What I Smell Like.
Weird… right?
Anyhoo.
I’m a big scent person. The most delicate whiff of toasted coconut makes me think of baking thumbprints with Mother Lovett at Christmas time, and when I come across one of those old school perfume kiosk things in a Walgreens or drug store I always search out White Diamonds because my mom used to wear it when I was little.
When Bath and Body Works opened up in our mall (um, I still remember this) I was fanatical. I don’t even know if I was 10 years old yet, but my best friend and I would practically beg our moms to take us, then we would come home and videotape ourselves making a TV show with our purchases.
I’ve always favored fruity, vanilla, coconutty or musk scented products, as anything with the slightest hint of florals makes me sneeze 63 times in a row. And thats only if I’ve taken my Claritin.
My first big girl perfume was Sunflowers by Elizabeth Arden… oh dear, was I ever obsessed. I’m pretty sure Sunflowers began the whole 90s obsession with actual sunflowers for me. I may or may be hoarding half a bottle in my dresser drawer just because I like to smell it occasionally and be transported back to the 6th grade when I work silk shirts. Along with my straw hat with a big, poofy sunflower in the center… that I never put on.
In college and the few years following, I dabbled in Armani Mania, Armani Emporio, Dior Hypnotic Poison, Dolce and Gabbana The One, Hanae Mori and Vera Wang Princess. Some young adults dabbled in drugs… I stocked up on perfume. I don’t think I ever bought the same bottle of perfume twice as I bore extremely easily, until Chanel Allure. The 2nd bottle is still sitting half full on my dresser too. Old habits die hard… but I occasionally still wear it.
The past few years I found my signature fragrances, and am still in lust in Prada and Burberry Brit. If these are even discontinued, I will cry cry cry.
I’m currently on bottles 4 and 5 of both, but since I can’t just stick to one scent, I switch them up – sometimes every day, sometimes every week or even month.
I’m not a huge fan of body sprays – I find that most of them have an alcoholy smell, the scent never lasts, and I don’t like smelling like a 14 year old girl. But I usually keep one on hand for in the car or after the gym – and that’s what this little bottle is replacing now. [BTW, many of you were asking about those Tokyo Milk products from last week’s post – I got mine in a little boutique in Michigan, so check out the website and store locator!] In high school, I was obsessed with Victoria’s Secret Amber Romance and Love Spell, and both of those scents remind me of friday night football and the like.
So now I’m wondering what scents you love + wear, and the ones that transport your back in time, like how my mom wore Passion in the 80s. That reminds me of big hair and shoulder pads… which my mom still stuffs in her tops.
Mr. How Sweet wears Burberry Touch – he’s been wearing that since we met. Every time he tries to switch I throw a complete conniption and make him buy a new bottle of Touch. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is. SO… tell me about your scent!
256 Comments on “What I Smell Like.”
My husband currently uses my Elizabeth Arden Sunflower! LOL Girly scents work better for him than manly, musky ones. For light days, I use Elizabeth Arden Green Tea. Giorgio Armani Sensi was an obsession before, but Intimately Yours Beckham for Women is my scent for the now. :)
Ha! I think Sunflowers was a first for me too :)
I LOVE LOVE LOVE and ALways wear VS Amber Romance ;)
I have serious A.D.D. at time and I usually scroll through the pictures on blogs because I can’t be bothered to read, however, you are hilarious. I feel like I’ve bonded with you over your love for TJs and food and ranting. I have a serious obsession with scents too. I think it’s because my Dad does and goes through bottles of cologne more often than any normal person should. He downs enough on that you can follow him around the house via his scent. I’ve neverrrr paid full price for perfume before, because my ethnic Dad goes into NYC to his ethnic friend who sells wholesale perfume. I’ve been spraying Givenchy Hot Couture for yeaaaars now. It’s the only scent I know. It just works with my own natural body oil and au natural scent. It’s a fabulous combo that I must say smells great on me. Oneeee day my dad gave me such terrible news. His friend was no longer carrying my scent and I had to pay FULL price! This gave me a minor heart attack in itself and thennnnnnnn I found out they discontinued it! The only place you can find it is in Paris, and let me tell you I am seriously considering the trip.
