Dior Addict — it was the only perfume I had for awhile; I first got it junior or senior year in high school, and it carried me through college. I still have a bottle from college, LOL!
— Christine
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the fragrance of this perfume is excellent and long lasting..I love this.
I think it was Forever and Ever Dior… a friend gave it to me in college and I loved it! Though I tend to go for more sweet/warm fragrances now rather than fresh florals.
There was a perfume in the 90s called Navy that I was obsessed with. Also Elizabeth Arden’s Red Door and Sunflowers. But my first designer perfume was Calvin Klein Eternity. I cannot really stand its scent today but too floral fragrances bother me much more!
Oh my gosh, I forgot about Sunflowers. I was obsessed.
I remember having two favorite scents when I was young.
1. Although the most popular perfumes for girls my age in the early 1970s were Charlie, Jovan Musk, and Loves Baby Soft (ew!), mine was a musk oil in an odd, gray glass bottle with no label and a glass stopper that my mom gave me in junior high. It came from a little boutique and looked homemade. It was a heavy oil and I had to dab it on very carefully or it was overwhelming. I loved it. I have never again smelled a musk oil as beautiful as that bottle.
2. In high school, my mom gave me a bottle of the perfume she wore, which was Bal à Versailles. I think it was actually the bath oil, since the perfume was so expensive, but I would dab it on as perfume.
(As an adult, I don’t have a signature scent. I get bored too easily and like to wear different scents for different occasions. I have about three or four favorites at any given time.)
Ah… all those.. LBS, Jovan and Charlie, but none were my signature. Ysatis, when I got to College in 90, when I had a job at a duty-free shop and got freebees, that became my signature.
Okay– ashamed to admit it but first and last — Diorissimo. I don’t really go for synthetic perfumes and am so grateful not to have to page through endless reviews of those here at Temptalia. No matter how they are described, to me they always smell like “department store perfumes.” Not sure why. Along the way, there was a Parisian rose-sandalwood I once got and liked. There were some rose essential oils from India, and back in the day, Kiehl’s made the most awesome scents from natural oils. I horde the ones I still have. I’ve never even found a single mention of them on-line. I’m also a great believer in the spritz rather than the drench because too much of a certain smell, no matter how much one loves it, may give the next person a migraine.
Diorissimo was my late mom’s fragrance. Whenever I smell it, it brings back such a strong memory of her all dressed up in her good black suit with this outrageous black and white maribou feather hat! That and White Shoulders conjure her so clearly for me if I catch a whiff of them.
My mother wore White Shoulders as sell. Scent memories seem to last the longest.
The part of your brain responsible for processing scent is very close to the ‘memory’ area. This is why scents tend to conjure up memories:)
Betsey Johnson by Betsey Johnson. You know, the one with the big pink filigree cap. I thought it was discontinued but I’ve found it over the years at places like TJ Maxx. I love it, that scent reminds me so much of college when I wore it daily.
Dolce & Gabbana 3 L’Imperatrice. I got it when it first came out and it’s still my favorite fragrance. Which reminds me; I need to pick up a new bottle.
Vera Wang Princess. I used to love it. Now I rarely wear perfume.
When I was really young, it was Guerlain’s Jicky (seriously – I’d read that Patty Boyd, at the time girlfriend of and later wife of George Harrison, wore it). But ever since “adulthood”, it’s been Chanel No. 19 but only the perfume. In warmer weather, I swap over to Prada Infusion d’Iris and Elizabeth Arden White Tea.
Late highschool, early 20s: Amerige by Givenchy, although for the life of me I cannot remember where it came from or why that scent was chosen. I still keep a bottle (probably 15+ years old) on my vanity but haven’t worn it in ages, much too sweet and intense for me now.
That was also my signature scent. It was very, very sweet.
You have good taste 😉
The time I was into that scent also coincides with when I was falling for and getting into a relationship with my first love, so it brings back all sorts of feelings.
I always think I miss the scent so I spray a little and regret it soon after when I’m overwhelmed by the sweetness.
Better to miss the scent and go back for a regrettable tryst than the man, lol.
