It might sound like a strange thing to wish to smell like a toy, but I'm finding more and more fragrance hounds who are also in search of the elusive "new doll" scent. A fragrance that is equal parts floral, fruity, powdery and a hint of rubber or vinyl. I think a lot of women have a comforting childhood association with this type of smell. Many dolls of our childhood had scented hair (Strawberry Shortcake, Rose Petal Place) and even the ones without scented hair had a beautiful smell, at least while they were new. Perhaps our quest for the doll scent is a bit like a search for the fountain of youth. Something to remind us in a visceral way of what it was like to be young and optimistic, innocent... a recall to a time of endless possibility when life was a sweet song. Here are a few fragrances that I have tried so far that fit the bill:
BABY DOLL by Yves St Laurent
Let's start with this one since it even has the right name. Launched at the turn of the 21st century, Baby Doll was the pink juice that kicked off the pink juice craze of the past decade. Grapefruit and pineapple punch, pink roses and giggles. That's what we're smelling here. Exquisitely girly and not a bit serious, I heard a rumor that a popular Las Vegas casino would spray this through the air vents to give the impression that young fun women were everywhere, the idea being that men would stick around and spend more money. Vibrant, playful, very flirty. Still better than any of the pink punch wannabes that came after YSL Baby Doll. The bottle is a little spinning top, how cute is that?
NANETTE LEPORE by Nanette Lepore
I had a sample of this years ago and upon first sniff I thought "Oh my goodness this smells like one of my old toys!" so in a way it kicked off my search for more dolly frags. Another fruit punch surrounded in roses, this one is a peach-lime-cranberry combination. Wearing this makes me want to don a pink cashmere sweater and use phrases like "Golly gee". It's so happy and young, almost retro. Fresh, girl next door impression with great lasting power. Ruffled skirts and heart shaped sunglasses, that's what Nanette Lepore feels like to me.
PRINCESS by Vera Wang
A very popular fragrance, this will make people lean in close and give you compliments. Notes of chocolate, vanilla frosting, guava, apricot... with just enough flowers hanging out in the background to keep you from smelling completely like a wedding cake. It smells a lot like the packaging that Barbie clothes were sold in when I was little. I might purchase a full bottle of this (the bottle looks like it belongs in a dollhouse) but I will wait a few years until it's no longer something that everyone is wearing. Soft and pretty, it conjurs up an image of 13 year old girls eating marshmallows and wondering aloud if Laguna Beach is real.
NOA FLEUR by Cacharel
I discovered this one just by chance recently and I believe it fits in well for a baby doll scent. It's not fruity, but it is powdery/ soapy. A bit of hibiscus and a hint of coffee bean gives it that little extra something, reminding me of old fashioned rubber baby dolls with painted on hair. It reminds me of washing my dolls hair in the sink with a bar of Dove soap. I really love wearing this one. It's so light and gentle, people don't realize I'm wearing perfume at all.
L'HEURE BLEUE by Guerlain
I hesitated to put the iconic L'Heure Bleue into this post because I felt like it might be a discredit to lump it in with "dolly frags" but darn it, if the shoe fits. That vanilla-heliotrope-iris-benzoin combo hits it right on the head. Floral, powdery and a hint of something sad, something lost from another era. (LHB was launched in 1912 so that makes sense) This is not a happy scent like the others I have listed. It's melancholy, literally "The Blue Hour" after sunset when your eyes play tricks on you and ghosts appear in the spaces where the daylight ends. If the other perfumes here are a little girl on Christmas morning opening a package containing a new doll, then LHB is that same girl decades later rediscovering the doll in an old trunk, holding it close and letting the smell of it's plastic head take her back to a simpler, more comforting time.
