For as long as I can remember my mom has worn the perfume Opium by Yves Saint Laurent. It a dark amber color and sits on the glass top of her dresser in the deep red bottle with gold leaves swirling around the label. She never leaves the house without a spritz and although it is never overpowering, everything she touches seems to keep a little of the scent for itself. When she visits my house and cuddles the cat I can smell her on Ebbie's fur even after she is gone.
During my time studying in Madrid I traveled every few weeks and always found time to stop at the duty free shops at the airport. Walking through the aisles of perfumes at Madrid Barajas Airport I stopped when I saw the YSL display. Opening the dark red bottle with the gold cap I breathed in deeply and almost started to cry. It smelled so familiar I expected Mom to come around the stack of boxes at any second. It smelled like hugs, Mom's warm car, a cool hand on a hot cheek, and borrowed scarves. Fumbling with my bag I pulled out my travel pillow and spritzed some of the perfume on it. For a few days, I felt a little less homesick falling asleep with that familiar scent.
A few weeks ago, for Katie's 30th birthday, Mom flew out and surprised her in California. My brother-in-law Joey was in on the secret and brought Katie to "run an errand" at the grocery store, where Mom was waiting in the wine aisle. Joe said that when Kate saw Mom she stopped walking so quickly it looked like she had run into an invisible wall. Slowly she crept closer to see if it was actually Mom. She sniffed the air, recognized the YSL perfume and knew for certain Mom was really standing there.
I've always wanted to find signature scent, one that makes people think of me automatically. Hopefully I'll discover it before I have kids so that when they are far from home they can feel me by their side, too.
Recent Posts
Posts
5 comments:
Hi there-what a lovely post!! I want a signature scent too, so far I really love Christian Diors newest one, Escale de Portofino (something like that!) it is so lemony and lovely, I want to be 'known' by this fragrance I think!
A "tug at my heartstrings" kind of post. My mom used to wear Samsuri and the smell, to this day, brings me back to those days. Thanks for being an amazing blog writer. Do you mind if I link your blog on my site?
thanks! i'm glad you liked it. mom has been out of town so i think i was more sentimental about writing it than i meant to be...
kristie--i'd be honored to have my link up! thanks for asking :)
My cousin wore Avon's pretty peach and all the lovely clothes we got from her as Hand-me-Downs smelt like that too. She is a cosmetic magnate now and probably wears Joe Malone or something swanky, but Pretty peach is my scent memory of her.
ImeldaMike and I got our first Chanel together; No 5 for moi and Pour Monsieur for him. We were in our late teens and hung out in Melbourne shopping and posing together in the school holidays. To this day that fragrance makes me feel like a groovy teenager, trying to live my life like an 80's music video.
xx
Funny story. You know, of course, that you left your scarf at the party (your lights were off, but I'll drop it off tomorrow). At some point, Liz discovered that it smelled good and it got passed around; the unanimous decision was that it does, in fact smell good. Various adjectives were bandied around, different spices, 'like a closet full of candles', etc. Anyway, I dare say you found your scent.
Post a Comment