I met in Kunming was also traveling alone. She was pregnant and interested in Chinese herbal medicine. She had heard of a famous doctor near the city of Dali. So several days later we rented bicycles in Dali and road out to this famous doctor’s clinic. My friend asked all about what herbs to take to keep her and her baby healthy, bought some spices, pills, etc. and we were ready to leave. Before I could step outside, the doctor stopped me, and inquired about my ailment. I told him I was quite fine and was only accompanying my friend. He insisted that something was wrong. A little exasperated but also curious I told him the only thing ailing me was homesickness. His eyes lit up, and he asked me to wait. He hurriedly went about opening jars and tossing powders onto a piece of wax paper. He folded up the paper and explained that it was a sort of tea, which I was supposed to mix it with water and drink. He refused any payment whatsoever, wishing me good travels. When we returned to our hostel I reached into my bag for the packet of tea. Somehow it had opened in transit and the powder had leaked into my sweater, and other items. But the smell! The smell was so potent. Eucalyptus, Bay leaf, Walnut, Chamomile, grass, and pine… all the smells of my home city Berkeley. It was like opening my bedroom window on a spring afternoon. Our house was at the base of the Berkeley hills, surrounded by Eucalyptus, Bay, Walnut and pine trees…
After the visit to the doctor, I began planning my route home—back up to Beijing to say good bye to friends, then on to Hong Kong, and then to the US. For context, it was late May 1989!
What a great story, and beautifully told. Really quite spooky, the co-incidence of exact smells. I wonder what might have happened if the powder had not leaked and you had just drunk it? Maybe not the same effect at all?
Oh, a truly wonderful story. And what an intuitive doctor.
Very cool story. You were quite adventurous! That doctor’s ‘gift’ to you was amazing.
I think back on my 20s and that line from Bob Dylan goes through my mind… “I was so much older then; I’m younger then that now…” Kids, cancer, the death of loved ones, debts owed and debts paid… the Tianamen Square massacre took place two weeks after I left Beijing, and eventhough I was hanging out at Tsinghua University I didn’t have a clue to what was going on. The bravery that comes with naivete/innocence– is good and not so good for young travelers (and soldiers), but either way it does bring gifts!
My favorite childhood scent memory is that moment just before you open your eyes awake on a Summer morning around 10AM when the sunshine coming in through the open window co-mingles with the dusty old screen and the waft of chlorine coming from the pool and you realize that school is out and you have all day to swim and eat popsicles and tuna salad sandwiches and watermelon!
the floral scents I associate with that memory are honeysuckle and “mimosa” (silk flower) and magnolias.
the floral scents I associate with that memory are honeysuckle and “mimosa” (silk flower) and magnolias.
The scent of my childhood is tomato plants. I was always playing in my mom’s garden, and my friends and I would pick cherry tomatoes and eat them off the vine all summer. Memory of Kindness doesn’t smell much like tomato leaf on me, but I still love the herbal smell and the way the tomato scent develops, smells like a tomato ripening. I love the story about the scent on the website, and my feelings about the scent are very similar. Mom’s garden meant love, warmth and life.
Mmm, yes, such a summery smell. L’Ombre dans L’Eau has a gorgeous but fleeing tomato leaf note.
We had roses that grew along each side of the footpath at home-as a child I knew all the names and individual scents of each rose-the smell of roses takes me back to the summers of my childhood. The first perfume I was ever given was called Skinny Dippin- a huge splash bottle, a long long long time ago. It was floral and fresh and I have never found anything that smells as good as it smelt.
I don’t remember it, but you have me intrigued Debbie. Was it ‘Skinny Dip Cologne’?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjYTJUVYAR0&feature=player_detailpage
‘Makes a girrl smell prrrretty!’
That was so much fun to watch!!
Ooooh it must be it-the time line is similar. We only had it in one variety-it was a splash cologne. I remember that I went through the huge bottle quite quickly and my mother would not replace it for me-possible because it did not smell as nice as i thought it did.
