A sprint towards the finish line

I'm blaming Cornflower



I read Karen's post on Friday with such delight, perfume has been on my mind a lot lately as I have been deciding on a change. Changing my perfume is not the sort of decision I take easily, I began tentatively trying on new scents early in December hoping to put in a Christmas request and eventually I thought I had made my decision but lost confidence at the last moment and could not commit. I so enjoyed Karen's post and in particular the comments it inspired that my obsession was re-awakened. I ordered the book, Perfumes: The A-Z Guide which arrived by post the following day. I have read numerous good reviews of this book and heard interesting interviews with the authors but it was Karen's post which finally pushed me into ordering it and I am so glad I did.

This is not a mere reference book, this is a book to enjoy from cover to cover, the sort of book that you pick up for a quick flick through at lunchtime on Saturday.

And find you are still reading at dinner time.


The sort of book that sends you out of the house to the nearest department store full of new ideas, nose a-twitching.

I remember my very first encounter with perfume, I was about 7 years old and must have been investigating my mother's handbag, I remember the small bottle, it's black shiny lid and amber coloured liquid. I can remember the distinctive smell, the smell of being grown up, the smell of make-up, cigarettes, coffee, high heels and silk scarves. The smell of glamour. That bottle was Chanel No.5.


The first perfume I actually owned was a bottle of something citrusy. I wish to goodness I still had that bottle, I wish I knew what it was. I was about 9 years old, my father brought it back from Switzerland I think and I was thrilled that it wasn't another doll in National Clothing, I felt so grown up.It seems a strange present for my father to have bought me at that time, I can't imagine what he was thinking really but I loved it. It was proper, expensive perfume or cologne, not the sort of scents that I received in the early adolescence years which followed, this was a real grown up perfume. I haven't worn a citrusy scent since but each time I wander through a perfume floor that scent is firm in my memory, the bottle shape and name hazily beyond reach. I wonder if I will ever find it again and will it smell as I remembered, fresh and lemony, grown up and real. In fact, as I work my way through the book I have been noting down scents which sound like they could be that very one, I will keep the list in my bag and maybe, just maybe I will come across that scent again.


The next few years saw a sucession of bad smells, I can still bring to mind the peculiar smell of Tweed and remember the various cheap gift sets that thrilled me through my early teenage years, there was Charlie of course, I remember the bottle and advertisements so clearly, all that they promised and I remember a bottle which brought to mind violets, I loved it because it reminded me of those little purple sweets, Parma Violets, I cannot recall the name, it was the sort of scent adored only by old ladies and young girls. Around the age of sixteen I began to develope my own strong tastes and desires. That Christmas I asked for Lou Lou. My goodness Lou Lou! Have you smelled it? At sixteen it was fantastic, sweet and strong, I loved that perfume, loved the blue coloured angled bottle, I loved to look at it on my table and loved that my school blazer and scarf smelled of Lou Lou all day long. If you sprayed my scarf with Lou Lou these days I doubt very much that I could get through the day without an enormous headache and a large dose of nausea but my sixteen year old self was immune to such things. I think perhaps there is just a small window of your life when you can wear a perfume like Lulu and for me 16 was that window.

By the following year I was wearing Dr Martin boots, wearing a lot of black clothing and eyeliner all topped off with bright red lipstick. I listened to the sort of music you pogo too and my boyfriends back combed their hair into messy, matted spikes at the weekend. Smelling sweet and girlish was out of the question. That Christmas I asked for Paloma Picasso and fancied myself very dramatic.

I am off to buy my new perfume right now, I have finally decided to commit to a change of scent, I think.... I will tell you about it in my next post and I would really like to hear about the perrumes you love and indeed what sends a shiver down your spine in a bad way too.