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  • What Perfume Has Defined Your Life?

  • Posted by Anna on February 5, 2011 at 12:05PM
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  • I can be walking past a perfume counter in Macy's, catch the sweet scent of Bulgarian rose and almond wafting through the air and be immediately transported to my sophomore year in college when anything and everything was a possibility and I wore the scent Hanae Mori like it were going out of style. That, my friends, was a good year.

  • We all have those perfumes, don’t we? You know, the ones that defined a period of our life and every time we smell it are reminded of that vacation in Paris, the summer at the beach or even high school?

  • When I asked my coworker Audrey which perfumes defined her life, she told me about these:

  • "Anais Anais, $40: All of my friends wore this classic Cacharel fragrance in high school and while we were sorely lacking in originality, we made up for it by having fun lip synching to the Bangles' 'Walk Like an Egyptian' and dancing like those hot girls in Robert Palmer's 'Addicted to Love' video.

  • Chanel Cristalle, $94: The fresh flowery notes of my beloved Cristalle buoyed me all through college. It was such a part of me that when I saw my former flame a few years ago he asked whether I still wore it. (The answer was 'no,' but I was flattered that he remembered it.) I can't remember much about the classes, but I do remember Cristalle, 'Vogue-ing' along with Madonna and drooling over Sebastian Bach every time 'I Remember You' played on MTV. (That was tuition well spent.)

  • Yves Saint Laurent Beauty YSL Paris Eau de Toilette, $62: This has been my signature scent for going on 16 years. I wear it every day (even if I don't leave the house) and it's such a part of me that my kids ask me to spray it on their pillows when I'm going to be away for work. When I first glommed on to it, the MACARENA was all the rage. Now THAT is a long time to be faithful to a fragrance."

  • So tell me, do different scents transport you to a different place and time? Which perfume holds the strongest memories for you?

    • Member Comments

    Your Comment:

    • Pre-marriage: Arpege by Lanvin (jasmine, orange blossom, romantic). Early marriage: Balmain's Jolie Madame (chypre and sophisticated.) Middle marriage: Michael by Michael Kors (I smell violets in there). Late marriage (i.e., 40+ years): Fiori di Capri (carnation, lily of the valley, sandalwood).

      by Lucida Saturday, February 5, 2011 at 07:38AM Report as inappropriate

    • I've worn two - Obsession and Opium for years. Yeah, that makes me old school but those are the ones that I identify with. Oh, and Angel. Those are the perfumes that seemed to work with my chemistry and got attention for me. I still wear all of them.

      by Baybay912 Friday, February 4, 2011 at 07:32PM Report as inappropriate

    • My favorite scent is Christian Dior's 'Poison'. It was always worn by my Mother and for that reason, it is my favorite scent. For mt personal wear, I have two favorites: 1. Burberry Weekend and 2. Halloween by J. Del Pozo. Both of these have a very unique smell. I love them!

      by auston_l_messerandujo Friday, February 4, 2011 at 06:36PM Report as inappropriate

    • I have spent the majority of my life wearing Barneys New York Rue du Te. However, I have a few other scents that played major roles in my life. Angel, I wore that for about 10 years and wore it to all the bars and clubs all those years thru my twenties. I also found my husband and a new favorite fragrance in my later twenties Clean. Clean is a wonderful simple and fresh scent. I'm in my early thirties now and I'm looking to move on to a more mature scent and I've become smitten with David Yurman. Fragrance in my opinion should be an extension of self portrait and part of a wardrobe.

      by felicia_rogan Friday, February 4, 2011 at 05:38PM Report as inappropriate

    • Sweet honesty from Avon was my childhood scent. I was big into Vanilla fields for a while, but the big scent for me right now is LaVanilla Vanilla Coconut.

      by stephanie_duffy_truschel Friday, February 4, 2011 at 05:04PM Report as inappropriate

    • Oh wow do I love this topic! I'm 43 (a YOUNG 43!!)so I have a few key scents thru the times. In the late 80's when I was 21 ish I had just moved into my 1st apt with my boyfriend Derric...I wore Eternity by Calvin Klein and he loved it as much as I did! We were together 4 years and when we broke up he said he'd never forget me, especially when he would smell "Eternity"!! As the 90's went on I wore Yellow Jeans by Versace and just loved that one too...I can picture the bar we hung at every weekend and hear the hair bands playing whenever I smell it! My boyfriend at that time used to know whenever I walked in as he said he could smell it! What a sweet talker, eh?? The only reason I stopped wearing it was because they discontinued it. I started trying to find my new signature scent and even tho I used many nice scents like Liz Claiborne Realities, Exclamation by Coty, Odysee by Avon, Lauren by Ralph Lauren etc but then I found L'eau D'issey by Issey Miyake and fell in love! I still wear it this day and don't think I'll ever tire of it! I do use a 2nd favorite tho just to mix it up once in a while which is Coach. Gosh it was fun to think of those memories!!

      by CinnaBlaze Friday, February 4, 2011 at 03:46PM Report as inappropriate

    • The Benetton (sp?) original fragrance and Exclamation by Coty take me back to my early high school days... I went to three different high schools (military BRAT) and every time I swithced schools, I witched perfumes. For my last 2 years of high school, I wore Beautiful by Estee Lauder. I still wear that one today. Something about Exclamation though... it was fun and appropriate for the age and I wore it on my very first date. And I'm pretty sure my mom hated it, lol.

      by brewnette Friday, February 4, 2011 at 10:02AM Report as inappropriate

    • Victoria's Secret "Angel" takes me back to good times when I had my first apartment and just turned 18, was freshly in love. The other one that stands out is Christian Dior's "Hypnotic Poison"..This is really that perfume for me..My best friend started wearing it in freshman year of high school and I INSTANTLY LOVED it and had to get some. We used to wear it every single day and spray it everywhere even just to scent the air! Which got costly of course, haha. I am so glad someone did an article like this because I think about this often and I sometimes feel like I am the only one who is nostalgic enough that a scent I used to wear can take me back to a certain era of time like I am right there in it again.

      by girlblushes Friday, February 4, 2011 at 05:47AM Report as inappropriate

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