School is back in session.
Talk about something school-related: what perfume do you or did you wear to school? What perfume do you wish you'd worn to school? What perfumes are you smelling on students, or teachers, these days?
And, a quick unrelated question: is there any interest in a split-meet? Like a swapmeet, but for people who wanted to get together to arrange bottle splits.
Note: image is High school lockers [cropped] by vauvau at flickr; some rights reserved.
Having worked at schools for many years, there are some scent things that I’ve noticed, like the fact that a room full of third graders just in from recess on a warm day have the weirdest smell that emanates from their sweaty little heads. And high school boys believe that Axe body spray will cover up the smell of working out in the weight room for a couple of hours, or early morning football practice. Um, no.
On the other hand, old textbooks, mimeographs, paste and the cafeteria’s homemade cinnamon rolls were fabulous smells that are pretty much gone forever. But new crayons still smell the same 🙂
Mimeographs — such a lovely smell, I miss that!
Yes, we would all hold the fresh copies to our faces and huff. 🙂
…smelled like grape juice.
The smell of paste, always liked that. lol.
Oh and the smell of chalk! I used to almost beg to be chosen to bash the chalk out of the dusters just so I could smell all that lovely chalkdust 🙂
Yes, that is a great smell!
Wikipedia has a fascinating discussion of duplicating machines. I can remember the hectograph or gelatin duplicator, which involved the use of special inks to transfer an original via a a pan of gelatin. It sounds like the method that produced the excellent/weird smelling purple copies was the Ditto machine or spirit duplicator. They need to enshrine one of these in the Osmothèque.
I wore Poison, I had one bottle.. I used it all up..this was the 8th grade, lol. It was a gift. I ran out, high school came and didn’t have the funds to buy more. So, I bought this cheapo ‘Poison’ roll on oil that I just loved. It was only like 2.99 at the gas station, LOL. But I loved it..I still have one of the roll ons I used. It’s empty but it still has the smell! LOL. I know but I loved it..through high school I did. After I graduated hs..I got bottles of Guess Original( I POURED that stuff on me:)), Beautiful, Tresor(when it was good) and Tuscany Per Donna. Those were my faves. I wore mostly Pleasures during college years. I loved Pleasures…and kind of still do:). Yes, I do love it.
How cool that you found your favorite at a gas station! I love it.
What I liked smelling on a man during school-
older days:
Anchor Blue(anyone remember that store?)..that store is no longer..but loved their men’s scent
Polo
Aspen
Polo Sport
Not as older days:
RL Polo Black
RL Double Black
Scents I wished I’d worn: Real Poison during hs LOL.
Scents I am glad I NEVER wore: Navy, Exclamation and the dreaded CK One..my friends wore these and I was like why?? Why??
aw, I loved Navy!! My first perfume. Adore it.
I loved Exclamation back in the day – owned a mini spray of that, and a mini splash of Navy as well.
But I was UTTERLY SICK OF POISON. Back when it was newish, it was all the rage and every single college dorm hall (not to mention the campus buses and half the classrooms) reeeeeeeked of it. These days I do wear it from time to time, but not the way people used to wear it (six sprays too many!)
Six sprays is too many LOL. I can barely do one now. I did wear like 2-3 squirts though..back in the day.
Ok, sometimes 4, LOL.
Just bought my birthday bottle of perfume — I’m pretty sure Dzhari will be light enough to wear to school. Since the first day of school was all lecture, no hands-on I felt like I could get away with wearing Boudoir
Happy birthday!
Another happy birthday! My birthday is next week and I’v spent about 2 months deciding on my birthday fume, lol!
I know how that goes– going through the to buy list to figure out what is MOST desired, in season, in budget, etc. I tend to also want to actually go into a store and come out with something new for my birthday. I am already thinking about my perfume to commemorate graduation and that’s two years away
It seems appropriate that there’s a high school theme here, as I sadly do not feel like one of the cool kids over in the swapping section. I understand that Americans pretty well need to swap with their fellow citizens, but haven’t had vast amounts of luck coming up with fellow canucks.
The sniffing is stopping now. In high school I wore fleeting Avon floral items. Wish I had give Anais Anais a try, and had to wait to have a little more money in college to go with Cristalle and Dioressimo, favourites for many years.
Yes, ringthing, teenage boys and their Axe! Young ones, please try smelling strongly of soap…
I’m a canuck, too! But I’ve never gotten involved with the swaps, as it always seemed kind of like my husband’s fantasy baseball — fun, but consumes lots of time. Maybe I should take a look & diversify the nationalities over there! 🙂
Sorry! I know it’s harder to find people…
Hi Annie, I’m sorry about the lack of swappers! I’ve sent perfume to Canada and it’s such a pain and I’m not sure why. But it does happen – if you have stuff you want to swap you should post, some intrepid Statesian may take you up on it!
