Smell is one of the strongest memory triggers we have. That’s why you can one day be walking down the street, all happy about your impending successful adulthood and then, BAM a waft of Dior Homme hits you up in the nostrils and, due to memories of that dickwad who broke your heart at the tender age of 15, you end up in a foetal pile on the floor rocking backwards and forwards while you wail along to Dido’s* Here With Me.*
Here’s a bunch of perfumes that are bound to bring back some totally deep memories, man.
CK1, Calvin Klein
The starter perfume. If you had this one you were probably A) 13 or B) enough of an individual to buck the trend of graduating to celebrity owned perfumes that made you smell like a baby prostitute and instead stick with something that actually smelled good. You, young lady, you’ll go far.
J Lo Glow
If you didn’t also have a necklace that spelled out your name in cursive letters encrusted with diamantes then we’ll eat our hat. Low-slung hipster jeans and point stiletto boots were the order of the day, as well as a giant pair of hoop earrings. Jenny from the Block? Pah, if only she knew the struggles of growing up in provincial Britain. #Suburbiaforlife
Ralph, Ralph Lauren
THE MOST DISTINCTIVE SCENT OF OUR TIME. Save for Lynx Africa. Which you still smell every time you close your eyes. Probably because your boyfriend still wears it. Ralph fever swept swept the country in 2004 and only settled down again three years later. If you had this perfume you were a girl, who was a teenager, in the noughties. That’s it. See also Davidoff Cool Water.
Hugo Boss Red
You were far too mature for everyone. Sure you hung around with your friends at school but that was only until your boyfriend who was at college (older man) could come back, pick you up in his VW Golf (black) and drive you out to a field to smoke drugs. Shame those ‘drugs’ turned out to be oregano and your ‘boyfriend’ turned out to be a horny little wankjob who kept putting his dick in Sharon Fenton when you weren’t around.
Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue
This shit was expensive. So either you were very good at sneaking things in your mum’s shopping basket at the chemist or you got the sort of pocket money no teenager should receive. This one was ‘a bit different’. You were probably the first one to jump on the whole Sienna Miller boho trend, weren’t you? Loved a barefoot in the summer and a few errant braids in your touseled hair.
Like this? Then you might also be interested in:
Confessions Of A Perfume Snob: ‘A Week In Supermarket Fragrances’
Things You Only Know If You Work On A Perfume Counter During Christmas Mayhem
Follow Jess on Twitter @Jess_Commons
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.