In ‘Senses and memories’ I wrote about how the taste of a tartelette aux framboises reminds me of my exchange year in Strasbourg (France) and a specific feeling of fulfilment and happiness.

Smell is another sense that has a particular effect of me. Do you know those people that will comment on your perfume, have a collection of fragrances, will even put on perfume to go to bed :)?

Well, I’m like that.

I am faithful to smells that I’ve had since I was 15 years old, like Tresor by Lancome. It was the first perfume I can remember putting on. I received these tiny miniatures bottles, that I ended up collecting in time – I wonder if I still have them? It is a perfume created in 1990, with a warm-floral oriental smell: rose, apricot, iris, orris and heliotrope (more here). My dad always get this perfume and in my mind this is how life in Colombia also smells like.

In 2013, I bought a spin-off version of a more floral perfume – Tresor Midnight Rose. That will forever remind me of the summer holidays and the first time I came to Antibes and heard about Sophia-Antipolis (where now work).

My current obsession is another ‘old’ and meaningful favourite: J’adore by Dior. I received a bottle for the first time from my mum, for my 18th birthday. I have vivid memories of what I was wearing the first time I put it on: my long black trench coat, high heel ankle boots and a turquoise sweater. It was October and it was cold in Bucharest but  I felt good…

J’adore is an essence of ylang-ylang with its floral-fruity notes and essence of Damascus Rose from Turkey blend with a rare duo of Jasmine Grandiflorum from Grasse and Indian Sambac Jasmine with fruity and voluptuous sensuality (as Dior describes it).

Reading the composition I feel like travelling… and I will start, as soon as lockdown is over, with Grasse, that is basically next door and it’s THE place where roses are grown specifically for use in ‘perfumerie’.

Although the fragrance was created in 1999, there has been a more recent advertising campaign on it. I love the classic ad but this less known clip speaks even more to me.

As it suggests, the perfume ‘dresses’ you in Dior… and since it’s my favourite brand, it only seems natural, that I should wear it 🙂

Last, Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel, which I am wearing now, (as I chill on my big sofa with the laptop on my lap and writing these words) will forever take me back to London, to summer, to celebration and infinite glasses of Bellinis. That year, I celebrated 30.

My top in no specific order, would have to be:

• Tresor (Lancome), Tresor Midnight Rose (Lancome),
• J’adore (Dior),
• Coco Mademoiselle (Chanel),
• Womanity (such a sexy date night smell of figs and caviar – by Mugler),
• Fleurs de l’Himalaya (Rituals),
• Poison (the blue one, which I doubt is still being made, unfortunately – by Dior),
• Cinema (by Yves Saint Laurent – which I would buy today)

Dear reader, Are you a perfume lover? What’s your scent? What does it remind you of?

Or more broadly… what are the senses that you feel most connected to?