Scented Lives is a new series of perfume profiles that explores the perfumes and scents that have been a part of people’s lives. I believe that the perfumes we wear are individual threads that help form the tapestry of our lives, they speak huge volumes about our character and help us form memories of times, people and places.
The series will start with the profiles of my family, friends and those that are special to me and will then branch out to others with interesting scented lives. If you are interested in taking part in the series please contact me on thecandyperfumeboy@gmail.com.
How It Works
Each subject is asked to pick five perfumes (ones that they have worn) that have played a significant part in their lives. They will then be asked to give reasons for their choices and explain what their associations with those scents may be. The series aims to use perfume as markers for significant points of the subject’s life, whether happy or sad, and to help them unleash their olfactory memories.
Jane Bryant’s Scented Life
About Jane
Jane, my mother, or ‘Ma’ as I like to call her, lives in the small market town of Newport Pagnell, not too far from me. She lives with her cat Millie but would like to stress that she isn’t a crazy cat lady, although I would say that she is a tad eccentric!
The five perfumes that Jane has chosen are:
Pure Patchouli Oil
I wore this between the ages of 16 & 18. I was at college when I first came across it on a trip to The Kings Road in London with friends. I was going through a phase of wearing only black. It reminded me of Mary Quant ‘Vamp Rouge’ lipstick & Biba and above all the heady scent of pot being smoked at parties on the mid seventies.
I think I felt it fitted my image of the time. About a year ago I saw some for sale and bought it. It brought back happy memories of my teenage years.
The Candy Perfume Boy: It seems that you spent your teenage years being some sort of goth-hippie hybrid. Peace and love maaan!
Safari by Ralph Lauren
I first wore this perfume in my mid 20′s. Everyone seemed to be wearing heavy perfumes such as Youth Dew and Poison which to me summed up the whole excess of the 1980′s. I found this perfume to be lighter and more subtle.
I had 3 children under five and both money and time to myself were in short supply. When I did have the opportunity to go out I loved to take time to dress up and make the most of it. I would buy this perfume for myself with birthday or Christmas money. Whenever I smell this scent I am reminded of getting ready to go out with friends and putting my babies to bed before leaving home. I was bought some Safari last year and I still love it.
The Candy Perfume Boy: I have such a strong memory of you and this fragrance. I remember watching you getting ready to go out, glamming yourself up and floating around the house in a cloud of Safari. At that age I thought you were the classiest and prettiest woman on Earth (not that I don’t now of course).
Beautiful by Estée Lauder
This is arguably the perfume I think my four children will associate most with me. I wore this throughout my 30′s. I am not really a fan of Estée Lauder perfumes but this was bought for me as a present and was an instant exception. It felt decadent to wear.
I never realised that people were defined by their perfume until one friend told me that her husband told her that he knew I had been in their house that day because he could still smell my perfume. Another friend’s husband told her it confused him when she wore Beautiful because he associated it with me.
I also owned this perfume in solid form in a little jewelled elephant case which I kept long after it was used up.
The Candy Perfume Boy: It is fascinating how we associate certain perfumes with people and how a person can be defined by their scent. Beautiful is definitely the perfume that I associate with you! I own a bottle and I wear it a lot, I feel a strong sense of comfort when I do. It’s scents like this that helped form my tastes in perfumery, you seem to love a lot of florals and loud ‘blowsy’ perfumes, just like me! Like mother, like son, as they say!
Allure by Chanel
Probably my favourite perfume of all time. I wore this throughout my forties, a time for once when money was no object, although this was perhaps not the happiest time of my life I do associate it with some happy memories.
I was bought the Parum Extrait as a present and managed to resist the urge to wear it all the time. I had a Versace LBD that I adored and this perfume was the final touch when all dressed up to go out.
This scent made me feel sophisticated which is something I have always aspired to yet have very rarely achieved. It reminds me of the new millennium, and winning my one and only trophy for cox of the year 2000 at my rowing club. Finances haven’t been so abundant in recent years so I haven’t possessed a bottle of Allure for a few years although I would love to wear it again in the future.
The Candy Perfume Boy: I would argue that you have always been sophisticated Ma! My memories of you and Allure aren’t as strong as Beautiful and Safari, which you wore with abundance, perhaps that’s because Allure is a lot more subtle. I do think of you when I smell Allure, but I was always surprised that you picked it over N° 5 or N° 22, both of which always seemed right up your street! We’ll have to sort you out with a new bottle of Allure…
MyQueen by Alexander McQueen
This is my current perfume. It was a present from you and I absolutely love it. It is subtle enough to wear every day yet many people notice it and ask which perfume I’m wearing. I associate it with new beginnings and happier times ahead.
