Jan 16
Jog Your Olfactory Memory
Lately I’ve been reading some of my old vacation journals. The one I was reading yesterday featured a trip I took when I was seventeen and in it I made an offhand remark of the perfume I was wearing at the time.
When I think of my teenaged scent, Versace Red Jeans immediately comes to mind. (OK, OK—and also coffee at Home Cookin’, monotonous laps around the mall, and playground blowjobs.) I wore the shit out of that perfume. I remember the one time I went to Kauffman’s for a new bottle and I was elated, absolutely ebullient, when I learned that I was also getting a silver keychain as a free gift. Its length was about the size of my neck, so naturally I wore it as a choker.
But that’s not the perfume I was wearing on this trip, evidently. Instead, it was Champagne by Yves Saint Laurent. When I read that, I shouted, “I completely forgot I used to wear that!” like I had just remembered something life-altering about my past, and having the knowledge of it in the here and now would be the key element to my survival and by bedaubing my pressure points with it, I’ll finally be able to snap my fingers, understand football, and enjoy American Idol with the other 95% of the population who seem to depend on it to live.
I don’t remember what it smelled like, only that one of those pushy perfume spritzers pelted me with a damp cloud of it at one of the department stores the summer between junior and senior year and my nose found it pleasing enough to make me whip out mommy’s credit card with urgency.
So naturally, I ordered a bottle of it today. I’m not sure why, though. Maybe in hopes that it will trigger something and make me forget about everything that’s currently got me down? Because it might me remind me of Stefan, the Australian I had a crush on during that trip? (He was my first older man crush!) Who knows, but I hope I still like it, at least.
What scent did you wear in high school? No really, I need to know.
30 comments30 Comments so far
Leave a comment
ck one.
the ambiguous smell.
naturally!
i’m glad it wasn’t the ‘die’ scent.
ck one and Encounter by Victoria’s Secret
I’ve never smelled any of the Victoria’s Secrets perfumes. I should do that.
Like the dumb ho that I am I commented on your feed. Here’s the comment in the proper place:
It was an oil that I used to buy in a tiny shop in a tiny town called Holly, Michigan. It was Moonflowers and I’ve never found another perfume oil company that makes it exactly the same.
Hey, us dumb hoes with the weird babies gotta stick together, yanno?
When I was in elementary school, I used to wear Electric Youth (remember, the Debbie Gibson one)?
In high school, I was very into Bath and Body Works stuff. Mainly country apple and peach.
I remember that perfume!And song! In elementary school, this girl Elisabeth had a sleepover birthday party and someone got that cassette single in their treat bag. I remember I was pissed because I got Kylie Minogue’s cover of “Locomotion.”
ck one or this stuff a friend of mine made that was a peachy stench.
but i rarely wore either very often.
i love reading stuff like this about people, though.
recently this dude walked past me in the grocery store and he smelled like this guy i used to sleep with and it made me think of him momentarily.
and naturally, i wanted to seek him out and bang him again. 15 years after the fact. *lol*
My first “love” wore Cool Water and to this day I get a jolt when I smell it, but I talk to him often and never feel anything. Only when I smell that! Weird.
“I’ll finally be able to snap my fingers, understand football, and enjoy American Idol with the other 95% of the population who seem to depend on it to live.”
HEE HEE!! American Idol is SHIT.
I wore Canteen. Remember that shit?
I think I went through a Love’s Baby Soft phase, too. I cannot stand this stench now.
I don’t remember Canteen! Who made that? I def. remember Love’s Baby Soft, though. That was really popular when I was in middle school and I can still rmemeber that smell!
When I was young, I LOVED Malibu Musk. I wore it for YEARS. Even now as an adult, I would wear it, but they seem to have stopped making it. I used to get it from Dollar General, so I always have my mom checking for it when she goes there.
The closest I’ve found as an adult is Adidas perfume. I hardly wear it in case they stop making that, too! :)
Malibu Musk sounds REALLY familiar to me. Did it come in a roll-on thingie, too?
Yah, itcame in roll on and spray and aerosol. :) It was awesome
My sister wore Jovan White Musk and I still can’t smell it without thinking of her. Aw, gee. I, on the other hand, wore men’s cologne – Gap Blue – for years. I loved it! I was so heartbroken when they stopped making it.
In college I wore Acqua Di Gio & sometimes L’Interdit, which was the perfume Givenchy made for Audrey Hepburn. These days I don’t wear anything … which is weird. Oh well, someday I’ll find a secret stash of Gap Blue, & my life will be complete.
A perfume made for Audrey Hepburn seems very fitting for you. I’m going to find Gap Blue for you.
<3 <3 <3
I was pretty much all about “Vanilla Fields”..
I was wondering about that the other day, if I would still like it now.
Baby soft? I may like that smell. Oh great, NOW I can smell like a middle schooler! LOL.
I remember Vanilla Fields!
I also wear Hypnotic Poison by Dior. One of my exes thought it smelled like pot, but it really doesn’t. Henry gets scared when I wear it because dudes seem to really like how it smells, lol.
I haven’t heard of that one, I may have to go find it on a perfume counter somewhere.
Cross your fingers that I don’t get attacked by one of those perfume squirter people!
Definitely go out and smell it! It’s very distinctive.
I don’t think I did wear much back in high school. Or nothing I can remember. Really lame-o. Nowadays, I have a few nice body sprays from Bath and Body Works and some time ago I bought a bottle of Victoria Secret Pink, which I really like.
and remember how rudely you declined my sales pitch for mark’s GARDEN BLUE?!
You’d probably be married with kids right now if only you had bought a bottle.
Cheap bitch!
BUT I have that pretty smelling powderpuff thing you gave me that one time that was Garden Blue, I think. So THERE!
FOILED!!
I wish they still made Hollywood Pink. That smelled surprisingly good.
I used to alternate between Love’s Baby Soft and the manly Stetson. I was so trashy.
I rotated between CKBe (I freakin’ LOVED that), Cool Water Woman (still like that), and Cucumber Melon from Bath and Body Works.
I love cucumber melon scents! That’s my fave kind of candle.
GHOST MYST. Lame. By senior year I was wearing scented oils though.