Yes–the trouble with Canadian post is my hesitation, too! Especially since we’ve met! But if you have another trip to Oregon in the future, I’d be happy to hold something aside for you!
That was supposed to say that I feel especially bad about it, especially since we’ve actually met in person! NOT that I didn’t want to swap with you because we’d met! Sheesh! *pulls foot from mouth* 😛
Yeah, Canada is such a pain for shipping perfume; I tried returning a bottle once and had to cross the border to do it because no shipper in Canada would take it (it’s “hazardous,” go figure). I use a mail receiving service in the US (and also my sister’s house in the States) for my perfume — shipping is so much easier & cheaper. I don’t get it with Canada.
Annie, just deleted your reply on the swap page — VERY sorry, I know it’s a pain, but can you send an email to that person? One of the swap rules is no replies to comments, and since that thread gets huge, would really like to stick firmly to the rule.
I cringe at the thought of what I wore as a 13 yr old :-/ Omega- I can’t tell you why, apart from that it was cheap and I could get it from the pharmacy- but I wore Exclamation! Lol. And Revlon Jontue, Panache, Colours by Benetton. I stank like the cheap late 80’s 🙂
My first ‘expensive’ perfume was New West for women. LOVED IT! I’m not sure why I loved that aquatic so much when I have do little love for them now. But maybe that is why!
Back for an update as I couldn’t remember what I wore in upper highschool. By then fashion was becoming grunge and my friends and I all wore vintage/goth/anything but mainstream heaven forbid, and I wore perfume oils. A little vial from an Indian ‘hippy shop’ called Krishna Musk (ooh I loved this I so want to smell it again!), and SO alternative (lol!) Body Shop perfume oils. I did really like the body shop in it’s early days they were far more natural. Woody Sandalwood and Mostly Musk were my favourites, and I still have them, along with Vanilla, Fuzzy Peach, Wood Musk, Tea Rose, Rose Musk, and Annie.
I loved New West too, and like you, mostly lost my taste for aquatics after that, although I do like CSP Aqua Motu once in a blue moon.
Me too, perthgirl! I was just reflecting on what a creature of the late 80s I was!
My first bottle was a bottle of Lady Stetson one of my teachers gave to me, and a Jean Nate gift set (body powder, too!) that I got from my parents for Christmas. I don’t recall wearing that Lady Stetson much, but I did love that body powder, with the big white puff. I felt so adult (my grandmother had a big powder puff like that).
Once I got to high school, we all wore Primo (no one at my school had money for the real Giorgio), then there was the triangular bottle of Liz Claiborne, and then I progressed on to Colours, as well.
Then university: I had a boyfriend while I was living in Germany who bought me a big bottle of Poison (which my aunt, seven years older, had also bought, so I thought it was the height of fashion), and a bottle of Jil Sander, which I then wore for many years.
My daughter wears a homemade solid perfume that I made for her to school — grapefruit and ylang ylang, following a link that I think I found here. She is four and was fascinated by my perfume, so I gave her a sample of some Daisy flanker that Sephora threw in the bag, but she was drenching herself in it. The solid perfume is much better for the toddler set!
I used to love that Jean Nate powder! Haven’t worn it in years although I like having the splash for summer occasionally. Wonder if the powder that’s at the drugstore now still has that big puff 🙂
That powder with the big puff was wonderful. I loved that stuff.
My best friend in high school went through gallons of Primo I think. Another friend was partial to the Opium one which was called Ninja I think.
Ahhh, Primo!!:D. LOL, I had a can of that or two in hs as well.
In elementary school I had a bottle of Coty Muguet des Bois (a Christmas gift from a great-aunt), but I didn’t wear it to school. It was strictly for special occasions. I had no money to buy my own perfume, and I didn’t know when the next bottle would come along, so I had to use it sparingly. I loved it, though; I fell in love with perfume at an early age from the bottles on my mother’s dressing table, and it felt wonderful to have my very own bottle of perfume.
In junior high, I wore Shulton Blue Jeans (anyone else remember this?), and Love’s Baby Soft.
In high school, I wore Heaven Sent, Emeraude, and Chanel no. 5.
