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Original poster

The power of smell

33 replies

BeADinosaur · 07/01/2025 21:17

This is completely self indulgent, but if I say this to anyone in real life they will think I'm insane, so please MN, indulge me for tonight!

For my birthday today, I got a bottle of my favourite perfume from my teens/twenties. My best friend and I used to wear it liberally on every night out (which was about 4 times a week!) for years.

It's fairly expensive (for me) so I haven't bought it for years. I put it on tonight after my shower and oh my god.

It smells exactly like I remember. But it also smells of drunken nights out and hangovers. Of dancing and bad decisions. It smells like my favourite high heels that had a sparkly dragonfly on and the pleated denim mini skirt I wore until it literally disintegrated.

It smells like pre-drinks at my best friend's house and walking home in the rain because we drank our cab fare home. It smells like I was 19 and had never heard of tax deductibles and pensions were something for old people.

I'm a lifetime away from that 19 year old, but just for a second, I was her again and it was oddly, overwhelmingly, moving.

The moment was broken by the teen and the cat fighting over pringles, but I never expected a perfume to bring on such a strong emotional reaction!

Please can you tell me your 'smells bringing back memories' moments so I don't feel like a complete weirdo having an emotional breakdown because of perfume!

(As a side note, I'm not going to say what perfume it is, mainly because I don't want people commenting 'oh that perfume is awful' or 'you call that expensive? My perfume is £4500 a bottle' and burst my happy bubble!)

OP posts:

fivebyfivebuffy · 08/01/2025 00:58

A candle I bought on a whim

The instant I opened it, I cried totally out the blue
It smells like when hay has just been cut, lazy summer sitting in the fields with the horses, early morning rides and a ride on my horse the day Prince Harry got married - it was burning hot, and not a car on the road. It was every single summer as a teenager, and as an adult all wrapped up in one candle

My horse died the year after that ride and that candle just hit me

researchers3 · 08/01/2025 01:08

Crushed23 · 08/01/2025 00:19

I wore Clinique Happy on my gap year.

Bought a bottle on a whim at an airport a few years later and when I sprayed it I was right back at a beach party in Mexico, high on MDMA, hooking up with a hot Israeli guy.

So I know what you mean.

Everyone's hot when you're on MD!

GiddyRobin · 08/01/2025 02:58

Brut or Obsession is my late dad. Every time I smell either, I can see him in his suit jacket by the front door before we went out somewhere. Mix it with cigarette smoke, and I feel like I'm about to get a hug from him.

Freshly cut grass and I'm a child again, lounging under a tree and reading my book on a hot summer's day, while my dad mowed the lawn.

Southern Comfort, but specifically Southern Comfort, lemonade and lime, and I'm a teenager again. Getting ready to sneak out with friends, wearing my corset and my fishnets and platform boots. I can almost taste it mixing with cheap lipstick on my straw.

Specific, but the smell of freshly made thick cut toast on a cold morning, but not early. Lunch time for me and dad. When I was in my teens, for some reason we'd do this every Wednesday. He had the day off work and so did I, and I didn't have college. We wouldn't bother with breakfast or lunch, we'd just make loads of toast at about 11am and slather it in butter. Afternoon would be spent watching PMQ's and then Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes.

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Beauty

tuvamoodyson · 08/01/2025 04:46

Aromatics Elixir….straight back to the. ‘80’s and the best of times!!!

ExceededUsefulEconomicLife · 08/01/2025 07:10

Ozgirl76 · 07/01/2025 23:23

My mum always wore Chanel no 5 when they were going out so to me it’s the scent of my mum looking really young and pretty in a nice dress kissing me goodnight before going somewhere with my dad.

I love scent memories. For my wedding day I chose a specific scent so it would always remind me of the day (it does)

Also sometimes you just get hit with a smell that brings back an immediate memory. Castrol x engine oil is the smell of my dad as he used to race cars. I went into the loo at my son’s school and was immediately taken back to my infant school. The smell of honeysuckle is going to bed on a summer evening while it’s still light and hearing birds and distant lawn mowers as there was a bush under my bedroom window.

The smell of jasmine is when I first moved to Sydney, kind of excited and nervous at the same time.

The final one is New West - the scent of turning 15, I went to America and had an amazing holiday and kind of realised that soon I’d be a grown up and get to do loads of things without having to ask anyone. Wish I could find that scent again!

Ah yes! I have the same for Castrol R!

marshmallowfinder · 08/01/2025 07:15

My primary school had big pink and yellow roses along the side of the playground. The smell of those transports me straight back to being 5 years old. Absolutely lovely. 😍

NoraLuka · 08/01/2025 07:19

Mine isn’t a perfume but Cornucrecine (? not sure about the spelling!) hoof ointment for horses. Not sure what the ingredients are but the smell is distinctive and takes me back to the riding school I worked at as a teenager. I haven’t had anything to do with horses for years but if I ever come across this stuff in a shop (doesn’t happen often!) I open the tin just to smell it.

Pumpkincozynights · 08/01/2025 07:24

What a lovely thread.
Blue Grass by Elizabeth Arden? Haven’t smelt it in years but it’s what my mum wore when I was a young child. Straight away it takes me back to being a child and seeing my beautiful mum all dressed up with her hair done and heels on, smiling, going for a night out.
Opium- my favourite aunties perfume. My uncle had a very well paid job and worked abroad. Long ago the only proper perfume available was from abroad and he bought the perfume for my aunty. When I was a young adult, I was given a bottle by my auntie. It was perfume and not toilette or eau de perfume. Lasted all day.
strong disinfectant- makes me think a place is clean. I used to sit smelling it when I pregnant.

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