I’ve moved on to better. Tory Birch Bel Azur lately 🙂
My dad (R.I.P. young in 1971) chose L’Air du Temps, prob when I was 13-14. I know he MUST have had help, but how perfect for a young teen, in that place and time. {For the younger set, think of the time of the Beatles invasion, when we were still young ladies and wore white gloves and garter belts. (Guffawing is allowed and encouraged. What you do today will seem dated and silly to the generations to come.)} It will always be a sentimental favorite, that I use occasionally in spring. Once, in my 30s or 40s, I went into Bonwit’s, and they had scented their fountain with LdT. Yes, I totally lost it, right there in public in the Back Bay.
For some odd reason Bonwits gave me a credit card so even though it was way out of my price range, I had a lot of clothes from there. The one in NYC was razed to make way for Trump Tower.
kjh 💛💛💛
I shopped at Bonwits a lot because for some odd reason, they let me open a charge account even though I was a student and had no income. The one in NYC was razed to make way for Trump Tower.
I worked in Bonwit Teller after it was rebuilt until its demise in 1990. It was wonderful, and not a day goes by that I do not miss the 5 years that I worked there.
I got Dolce Vita from Dior as a present by a subscription of a magazine. Loved it, used it and had no money to repurchase it. Forgot it and can’t remember the scent nowadays. Need to smell it some day again.
Chanel Coco Mademoiselle
I also still have a bottle from college and while I wear it almost never anymore, I do occasionally spritz it in my closet. I like it more near me, but not on me, if that makes sense.
It was LANCOME Tresor. My husband bought it for me the first year it was released and it was my only fragrance for over a decade.
When I was 12 I got a bottle of Jean Nate as a Christmas gift. It was my very first fragrance. My aunt would actually go into my room and put it on after I’d left for school, and I remember being so confused because I wasn’t using it but the perfume was definitely disappearing at a rapid rate, lol.
Karl Lagerfeld Chloe! I was still a teen, and my Mom went and bought me the largest size bottle of it for Christmas. Wore that perfume till it was gone. Unfortunately, Chloe is now nothing like it was 40+ years ago.
Lou Lou by Cacharel; it’s been my signature scent for 30+ years. I will “stray”, and typically go with a rose scent, but only because Lou Lou is a bit difficult to procure.
OMG, Lou Lou! I remember its release and signature bottle. A very powdery scent… I used to work at a duty free in college and remember it well…
If we’re talking about actual perfume then it would be Marc Jacobs Daisy (still one of my faves), but if we’re throwing it back to “body sprays” and the like then either the jasmine or cherry blossom scents from the body shop.
Elizabeth and James “Nirvana Bourbon,” and it still is my signature! It’s really the only perfume I’ve tried that doesn’t smell too “old lady perfumey” on me for some reason.
I wore a Body Shop scent all through high school, I can’t remember what it was called (it started with A) and it was in a little round glass bottle with a black cap and a little stiff wand that you used to dab the oil on your wrists or whatever. It was a very herby scent. Everyone else at school was wearing Sunflowers or Green Tea or CK One.
Then I moved to wearing Dior Fahrenheit for a few years, so that was my first, real “adult” fragrance, even it was a mens cologne.
The first perfume that I felt compelled to wear on almost a daily basis was L’Interdit by Givenchy (c. 1960). I adored it. It was sophisticated without being stodgy, fresh without being sweet. I believe it was originally created for Audrey Hepburn. It disappeared for awhile and then reappeared in a reformulated form. Alas! It was no longer the same scent. I believe yet another reformulation is in the works.
Avon’s Cotillion. My mom used to buy it for me in middle school. I had the bottles shaped like a southern belle in her yellow ballgown.
I don’t think I’ve had a signature scent since then. I like to mix it up.
I don’t know if I have had a signature scent that has followed me through life but I definitely have scents that were all I wore for long periods of time, if that makes sense.
Late grade school and early high school was Ben Hur. A cheap little perfume that was sold in 5 and dime stores back in the 60’s. In my case it was a store called Coronet’s on Del Mar in San Clemente, CA. I purchased a “remake” of it from an on-line source and while it is similar it doesn’t smell exactly like the original. Or else, my memory of it has altered how it actually smelled.
