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.
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