To ask what was your first perfume and what memories it evokes?

[SmashingBIouse]

I've recently gone down a bit of a nostalgia rabbit hole, possibly because I'm turning 50 this year and I'm feeling a bit reflective. In a fit of said nostalgia I ordered a bottle of Body Shop White Musk which arrived yesterday. It was the first perfume I ever bought with money from my Saturday job in 1986 and oh my god the sucker punch of memories I was hit with when I opened the bottle! I'm 14 again and have huge hair and I tell everyone that the Smiths are my favourite band but really I prefer A-ha. I still live in my home town and I have ugly glasses and I'm starting my GSCE coursework. I'm in love with Jesse in the sixth form because he reads poetry and has a quiff but he would never notice me and anyway he's going out with one of the cool drama club girls who has a bob and smokes. She probably wears some dead exotic French perfume though, not White Musk.

I wore WM for several years and it brings back so many memories, including my first gig (obscure rock band nobody remembers)/kiss (not Jesse sadly)/drink (Taboo mixed with lemonade).

Who wants to join me on an olfactory trip down memory lane?!

(By the way White Musk is still lovely and I plan to wear it regularly!)

My first proper perfume was Versace red jeans! I loved it it was sweet and summery. I’ve seen it in a few shops even now many many years later.

I did use exclamation for a while before I could afford the red jeans,

My mum bought me samsara perfume for Christmas one year and I thought I was so grown up, I think all my friends got that perfume that Christmas too.

Body shop Apple Blossom and I can still imagine the smell now, forty yrs on. Such a shame you can’t get it anymore.

Mine was J.Lo Glow. Saw it in the airport before Christmas and had a sniff, I still love the smell 😂

Rice Gauche in the blue and silver metal container.
I bought a friend a bottle of Brut recently as part of her 60th birthday gift. We opened it and the memories flooded back.

@Dobbyhasnomaster she always has beautiful perfume. I bought my daughter her perfume last Christmas, I’m sure it’s called Promise, the smell is amazing and everyone always asks her what perfume she is wearing!

@Dobbyhasnomaster

Mine was J.Lo Glow. Saw it in the airport before Christmas and had a sniff, I still love the smell 😂

Same here! I'm not sure if I'd find it a bit sickly as an adult, maybe I should reinvest haha

Smells can absolutely catapult you back into memories though can't they? Brains are weird...!

Anyone recall Ananya by body shop?

Poison
Bought it on the ferry on the way to France on a school trip and the entire coach had to put up with me being drenched in it all week.
It’s funny but I can remember exactly how it smells over 30 years later

Lulu, it smelt like plastic somehow but me and all my girls friends in the 80s loved it! It reminds me of watching trash on the TV with the girls, eating Philias Fog crisps and drinking Taboo!

Smells can absolutely catapult you back into memories though can't they?

So true. Not just perfumes either - the smell of MAC lipsticks takes me back to the mid 90s when I lived in London and saved up to buy them from Harvey Nichols!

Rive Gauche for me too. My mum loved her perfume and that was her “day” perfume. She died when I was a young adult. Twenty seven years later and I still think of her when I catch a whiff of it.

I think it was called ‘ocean dream’ or similar and the bottles were different pastel colours depending on the size ? I used to love it despite not fully remembering the name anyway

Yes @Haveyoubrushedyourteethtoday, Ananya was my favourite as a 14 year old...I stank of it mixed with Charlie red 😬

@Haveyoubrushedyourteethtoday

Anyone recall Ananya by body shop?

Yes! It reminds me of living in Notting Hill in the early 90s. I used to buy it from TBS on Portobello Road Al Rehab (on Amazon and eBay) do a dupe of it called Elena, it's only a couple of quid.

@2pinkginsplease ooh I’m definitely going to check that out!

Yeah they really do take you back. My mum wore beautiful by Estée Lauder and the smell takes me back to being a kid!

My best mate always wore Estee Lauder Beautiful and I can still conjure the smell of it from memory. I had Charlie Red as a young teen and then Body Shop Dewberry later on, the latter would bring back a flood of memories if only you could still get it

Fidji by Guy Laroche when I was 11 or 12
Someone bought it DM and she didn’t like it so gave it to me - I felt very grown up!

Anais Anais, in the '90's, smelling it makes me remember being young and passably pretty.

My first perfume was anäis anäis. (Unless you count a Parma violet one a neighbour gave me).

I’ve started using White Musk in the past few years as it is cruelty free. So many people recognise it.

My first was Havoc by Mary Quant (this was in the 1970s) and I always remember so many people commented on how lovely it was. My first proper boyfriend bought it for me, and I still think of him as my first true love so wonderful memories of him are mixed up with that smell.

They do it now, but sadly the new one doesn't smell quite like the original ... it is close, but not quite right. I guess in the years they must have had to change the ingredients to suit changing laws?

CKOne. We all had it.

Coty 'Wild Musk' - in a little brown bottle with a little plastic 'dabber' attached to the inside of the lid.
I'd probably wear it now if you could still buy it!

First perfume ever bought for me as a gift was 'J'ai Osé' and it suited me perfectly.

Body Shop Dewberry and 'Ysatis' bring back memories of a terrible time in my life. One sniff and I'm right back there.

Blasé perfume in a blue and silver/gold bottle and then Body Shop Dewberry! (I'm 50 this year)
Also used to drink Taboo and lemonade or Mirage and lemonade!!

A Take That one (think it was called Pray) 🤔 it smelt like sickly sweet cat piss.

Coty 'Wild Musk' - in a little brown bottle with a little plastic 'dabber' attached to the inside of the lid

I wore this on my wedding day to exH. It was so beautiful but I'm not sure I'd want to relive those particular memories!

CKOne. We all had it

My friend was a model when this came out and was in all the adverts for it. I never wore it myself but when I smell it I'm reminded of sitting in the cinema and seeing a 12ft tall version of him and Kate Moss looking all moody. Needless to he was ribbed mercilessly