Late high school and college was Shalimar and I can’t really stand the scent anymore. It was a gift from my best friends mother who I have mentioned on the blog before as the person who really started my love of makeup.
After college I was making pretty decent money and didn’t have a lot of need to spend money so I purchased my first bottle of Joy by Jean Patou. This is a scent that I guess would be closest to a signature scent for me as it is a very rose scent and I still love almost every rose scent I have ever smelled, except MAC Fix + rose scent. At one time Joy was the most expensive fragrance in the world as it required so many rose petals to distill even one bottle. You never hear about it anymore so not even sure if they make it anymore but I have two bottles of the actual perfume so I think I am set for life.
When I was into my 30’s I wore a couple of scents but wasn’t exclusive to either. I loved Lauren by Lauren and Halston by Halston. Clever names, LOL. Still love both scents today although I don’t have either anymore.
My husband purchased Eternity for me shortly after we started seeing each other. He had originally purchased Elizabeth Arden Red Door but it just smelled a little too heavy for me so he took it back and came home with Eternity. I wore that scent everyday for about 10 years and I still like the scent although I don’t wear it.
About 10 years ago I was given a sample of Issy and that is the scent I wear most often now. I wear it through all seasons. I do have other scents I like but this is the scent I prefer now.
Runner’s Up: Vanille Intensee, Tainted Love #62 (give me all the tobacco scented perfumes, please!) Ambre Rose.
Jaipur Boucheron . My first favorite and still my favorite among others.
Loves Baby Soft in high school. My first designer perfume was Ralph Lauren’s- Lauren. I still like these scents but I wear mostly niche scents now.
Probably Lanvin’s Arpege, closely followed by Guy La Roche’s Fiji – which I still love to this day.
hyper corrective me! The scent has a D. It’s Fidji, and it’s one of he first ones I found for myself. Guy Laroche. Love that one, and haven’t found it in years. Many of the scents I like are very dated (WGAS?), many from before my time, like the lush, full old Guerlains, L’Heure Bleue, Mitsouko. The Jicky that Mariella mentions, I think was the first perfume to use synthetics. ~1909? IDK, and did not look it up. I am far too old to wear today’s sweet scents. The unisex, men’s, and abstract/experiential scents are much more my speed. Twiily? Not so much. Terre d’Hermes, definitely. On the exceedingly rare occasion that I dress up at all, it’s always something big, and usually older than I. Never trust a person over thirty? I’m more like, never trust a perfume under 80! Yet, Shalimar will always be my MGM, (who was prob born around 1890) will always be the ‘old lady perfume’ to me, even though I love plenty from that era. Smell, smell memory, and the diencephalon, is it? Powerful stuff.
Ungaro by Emanuel Ungaro. Received it from my mom (last year of my high school).
Is this the fragrance that had the tag “It almost goes too far”? Insanely good!!!
I have no idea about the tag tbh. But it was the initial formula & packaging (blue opaque bottle). It was insanely good indeed, a captivating, unique and sexy fragrance that went so well with my chemistry some 18 yrs ago :).
It was relaunched around 2004 in the U-shaped bottle but the scent is not the same. They also mention on their site that it was modernized. Unfortunately, the scent is different than the original.
Aliage by Estee Lauder in high school – I borrowed it from my mother and couldn’t give it up. It’s still around, but the original 70’s version..aahh…deliciously green, like being in a mystical forest, – fresh, rich & complex – had presence w.out being overbearing, lasted forever. Took me years to learn about chypres – still my favorite type of scent.
My first signature scent was Muguet des Bois from Coty, my second and the one that stays with me still is Chloe.
I remember liking my teacher assistant’s perfume, so I bought it with my birthday money in Kindergarten. I was way too young to wear it in public, but It was Charlie Express. Now the perfume that I’ve loved the longest is Guerlain Champs Elysees, but my ever growing collection is overwhelming me. Lately I’ve been wearing Jo Malone Myrrh and Tonka.
