… because that’s all the effort I’ve got tonight.
I located a bottle of Bath and Body Works’ Moonlight Path lotion* tonight that was my go-to scent three years ago. Slathering it on brought back all kinds of memories of three years ago, of having just moved to Nashville and trying to forge out a new path for my life with a new job and making new friends.
Isn’t it funny how scent can be more powerful in stirring old memories than say sight or sound? I know that if someone waved a bottle of Polo Sport in front of me right now I could close my eyes and feel like I was back in high school sitting next to my HS boyfriend.
What scent instantly takes you back?
*Random tangent: Am I the only one who gets super annoyed with B&BW when they get you hooked on a scent and then discontinue it? I’ve had that happen several times, though they’re apparently still selling Moonlight Path.
Scents always get me going with memories. I used to use this cucumber rose water toner when I was in high school — cucumbers or roses always give me a flood of memories.
Jergen’s Body lotion takes me back to freshman year of college. And Clinique Happy always makes me think of high school. Herbal Essences (the old kind) always made me think of the shower house and summer camp. I’m totally going to be thinking of these all day long.
I love love love that scent.
Sometimes when I smell orange lotion it reminds me of the body spray I used to wear in college. It had sparkles in it and I would put it on before we went clubbing. Good times.
The perfume “Fetish,” from the mid-90s, always takes me back to middle school. I smell my tiny remaining bottle of it and I’m back in jazz band, sitting at the piano and drooling over the saxaphonist.
Also, DuWop’s Lip Venom. I always applied it before my shift at the restaurant where I waitressed during college, so when I apply it today I also feel like I smell wet dishes and the kitchen as well.
MG, have you heard of synesthesia? Some people have crossed senses and associate two different senses together. It’s really interesting stuff. I actually have it.
Jergens Original Scent (Cherry-Almond) lotion takes me back to the late 80’s, because that’s what my mom always wore. Also true for Obsession perfume.
The first sip of a Michelob Light takes me back to the same time period, because that’s what my parents drank, and sometimes they’d let me have a sip.
Smells are so weird that way. I went to a small college in a rural area, so whenever I smell a skunk, it takes me right back there.
Sometimes music has the same effect. Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” always takes me right back to 9th grade.
totally agree with the Herbal Esencesses comment 🙂
Hawaiian Tropic suntan oil totally takes me back to high school when my girlfriends and I baked ourselves all summer long. Makes me smile.
So, I’m bordering on allergic to anything particularly smelly, but I have a ton of sort of environmentally-related smells. One of the ones that jumps out the most is the smell of cedar plywood. It reminds me of the treehouse my grandfather and my dad built for me and my sister.
Oh, and Kate, I’ve heard a bunch about synaethesia. I think the idea is really fascinating, in the sense that you hear colors or see smells.
For me a scent can be the most powerful memory, able to instantly recreate all the old feelings and scenarios that were playing out. For me, the one that gets me the most is Farenheight mens cologne…Mike McCallum, my first *real* boyfriend.
I love this! I wore Dolce and Gabbana’s Bi around the time I was 20, which is also when I lived in Venice, Italy. I don’t wear it anymore but every time I smell it, I think of Venice and get that fond feeling. Funny but true: the smell of diesel gasoline has the exact same effect.
I work for a fragrance company and whenever we're developing something new, I catch whiffs of fragrances that remind of sometime, someone, or someplace…
A favorite of mine is Dove soap, which reminds me of camp, I used their foaming cloths to wash my face every morning. Jergen's Cherry Almond soap reminds me of my grandmother's house growing up. Plumeria reminds me of my first B&BW purchase in middle school.
Scent is a powerful thing!