Perfume and Memories
Of all our senses, smell has the ability to evoke memory in an instant: to transport us back in time to a certain place - anywhere in the world - and rekindle emotions.
Eye Magazine Cover Image
In this time of travel restrictions, I have calmed my wanderlust by revisiting photos from past travels. It helps me stay connected with the world, and savour those memories of amazing locations, cultural experiences and delicious food and wine. I’m sure you know the delight in looking back through past photos and remembering your experiences - those memories enriched your life in some way. And yet, the images are only a two dimensional view of the past. They are somehow flat and without breath. Why? They lack the aroma - the essence of the place.
Sensing and scenting…
Ever since I was a little girl, perfume and the sense of smell, has intrigued me. Why does it evoke memory so clearly? Perhaps it was because my mother had lost her sense of smell in her childhood that mine was heightened in some way or perhaps it was that she relied on me to smell things for her: the milk & cream; any burning smells; winter coats and leather handbags to make sure they didn’t smell musty. Mum has always looked and smelled wonderful too. Stylish and elegant and she wears the most beautiful perfumes. My father deserves thanks for that - he has good taste in fragrance and buys her some of the most beautiful perfumes available. In fact, I have my parents to thank for awakening my sense of smell from such a young age.
Nostalgic scents
Jasmine from home
Early childhood memories are brought to life in an instant when I smell certain flowers: jasmine takes me to the large house I grew up in where jasmine grew by the front entrance steps. Violets remind me of when I was seven, picking the delicate blooms from the damp undergrowth by the hedge. Those rich, heady scents are almost palpable when you imagine them, so their actual perfume reminds me instantly of that time and place in my life.
French Poetry…
The 19th Century French Poet Baudelaire wrote in his poem Correspondences:
“Some perfumes are as fragrant as an infant’s flesh,
Sweet as an oboe’s cry, and greener than the spring;
- While others are triumphant, decadent or rich,
Having the expansion of infinite things,
Like ambergris and musk, benzoin and frankincense,
Which sing the transports of the mind and every sense [1]”
My mind is transported back to that childhood house with the smell of jasmine and violet.
The nose knows…
Wine Tasting at Louis Jadot, Beaune, France 2002
This fascination of smell and the language used to describe it lead me to a career in the wine industry where I was able to use my “nose” and “prose” on a daily basis. Wine tasting and wine writing are heavily influenced by what you can smell: from the winery to the bottle to your glass. The vocabulary & confidence in what I was smelling developed over the 15 years working with wine and really defined my tastes in all things aromatic.
Yet, for me, perfume has even more mystique as it takes nature to another level: because it can transport you back in time.
A brief history lesson…
Queen’s Bed at Versailles Palace, France with floral motifs in abundance!
The history of perfume dates back to around 2000 BC, originating in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India. The art of distillation was created by the Persian physician, astronomer and chemist Ibn Sina [2] - and this revolutionised the way we extract fragrance from flowers today. Italy was the epicentre of perfumery in Europe from the early 13th Century AD, flourishing during the Renaissance. It was the Italian Queen consort of France, Catherine de Midici (married to King Henry II of France) who brought the art of perfume to France in the 16th Century. Her perfumer, “Rene the Florentine” had a secret laboratory connected to the Queen’s apartments so that his perfumes could not be stolen. Imagine! France soon became the influencer that it is today with the cultivation of flowers grown specifically for the perfume industry blossoming in the south of France. By the 18th Century, Grasse in France, Calabria (in the south of Italy and Sicily had established themselves as the growing regions for the beautiful floral aromatics we enjoy today in modern perfumery.
France and Italy hold a strong position in my perfume collection: Van Cleef & Arpels, Chanel, Guerlain, Sisley, Dolce & Gabanna, Bvlgari and Valentino are standouts.
Fragrance as a Travel Diary
Whenever I travel to a new place I find a new scent - something that resonates with the climate, culture or occasion. If you have a love of fragrance and want to reminisce a moment in time, just spray the scent that you wore and you will be transported back to that place in a “Ratatouille moment” [3]
My travels always involve trying out new fragrances at the Duty Free stores, then visiting perfume houses and discussing the notes, styles, influences with any sales person who will spend time with me. Here are some of my scent memories:
Bvulgari Pour Femme
Bvlgari Pour Femme takes me straight back to Florence - particularly the Uffizi Gallery. Created by Sophia Grojsman it had green notes with pretty mimosa florals, heart note of rose and base notes of jasmine - which for my mid 20’s made me feel very sophisticated and grown up. Particularly when I was travelling around Italy surrounded by all those beautiful Italian women! I still have the bottle and although empty can take the lid off and be transported straight back to those magical days in Florence.
Frangipani Flower, Hilton Hotel Denarau Island, Fiji
Very Valentino is a fragrance I wore for years: This fragrance particularly reminds me of my “baby-moon” in Fiji as it had just the right amount of floral and freshness to stand up to the heat of the tropical climate and not be too intense during my pregnancy. Pretty florals like lily-of-the-valley and magnolia are surrounded in the freshness of mandarin, bergamot and orange. The heart of the fragrance opened up to jasmine, rose and violet - the childhood memories enveloped within this scent - with a sophisticated base of sandalwood, vanilla, musk and amber.
It’s very rare now so my empty bottle sits patiently waiting to present me with a moment of nostalgia.
A trip to the Chanel store at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore led me to Coco Mademoiselle. This floral oriental fragrance seemed perfect for my experience in this clean, tropical city filled with orchids and colour. It has a sparkle to it from the top note of orange - which seemed fitting as I was attending the International Jewellery Trade Fair at the time! And, once again, jasmine from Grasse is at the heart. Yet it has a sensuality from the base notes of patchouli and the woody notes of vetiver. This is the fragrance I wear whenever I visit Singapore.
