This time of year, perfume lovers talk a lot about what fragrances they like to wear for the holidays. Other times of the year, people ponder fragrances for weddings, major birthdays, new jobs, or other milestones. This post won’t suggest perfumes for any of these occasions. Instead, it offers a warning. If you wear a beautiful fragrance on a beautiful day, you’ll have beautiful memories. But if you wear a beautiful fragrance and things go sour — well, you may as well pour that bottle of Amouage Lyric that was supposed to brighten your spring down the toilet. It will only bring you heartache.

Scent and memory are tightly entwined. Maybe you wouldn’t otherwise give it a second sniff, but you might own a bottle of Estée Lauder Youth Dew because you associate it with your grandmother, the one who called you “pumpkin” and hugged you with a grip that would earn her favorable odds in big time wrestling. You might have entertained the possibility of wearing Calvin Klein Euphoria if it didn’t remind you so much of the pushy office manager in your last job who made a note of pointing out every time you returned from lunch two minutes late. Maybe you had to give away your bottle of Thierry Mugler Angel because your ex-husband loved it on you — until he left you for some Paris Hilton Siren-wearing homewrecker…

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