Thank you for reading Nisrene – especially this post where I was extra wordy. Trust me, I totally relate to the ADD/not being able to read blogs.
I still have a cupboard full of Bath & Body scents that they no longer make! But now, I love Harajuku Lovers Angel.
personally I like to wear dior dune.
Contemplating buying a new fragrance- the choices are Burberry Brit Sheer, Vera Wang Preppy Princess, and Aqua di Gioia. Can’t decide!
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My fave in highschool was Love’s Baby Soft and Love’s Lemon. Now….I have to have Heaven’s Scent or I go unscented. It’s getting much harder to find now, but I still have one source. I used to LOVE a fragrance by Joven called Frankinscence and Myrrh. It was sheer delight, but of course was discontinued. So was several other of my older faves. Sad when they do that without asking any of us, huh? My hubby wears a scent I make for him with amber oil. It gets to me so much that he wears it just for me, and I can’t get enough of smelling him when he’s wearing that. Mmmmm… It’s quite easy and even fun to create your own scents. The hardest part is finding true oils – not fragrance oils, the real essential oils – to work with. They last so much longer and are best for getting great fragrance combos. Try it sometime, and see what you come up with. You might be pleasantly surprised at your own talents!!
That’s an awesome idea!
Exclamation takes me back to junior high…a girl who rode my bus wore it, and every.single.day when she got on, it was like Pepe Le Pew and his cloud. ugh. a lot of girls wore it, as well as Liz Claiborne in the triangle-shaped bottle. and Electric Youth. in high school i was a wannabe hippy, so i wore patchouli oil or egyptian goddess oil. very musky. very gross now that i think about it. now i LOVE caroline herrera. i picked up a bottle at a duty-free shop in canada, and haven’t been able to find another store that carries it. so i only wear it for special nights out. i get a ton of compliments when i wear I Love Love, even though i prefer the caroline herrara. i also have a bottle of l’occitane Cherry Blossom that i prefer for work, because it’s very light yet feminine. Hot Couture is another fave.
My mom used to wear White Diamonds when I was younger, too! I think the only reason she stopped wearing it is because my dad, brother, and I hated it so much, lol!! I still remember riding down the road on car trips and her pulling out the White Diamonds hand cream, and we would all roll down our windows, haha. Poor mama. My favorite scents are “Noir” and “Oooh La La” from Victorias Secret. I have them in perfume, spritzes, and shower gel. LOVE THEM! :)
This definitely happens for me. I wore Bath & Body’s Moonlit Path when I was dating this guy (my first love, sigh) in college. One day a year ago or so, I found some and put it on. Instantly, I was back in his dorm room in Duluth, MN (540 miles away – long distance relationships are for the birds). Recently, I was given some of that Hemp lotion from a guy I was dating. He moved back to Minneapolis and it’s over now, but whenever I put it on, I am reminded of the fun we had.
Smells are weird, but I think it’s so cool!
Angel- just a little love it!
I’m 100% addicted to perfume. Yummy! I’ve been through a bazillion bottles. Tommy Girl. Sunflowers. Happy. RL Romance. Possibly every B&BW fragrance (though personal faves were Sun-Ripened Raspberry and Country Apple). Current addictions are: SJP’s Lovely and Bvlgari Notte (it has notes of vodka and dark chocolate — yep — had me at booze and chocolate). I’m pretty devoted to these two and never cheat. I now get my scent-fix from B&BW soaps! I totally hoard them.
P.S. Really enjoy your blog!
I am totally scent obsessed too! My favorites are the Bath and Body works Berry Vanilla which is now discontinued. :( And Daisy by Marc Jacobs, It is a really cozy scent that is chamomile/citrus based, perfect for people who hate florals!