ArtScience Museum looking like a flower at sunset. Marina Bay Sands Singapore
Heaven Scent
Karen Walker’s Runaway reminds me of a person and a place: My dear friend Samantha and my journey to Beijing, China . This perfume was created by French perfumier Veronique Nyberg. Developed & distributed by The Six Senses - a New Zealand company which Samantha was influential in establishing - the fragrance also reminds me of her. She gifted this fragrance to me and I adore it because it smells exotic and she wears it. It is opulent and rich with woody base notes from Bourbon vetiver and guaiac wood, alongside a sumptuous vanilla which Veronique has created and patented. Top notes of lemon, cinnamon, black pepper and spices envelope the feminine heart of rose and a frankincense-type essence give this fragrance a beautiful, long sillage.
This fragrance was perfect to cut through the heat and energy of Beijing while having an opulence which suited the culture and history of the place.
Temple of Heaven, Beijing looking like a giant perfume bottle stopper
Breathing in Paris
When in Paris, I visit the Guerlain flagship store on Champs-Elysées. The service is always elegantly French but also genuine, insightful and patient as my school girl French is unveiled.
Guerlain Champs-Elysées, Paris 2019
Guerlain Exclusive Fragrance
Last year I bought one of their Exclusives from the L’Art et la Matière Collection. I’m keeping the name of this one secret, but there are no surprises that it is a quintessentially French fragrance of elegance and femininity with a lifted top note of a rare flower, the heart of jasmine and rich notes of wood, spice and rose.
The bottle of deep gold fragrance is packaged in an Amethyst jewellery box and the fragrance encapsulates my memory of standing in the foyer of the beautiful Palais Garnier Theatre before a sublime performance by the Paris Opéra Ballet. You can read about this performance “A Night at the Palais Garnier” as featured in Lucire Magazine.
Palais Garnier Staircase, Pre Paris Opera Ballet Performance, 2019, Paris
Breathing in Paris (and my newly purchased Guerlain Fragrance!) 2019
Sparkle & Shine
Chanel Exclusive 1932
Chanel Exclusive 1932 is a Melbourne memory. I fell in love with the fragrance and the story behind it - it seemed fitting, considering I love Fine Jewellery, Diamonds and Stars (I’m co-director of Jewellery brands toryandko.com and stellabytoryandko.com Our Stella brand is named after my daughter and features Star motifs among many other sky themes).
1932 was the year Gabrielle Chanel presented her diamond constellation high jewellery collection in Paris. The fragrance is sparkling with powdery florals and a heart of white jasmine with woody base notes. Very Chanel. Very Melbourne.
Melbourne’s GPO Collonade illuminated at night
I was wearing this fragrance as my husband and I strolled underneath the GPO’s illuminated, vaulted archway one warm Melbourne evening on our way to an anniversary dinner. The moment was other-worldly just like the perfume. Like stepping back in time.
Scent Collection
Paloma Picasso Miniature
If you love the idea of collecting scent memories I would suggest keeping your old perfume bottles. They still carry the hint of the scent that once filled their interiors. I have a gift coffret of perfumes gifted by my parents from an overseas trip. These must have been the very first bottles of perfume I owned. Even though they are empty now they still retain a faint memory of the fragrances they held: Paloma Picasso & Fidji were my favourites.
Perfume not only holds an allure for its fragrance, but also for its packaging. I have a collection of perfume and also a collection of perfume bottles. The bottles themselves are beautiful - part of the glamour of fragrance for me is in the glass shapes of the bottles and their elaborate stoppers. The miniature Paloma Picasso bottle was beguiling to my 12 year old self with its black casing around a circular glass orb of perfume.
Mum’s crystal perfume bottle collection
It’s funny how history repeats itself: this is another thing handed down from generations before me. I remember my Nana having bottles of perfume displayed on her dressing table. My mother has a beautiful collection of vintage crystal perfume bottles, alongside her collection of actual perfumes. You could say I was destined to this intense fascination of fragrance.
Everyone has their own tastes in fragrance but mine is influenced by the floral oriental and woody notes I was surrounded by as a child. I seek them out, each one with its own personality and memory of time and place. Each new fragrance is evocative of a travel memory - revealing a three dimensional recollection in an instant.
Scent is all around us. Breathe in and see where your memory journey takes you…
Flower Gardens at Versailles 2019
[1] . Baudelaire, Charles.Selected Poems From Les Fleurs du mal.Translated by Norman. R. Shapiro. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
[2]. For a historical novel about Ibn Sina and a young Englishman who learns from him, read The Physician by Noah Gordon
[3]. The moment when restaurant critic Anton Ego is transported back to his childhood memory of his mother’s home-made ratatouille dinner in the Disney Pixar movie “Ratatouille”, 2007
What I’m reading/watching/smelling:
Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell, Luca Turin \
Emperor of Scent, Chandler Burr
The Perfect Scent: A Year inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York, Chandler Burr
Perfume: The Alchemy of Scent, Jean-Claude Ellena
Perfumes: The A-Z Guide Luca Turin, Tania Sanchez
Scent and Subversion: Decoding a Century of Provocative Perfume, Barbara Herman
Essence and Alchemy A Natural History of Perfume, Mandy Aftel
Perfume: A Century of Scents, Lizzie Ostrom
Perfume: The story of a Murderer. Novel by Patrick Süskind
BBC Perfume Documentary World Science Festival: Scents and Sensibilities Panel Discussion
WORLD fragrance night with Michael Marzano - Lubin fragrance house WORLD
"Around the WORLD" with Benny Castles: Wellington on a Plate event: Fragrance, Cocktails and Canapés
