I Would Imagine a Person Who

Most fragrances remind me of someone. Sometimes it's a person I know but more often it's a person I have created in my imagination. What archetype does this scent bring to mind? What kind of person would smell this way? As a writer I have spent my entire life watching people, observing their details, and creating characters by filling in the blanks with my own imagination. When I was a little girl, I loved playing with my dolls. Each doll had her own name, personality and mannerisms. It's humorous to think perhaps my perfume bottles are just my grown up version of dolls. Each with their own personality and mannerisms. I present you with reviews for seven fragrances that totally cause me to dream up a character for it. 

WILD CHILD by Pinrose

I think this is called Wild Child because it reminds you of a friend you had in days of youth who got away with everything by fooling the adults around her into thinking she was sweet and innocent. But you knew better! She was always pulling you into her schemes aka "adventures". She didn't realize that although she was immune to consequences, you were a Regular Child who was trying to be rational and stay alive. But you loved Wild Child because she could pull that reckless side from within you, that crazy inner brat you secretly longed to be. So you and Wild Child cried over boys and laughed over beers together. She always had better luck with both of those things. Okay, perfume wise this is a basic subtle white floral. Mostly gardenia and freesia. Inoffensive, safe, professional even. Your parents would approve. But on the drydown there is a musky skanky hint of the wild shenanigans glinting in your friend's eye.

BOTTEGA VENETA

This is one of the greatest suede fragrances of all time. At first I was going to write that this smells like a luxury handbag but no, that's cliche. This is so much more than that and it took me some time to see the whole picture. Bottega Veneta is an aristocrat maybe. She lives a higher end lifestyle than most of us realize exists. This smells old money but she could just as easily be new money. There is a hint of smokiness... if she smokes it's always in private. Her taste is so expensive she does not even know it's expensive... that's just her life. Wear this with a little black dress and the realest jewelry you have to feel bitchy and beautiful. Wear it with torn jeans to feel the same.

OBSESSION by Calvin Klein

Ever see the '80s movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"? This is what I picture the girlfriend, Sloane Peterson smelling like. Spicy, sensual and just a tiny bit wild. Obsession really feels like a fall and winter scent to me. I get the impression of a well worn leather jacket with traces of perfume clinging to the lining (In the case of Sloane, that jacket would be white with fringe). The longevity is great and the sillage is enormous, only one or two sprays of Obsession will get most people through an entire day. A light hand in applying is key. Dries down to a smoky powdered musk. I remember smelling this plenty in the '80s and '90s but it's not dated at all. Anyone who likes warm spicy or slightly animalic scents should try out Obsession.

TRACY by Ellen Tracy

Tracy was my favorite of all the Ellen Tracy perfumes I've had a chance to try (I got a set of minis) I call it my "suburban mom perfume" because it makes me feel like that mom who is kind and capable and runs the household effortlessly. She has no problem setting an extra place at the dinner table for her kids' friend. She has a regular date night with her husband and a book club night with the other neighborhood ladies. It's a calming, lotion-esque scent. The almond note is very milky and the violet note is soft and powdery. The peony and plum blossom add freshness to the composition without ever getting shrill. This is a nice one to wear right out of the bath or on a Sunday morning, it's soft and relaxing. People smell this on you and feel good, like you're going to nurture them. It's a comforting hug in a bottle.

JONTUE by Revlon 

Has anyone seen the movie Dazed and Confused? It follows a group of Texas teenagers on the last day of school in 1976. There is a scene where a few of the senior girls are in the high school bathroom and Jontue isn't featured in the scene but whenever I smell it, I get the idea of those characters all passing around a bottle of it to share. Sweet chamomile flowers and retro oakmoss. Goes so well with bell bottom jeans, embroidered peasant blouses, macrame belts and feathered hairstyles. This is Shavonne, Jodi and Kaye and the smell of their fictional friendship.

CHLOE 

Chloe EDP is one of those "olfactory armor" perfumes to me. It's not something I would wear to come across as sweet or approachable or even sexy. The reviews calling this a "rich bitch" scent are onto something here. It smells expensive, with an air of "don't talk to me, don't touch me, you aren't in my league". Some days I NEED A PERFUME JUST LIKE THAT. I definitely pick up a soapy, laundered linens vibe as well. It makes the rose into less of a realistic garden rose and more of a high-end talcum powder, sachet rose. That's really unique and makes me slightly nostalgic for the era of Laura Ashley boutiques and hotel bathrooms filled with silky guest soap.

EVENING IN PARIS by Bourjois

I must be one lucky babe because I have both a vintage bottle of Evening In Paris (from the 1940s I believe) and a sample of the new reformulation Soir de Paris. They are related for sure, but two very different ladies...

1940s Evening In Paris

There is something distinctly vintage about this. There must be a bunch of oakmoss or orris root in here. It has that "classy but skanky" quality I love so much about vintages. Heavy violet powder and syrupy ylang ylang are garnished with a shake of heliotrope and rose petals. I see a well groomed woman in a black dress and pearls dabbing this behind her ears. She checks her handbag to make sure her red lipstick and cigarettes are in there, then throws a fur around her shoulders. Her husband is taking her to the opera and then a supper club for cocktails and dancing.