Alfed Sung, all of his perfumes are amazing.
But my favorite has to be Avon’s Haiku. Go figure.
I am a Chanal Coco girl from way back – Its my signature & everyone comments when I wear it – I will always wear it forever – so sad I never try anything else. going way back – my Mother bought me JOY and I wore that and have kept the original bottle since she has passed and something with Gardinias in it is another scent – can’t remember the brand at the moment but I can smell the gardinias now.
Sorry I misspelled Chanel. Getting late & I’m getting older by the minute – LOL.
My father used to work for Coty fragrance, and thus a lot of scents from my childhood relate back to Coty. My mother loved wearing Cool Water for women (which I hated) but I think way back she liked Vanilla Fields. I have a bit that I use occasionally, but I also like B&BW Lavender Chamomile mist (sometimes used in combination with Vanilla Fields). I actually just had a pillow mist of the B&BW one and spray that on my hair/clothes/body because I don’t really see any difference between pillow/body mists.
Whenever I smell Tommy Girl it takes me back to high school, it was my first perfume! Dior Pure Poison reminds me of my fiance’ because I always wore it around him….. I have a few that I love to wear. My favorite everyday scent is Ralph Lauren Blue, so clean! Dior J’adore is a fantastic floral for anytime so is Stella. I <3 perfume!
You should check out solstice scents. I like you am a scent freak She has oils and creams and soap that smell like, cherries, vanilla, cocoa, marshmallow, chocolate cake and so many other different combinations. You can buy small sample packs and try everything.
http://www.solsticescents.com/MASTER-SCENT-REFERENCE_ep_45-1.html
So, I read a comment above about being ADD and not being able to read blogs, me too! I just stumbled across your’s because I was in my kitchen and saw a bottle of Frank’s hot sauce, then pasta, and thought, EUREKA! I bet there is a recipe for buffalo chicken pasta. So, off to my computer and googled it, which is how I found your blog and have now been reading it for a good half hour. Then I somehow ended up on this entry about scents. Yummy! I think one of my earliest scents was Exclamation in the black and white bottle, then Sunflowers, Tommy Girl, etc. My current favorite is Dolce and Gabbana Light Blue. I don’t get to wear perfume often because I chose a career in healthcare and work in a “fragrance free environment”, at least I don’t have to choke when I get on the elevator after a Grandma with super strong stuff on. And you asked what scent spawns a memory….Chanel No. 5 triggers memories for me. My mom always wore it when she and my dad were going to go on a date. Everytime I smell it now I feel like I’m five watching my mom get ready to go out while I play with her high heels and wait for the babysitter to get to our house. Thank you for occupying my ADD brain, bringing a smile to my face while I remember those moments, and making me LOL as I read your blog. I will now be following your blog and making many of your recipes! :)
I’ve always been drawn to vanilla-y scents; basically anything that smells like a baked good. I wear Calvin Klein Obsession Night. It’s been discontinued, so you can only get it on discount sites, but it’s worth it. I’ve worn it since college, I will be devastated when they finally do run out :(
I wore Dior Hypnotic Poison for 4 years STRAIGHT in college…literally. Occasionally people call me to tell me that they “smelled me” on the Subway or the El this morning. As in, some old bat was wearing Hypnotic Poison and it smells just like I did in college. Since college, and it’s been 7 years, I’ve stuck to Herve Leger…I just can’t imagine any scent that will change this for me!
I wear a perfume called pink sugar by aquiline- it smells like vanilla sugar cookies and I get compliments all the time! Sounds like it might be right up your alley!
Oops I mean Aquolina. – spell check faux pas!
Ooh, I have a love affair with perfume too! My all-time favorite/go-to/I’ve-purchased-multiple-bottles fragrance is Ralph Lauren Blue. I get compliments from women ALL. THE. TIME. about how good I smell (yay!), and I’ve even had two men ask “What perfume do you wear? I want to buy that for my wife!” (a little weird). I’ll take it. I think I smell good too. :)
Junior High: Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers – it was THE fragrance of the 90s.