In college, I added My Sin, Arpege, Pheromone, and Poison to my perfume wardrobe. Incidentally, Poison was the first perfume I bought other than in person (mail order). I absolutely fell in love with it from the scent strip in a magazine when it was brand new and exclusive to Bloomingdale’s. I had to have it, but there was no Bloomingdale’s where I lived. I loved, loved, loved it, and it was the closest I ever came to a signature scent. I still have a little left in that orginal bottle, but now I cannot stand it. I don’t know whether it is my tastes that have changed, or if it has gone off.
I fell for Poison the exact same way! The mail order thing. I thought I was so cool having a scent that was just mine. Lol.
I remember Blue Jeans too. I don’t think I ever had a bottle of it though. I wanted Muguet de Bois badly but never got that one either.
Anyone remember Tatiana? Think I caused at least one teenaged boy’s mock coughing fit wearing that one.
I bought a mini bottle of Tatiana when I was in college, and unwisely took it home during a vacation. I loved the stuff. My mother (the No. 5 -wearing, white-floral-hating), um, “lost” it.
Yes, she DID. This was the same woman who made me take Sand & Sable back to the drugstore because it was “too mature” for me. (I was 18.)
Mothers are interesting, aren’t they?! I’m amazed that your mom approved of Chloe (no shy violet, that) but objected to Sand and Sable and Tatiana. I loved all three, myself.
My own mother never wore perfume but didn’t object to what my sisters and I wore, as long as we went easy on the application! I’m afraid I’m still an under-applier to this day…
School is definitely the smell of new books for me. In high school my favorite thing was this little bottle of essential oil–it was called opium, but I have no idea if it was any relation to the perfume or the drug.
Now I work in a university where everyone is scent averse. However, I wore Balenciaga Paris (more than usual) on Thursday, and got a nice compliment. Hooray!
Nice 🙂
Forgot to mention earlier, but I am on board for a split meet!
Good for you and B Paris!
I have been so busy in the back-to-school season that many days I’ve actually not had time to pick perfume and put it on. Sometimes I’m so tired even when I get a break and could put some on I think “Mmm, I’d like some perfume.” But my brain is too tired to even figure out what to wear!
It’s such a busy time of year — here too. Hope things settle down.
In school I wore a Miner’s patchouli musk oil that turned my wrists green! Aqua Manda by Goya was a hugely popular scent. The brown glass apothecary style bottles get great prices on ebay here – even when empty! At the time I could not resist a boy wearing Aramis!
I have heard a rumour Aqua Manda is coming back – I would love to smell it again!!!
Wow, gotta wonder what was in that to turn your wrists green!
I wore Opium to school and occasionally I’d have coughing fits, which I’d blame on the boy who sat beside me because he must have been wearing Axe or something. But then I realized it was me.
LOL!
haha
I literally laughed out loud.
I wore Lauren in middle school & Chanel No. 5 in high school. The latter was an odd choice since I was sort of punk/goth at the time. Ahh, the ’80s. 😉
Somehow I think Chanel herself would approve. 🙂
Lauren was gorgeous then.
I wore Love’s Baby Soft in the tenth grade. When I was younger, I wore: 1) what must have been Avon’s Delicate Daisies. I could only remember the look of the bottle — a photo on ebay tells me that it was Delicate Daisies 2) White Shoulders (my mom’s) and 3) Sweet Honesty. A few years ago, the Avon lady at work smelled great. I complimented her and she said that she was wearing Sweet Honesty. I remembered how I liked it as a kid, so I bought some, but it smelled bad on me — very generic and perfumey.
I might have tried some of my mom’s Emeraude occasionally.
In college, I wore perfume oils purchased at festivals, health food stores, head shops, etc. My favorite was some carnation perfume oil that I bought from on campus.
I remember Sweet Honesty…too bad it doesn’t smell as nice now.
Brut. Now you should be able to guess my age.
The term for the 3rd grade head smell? “I need shampoo.”
I love Brut!!!!
My dad has worn Brut forever, so I definitely have a soft spot for it.
I loved the commercials for Brut… darn it, now I have the jingle running through my head!
In grade school I wore Oh! de London (because Yardley sponsored The Monkees). Chantilly, Muguet de Bois and Heaven Scent. High school was Sortilege. College, My Sin and Zen and You’re the Fire! I also loved Avon’s Honey Body Lotion and Charisma. And, what about Cachet?
My actual school smells were those soft, clear erasers, a potent Magic Marker, and the hamburgers on home made buns from the school cafeteria. Heaven!
I met Peter Tork a few years back, he was my fave of the bunch. I was all gooogly..even though he was much much older than those Nickolodeon re-runs of that show they had.
