FRAGRANCE EVOKES MEMORIES

This is so true as fragrance has the ability to take us back in time as we often associate a particular fragrance with a certain person or events in our lives...We all have a memory of the first fragrance that made an impression on us whether we liked it or not.I am sure you can all remember the fragrance you were given by your first true love or the perfume you wore on your wedding day.

One of my early and most vivid recollections of a perfume was one that I didn't like or dislike, but it is just a memory and an association with a relative..It was worn by an Aunt and every time she visited it would linger in the air,on the furniture where she had sat, her clothes would always smell...the perfume was just  "HER".

I remember seeing the bottle one day in her open handbag and it was Estee Lauder's Youth Dew Bath Oil, hence the intensity.Youth Dew was originally launched as a Bath Oil only! 
Looking back this heady, oriental, spicy fragrance suited her and will always remind me of this larger than life character. I wonder if she is still wearing her trademark fragrance wherever she goes or has she moved on?

Youth Dew when launched in 1953 as a Bath Oil

My favourite fragrance as a teenager was "Charlie" by Revlon....and along with thousands of other teenagers and young women around the world, we all wanted to be just like the confident Shelly Hack strutting her stuff across the t.v. screen and across the pages of the magazines...
Every year in December I would get the special Christmas Charlie gift set for my birthday and that  would be my supply the following year. It usually contained a 100ml Eau De Toilette spray, body Lotion and a soap. 

However the one year I remember fondly, the goodies were packed in a large blue and white Charlie Hat Box with a white rope handle. It also contained a Charlie Talc shaker, that resembled those large sugar shakers... just writing this makes me reminisce back to those carefree innocent days.That Charlie Talc Shaker got re filled over and over......I just loved my talcum powder shaker..shake,shake and out the Charlie talc would come and waft into the air.Most probably more went over the carpet than onto my body, but I would have been totally oblivious to this...as I would have been dreaming that I was that, carefree, glamorous girl in the ad....

Shelly Hack was the Charlie model 

By the time I reached twenty one years of age, it was time to leave my faithful friend & companion "Charlie" and become a "grown up" and wear a more sophisticated fragrance. In celebration of my coming of age I was given a gift of

 "Rive Gauche" by Yves Saint Laurent. I fell in love with this warm woody floral fragrance.....even today if I smell someone wearing Rive Gauche it takes me back to being twenty one again......

Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche

Pregnancy brings back another vivid recollection of a fragrance...the year was 1993 the year my eldest son was born and the fragrance was "Foud'elle" by Ted Lapidus. I was busy selling, this soon to be launched female fragrance collection to the retailers, so several times a day I had no choice but to spray in order to allow them to experience the delight of this fruity floral fragrance......How I coped with the "sell in" day after day...I just don't know, as just the thought of it now still makes me want to vomit....Shame! it wasn't that the fragrance was that bad, but I was pregnant and it was just too fruity for me! 
The fragrance was discontinued some years later but the aroma is still imprinted in my memory.

I am feeling nauseous looking at the bottle!

Over the years I have loved, then unloved and even disliked intensely many fragrances but one thing I am certain of, is that my career path was mapped out for me long before I realised....so "Thank You" to the Youth Dew in the1960's , Charlie in the 70's and Rive Gauche in the 80's.....for making such an impression on me, as without your help I may have taken a different path in my career that wouldn't have been so memorable....
So next time you feel like being taken back to a time that you remember with affection, just have a quick spray of the fragrance that evokes those memories..and enjoy!

I would love to know which fragrance evokes memories within you...so please leave a comment..