The perfumes that evoke our strongest memories, by Team GLAMOUR
Have you noticed the strong connection between smell and memory? A single sniff of something can transport you to a certain period or event from your life in seconds. The power of fragrance is undeniable.
With this in mind, we looked back on our lives to consider which perfumes evoked the strongest memories from our past. From bittersweet birthdays spent with ex-boyfriends to wedding fragrances and childhood first perfumes, there's a whole array of stories collected below.
Take a read through the sweetest, most nostalgic highlights and lowlights of our lives - through scent - here...
Jo Elvin, Editor
Calvin Klein’s Eternity reminds of the first time I ever left my country (Australia) for a trip abroad. I went to San Francisco and New York and one of the first things I did was buy that fragrance which wasn’t available at home. The smell still always immediately takes me back to being 21, standing on a melting hot street in Manhattan and just so excited to be taking everything in.
Claudia Mahoney, Executive Fashion and Beauty Director
I wear Chanel no19 as it evokes glamour and security at once for me. My parents when I was little religiously had one night a week where they went out on a date night. My mum is a total glamour-puss and I can remember watching her get ready and the delicious smell of the perfume being spritzed. I wear it most days now as to me I feel transported back to watching her doll herself up, but also the cocooned feeling of being a little girl again.
I also had my first proper love buy me Amarige De Givenchy and whilst I loved it at the time, and can appreciate it is a beautiful scent, much like the relationship went, it now smells sour and oppressive to me.
Ciara Sheppard, Features Assistant
L'Eau D'Issey Femme by Issey Miyake reminds me of my mum as she’s worn it since I was little. Every time she sends me something in the post she sprays her perfume on it in one of those cringe but sweet motherly traditions. Once, when I was drunk at uni my friend got her bottle out of her bag to spray it on herself and it made me cry for some reason (I was really drunk).
Grace Timothy, Contributing Beauty Editor
I have three perfumes that evoke strong memories:
YSL Paris:
This is pure 1990 - my mum getting ready for a night out with my dad, while I watched Blind Date. She always smelt so good and it's now forever synonymous with her kissing me goodbye, dressed in velvet and a load of gold jewellery - so glam.
JO LOVES POMELO: Jo sent me this scent when she found out I was pregnant - it's a fresh, citrusy scent which helped abate my morning sickness. And because it came from her, it felt extra special. Now whenever I smell it, I'm immediately taken back to that exciting time before my baby arrived, but thankfully without the nausea!
Davidoff Cool Water (for men): I get hysterical when I smell this now - I am immediately transported to my college hallway, watching the sixth form's band saunter past. It's hormones, bad guitar-playing, snogging and a stomach full of butterflies. So sexy.
Kelly Marks, PA to the Editor
Chanel No.5 was the only perfume my grandma would wear and my mum and I have been buying it for the past eight or so years since she passed away. We don't wear it we just keep it at home and without sounding completely cringey, if we ever get upset it is a lovely reminder of her and how glamorous she liked to be.
Dominique Temple, Junior Beauty Editor
I will forever love Beach Walk by MM6 as it was the first fragrance I wore when I got my job as Beauty Assistant at GLAMOUR. It was the happiest and sweet smelling summer! I still wear it.
Michelle Russell, Events Director
When I was a child I always remembered my Dad wearing Paco Rabanne and my Mother, Miss Dior. You can tell I’m a child of the 70’s as I also remember buying Old Spice for my Grandad for Christmas.I always associate the original Gucci Envy with me and I’m devastated they stopped making it – I’m still searching for the fragrance to take its place, with no success!
Rebecca Fearn, Junior Writer
I remember receiving Diptyque's Philosykos on my 21st birthday as a present from my parents and totally loving it. I wore it all throughout my birthday celebrations over the next few days, which I spent a lot of with my ex-boyfriend. As much as I adore the smell, I can't really stand to wear it now as it reminds me too much of that time which feels a little bittersweet now!
