For the Love of Fragrance

My earliest memory of fragrance was a bathroom growing up that was never without a bottle of Eau Dynamisante Clarins for men and women. My mother's fiance was never without a bottle, spritzing it on in the mornings lavishly while I brushed my teeth readying for school. Unisex perfumes gaining all the more in popularity, it's this one that I will always love most for fond memories.

Launched in 1987, this chypre scent is as iconic as ever. And lodged in my mind forever as the innovative scent it was then, and to my mind, remains uncontested. But I was still young, aside from the odd sneaky spritz here and there, I was a veritable virgin to the fabulous realm of fragrance....

But I was soon to dip my toes in the world in mid teens... Coming into possession of a bottle of Les Belles de Ricci Amour d'Amandier by Nina Ricci... Not that I remember how. I loved its ice cream swirl of a blue bottle with green crown. Whimsical. I read up on its composition... On the box, if memory serves. With top notes of almond and almond blossom and base notes of vanilla and sandalwood, I long for it again, for it reminds me of the kind of woman I want to be so very much some days.

Warm, sensitive, feminine.

Most of all, it was with this fragrance that I truly fell head over heals with the power in a bottle. A spritz here and there and entering a car, or visiting a friend, or passing a stranger, I was always complimented on how I smelt, asked as to what I was wearing... I learnt then the power of a good perfume. And I loved how it seemed to genuinely impact merrily on a person. For all I've barely been able to smell my whole life. I took this lesson to heart. I wasn't one to wear makeup. And I was a little grunge at times. But with fragrance, none of that mattered anymore.

I will always love this fragrance for its gift.

And then later in life, I discovered, well, boys.

And with that Marc Jacob's Daisy. My boyfriend insisted. And I happily concurred. Who wouldn't fall in love with that pretty bottle resembling a daisy posy... The femininity it promised. I felt fresh and sparkly every time I wore it. And again the compliments abounded. This time my ensembles got all the prettier to match my new scent.

But loyalties to fragrances do not always last. And my relationship hadn't lasted either.

This time I had to go it alone. With the help of a best friend with a nose for a fabulous scent to pick out my next signature fragrance for this, the next chapter of my life, and that's when we decided it just had to be Chanel Mademoiselle. Feeling myself not quite a woman yet and out of my depth with fragrances like Opium. It was Chanel. Timeless. But still fresh and sparkly, citrusy but floral, feminine without being cloistering, I was an effortless woman of an independent age. And flirting with life itself.

Chanel's Mademoiselle became my saving grace in life for many years... Until of course, I fell in love. Ah, boys. Silly rabbit. Again.

And when my bottle of Mademoiselle came to an end, so had I entered another chapter and my boyfriend and I decided upon a fragrance that well, I hoped I was ready for... Another amber floral like my Chanel, but with a headier base of vanilla, amber, musk, cinnamon and sandalwood. It was none other than Jean Paul Gaultier for women, with its iconic bottle of a woman's bust. My boyfriend loved the fragrance on me. And I loved how it made me feel. Mature. Sultry. Sensual. And again compliments abounded. And I soaked them all in.

And yet another relationship ended, a two year commitment it had been too to Jean Paul Gaultier.

And singleton struck and stuck with me for some time... And I went without any scent at all.

But as Coco Chanel insisted, 'A woman who does not wear perfume has no future.'

And so after many years in my personal wilderness, a bottle found me, on a sale post-Christmas and I took a chance and I'm so very glad I did. Long struggling with a depression that was finally lifting, feeling every day a little ligher, a fragrance I craved. And so it was I chanced upon a marked down eau de parfum of Azzaro Pour Elle, in a simple, slightly chunky yet elegant bottle. A little sparkle on the cap but otherwise just what I needed.

Being without much of a sense of smell, I looked up my new purchase online when I got home...

My favourite website insisted the perfume was summed up succinctly as a 'solar burst evoked by unusual combination of cardamom with fresh, exhilarating, lemony-spicy notes blended with a rosy, tangy and sparkling accord.' Well. Most were simply a summary of all my favourite things.

Dedicated to the 'confident, playful, hedonistic and sensual', after a long and difficult couple of years, the fragrance was a promise in a bottle for the woman I wanted to be again, and all the more. And it served me well. For all I'd been lusting after Mitsouko by Guerlain. And Acqua Parma Iris Nobile... Sometimes the fragrance chooses you. Kismet. And this wonderful fragrance found me and served me well.

These days I am a different creature and I happily rub a little neroli essential oil on my wrists and in the crook of my neck and behind my ears...

For all I longed for a bottle of Chanel No 19... The last fragrance the legend herself oversaw... A fragrance that almost never saw the light of day until Chanel, testing it one day, was chased by a gentleman all of two blocks until he caught up with her at the Ritz to find out what she was wearing... This green scent, well, it's just not me. Not right now. And maybe never.

For that is the thing with fragrance. And for now I love the bitter orange blossom, humble, pure in essence... Who knows what the future holds. But I have a fragrance all the same and I still have a future.

. Untitled by Jaromir Funke