Hi there APJ,

Recently  on FFF or Facebook Fragrance Friends we had a special pinned post that everyone could get on board and write, well here’s the post.

We would like to invite you to share your perfume story: a reminiscence, a tale, a poem, a journey, even a dream. The rules are simple: In 300 words or less, post your perfume story, in any written form you wish. Allow your talent and imagination to soar. Go beyond perfume notes and branding. Help us to understand what perfume means to your past, present and/or future.

The moderators at FFF picked their five favourites and I thought we should share their lovely first fragrant memories with you….

My Perfume Story: Facebook Fragrance Friends

Photo Stolen Flickr

Trésor Prijs: Divine vapors, a symphony of light scattered through a fractured mind. As a child my mother was a mosaic of broken pieces, plagued by demons within her most beautiful soul. Each day, a battle. Few things made her smile, but one of the few that did was her perfume. As she diffused the aura of her invisible armor around her a radiant light emerged from within her sad, sapphire eyes. For that moment, she was my mother again. Her extraordinary ebullience, her peace returned. She must have seen how I watched her come to life with every mist of the atomizer because one day gave me a bottle of my very own. It was a bottle of Trésor, her favorite, the one my father bought for her when he found out she was pregnant with me. This is how my perfume journey began.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

JoAnne Bassett: My short version is at 5 yrs I received a Daisy fragrance set from Avon. I was thrilled to have my very own scent. I had 4 sisters so was able to try out all of their fragrances including my Mother who mostly wore Midnight in Paris, Youth Dew, Estee Lauder, and Alliage. I learned how to layer. In the 80’s I became allergic to dept store perfumes and my lovelies on my dresser became bottles to look at and not wear. I got migraines, runny noses and decided it was not worth it for me to wear them. In the 70’s I had made potpourri with herbs, flowers, spices and some refresher oils and essential oils you could buy…using those essential oils I was able to make simple frags. In the early 90’s went to Grasse..and traveled to 43 countries..not working..and became an aromatherapist and opened Bassett Aromatherapy and almost immediately began designing natural perfumes, custom perfumes and selling them to my clients. I started selling my natural perfumes online in 2000. I still love new absolutes, tinctures, macerations I make with my flowers and plants I grow.

Photo Stolen Flickr

QuoterGal Hatch: I remember being about two or three in upstate NY, and being allowed to toddle around in the backyard by myself in spring & summer and check out all the smells in Mom’s gardens.
Dainty lilies of the valley lined one side of the house in the shade, multi-purpled lilac bushes stood in a row by the other side of the house, crocuses, daffodils, tulips, narcissus & hyacinth near the porch and along the right side of the yard, pale blue forget-me-nots and fragrant violets of every color scattered everywhere, a mock orange bush I could stand inside (heaven), a crabapple tree, Mom’s (mostly red) rose garden (I’d get stuck there and forget to move on), transfixing red, white & pink peonies, Queen Anne’s Lace and orange nasturtium that I was allowed to pick, pink phlox and bluish-purple bachelor buttons by the playhouse, and a big area reserved for Mom’s favorite purple & white irises and orange-red tiger lilies. An amazingly-fragrant massive cherry tree over the driveway. Huge bushes with white flowers, and ones with pink blossoms (and bees) whose names I never knew. And more… I learned that even flowers not considered fragrant had their own smells, and I loved them, too.
I started my love of perfume at an early age, but I really think my years of chasing the fragrance bottle are attempts to recapture the bliss of those early & vivid ecstatic smells.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Joseph Sagona: My fragrance journey started when I was a really young kid probably nine years old or so, I remember my mother having and still has it to this day Dior Poison on her nightstand, and I would sneak a few sprays here and their on my wrist and I really loved the sweet, rich smell of it, and every time I wear it, it reminds me of her. My father on the other hand never really cared for colognes much, he was an Aqua Velva, Old Spice Man, Aqua Velva is a cheap, fresh, clean smelling drug store cologne from the 70’s and 80’s, he bathed in that stuff, If I was in the Bed Room and he was in the Living Room I could smell it for miles, true story LOL.. As far as I go the first fragrance I ever bought with my own money was Calvin Klein Eternity when I was 15 years old, I still love it and wear it till this day. That’s how it all began for me.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Igor: I jokingly blame my mother for my fragrance obsession. My earliest experience with perfumed happened when I was around 3 or 4 years old. I was born in the Soviet Union, in the southern city of Samara which is famous for the most fragrant pure Lilly of the valley, spellbinding lilacs and sweet sappy linden trees. My early life has been filled with nature smells. But, there is a twist, I consider Soviet women as troopers and even martyrs. The reason is , they worked 9 hour working days which started at 7 am, then went to stores , waited hour long lines fighting for the remnants of food at empty stores, walked home with heavy bags to save money on public transport, cooked and cleaned until midnight or later almost every day of their lives, but, somehow, stayed elegant and attractive. In the late 80s you could not find sexy underwear, good skincare, or any fashionable clothing, yet my mother managed to stay on top of her game. Luckily, my father did travel with his band to the Socialist countries and spent all the money to dress and adorn my mom. In 1989 he brought her a magic little black box with strange words written on it. My mom opened it and got out a tiny bottle with dark yellow liquid, opened it, and paced a small dab of that liquid on her neck. Dark, luxurious, yet diaphanous warm veil settled upon me. This was nothing like I never smelled before. My mom explained it was a French perfume called “Magie Noir”. Vivid images filled my head, of Cleopatra or some other gorgeous queens in luxurious settings. My mother was very frugal with that bottle and only used it on very big occasions. Few years later my father brought her a bottle of Estee Lauder Knowing, an aldehyde, woody and fruity smell, so apropos to the pompous 80s and early 90s. My mother has taught me several important lessons with those two bottles: there are treasures in the world, never use anything carelessly and perfume completes your expression of “self”.
This year I bought my mother a new bottle of Magie Noire, but it does not smell the same as the original. I guess childhood memories are very particular and linger with us forever. My mom has been very careful with these bottles and she still has the originals which I treasure like relics. They were my only fantasies of what true beauty was or at least what it smelled like. Find below the pic of the original bottles in the original packaging along with the new Magie Noire and my mother’s portrait I drew.

I hope you enjoyed those. I thought they were lovely and very moving.
Portia xx