High school: Clinique Happy (remember how popular this one was?!?)
College: Dior J’Adore, Ralph Lauren Ralph
Grad School: Lancome Miracle Forever, Calvin Klein Euphoria, Chanel Allure
Cheap: GAP Close
Body Spray: Bath and Body Works Dark Kiss or P.S. I Love You
Other favorites today: Philosophy Falling in Love, Chanel Mademoiselle
My hubs wears D&G Light blue. OBSESSED! I recently discovered D&G the One. In love. I used to wear Hugo Boss, Vera Wang, CK, Bulgari, anything that I could find on sale at TJ Maxx. I have a hard time paying full price for anything for myself. Except D&G The One. It makes me feel girly and pretty.
jessica mcclintock always reminds me of being a kid because my mom has been wearing it forrrrrevvvvverrrrrr.
I wear michael kors very hollywood… I actually didn’t start wearing perfume until like a year ago but now I’m kinda into it.
Burberry Brit is my signature too! I used to love Freesia from Bath and Body works (in 7th grade or so) (yuck). In college I fell in love with Dior’s Poison, which is still fantastical but when I smell it today, for some reason, all I can think of is rootbeer and Bacardi Coco – conveniently enough the combination was my signature drink for all of college, which, conveniently enough I no longer drink (probably for the same reason(s) most people no longer drink their college signature drink (can we say queen of the porcelain throne, anyone?)
so yup, I’ve been faithful to Burberry Brit for some time now, with other fragrances interspersed every once in awhile. Always back to the Brit tho.
wow, that’s a lot of parentheticals.
OMG I loved Sunflowers too when I was young!! My poor dad was allergic but that didn’t stop me from bathing in it daily.. and yes I still do have that bottle hiding somewhere in my room ;)
I love this post :) I love perfume too but most of my friends aren’t into it (and I don’t understand why!) At a department store I love to sniff Nina Ricci L’air du temps – my grandmother wore it, and it gives me such a warm, comforting feeling to smell it again. In grade school I wore CK One (the black one and the white one) along with everyone else, and really liked the GAP scents – especially “Heaven.” Then in high school it was Victoria’s Secret Dream Angels “Heavenly”. In university it was CK Euphoria, Nina Ricci (the apple bottle), Burberry Classic… and now it’s D&G “The One” (for all seasons except winter), Kate Spade “Twirl” (for summer – just bought a roller ball instead of a big bottle), and my most favourite, most “me” perfume – Bond No.9 “West Side” (in the Andy Warhol bottle…. bought while in NYC on vacation). :)
And how can I forget loving J.Lo’s “Glow” in high school!
My favorite perfumes are:
Micheal Kors by Micheal Kors
Daisy by Marc Jacobs
Very Sexy by Victorias Secret
I love the “Into the Wild” body products from BBW…possibly my favorite smell ever!
I wear Vanilla and Anise by Jo Malone. Subtle sweetness and slightly warm.
This post made me laugh – mostly because I used to be obsessed with sunflowers. Hello limited too jean shorts with sunflowers all over them + matching sunflower t-shirt. I was the coolest 6th grader ever. I am extremely allergic to all perfumes but definitely used to bathe myself in sunflowers perfume. ha. good times.
In high school it was the pear body splash from Victoria’s Secret and their Rapture perfume when I wanted something a little more hardcore. My freshman year of college I moved to peach Bath&BodyWorks because it drove the boy I was dating crazy. Then I moved to a mix of Angel by Thierry Mugler, Lolita Lempicka, Aqualina Pink Sugar, and Dior Addict (the last primarily for winter).
These days for my casual scent I wear Marc Jacobs Basil and as my signature scent I wear either LaVanilla Vanilla Passionfruit or Vanilla Grapefruit. I do still dabble in Aqualina Pink Sugar on occasion or Lolita Lempicka but they just seem so strong and unnatural next to my everyday scents now.
