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!)

Ooh I remember having Helena Rubenstien's Heaven Scent when I was about fourteen in the early 80's, then I progressed to Loulou by Cacherel.

The first perfume I remember is Coty Exclamation.
My parents were relatively poor, so I didn’t have much when young, and used to douse myself in it when at my bestfriend’s house.

I think Elizabeth Arden’s Sunflowers was the first perfume I owned as a late teen.
I actually bought myself a bottle a couple of years back - it’s definitely not as I remembered it!

First proper perfume I brought with my holiday money on ferry home from
France. YSL Baby Doll. I loved it and felt so grown up buying it in the duty free! Still love the smell of it although it’s really hard to find these days!!

My first where white musk and dewberry . But my first "proper expensive" perfume was Jean Paul Gaultier . It was the year out candy out and I just loved the idea of off out being in a tin so my mum (very unlike her) bought it for me for my 16th. To this day it's still my favourite perfume but I only wear it 1-2 times a month. It still gives me that rush of memories. But Dewberry, that is right back to school. The hormones, the smell of the art room. Me and my besties were like a swarm of wasps in a cloud of the stuff. Totally nose blind 😂🤷🏼‍♀️

Also 50 this year (I think we need our own thread for the year!)

Also a body shop one - patchouli

I was always a hippy just a little too late

Reminds me of shopping trips into town with friends window shopping (inc trying on!) in the posh shops that we never bought anything from and proper shopping in Chelsea girl, c&a (the primark of the day!), the open market (even cheaper than primark but stuff that not "everyone" had) discussing who we fancied (the boys anyway, I never admitted to the HUGE crush I had on one of the group of female friends who I STILL have a huge crush on even now - she is long term married and very straight and would feel terrible if I told her)

Also reminds me of poster covered bedroom walls - mainly George Michael and wham! But also a-ha and Madonna.

Also some less favourable memories inc leaving the house for those shopping trips in frumpy/covering up clothes no make up and no perfume instead getting ready at a friends (much safer) home in a futile aim to deter my abusive father. I think/hope at the time friends thought I did this due to "strict" parents

My first perfume was Charlie Red (circa 1991, aged 13) and I thought I was SO grown up and sophisticated . One day in chemistry class the "Mean Girl" kept coughing and making barbed, overly loud comments to her friends about "bathing in perfume". Id obviously gone a bit OTT with the coverage that day 😂

Boots used to do sprays and every Saturday we would head to town with our pocket money - a group of gaggling girls - buy another bottle and then head to Andy's Records to buy our favourite top 10 song on cassette (vivid memories of Urban Cookie Collective - The Key and Runaway Train - can't recall the band)

Body Shop had Dewberry and in our school you were either a White Musk girl or a Dewberry girl. White Musk was considered a bit old fashioned and favored by the sixth formers, is Year 7/8s were way to cool for it obviously!

Chloe narcissus was the first perfume I owned then Avon night oddesy (sp).

My first proper perfume was Obsession when I was 17, and it's my favourite still. Takes me back to going into town with my best friend after sixth form, having tea and scones in a cafe because we thought it was fancy, and trying on dresses in Select and New Look.

Anais anais

Fahrenheit mens

Summer of snogging in the corn field with gorgeous boy ( we were about 17) ah the memories!

Vanilla fields

I'd probably hate it now lol

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

Yes, somebody walked past me a year or so ago wearing the perfume my first primary school teacher wore, back in 1981. It took me right back!

I used to borrow my sister's Exclamation! perfume, so that's my first.

Also fifty this year! Paris, LuLu and Poison were my favs back in the day. I remember my boyfriend always smelling of jazz or kouros. Great times!

Body shop dewbury and fake poison

Britney Spears fantasy as a mid teen
Hugo boss orange as an older teen

My mum always wore Avon far away and it always remind me of her

Mine was the same I got a white musk gift set and have been buying it sense then the other was stealing mums Elizabeth Arden Red Door

My first perfume was Cachet. I found a bottle on Ebay a few years ago and after one spray I was 16, off to hang around outside Impulse the record store buying Cocteau Twins albums in my 80s regalia. The smell of Bristows hair spray transports me back there too. So evocative.

@AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii

Britney Spears fantasy as a mid teen Hugo boss orange as an older teen

My mum always wore Avon far away and it always remind me of her

My MIL still buys me fantasy! I use it in the loo if my husband has done a particularly smelly poo!

My first one was Tommy Girl. Then Jean Paul Gautier. My step dad used to bring me a JPG bottle back from different countries every time he travelled and I used to collect the bottles.

@Haveyoubrushedyourteethtoday

Anyone recall Ananya by body shop?

Yep. This was my body shop fragrance of choice.

I used to love the perfume strips in magazines like Marie Claire. One that really reminds me of the late 90s and early 00s was a black and white ad on a beach - probably a standard perfume ad really!!/ totally takes me back to working horrible job in call centre but was allowed to read if not on a call and had lots of disposable income
Ck one reminds me of uni days
My first proper perfume I bought regularly was tresor Lancôme and it reminds me of my single years in my early 20s when I thought I was Carrie Bradshaw

@Dobbyhasnomaster

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

Same!

I sprayed some a few weeks ago and was instantly transported to my teenage bedroom, chatting to friends on MSN, playing on my PS2, and going into town with friends.

It's amazing how a smell can take you right back.

I wish I could go back for real. They really were the best days of my life, but you just don't realise it at the time, do you?

Davros Loved Rive Gauche! memories of being out with my friends .Bestie wore it too!

Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers.
Takes me straight back to being 15, first boyfriend, my Billabong denim shorts and Brontë beach in Sydney.

Brontë? Think it’s good old Bronte in Aus. 😄

Lou lou.
It makes me think of wearing too much and feeling sick and headachy.