I used to watch the Monkees in re-runs. Peter Tork was my favorite, too, with Davy Jones a close second. When I was a kid, I ordered their greatest hits album. It was warped because the package sat on our front porch in 100 degree heat, but I still listened to it.
I was 8 when I fell hard for Davy Jones. Ah, youth.
Davy Jones was my “gateway” boy. Oh, was I in love. A pre-Beiber. Even if they were considered pre-fab, he was chosen because he was the Artful Dodger in Oliver!. He could sing and act and he looked like a cherub. I cried like a baby when he died. He seemed so safe to a young girl. Sexy, before I was ready to know what all that entailed. Those were good times! Pre-twerk.
((((hugs)))) Davy was a bummer to lose:(. He seemed like such a nice guy. Twerk days are a sign of the end times, I am sure..lol. Just that word, twerk, sounds disgusting.
Omega, End of times to be sure. Make sure you have your DNR form completed. 🙂
Those Day-Glo clear erasers were fantastic-smelling! They were neat to pull apart and cut up. The 25 cent hamburgers in our cafeteria were deluxe and very memorable. They were a real treat because 25 cents was a lot of money in those days (1965-68).
Celestia, Those erasers were a big deal at the time. Quite addictive. Those back to school memories stay with you. I loved the click my Nifty Notebook made!
Our burgers were loose meat with onions. I can taste them to this day. Our time frames were the same.
My parochial school had a no perfume, no make-up, no nail polish (except clear) rule. There is an “inspection” every morning and there’s no place to hide.
I’m happily out of school now for many years 🙂
As to a split meet…I would be interested and also willing to host splits for U.S. based only…I saw the thread above on the lack of non-U.S. swappers but the postal regulations are just getting ridiculous. Even sending perfume within the U.S. is supposed to be restricted to ground shipping only…
Likewise so interested in a splitmeet or split group! I have the idea that maybe there is already a google group? Would be so interested in that also, if that’s real and not a figment of my imagination! If someone knows more than I do, I can be contacted at catherineh789 at the mail that is from google, i.e. gmail 🙂
There used to be a Scent Splits wiki, but it’s no longer at its old address…if anyone knows where it is, I’d love to know too! Maybe it turned into a Google group.
That poor thing was so hacked and full of spam. I was sad to see it go away but it really needed maintenance.
Ah, didn’t know that, thanks.
I remember wearing Exclamation in junior high, but I think back to high school and college, and it’s just this big gaping hole of “what did I wear then?” I don’t remember. If anything at all, it was probably just drugstore body sprays or whatever. I know I wore Bath & Body Works Japanese Cherry Blossom at some point, but I can’t remember if that was in college or a little after.
I remember when I was in high school in the ’90s a lot of girls were into Bath & Body Works, which I think was relatively new at the time. It seemed like everyone had the same apple-scented lotion that you could practically smell from space. I hated that stuff.
Apple should not be that strong, LOL…
Never.:D
My job involves talking to college students all day – I literally sit in a office and wait for people to come talk to me all day. I try to pay a lot of attention to the perfumes people are wearing, and it’s really surprising to me how few college students are wearing perfume. A lot of times, with the women, if I’m smelling something, I’m not sure if I’m smelling hair products or perfume. It seems to me college students are wearing much perfume these days. Or at least, they’re not wearing it to come visit their academic advisor.
I didn’t bring my perfume collection to school with me.
Interesting. That’s my impression in general…there aren’t as many women wearing perfume as there used to be.
YES! –to the not being able to tell if you’re smelling perfume or hair products! Many-a-time I’ve wondered if I was just smelling a strong shampoo rather than a perfume and hesitated to comment. . .
Yes–and I think the few college students who do wear perfume are wearing stuff that’s very, very light, and fits into that “is it even perfume or did you just wash your hair?” aesthetic. Now that I’ve gotten into perfume, I’ve realized I didn’t even know whether my roommates wore perfume in college, and it turns out to be because at least two of them were wearing l’Eau d’Issey. I honestly thought the bottle was just, like, a piece of objet d’art on our bookshelf 🙂
My roommate had a whole bunch of Victoria’s Secret perfumes on her dresser and they all smelled like hairspray. She also had 6 Avril Lavigne posters on the wall. Her personality seemed older than her actual age but her taste was so immature. She’s French (but moved to the US when she was about 15) and her French relative told her that her clothes are very American and she cried.
I didn’t wear a lot of perfume in college either, but I’m sure I had a bottle of Obsession or Oscar around. The sorority girls, however, bathed in Georgio. You could always tell by the hair bow and the wafting perfume. It was a pretty big scent, but then again it was the Eighties.