As for memories, I can never really remember my mother wearing perfume when I was a child. I do recall my grandmother on my mother’s side wearing it though. I came across a bottle several years ago and was immediately transported to that house in Houston, PA with the yellow gold floral couch, a string of plastic “beads” with multicolored fruit on them that for some reason my grandmother was rather fond of. I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the fragrance right now, but I’m almost certain its still around.
In high school I was a Tommy girl or CK1…can’t stand either scent now. In college it was Victoria Secret Love Spell or Sweet Pea by BBW.
Now my “go-to” sent is Marc Jabcobs by Marc Jacobs. However every once in a while I will mix it up with Black by Calvin Kline or DKNY Be Delicious.
oh my goodness. do you remember electric youth perfume?? the one that debbie gibson put out? i loved that fragrance. pretty sure i was in 5th grade :)
Seriously…LOLS on this post! It took me back to the days of when I wore silk shirts and sunflower limited too clothing to school everyday! I owned 3 floppy hats with huge fake sunflowers and never wore them out of my bedroom (but i loved them)! Ahmazing blog, I look forward to reading it daily!
Our sense of smell is the one most closely tied to the memory center in our brains. It’s no coincidence that those smells take you back to certain moments in time. I only got my second bottle of real perfume this past Christmas at the age of 32. I could never justify spending what little money I had on something that seemed to luxurious. My fiance gave me a bottle of Chanel No. 5, and it would have been the best gift ever if he hadn’t also given me an engagement ring the same day.
OMG my mom got this for me to!!! when I turned 14. I didn’t find it important, now I have my own but am known for using other people’s perfume because I’m not good at shopping for scents :(
I am a big CK One girl. For whatever reason, it works on me. Anyway, there is no body spray. Does anyone know of a smell-alike body spray, say from Bath & Body Works or The Body Shoppe or something?
Having the most sensitive nose, I am obsessed with smell. Can’t stand people wearing too much or stinking!!! I started wearing perfume at the age of 6 as my mother bought me one. Then, just like you, I tried every single flowery scent on earth. My favorites are Hermes un Jarrdin-Mediterranee, Dior Diorissimo. However, I am proud to say that right now I am only wearing one: Chanel Mademoiselle. Till I find something better, not so sure though, I will be a loyal Chanel customer;))
God bless Google… I was looking for a simple way to roast a chicken and VOILA! Here you are! Wonderful blog, DEF have added you to my favorites.
White Diamonds and Tresor remind me so much of my childhood because my mother rotated them for years. I started wearing perfume in junior high with a Coty fragrance called Ghost Myst. I cried, really cried when they discontinued that one! Now I wear VS Heavenly exclusively. I’ve tried other scents, but they all seem to overwhelm me… Heavenly is a a nice, light fragrance that I always get complimented on!
The perfume of vera wang princess look is closely connected with the fashion items. It represents style, desire, aim, trend and it give the positive energy for me .
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I definitely remember being addicted to “Love Spell” in high school.
Now my signature scent is “Vivara” by Emilio Pucci. The only place I can find in America that sells it is Sephora, but I will gladly shell out heaps of $$ to smell like it. If it ever gets discontinued, it is not going to be pretty… [meaning that I will become bankrupt from buying out every last bottle from every wholesaler I can find.]
This is awesome! I hate shopping for scents, but wrote down a few I need to search out and try from the sugggestions here!
Wow it was most special perfumes in life because it always keep me fresh and clean, i never withdraw this perfumes i was still using and i defiantly use this for ever thank you.
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oh hello – Burberry Brit since 2004! Is that bad?? I’ve been trying to find another, but nothing can compare. I might have to look into the Prada. I have a Coco Chanel Mademoiselle lotion that I wear on occasion and although sometimes I find it a bit too frangrant/girly – I get a ton of complements on it everytime I wear it. The lotion actually stays on longer than any perfume I’ve used.