Oh deary me, can it be Friday already? I don't know what happened this week but I really did intend to post a few times during the week - I promise. It has been a mixed one really with sad family news; rainy dull days which have meant indoor play at school (not so good for 7 year old energetic children); family illnesses; exams etc but also I had a very important prayer answered regarding Tom (yes, the miracles are still happening!) which has kept me buoyant through the harder times. Good things include my christmas magazine pile growing; the anticipation of a birthday trip to York for me and Anth in a couple of weeks (ideas on places to visit gratefully received); a pair of new pyjamas and a beautiful scarf found at Totnes market; the arrival of a fantastic Japanese crochet book which I can't see until my birthday; and an unexpected chat with some old friends we had lost touch with. See I had so much to share with you!
But today I will do a post on a great love of mine, perfume - a post I should have written years ago given the importance of scent in my life.
It all started with my lovely mother. She adores perfume and the mere sniff of Rive Gauche, White Linen, Madame Rochas, O de Lancome, Arpege, Blue Grass or Youth Dew conjours up her presence to me. Every item of her clothing harbours a mix of her scents. I used to - and still do - get slightly giddy when I hit the perfume counter of a department store. I go crazy testing this perfume on that wrist another one the other and then, when I've run out of places to test, I start spraying my clothes, in my handbag or up my skirt (much to my daughters' embarrassment). I always save the one I like best for my neck so I can keep on smelling it for as long as it lasts. I remember my mother being cross with me when I was 13 because I gave her a migraine due to the family having to share a car with me after I had had one of my giddy spraying sessions long, long ago. You can offer me all the make up in the world but it's those beautiful bottles of liquid gold that hold my heart.
And my fragrance story so far? Well, the very first grown up scent was given to me when I was about 10 or 11 by an old lady. It was Carven's Ma Griffe and the tiny bottle still sits in my printer's tray. I then was given Dior Dior a few years later (I still am wondering why they stopped making that?) and Nina Ricci L'air du temps by an admirer when I was about 15. I dabbled with the cheaper scents in the 1970's like Tramp, Panache and Charlie but then moved onto the heavier Opuim, Coco and Poison in the 80's (all of which my mother dislikes!)
I was wearing Chanel Cristalle when I met Anth and I wore White Linen on my wedding day. The scent that brings back the strongest memories is the lemony fragrance of O de Lancome. My mother gave me a gift of the body lotion and perfume for my hospital bag when I was due to have Lucy (treats for myself were certainly not on the list way back then). I was so touched by her letter and gift and now the mere sniff of it sends me back to those euphoric days when I had my first precious daughter.
I love La Perla, Paris, Rive Gauche, Chanel No5, Arpege,Carolina Herrera, most of Estee Lauder's collection, Gerlain's Nahema (which I wore in Paris) Rush, Chance, Rock and Rose, and..oh so many more but my all time favourite signature scent has to be Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel. It's what I've been wearing for the last 2 or 3 years now and Anth says he feels near me when he catches the scent of it on the driver's seat belt.
And what about you? Do you have a signature scent that you have worn for years or do you ring the changes? What are your favourites? I had a wonderful telephone conversation with my mother whilst writing this post - both of us reminiscing over the scents she wore and what her mother and her grandmother wore. I asked her to write it down, either for the blog or just for Lucy and Alice as they too are following in our perfume loving foot steps. I'm hopeful she will as she told me that if she was ever on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, her luxury item would be perfume - but she failed to tell me which one. How could she possibly choose.
Could you?