BG, yours sounds like a wonderful job! Young women of the past ten years or so confound me. Don’t get them at all. Don’t envy them either. Tough, graceless time to be young.
Perhaps you should keep a few bottles on your desk. If you’re their advisor, couldn’t you stretch your area of expertise?
I remember the girls I went to college with all smelled of Flex Balsam.
I was more of a Body on Tap gal.
I remember my ‘go to’ as being My Sin, even if I was headed over to the Stumble Inn to shoot baskets for shots. My, I was classy.
At least it was truth in advertising!
I’d be down with a split meet, but live in Canada, can sometimes send/receive things through friends & family across the border, it just depends on the timing…
I wore Rive Gauche as a school girl. That was a looooooong time ago. Wow! I would be very interested in a split meet. I’ve been wanting De Bachmakov, as one example, for some time but can’t justify spending big bucks for 50 ml.
I’ve posted this before, but I got my first adult perfume at 14, Caron’s Infini and wore it exclusively for 15-20 years. I WAS wearing Avon Honeysuckle solid perfume in a little pot the very first time I was “French kissed” in the milking barn. I kept that honeysuckle for many years, along with a lock of my own hair. My god it was brown at one point!
Would be interested in a bottle split. I am now, as I write, testing a sample of Diaghilev. Gorgeous. But, man, I could feed a country for a year on its price, although I have $250 in gift credit and $200 dollars off a big purchase at BG at the end of the month.
Do any of you hold any opinions on this perfume? (I have to say, it smells an awful lot like the discontinued and beautiful chypre Courant by Helena Rubenstein…that I got for 3 dollars in an antique shop…)
I thought Diaghilev was lovely. Not “me,” but lovely.
The funny thing about it was the first ten minutes kept making me think of middle school choir, and I couldn’t figure out why… I mean, I was having all these memories… and then I remembered. Oh yes: there was no classroom space for us, so we practiced on the stage.
With its (no, I am NOT making this up) freshly drycleaned VELVET STAGE CURTAIN. There is something in Diaghilev that really recalls velvet stage curtain smell to me. Short-lived, but fascinating.
Mals – I am sure I read somewhere that Roja Dove was paying tribute to Diaghelev’s love of Mitsouko when he created the perfume, so that’s why it smells similar; and apparently Diaghelev would spray the drapes of the theatre with Mitsouko (what extravagance!) – so perhaps it’s no coincidence that you get curtains!
I know! Isn’t that funny?
Because I had forgotten about Diaghilev and his spraying-the-curtains thing when I first tried it, and had this out-of-body I SMELL MIDDLE SCHOOL STAGE CURTAIN experience… it was only later that I was thinking about it and realizing that it might have been there on purpose.
Mough – people say that Diaghelev smells a bit like Mitsouko, so maybe that might ease your craving? I’ve also read that there are two versions of Diaghelev, but both are soooo expensive.
Guess who can’t spell Diaghilev????
I had Avon’s Delicate Daisies, Sweet Honesty, Jontue and Aqua Selva (decanted for me by my grandmother) in grade school. From there, I moved onto KL and Venezia.
Spent yesterday with a real white ginger flower – it’s the best smell! Can anyone suggest white ginger focused perfumes that are worth trying?
Happy weekend, all!
SOTD today is Omnia, which has been on my mind since warming a friend to it a month or so ago. . . he’s recently asked me where he can buy his own bottle instead of just stealing a spritz when he comes over! 🙂
I don’t remember my teachers wearing perfume–maybe the occasional old lady substitute teacher?
Of course, now I’m the teacher, so I’m helping to create a new generation of teacher-smell associations. Wouldn’t it be nice if some day a whole group of youth said that teachers always smell like Lipstick Rose and OJ Woman?!
I do feel that schools have a distinct smell–walking through the halls it has that *school* smell–metal lockers, old carpet, dust, teenage self-consciousness. . . Nothing else quite like it.
I love Omnia, it’s a pity they’ve discontinued it now… I think it’s still pretty easy to find online though.
Oh, and as for a potential bottle split, I have mixed feelings. Splits have tempted me before, but the exchanging of money-thing makes it a bit more anxiety-causing than swapping. I might be more comfortable splitting with folks I already have some rapport with. OTOH, if I could get some OJ Ta’if at a reasonable price, it would be hard to resist!
I went to a private Catholic school. There was a strict uniform and perfume and jewellery were not allowed. That was not unusual in Australia at the time. Even now I don’t think it is all that common for very young girls to wear perfume to school.
