Aibu to return to the perfume of my youth?

[TheoneandObi]

This dates my youth to early eighties I think but the only perfume I've ever truly adored was Anais Anais. I'm now 54. And I can conjure the scent in y imagination. Is it the fragrance version of mutton dressed as lamb if I wore it now?

In the 80’s I used to wear:
Paris
Loulou
Eternity by CK
Dewberry and white musk by The Body Shop
Tresor
My favourite was Tresor followed very closely by LouLou

Wow these bring back memories I used love Chloe Narcisse as well as Samsara

The perfume of my youth was Mary Quant’s Havoc. I’m talking 70s.
I still have an empty bottle with a faint whiff.
Also fond memories of Aqua Manda, Kiku, Charlie, and something in a white bottle that was called Rain something.
The first perfume I was ever bought by a boyfriend was Cabochard by Gres. In a tiny bottle with a velvet bow. I thought it was the height of sophistication.

I wasn't keen on this one but do you remember Opium in terracotta packaging I think

L’Air du Temps

Opium was originally introduced as competition to Cinnabar (named upthread) and they're quite similar in some ways. Opium really took off with its (then) risque name and Jerry Hall lying provocatively on a couch.
One of my go-to winter perfumes along with Samsara and Shalimar.

I'm 55 and have just treated myself to a 100ml bottle from superdrug for around £26.00 which was around £25.00 reduction!
I loved it in the 80s and I love it now, the first spray transported me back to my 17 year old self!
Its gorgeous, go for it!

Fidji
LouLou
Paloma Picasso (my going out perfume)

Would love to smell Fidji again.

I have gone back to it already and it is lovely, not reformulated. Most two favorites were anais anais and Laura Ashley #1. Laura Ashley doesn’t exist in the US and what I have bought online smells nothing like it. Does anyone know if the original is available in the UK?

I still love White Musk. Takes me back to hippy chick days of youth.

I'm sorry that Coco has been reformulated- I bought some last Christmas and wondered if it was me as to why it didn't smell right.

My friend still wears Oscar de la Renta and smells gorgeous.

I doubt you can get Laura Ashley anymore. They've gone bust and the name has been bought by a US company but it's apparently not going to be the same products. You might find an old bottle on eBay

Another white linen wearer here.
My absolute favourite

Just reading up on Anaïs Anaïs. The one with "originale" on the bottle is a reformulation of the original original (with me so far? ) and is almost a direct copy of it with only a slight tweak to keep in with the 2003 guidelines and restrictions. There is also Anaïs Anaïs without the word originale on the packaging which is the first reformulation of the original but which smells really cloying and sweet. (I mistakenly bought that before finding out the importance of the "originale" word! )
So "originale" is the third version but nearer to the first than than the second was.

If you want it, get some. Perfume is a very personal choice & I don't remember Anais Anais being particularly targeted at a certain age. Some perfumes are timeless.
I fell in love with L'air du temps at about 13 when my mum used to wear it. She then started using some others as she said it smelt nicer on me than her. It is still "my" scent now, more than 35 years later.

@Polyxena

Hmm. I used to wear Obsession and pretty much had a string of admirers following my perfume trail* but I had a sniff of it recently (20+ years later) and it does NOT suit me any more.

*A joke, in case someone with no sense of humour reads this.

It's not you, its them, they tinkered with the forumula I still wear occasionally but its not the same.

@im5050 I also love Aramis on men together with Estée Lauder for men too which is discontinued as far as I know. Both are fab and remind me of previous men in my life. The nearest I've smelled recently that make me go a bit weak at the knees if I sniff a man wearing it is a Hugo Boss one or more recently Creed. Both lovely

Omg omg omg @CrystalTits
For years I have been trying to remember the name of the perfume so distinctive but I couldn't recall the name. I bought loads of things I thought were it but you've reminded me, Venezia!!!! So so evocative.
Loved it.
Also loved Amarige and bought some for my 50th birthday
Loving this thread
My mum wore Anais Anais as did my gran and as someone else else said that scent makes me cry now. In fact this thread has made me blub

You can still find Venezia but it's a 2011 reformulation. I never had the original so can't compare, but here in Italy it's a fairly inexpensive drugstore perfume now- about 20€.
perfumeniche.com/content/venezia-%E2%80%93-five-stages-discontinued-or-reformulated-frag-grief-february-20-2012-new-fragrance

I did splurge 20€ on Roma the other LB perfume- very similar to Obsession funnily enough!

I find myself drawn back to perfumes from my teens/early twenties. I had loads (well my mum did, so that amounts to the same thing). So many remind me of her: Dune, Eden, Noa noa, a Caroline Herrera one that was number (was it 212?)
I also loved Chanel Chance, found the end of a bottle last year and still loved it. Bought another and NOT THE SAME. Confusingly there are about a million versions of Chance now, but none, even the supposed standard one is as good as the original.

Laura Ashley No 1 for me, too. You can't get it. They brought out a reformulated version some time this century, but it wasn't the same, and now you can't get anything Laura Ashley at all. I still have a tiny bit of the original left.

Also Eau de Givenchy, which also got reformulated.

I wonder what bit of dead animal they used which suited me so well...

At the start of lockdown I decided to revisit my youth perfume which is Estee Lauder’s Beautiful and I have found it so comforting to wear during hard times. My late brother used to buy it me for Christmas in the 1990s.

@TheSeedsOfADream perfect! Your explanation means I know what to get now!

@EBearhug, ambergris- lumps of whale sperm or civet (some poor furry thing's sweat glands) probably.

Oakmoss is the one limited from most perfumes though as it's an allergen. It also is what makes chypre perfumes (Chanel 5, 19, Miss Dior originale etc) so very magnificent. Sigh.

Thanks @TheSeedsOfADream. I used to wear it in my twenties but when I tried some 20+ years later all I could smell was an overpowering scent of lilies.

LouLou for me. Love it and was delighted when I saw it in Boots on sale.

It's so evocative of getting ready for big Saturday nights out.