Earlier this month, I had a friend stay with me for a weekend. We were both getting our makeup done in my bathroom mirror, and when my friend was done she said, “I didn’t bring any perfume with me, could I borrow some of yours?” I nodded, “Which one?”
I had three of them arranged on a tray. Strangely, asking her was a struggle, but I told her, “Honestly, which ever you want! It doesn’t matter to me.”
But it kind of did. I had my signature scent, Chance by Chanel, and it’s the one I use on special occasions. Since we were going out that night, I used it, but it’s so special to me that I don’t like sharing it.
I also had my everyday perfume, a floral scent from Zara which is cheap but surprisingly a good scent. I use this when I go to school, the gym or around the house. I kind of felt she could use this one but I wanted to be a good friend and maybe share a spray of that iconic Chanel scent.
My third one, whose brand is going to remain unnamed, is my middle tier so I use it when the occasion is not unusual but it doesn’t happen everyday. The point of this story is not that I have no idea which one my friend chose, but to share how meaningful a perfume scent can be and we don’t think about this often.
Since we match our scents to the activities we do, that moment contains some life and with this we find a way to relive it forever. Depending on what events we consider to be special, we choose to recall the most memorable ones.
In a 2018 article Allure featured about perfumes they said, “Even though those relived moments can be excruciating, they are that way often because of something good that’s been lost– but in ways, that good moment still lives and breathes in the scents that recall it.”
