A scentsational experiment

Whoa, look how time has whizzed by! I've spent the last few months hard at work rushing to meet deadlines, spending as much time in yoga practice as possible and travelling a little, and before I could even check my calendar, it's almost the end of the world, if you are the sort to believe the Mayan doomsday predictions.

Well, I'm somewhat sceptical, but just in case, I've made sure to live every day as if it were my last. Come to think about it, that's actually a great resolution to make, supposing we make it to the new year lol.

Anyway in an attempt to live life as fully as possible, I've embarked on a little olfactive experiment, inspired by an article I read in an recent issue of Elle USA. In the article about male perfume afficionados, one of the guys interviewed told a story about how he lost his sense of smell during 9-11 as he was a first responder stationed at the site. Months later, he realised he was slowly regaining his sense of smell when he started to be able to smell garbage. Now that he has recovered, he is trying to build some sort of 'scent memory' by using specific perfumes for specific occasions. For example, on a holiday to Italy, he used only one perfume by Acqua Di Parma through the trip so that when he spritzes that scent in the future, memories of his vacation will come flooding back.


I don't know about you, but I found that story so touching that I've decided to try to create my own scent bank so that I can relive my memories vividly whenever I sniff certain perfumes. So, on my recent trip to Koh Samui for a sort-of beach vacation meets yoga retreat, I decided to try it out. After a little bit of research, I decided to bring Hermes' Eau Claire Des Merveilles along with me.

In the words of one of the world's best perfume writers, Chandler Burr*, "Where Eau des Merveilles is a marvelous filigree of citrus, Claire atomizes it with the milky scent of an infant’s breath."

In other words, it's a fresh but not intrusive citrus, tempered with sweet powder. A perfectly unexpected yet fitting choice for a tropical vacation. I spritzed it all over myself and my room for six days and I love its warmth and depth so much I'm a bit sad that I'm not going to wear it on a daily basis any more. It's still early days but I'm sure this experiment will work out quite nicely as I go along. Why?

A number of years ago, when I was an exchange student in Prague, I happened to pass by the H&M on the day the Stella McCartney collaboration launched (back in the day, people weren't crazy enough to queue up in the bitter cold for these things, or maybe the people in Prague just didn't care enough). I walked in, bought a bagful of clothes, most of which I still own actually, and was given a small vial of the Stella perfume with my purchase. I used up the vial while I was there and forgot all about the scent over the next few years.

Then last year (or maybe it was early this year), I happened to open an old bottle of Stella Sheer which I didn't even know I owned. The moment I spritzed it, a flood of memories of those crazy days and nights spent gallivanting in Prague just hit me all at once. I was so winded by that sudden avalanche of recollections I actually stopped dead in my tracks for a few minutes. These days, whenever I feel like I need a little reminder of how exciting life can be, or how much unexplored possibilities there are, if only I bother to look, I douse myself in Stella Sheer and the world seems a much more interesting place immediately.

I don't know if I will ever become a perfume critic with an endless vocabulary to describe a smell eloquently, or if my nose will ever become so refined that I can pick out different notes in a scent. But for now, I'm so pleased I've found a way to create meaningful connections between some of the things I own and the experiences that matter to me.

Up next, Christmas and my Xmas pressie to myself, Serge Lutens' Jeux de Peau. It seems to be one of his more polarising fragrances but I couldn't resist the toasty scent that so resembles a bakery in winter that I just had to buy it. I can hardly wait :)


*Mr Burr once deigned to reply to a desperate email I sent to him, requesting for quotes for an otherwise fluffy puff story I had to write. And for that, I am eternally grateful to him and will always lap up every word he writes when I come across it.