New Soir de Paris

When first applied, I get amped up rose, vanilla, peach and apricot. I keep sniffing myself and thinking I put on Lancome Tresor, but I don't own any Tresor. This has better longevity than the vintage Soir de Paris and after an hour or two, the fruit mellows out a bit to let that iris-heliotrope-sandalwood out. It's much sweeter than the vintage and in my opinion, is far more girlish. I see a well groomed young woman in a little black dress and pearls dabbing this behind her ears. She checks her purse to make sure her red lipstick and cell phone are in there, then throws a silky pashmina around her shoulders. Her boyfriend is taking her to a swanky tapas lounge where a DJ is spinning jazz-funk fusion.

I Know A Place

Sheltering at home during quarantine has not stopped me from wearing fragrance. I love perfume so much and wear it for myself, not others. If others happen to enjoy it that's just a nice bonus. It's art to me and a serious mode of self expression. As much as I have come to detest the phrase "silver linings" in reference to anything pandemic-related, I get it. While nobody likes a Pollyanna playing "the glad game", there are a few places where unexpected benefits have appeared after the world turned upside down. 

The first noticeable silver lining for me was that I no longer had to worry about selecting "office appropriate" scents during the weekdays. A new workday that happened from one corner of my kitchen table meant that I could wear any perfume I wished, on any day of the week, in any amount I desired. And if I decided halfway through the day that I could not stand my scent of the day? Well, a midday shower was now a viable solution!

Like all of us, I still missed going places. I began to crave more scents that evoked very specific locales to me. If I can't go somewhere in real life, it's nice to have the option of escaping in my imagination, if only for a moment or two. Here are a few reviews of fragrances that certainly send me to a very specific place and time. 

SHALIMAR by Guerlain 

January, 2003. I have run away from my old life and am hiding out in a cottage in the snowy woods. I have taken only a few possessions with me, including a mini bottle of Guerlain Shalimar. I take to wearing it every day as I settle into a peaceful and strange new life off the grid. Shalimar makes the most sense to me in the context of this setting.

It opens with one of the most realistic Earl Grey accords I have ever smelled. The morning cup of tea as I sit at the dining table, relieved to be rid of the old life and contemplating how I might move forward this morning on plans for my new life. Shalimar moves into a leather gloves note. Makes me feel brave enough to bundle up and venture out into the brisk air and walk around the property. As I do, my body temperature increases, bringing out the sweet smoky opoponax incense. Makes me want to curl up by the fire, or at the very least, go back inside and make another cup of tea while paging through old books forgotten for years on the shelf. Shalimar is the ultimate "sexy librarian" scent in my opinion. After a day of wear, the note that is left on my skin is a soft vanilla, a memory of a hug from a long passed ancestor. It lingers on my sweater for days and becomes the olfactory soundtrack to an era of my life when I had to be my own mother and father and grandparents.

BLUE SANTAL by Comme des Garcons

There is a very specific smell to the air at our summer house. Whenever we arrive after a long long drive, I step out of the car and inhale deeply of the ancient pine forests of northern Wisconsin. The air is clean, green, cool, woody and full of life. CdG Blue Santal is this scent, bottled. I know it's hyped up as a sandalwood fragrance, but I hardly smell the sandalwood. I get rows and rows of hundred year old pine trees. I get the juniper bushes that my great grandmother planted in the yard back in the 1920s. I don't necessarily want to wear this, I like to save that smell for the actual event of BEING THERE. But it's so cool to find this and know that someone managed to bottle the experience.

FRESH CREAM by Philosophy

This really does smell like I walked into Coldstone Creamery or Dairy Queen or some other chain ice cream store where the air is thick with vanilla soft serve and waffle cone smells. Honestly, it was too much sweetness for me, admittedly not a huge gourmand fan but I still enjoy experiments. I ended up wearing it layered with Banana Republic Rosewood, which is also a vanilla scent but has enough woody tones in it to balance out the dessert festival. Fresh Cream lends itself well to layering, so use it to sweeten up things that might feel too dark or serious for you. Personally, I can't really see wearing this on it's own. It feels immature to walk around smelling like a tub of frosting, but to each his own.

CAROLINA HERRERA 

Carolina Herrera is a bombastic tuberose in that over the top style so prevalent in the 1980s. Lots of civet backing up that tuberose and another accord (maybe the apricot or ylang?) that creates a honeyed, almost beeswax thread from beginning to end. This came out when I was a little girl and was quite popular. Upon smelling Carolina Herrera as an adult, I was struck with a very specific memory of hanging out in the hair salon my uncle owned. I'm sure that one of the hairstylists working for him must have worn plenty of this. Without any comment, I let my sibling smell it and asked them "What does this make you think of?" The immediate response was "One of the girls working at the shop when we were kids" So that confirmed it for me, us both having the same association. This is so 1980s for me, it almost feels too costumey now to wear. A scent for a sultry lady. Wallflowers need not apply!

BOUCHERON

It's a funny thing about scent and memories. You smell something and all of a sudden your brain pops up a memory that you didn't even remember you remembered! I like Boucheron, it's a nice smoky floral, over the top 80s oriental style. It has enough going on to keep you interested as it unfolds this way and that over the course of it's wear. It's smoldering and powdery and the florals are thick.

For me, Boucheron smells exactly, and I do mean exactly like the inside of a popular "adult toy store" and headshop in my city. A plasticky 80s tuberose mixed with years of Nag Champa incense. I couldn't believe my scent memory took me there but yes, I smell this and I think smutty. I think bongs for sale and I think of rows upon rows of cheap lingerie and rubber/ vinyl "toys". Obviously if you've never been to this very specific store, you're not going to have this association so by all means give Boucheron a try if you like powerful smoke infused floral orientals. This is decadent. If this were a woman she'd be all curves and lipstick.