I think my first signature scent was Aromatics Slicer by Clinique. Probably started in my mind twenties but couldn’t wear it often as I was a hospital RN then. No scents allowed.
My favorite Aunt gave me Love’s Baby Soft, so I wore that faithfully for years. Then when I purchased my own adult perfume I fell in love with 5th Avenue by Elizabeth Arden. I still mix it up with different perfumes because I don’t want to become nose blind to 5th Avenue.
It was Shalimar. It was always my moms, & I thought it smelled amazing on her. I, then started wearing it when I was a teenager. I still love that scent, & wore it on my 1st date with my husband, & on my wedding day.
An honorable mention is Tabu. I received it as a gift when I was 13 years old from my godmother. It thought it was a unique scent, a little heavy though.
I went on to love many, many fragrances since then, as I promoted more than I can name here, in every store in NYC & NJ. Oh, those days, lol, No, I didn’t chase customers or spray them! Lol. Unless, they wanted me to.
Oh, love Dior Addict. Such a sexy scent. It was all the rage back in the day.
I had a teacher in high school who absolutely drenched herself in Tabu. It was so bad. It wasn’t the perfume that was so bad, it was the amount she wore. At one point a friend of mine who TA’d for her found a cache of like 10 bottles of it in a cupboard IN the classroom. I don’t what the deal was with that. I do have a soft spot Shalimar. I bought a bottle not that long ago when I saw a really good deal on Zulily. I almost never wear it but when I do the nostalgia is real.
Intimately Beckham – my dad worked in a perfume warehouse and it was the one that stuck. I went through two bottles and still have one sitting on my bookshelf. Currently I’m wearing Vanilla Insensee after Samantha Ravndahl’s recommendation (thank you Sam if you still read these).
Laura Biagiotti’s Roma.
Wow, I am really dating myself!
Ysatis by Givenchy–the quintessential “floriental” fragrance in the late 80s, early 90s.
I also loved Boucheron, but the price was beyond my reach.
Luckily, during college, I worked at a Duty-Free shop on the border of Canada and the US and got samples to keep me scented. However, in my current career, for the last 20 years, fragrance is verboten as your nose has to be on-point, so I’ve not sprayed or dabbed in many years.
I think it was Exclamation in middle school. I shudder to even think about it. I remember that all the girls were obsessed with it. I think I could probably pick it out of lineup, blind folded.
This was a fun question to read and think about.
The first perfume I bought with my own money was Private Collection by Estee Lauder when I was 17 years and for many years was my favorite. I loved the smell and it was very longlasting. I still keep a bottle as a treasure.
As far as I remember, Cabotine Grès.
In high school my signature scent was Avon’s Pearls and Lace; I dearly loved that one! After that was discontinued I moved on to Raffinee. My current favorite is J’adore.
In high school I wore Bath & Body Works Country Apple, and then in college my signature scent was So Pink by the GAP.
I wore various perfumes when I was in school. But, as an adult, I love Insolence by Guerlain. (the pink one not the purple one). I spray it on my neck under my hair, and I can still smell it the next day when I shower. The description calls it fruity-floral, but on me it’s a powdery floral scent that lasts really well without being overpowering.
I get different stuff to try, but go back to this all the time.
I wore Anais Anais when out of high school and got compliments while wearing it. After a 100 years I purchased again but I’m about to smell like old lady not too far from now. Lol! I still do like it. I also like Donna Karen Cashmiere, Paloma Picasso but looking to find something with an Indian spice musky one. I have no idea patchouli, something cardamom earthy scent. I should ask a visitor what she had in it was perfect! Stupid me! No strong alcohol for me. Very subtle. Any recommendations?
Design by Paul Sebastian, that was my college scent. Wow, that takes me back!
Dior J’adore. Smells like classy autumn/winter.
Some 80’s Ralph Lauren parfum. Still remember the smell! Also used it (was given it) in college. 😉 Makes me think about turtlenecks, angora sweaters, pearl necklaces (faux in my case) and penny loafers (of course with the penny). Ah the memories!