So I don’t have all those memories that you folk all have! I learned about perfume appreciation from my mother’s adoration of April Violets, and my father gave me the talc version of Panache when I was about 15. Once I was at university I started buying my own grown up perfumes and skipped the whole teenage perfume thing.
Panache is actually a pretty good perfume. I bought some vintage Panache on eBay a few years ago, out of nostalgic interest. A rose-violet scent, very clean and pretty, juice completely colourless. But after Pleasures came out in the mid-90s there was no future for something like Panache. Just-out-of -the-shower clean like Panache, Pleasures was (is) so much more modern and radiant.
It is lovely isn’t it. I remember buying it after I smelt it on someone and asked what it was, and for years I’d smell it on passers-by. Now I can’t even remember what it smelt like..
Panache or Pleasures? I love Pleasures, but regard Panache as more of an historical interest!
I was thinking Panache, but I haven’t smelled either in years and years, so I might be wrong on both counts by now! 🙂
They are both lovely. Panache smells very dated to me now, Pleasures more modern. Still, Pleasures (a fresh green floral, a bit peppery) was released in 1995 or thereabouts, so young women of today probably regard it as an ‘old lady’ fragrance. Neither of them smell of sticky fruit or popcorn. 🙂
I’d love to participate in a swap – little nervous about hosting, but I would definitely trust a known NSTer who was hosting!
Now onto this wonderful poll:
In 7th/8th grade I wore Giorgio Armani’s Gio. Does anyone remember that? It wasn’t Aqua di Gio.
In 8th/9th, it was Elizabeth Arden’s 5th Avenue.
I didn’t move on to Chanels until high school, and then it was Cristalle all the way!
Of course, I can’t smell any of those today without thinking of the horror that was Jr. High/High School (let’s just say, thank god those aren’t really the “best times of your life”).
Now I work with international students at a university. I love when my students from the middle east pop in, they always have the most fantastic cologne!
As for the split meet thing, I would be interested. I’ve never participated in a split before, but it seems like it could be a good way to get things I would never be able to afford otherwise.
I’m testing the two new Atelier Cologne scents today. I like both, though I think Gold Leather is just a little bit more my style than Silver Iris. Interestingly enough, Gold Leather reminds me a lot of Voluspa’s Warm Perique Tabac candle, which I loved and wanted in perfume form. It’s like that candle crossed with a bit of Lubin Idole. Yummy. Now I wish they would just sell that 30ml bottle separately.
I think I had Avon solids I wore in elementary school, plus Sweet Honesty. And I started wearing Chloe, the old tuberose-rich Karl Lagerfeld one, in middle school. My mother bought me Prince Matchabelli Cachet – I think she kept hoping I’d leave the white florals alone, but I had a definite preference for Chloe! Had a mini of Emeraude I loooooved.
By college I was picking up mini bottles at the drugstore right and left… Navy, Sand & Sable, Tatiana, Exclamation… and then started wearing Xia Xi’ang (so pretty. Samsara reminded me of it) as well as Aspen for Women, which had an aquatic note as well as, if I remember correctly, a coniferous note plus some pretty florals, rose and jasmine perhaps, and a bit of sandalwood. It didn’t age well, but boy HOWDY did I love that stuff.
In junior high (1967-69) I loved and wore Yardley Oh! de London, Ambush and Wind Song. Reallly loved the Ambush and wish I could smell it again.
I used to wear Azzaro PH, Fahrenheit and Minotaure in my school days. In college, 212 Splash Men, Individuel (got tons of compliments with these) and Emporio Armani He.
A curious story: I used to pay attention to my professors’ scents in college. Once one of them went to class with a HUGE bag and as she was very funny, liked to joke on us, I asked her: ” Teacher your bag is so huge that you can hide inside it. What do you carry inside it?” Laughing too much as always and joking she openned and showed us the bag. There was only her wallet and a bottle of 212 Sexy Women inside that HUGE bag. I wasn’t expecting her reaction and when she started openning it I was imagining there would be her entire wardrobe inside it, like in my sister’s bags. lol. I’m needing to meet her again and have some laugh together.
High school: Heaven Sent in winter, Muguet des Bois in spring. Have tried Walgreen versions recently and they smell NOTHING like what I remember…. Did they totally reformulate them? College: Ambush, Tatiana, does anyone remember Pavlova?
I recall Pavlova. It was popular and the bottle was pretty.
Heaven Scent and Muguet de Bois are also rings on my tree.