Oh, and:
http://cleopatrasboudoir.webs.com/apps/blog/show/3609076-skinny-dip-by-leeming
Crikey I’m a nerd.
A cologne called “Tingling Fluff” ???!!!!!
When I was in 6th grade my very uptight, secretly smoking in class, maidenly teacher had to do sex education. So her solution was divide the world into ‘warm fuzzies’ and ‘cold pricklies’ (yes, and yes to how I’ve reinterpreted her possible inclinations years later!)… I think had she had the phrase ‘tingling fluff’ at her disposal it would have fit right in!!! My goodness that gave me a laugh!
Me too! The mind boggles, it really does.
Your poor teacher. I had a few of that sort too. Looking back, I feel sorry for them.
I remember some kind of class that was about social skills, emotions, etc etc. The teacher had some story about cold prickly feelings and warm fuzzy ones. It seemed to be a more or less standard label at the time for a ‘this makes me uneasy’ feeling and a ‘this is safe and snuggly’ feeling. There were even pictures of the spiky and cuddly creatures:) I suppose it was meant to be a lesson on trusting your intuitions in different situations, but I cant remember what I made of it at the time!
I am probably one of the only people in the world who find the scent of cow manure pleasantly evocative! I used to go to a wonderful woman’s small dairy farm after school as a very young child. It was a tiny operation surrounded by woods where the sun and breezes and the scent of the sweet baled hay mitigated the natural “perfume” of the cows themselves. We baked our own raisin bread and made home made root beer together, and I remember vividly finding one of the barn cats’ litters and being allowed to name one of them, an orange tabby who went by the highly unoriginal name of Marmalade thereafter. I still adore raisin bread and root beer, too.
Elena, cow manure is my back to school smell. In September people in AZ force a green lawn my covering their yard with a layer of fertilizer. I loved walking by the neighbors earthy brown yards and that time of year held such promise. When I understood what I was actually smelling , I didn’t care. Still don’t.
Wow, I really enjoyed reading the comments on this post. It reminded me of the MUA fragrance board about 10 years ago when we’d all share bits of our lives as well as the perfume love. You gals and guys are fabulous.
One of my fave ‘scent memories’ is that of roses in bloom. We were not well off so had several gardens to grow food. However, my mom also had a flower garden and she would fill the house with roses when they were blooming. I don’t like to smell like a rose but I keep a decant of Creed, Fleur de thé Rose Bulgare in the back of my scent collection so I can smell it now and then and be transported back to my mom’s garden.
I must have been about 8 years old when my mum went to Paris with all of her eight siblings. It was in the seventies and in those years it was quite something, going to the city of light. She brought me a souvenir of a (very very cheap) perfum, which smelled of violets. I felt like a million dollars!
To this day a violet note strikes a chord in my heart. I still love violet in all of its incarnations. I am that girl in awe of something from PARIS! again.
My mom wore Oscar de la Renta when I was a kid in the ’80s. I had gotten to thinking about this in previous threads here when people would talk about what their moms and grandmas wore. I realized that I had very little memory of what OdlR smelled like since my mom hasn’t worn it in years. She got scent-jacked by her sister – my aunt started wearing it, and my mom didn’t like how it smelled on her sister, so she stopped wearing it herself. I found OdlR at Macy’s a few months ago and tried it out to see if it jogged any memories. It was way more powdery than I remembered. I’m not sure if it’s just the difference in how it smells on me vs. my mom or reformulation. I suspect it’s a little of column A, a little of column B, or maybe mostly column B… it has been over 20 years, after all.
Other scent memories: my mom’s rose bushes, the cedary smell of my grandparents’ lake house (more on that in a minute), my grandma’s baking, the smell of fireplaces in the air in the winter, the smell of the Wonder Bread bakery in Tulsa that was on the way to my aunt’s house. You could smell that bakery a few blocks away at night.
