Everyone knows that perfumes, fragrances and scents are purely applied to evoke memories of the past or build fantasies yearned for in the future. I'm on a quest to rebuild some of my personal history through fragrances that are still available, not so much vintage but hold-fastedly in the retro category.
Oui Oui
Strawberry Shortcake and Sweet Valley High-related fragrances aside, my very first bottle of real perfume was a gift from my Mum and it was YSL Paris. I’ve only recently come to terms with how flash that was for a young teen but the true value in the gift was a lifelong passion for scent. Memory Collection Contender? 100% yes.
The Wonder Years
My first job out of high school was in a department store as a visual merchandiser, and aside from wrangling mannequins and dusting display shelves, we also managed the brand launches in the cosmetics department. I have very vivid memories of three fragrance launches of the time - Giorgio Beverley Hills, Lou Lou Cacherel and the godforsaken Elizabeth Taylor Passion. To this day I cannot get over how bad the promotional material was for this launch - who's hand is that Liz, cause it ain't yours. In the pre-digital manipulation era, hand models were definitely a thing.
Aside from being astounded that all of these perfumes are still available, the notes of all three do seem to be somewhat up my olfactory alley but I'm scared to re-try for fear of a memory walk. I will bite the bullet soon at my local Chemist Warehouse. For research purposes only. Memory Collection Contender - Lou Lou only, and only maybe.
CK What?
For a short period I worked as Calvin Klein sales rep, and accosted people in the fragrance aisle with Obsession every chance I got. Slicked hair, gold earrings, silk cream top, black pencil skirt and pumps - I was the epitome of CK style but I went home every night with a roaring headache and to this day I can smell Obsession being sprayed in the next suburb.
Calvin Klein fragrances were truly the 'it' item back then, CK One, Eternity, Obsession flying off the shelves. Obsession to me is the original strange, full of fresh promise in the green opening, it slinks down to a sexy, woody middle but the heartbeat is vetiver and friends, my pheromones are in a perpetual war with vetiver, in any iteration. Sad but true. Yes, I would repurchase to add to my Memory Collection but maybe just to look at.
Clutching at Pearls
I spent a significant amount of time in the UK during the late 90s and my signature scent for years was Tommy Hilfiger's Tommy Girl. A classic perfume to suit my style at the time, young, free and fresh - trying for the preppy girl aesthetic with a string of pearls and a stripped blue and white shirt always on high rotation. I didn't know it at the time but looking at the notes now, that deep base leather just gets me and I am quite partial to a punch-in-the-face blueberry note. Memory Collection Contender - it's already here. I still love it dearly.
Bright Scents, Dark Times
Early 2000's I was all about the original Ralph from Ralph Lauren. This was possibly the turning point for my continuing love affair with green fragrances, such a burst of sweet freshness, maybe too much when rolling in from the club at 7am. I wouldn't say I am a floral lover now but there's something about that lingering freesia that's intoxicating, to me at least. Memory Collection Contender: let me see, I need to revisit because that was a hard time in my life and do I want to be reminded of that through scent? it's a 50/50.
She's Blue, Alright
Early 2010's I was fixated on Light Blue, and I tested this recently - lemon, apple, floral so fresh, with a huge axe wedge of cedar wood settling in. Gosh, I did love this but when I sniff it now, it catches in my throat and I need to exit the scent, stage left. Memory Collection Contender: Too soon.
Runners Up
I have had dalliances with other bottles over the decades, notably Gaultier Classique, Aromatics Elixer, Eau de Issey (still a unique classic and could easily make the collection) Dior - Dune and J'adore, to name a few but there will always be my one and only true love...
The All-star MVP, Forever and Always
I have spent the last few decades mourning the loss of my favourite fragrance of all time. If you have made it this far, I found and fell in love with this one right back in my department store days and I have never forgotten it, like a true long lost love. My most vivid memory was that sweet watermelon top note, what could scream summer more than watermelon. I swear there was cucumber in there too but could be mistaken. Again, with the leather base, it was destiny.
Back when Twitter was more than a single consonant, I reached out to Aramis to BEG them to re-release it but who the hell am I as single voice? Articles, forums, boards and blogs still extol the virtues of this unadulterated masterpiece.
It is New West for Her by Aramis.
I feel it has been the longest slap in the face too, that New West for Him is still bouncing around the Chemist Warehouse shelves like it's nobody's business. Rude.
I'm not big on dupes at all but I've found somewhere and I'm gate keeping until I get my hands on a bottle. The closest niche I have found maybe not so ironically is Ellis Brooklyn West - do they know something that most don't but us die-hard fans do? Not sad about that at all EB. If the dupe is a failure, Ellis Brooklyn West is on the purchase list and of course will be part of the Memory Collection.
Aramis, if you're listening, it's time.
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