Tatiana was nice, wasn’t it? I wore Inoui around the same time. They make me think of each other.
My grandmother had a bottle of Pavlova displayed with her other perfumes on a gold tray her dresser. The bottle was so pretty, and I think that I remember a black velvet pouch?
I started wearing frags my first year of university. Chanel’s Antaeus, Balenciaga’s Ho Hang Club, Eau Sauvage Extrème, and Trussardi Uomo were my regular.
I am a teacher, but given my perfume collection, my students have probably never been able to smell the same thing on me twice.
My students being only 7 or 8, they do not wear perfume, of course, but I can usually tell who hugged his/her freshly perfumed mom just before school.
Eau Sauvage Extreme!
Ha! I was reading this discussion and couldn’t remember what I wore very early (I know that during college I wore CdG Odeur 53, and I still love it) … Then, your post made me recall it — it was Trussardi! Unlike yours Trussardi, mine was Trussardi women (the one from 1982). Even though I very well remember the bottle (I really liked it LOL, and probably for that reason only used that one rather than any other of my mother’s fragrances), I cannot picture anymore how it smelled like. So, I went on eBay and bought a vintage bottle. Now I will have to report this to Donatella 🙁
Personally, I’d love to participate in a swap. Only problem is Australia seem to be up there with Canada on the ridiculous shipping regulations 🙁
There are so many things just not available here. Actually what I’d like is a mule. Some lovely honest American soul to send my $ to so they in return can send me a bell jar, or an OJ, or a bottle of Bois des Iles parfum…. 🙂
Hopefully that bottle of Bois des Iles isn’t being muled in the traditional fashion a la hidden in orifices! . . . 😉
Better that than the bell jar! 😉
I’m not fussy, mule, perfume sponsor, whatever… 🙂
Great Britain has caught up with ridiculous regulations on posting perfume. Earlier this year they banned any private individual mailing perfume within the UK, but rescinded this in July, although you may only send one bottle and it has to be in original, sealed packaging, and have a label on the parcel proclaiming that it is a dangerous substance. They have now forbidden any posting outside the UK of perfume or any product with perfume in it – as I have discovered to my cost when they returned to me the parcel I sent to my sister Australia, minus the Chanel No 5 Sensual Elixir (which they say has been destroyed or otherwise disposed of ….), and with a letter implying I was a criminal!
My school scents chronologically from the first which Clinque Happy for men, Drakkor Noir ( I cant even imagine what the teacher thought of a 10 year old wearing that school), Axe body sprays (yikes) Abercrombie Fierce, Calvin Klein Euphoria for men, Z-Zegna, , D&G Light Blue for men, D&G Le Bateleur, and Givenchy Play.
In high school I remember something like a friend wearing Fidji making me realize I needed to “up” my game, which I did with EL Private Collection. Soon, I didn’t need any prompting, and went on to EL Estee, Benetton Colors (mentioned higher up and which i LOVED), then wow: I discovered Calandre and Paco Rabanne Metal. Still long for all of them. When I got to univ and my “pocket money” and part time job money grew, there was exclamation and then I started smothering myself in Ysatis, First and Joy! Like them all, but I think I must have inflicted some nostril damage, given the volumes I used to apply. Lovely reading everyone’s scent memories of those turbulent times.
Throughout high school, I wore lots of perfume oils (amber, frankincense, myrrh, nag champa, and copaiba) that I bought in bulk at the head shop in New Hope, PA, where we traveled yearly to compete in the high school one-act play competition. These oils made a handy antidote to the choking cloud of Drakkar Noir that ruled the school hallways. The year after I graduated, they opened a Body Shop at the local mall, and I started wearing Vanilla, Patchouli, and Sandalwood– my first commercial fragrance buys.
In the upper sixth (Last year of high school in England) I wore Youth Dew – it was 1971 and I bought the bath oil because it was cheaper and huge but it smelled gorgeous and I wafted up the corridors leaving a trail of that spicy sweet scent behind me! Yeah!!!
In my younger days I remember wearing some of the perfumes already mentioned by others (Ambush, Oh! de London, Tatiana, Muguet des Bois, Cachet). In college, I also recall liking Wind Song and Moon Drops. At that time, I had a pour bottle of Emeraude that had a beautiful gold cap that looked like a little crown. Wish I had kept that bottle! In the eighties, I liked New West and Grain de Sable.
Sigh ….. Grain de Sable …… much missed.
Oh my… must we? Having an aunt that worked at Bloomies in the 80s I regularly got bags of samples such as Fendi,i Anais Anais, Paloma Pacasso, LouLou, Poison and Opium, Obsession, Coco, and oh yes, Giorgio. Boy must have I reeked back then.