One day I was at the mall, and I decided to try a spritz of Aromatics Elixir. I liked it well enough but didn’t really love it for the most part, but then later in the scent’s development, something in it was making me think of my grandma, and I wasn’t really sure why. At first I wondered if maybe my grandma had worn AE and I just didn’t remember. I didn’t remember my grandma wearing any perfume at all, as a matter of fact. I realized that what I was smelling was actually my grandparents’ house that they lived in on Grand Lake in Oklahoma when I was a kid. That house had a lot of cedar trim and a very distinct woody/slightly sweet smell. They’ve both been gone about 7 years now, and they had moved out of that house and into Tulsa to be closer to my aunts and uncles several years before that. I had kind of forgotten about it, and I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have consciously conjured up a memory of that scent on my own, so I was surprised to find it coming up like that.
Those are great memories – thanks for sharing. Though I do feel sorry for your mother having lost her scent to her sister. Still, she may have lost it to reformulation by now anyway.
As I was reading your story about AE I thought it would be that your grandmother had worn a patchouli fragrance (AE has a lot of it) be the cedar. And the warmth too, in AE, taking you back to a place you felt secure and happy. I’ve tried AE many times and can never quite come to grips with it, but I appreciate it very much. I’m glad it’s still made.
I’m not sure its a real scent memory but the first time I smelled Farenheit I seemed to remember being a little girl when my dad still rode a motorbike – the smell of his leather jacket and of the gas/oil it took. Strange how the scent is both so comforting and industrial at the same time!
Azemour les Oranges for some reason reminds me of my grandmother’s townhouse. Its the formal dried orange and mossy tone but I’m not sure why her townhouse would have smelled that way.
Totally OT, but I was just watching an episode of “Hannibal” on NBC’s website (ep.4, which is the only episode not included on U-Verse On Demand for some reason), and the episode contained two fragrance references, one of which I thought was a particularly interesting choice. One of the characters wears JAR Bolt of Lightning. Dr. Lecter compliments her perfume and describes it, then asks, “Is it JAR?” You can guess which one it is from his description. I mean, if they were even going to reference a particular perfume at all, I wonder why that one.
Wattle (mimosa) which is faintly realistic in Guerlain Tiare Mimosa and the scent of chocolate (yet to find). Also, the smell of a dog’s fur, which I don’t think a perfume is yet to replicate! 🙂
Thank you all for sharing your wonderful stories, and lives.
I have just been able to sit down and enjoy your posts. Different ages, experiences and parts of the world, yet such commonality.
While my grapefruit blossoms bloom in spring, that is the scent that indicates the big change that is coming. In the early evening it mixes with the smell of someone on the next street cooking burgers on the grill. Heavenly! And not the first shout out to red meat this weekend!
Dusty screens made sweet my an afternoon monsoon. My star jasmine, just now a little overly ripe, that old floozy. Late afternoon mown grass, and the man next door sawing wood for an add on porch.
The days begin and end with doves asking, “who cooks for you”?
Thanks for sharing your memories! Happy week, all.
Sorry to hear about the unusual request. That’s a bummer. Your soulmate is out there somewhere. Do you do the dating sites. My friend has this theory: if you can find a place like a bar or country club where the doctors and attorneys hang out: you’re set. Sort of shallow but she snagged a JAG. They’re happily in Japan living a smashing lifestyle. Good luck hun!
Scents I associate with childhood are from my grandma’s kitchen. She raised me. She’s still alive but is burdened with Alzheimer’s. I recently went to see her and she wouldn’t come to the door she had forgotten that I was coming and thought someone was breaking in. So sad. She was a great gardener, cook, and teacher. She grew tired of my stunts as a teen and sent me to my rich Aunt Kathryn’s house. They’re she had beautiful painted walls, perfume, Erno and Lazlo products, Amethyst rings and Shalimar. I loved that little bottle. She also had some French ones I don’t remember. Magnolias out in front. I babysat her kids in exchange for goodies like makeup and shopping trips. She bought me some Shalimar and Clinique for my face when I was 13. I was in Heaven. Those were grand days.