While sight and sound are the senses we make most use of on a daily basis, nothing can carry you on a wave of nostalgia faster than a particular scent. Smell does not only have the power to evoke feelings long buried, but it also contributes greatly albeit subtly to our overall impression of a person or a thing.
Just recently I encountered a teenage couple sitting two seats away from me at a restaurant. There was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about them, until the girl left the table and walked past me on her way to the lavatory.
As she swung by, I caught a whiff of the Chupa Chups perfume I used to practically bathe in when I was around her age and although the artificial smell made me grimace, all of a sudden, I was transported back to 2003 and to long, lazy afternoons spent with my friends bunking off school in the last weeks before we were meant to sit for our O’ levels eating imqaret at the now defunct City Gate kiosk.
Of course, Chupa Chups and Charlie Gold were just the beginning of my love affair with scents and after years of ploughing through many a different flower, I can now safely say that I’m a Chanel No 5 girl (most of the time).
Indeed, there have been few rites of passages in my Peter Pan mind that I have enjoyed quite as much as settling on a particular scent.
The older you get… the more you will want to find one perfume which helps express who you are to the rest of the world
The fact is that the older you get and the more you understand yourself, the more you will want to find one perfume which helps express who you are to the rest of the world. It becomes important because it is, in a sense, your calling card, something which makes you unique and special. Your partner will get used to it and expect it, your friends will identify you with it and your children will recognise it as being their mother’s very particular smell.
Indeed, it is for this reason that I strongly believe that one should never gift perfumes unless they feel that they know the recipient very well.
When it comes to choosing your perfume, don’t rush yourself: walk into the shop of your choice as many times as you think it necessary. Try the scent on your skin before you buy it; each perfume smells different on each person when it reacts with your natural scent.
You also shouldn’t feel restricted to finding something locally. Do your research, buy small samples off eBay that will cost you mere cents and try things out before buying something.
Don’t give into fads either: classics have managed to stand the test of time. Newer doesn’t necessarily mean better; in fact, most of the time, it’s worse.
Ultimately, what you should want from a scent is for it to make you memorable to everyone around you and to make you stand out. It’s been more than 14 years since my Chupa Chups wearing days and yet once a year a very old friend of mine who now has children of his own still messages me to remind me of that day when he fell in love with my artificial strawberry scent.
Maybe it’s time for me to buy some more.