Towards the end of HS, like every other female I knew, I wore Eternity.
Tresor became a favorite too and was my first FB purchase.
Hey all!
I have a swapping related question: What is that tape that folks use to seal up their decant bottles? Seems like most adhesives are really sensitive to alcohol and would lose tackiness–but you don’t want something that will leave a sticky residue, either. Anyone got a brand name for me?
For that matter, any other shipping-of-perfume tricks and tips that I might not have heard of up to this point? I use prodigious bubble wrap, and I’ve seen folks use multiple plastic baggies, trying to keep scents away from each other. Any other good tips?
Can’t remember it off the top of my head, but Victoria mentions it in her decanting article on BdJ, and there’s some discussion as to where to find it. Lab suppliers?
Perthgirl’s right – Victoria gives an excellent masterclass on decanting and she recommended the special plastic for wrapping round phials, which is called laboratory film (because it was developed for use in laboratories!). I got a version called Parafilm via a famous online auction site. It is like a very thick clingfilm, and it stretches so that you can wind it really tightly around the bottle and its top, thus preventing seepage or evaporation.
I was entirely inattentive to scent through high school. I wore none, and don’t remember smelling it on anyone else! I had this friend, however, who would sometimes identify the scent that the boys, one grade higher, were wearing. Some were apparently extremely effective because when she would mention the boy and the scent she would blush violently and give this shiver, lol!
I’v recently discovered a shop nearby that sells Santa Maria Novella. Does anyone have favourites from this range? Nostalgia made quite an impression!
I haven’t smelt any so I’m not really the right person to reply. But I hear the vanilla is pretty good.
I find Melograno really fascinating. Still not sure I want to wear it, as it seems to be to be an interesting amalgam of Old Spice and No. 5, which makes me think that my parents are standing RIGHT BEHIND ME…
But good stuff.
Thanks Mals and Perthgirl!
I’m not sure I saw the Vanilla there – but if it is there I will definitely try it! I think Melograno was the other that made an impression; but, especially the top notes smelled very masculine – ‘old spice’, lol!
What a great question. As a toddler and in elementary school I remember my mom sprinkling Royal Violets cologne on me. Through high school I remember wearing Lauren, Rive Gauche and Opium (only wore Opium to go out, though). In college and for many years after that I wore Climat de Lancôme — it was my signature scent for a very long time … and then … the rabbit hole. Perfumistan is where I currently dwell. 🙂
We didn’t have perfume shops in the little town where I went to school, byut my dad always brought me perfume from his business trips. So I had perfume, but never chose it myself. I started with Elizabeth Arden 5th Avenue, then I don’t remember the order but I had Amarige, Anais Anais and Davidoff something-or-other. Davidoff was wonderful and it was in a squat oval-shaped bottle and I’ve never seen it since. I remember I was wishing for Kenzo Jungle Elephant that a classy girl in my class wore… And first perfume I bought for myself was Dior J’adore.
Yes to splitmeet!!!
…and no, despite collecting a large (huge?) number of perfume minis I didn’t really wear perfume at school.
Well, I occasionally wore some favorite minis at home, in the evenings, for the sake of exploring. I liked n.5 and Jardins de bagatelle and…charlie! But they didn’t feel appropriate for my age: I remeber wanting to grow up fast when I sniffed my mini bottles.
When I went to college, however, things changed, I wore Jaipur from boucheron and Opium. But I doubt I chocked anyone with my orientals: I was and still am an underapplier. 😉
I grew up in very Boho San Francisco Bay Area and went to college in SF and Los Angeles. We all wore real scent, from middle school on. Love’s Baby Soft gave way to Chanel #5 and Shiseido Zen by the time I was 14, and then on to PR Calandre and YSL Rive Gauche and Dioressence.
There was a distinct difference between SF and LA with regard to scents. LA was much more extreme. We wore either a quiet, early version of Kai called Spring Rain, or the loud heaviness of Giorgio. But musk was everyhere, NorCal of SoCal.
Anais Anais in highschool and oh, I still have moments where I am desperate for the smell of it! The girl who sat in front of me in math bathed herself in Poison, which I always thought was fitting because she was a mean girl, only nice when she wanted to cheat off of me. A college roommate wore Design and she smelled delicious. Sickly sweet on me, though. Laughing at Primo–a whiff of that would take me straight back to the 80s.
Completely forgot, my English teacher in highschool wore Aromatics Elixir. It was divine on her, so comfy cozy.