Rebecca Wright, Beauty Assistant
Dolce & Gabbana Velvet Mimosa Bloom reminds me of summers in the south of Italy. I will 100% wear it on my wedding day one day!
Kat Brown, Social Media Editor
I firstly need to flag up the perfume I wore when I got married (Jo Malone, English Pear and Freesia, engraved bottle, lush).
A special mention also goes to Impulse O2. The Vanilla collection was similarly prized at school, but it was O2 that singled you out as a lady of discernment, especially when spraying it with abandon after Wednesday double sport. That scent reminds me of summer, hope and two-month holidays. And exam results, but hey, you can’t have everything.
Simone Schofer, Bookings Editor
I think my story is the other way around... I have been wearing Molecule 01 (the one without scent) for years and even though I can’t really smell myself anymore - strangers chat me up in the elevator or on the escalator and admire my scent! I think it brings out natural pheromones and smells different but clean on everybody - it definitely makes me feel good obviously being sniffed and told how exceptional, subtle and good I smell.
Alison Weatherhogg, Lead Designer, GLAMOUR Bespoke
A ‘popular' girl at school wore Giorgio Beverly Hills and as she wafted by, so did this smell!
Natasha Poliszczuk, Assistant Editor and Natasha McNamara, Digital Strategy Director
Natasha P: My very first scent was that first-time classic, White Musk by the Body Shop - I felt so grown up from the first spritz. (It was very much The Thing at my all-girls school to wear White Musk or Dewberry.) I graduated to Exclamation and Lou Lou when I wanted something more sophisticated. Just one sniff of either immediately transports me to that in-between stage when you’re not quite grown-up (but think you are) and the whole world is full of excitement and possibilities. I was going to work on a glossy magazine, click around London in heels and live in one of those tall white townhouses on a tree-lined street. Okay, so I wear flats and it’s more normal house than Notting Hill townhouse, but I think the LouLou spritzing teenage me would be pretty impressed.
Natasha M: Anyone who was a teenager in the 80s will know just how important White Musk was to a girl's social credibility. Every Saturday, pocket money not already spent on singles or fags was swiftly deployed in The Body Shop for whatever White Musk products were on the go. I’m too scared to smell it now in case all those teenage memories come flooding back.
Hannah Crawford, Designer, GLAMOUR Bespoke
This was my first ever ‘real’ scent. It reminds me of the painfully awkward high school days where you would douse yourself with heaps of perfume in a feeble effort to smell and look as good as you could for the ‘hot' boy on the five minute bus journey back home!
Leanne Bayley, Content Editor and Lindsay Frankel, Assistant Editor and Hanna Woodside, Acting Entertainment Editor
Leanne: It has to be CK1 – it was my first grown-up perfume and I felt like a mini fashionista – even if I was dressed in a Kappa tracksuit with terrible makeup. There’s just something about the smell of the fragrance that transports me back to the days when I had frizzy hair (pre ghds I’m afraid), terrible makeup skills, dire dress sense (need I say more with the whole tracksuit thing?) and an obsession with boys who had 90s curtains and piercing blue eyes. CK1 smells like my awkward teenage stage but I still love it.
Lindsay: This is all I wore in the 90s when i had just moved to London and discovered Heavenly Social and the Chemical Brothers. The smell reminds of having fun, all the time!
Hanna: CK One is the smell of every boy I snogged as a teenager! One whiff of it and I'm transported back to Plymouth circa 2006, drinking cider-and-black courtesy of my precious DIY fake ID.
Silvia Nicoletti, Project Manager
I used to think it was really cool to smell like vanilla when I was younger, don’t ask me why. My first perfume was Bon Bons, Sweet Vanilla fragrance - looking back I’m pretty sure people must’ve thought there was a bakery in their vicinity whenever I walked past. Not exactly what I was going for...
Lucy Walker, Fashion Editor
I wore Gucci Rush throughout my later teenage years. If I catch a waft of it I’m instantly transported back to a time where getting ready to go out really meant something and nights often ended kissing boys.