If Beautiful is the perfume my children associated with me when they were small My Queen is arguably the one they associate with me now they are grown up.
The Candy Perfume Boy: Ahh MyQueen, it’s such a ‘you’ perfume and the great thing about it is that it’s not a very common fragrance, I’ve never smelled it on anyone else, so in my mind it’s almost a bespoke scent for you. Lovely stuff!
Scented Lives is a new series of perfume profiles that explores the perfumes and scents that have been a part of people’s lives. I believe that the perfumes we wear are individual threads that help form the tapestry of our lives, they speak huge volumes about our character and help us form memories of times, people and places.
Jane Bryant’s Scented Life
I loved reading this post. Getting to know your Mom and your fragrant heritage was interesting and moving too. You seem to have many favorite smells in common with your Mom, and your proclivity for louder perfumes is rooted here as well, it seems.
How lovely to see mother and son sharing an interest.
This series is a great idea, I look forward to the next installment.
Thank you B!
It was good fun to put together and I especially found it interesting how we share a lot of the same tastes; loud, floral and brassy.
I’m hoping to go back a generation and will be interview my Grandma for the next instalment
That’s a lovely piece, sums up a perfume life beautifully and I wonder what Jane’s next fragrance chapter will be? I love the way you added bits about how you were remembering it from your side: rare that we get two sides of the same coin in the same place.
Thank you Lila!
I also wonder what Ma will move on to in her next fragrance chapter. I’m pretty sure it will be some form of floral…
My ‘scented impressions’ of mother have always been very strong and I thought it would be fun for us to relive them together. I can’t smell a big, blowsy floral without thinking of her.
I agree this is a great idea for a series of posts. I love personal accounts of perfume in the context of people’s lives.
It’s funny, I rarely get on with patchouli heavy perfumes but love the smell of patchouli oil, particularly because it takes me back to my late teens too (I suspect I was a goth-hippie hybrid!).
Like a lot of perfume fanatics, I don’t have a signature scent because I don’t wear the same one for long enough..Though I would miss out on WAY too much if I did have one, I do think it would be nice to have a scent that others associate with you, the way you associate Beautiful with your Ma.
It seems that there was an entire sub-culture of goth-hippie hybrids within the 70′s, I feel like I’ve missed out.
I agree that having a signature scent for us fumeheads is incredibly restrictive and impractical.
Do you think there are scents at all that people would associate with you?
Hehe, I loved reading this post, not least because I reckon I am your Ma’s exact contemporary!
I have a bottle of original Blue Grass from the 70s and would be glad to send you some if your mum is interested – still smells pretty good and quite unlike what is on the market today. It is not quite as old as your grandma’s bottle would have been, but it is pretty vintage. LMK!
Also, I was interested to note the switch to Allure in your mum’s 40s. I have a theory that middle aged women may gravitate towards sweeter perfumes as a self-comforting gesture in a decade that can bring change or uncertainty – certainly on the hormonal front. It is true of me with Jasmin Noir and Candy, for example.
Aha, it’s good to learn that you two are exact contemporaries!
Thank you for the offer of the Blue Grass, I shall speak to Ma and see if she is interested
I think you might be on to something there, I asked the two ladies in my office about their perfumes (they’re in their 40s/50s) and they both said that they much preferred sweeter things. You need to get yourself some Candy!!
I am sure it is only a question of time before I crack…: – ) And look at you with your Triple Twix fix – someone clearly needs some too!
Very true! I think the Candy would be a heck of a lot healthier!
I am very familiar with all of Jane’s choices (except My Queen, but I adore KINGDOM!). Just judging from her answers and her perfume choices I am guessing she is one classy lady! Not fancy or pretentious (there is a difference) but CLASSY! It is no wonder Thomas is so cool!
My “signature scent” (if a mad parfumista, like myself, can even claim such a thing) would have to be D&G BY Man! Around the time I seriously began collecting and studying perfumes (while being an Yves Rocher home distributor), I went though a small bottle of this scent and wore lots of it… all of the time. This blew Acqua di Gio pour homme out of the water (as AdG did to Drakkar) and I was in love…for life. Now, sadly, it is discontinued (I got the last bottle I had for a song and “shared” with my room mate at the time…well, he helped himself to the lion’s share actually), it was 100 mls for 20 dollars in a discount store. Today one of those exact same bottles is fetching upwards of 200 US dollars on eBay (sometimes going as high as $350) so I wear from my remaining mini sparingly and layer it with perfumed oil! *sighs*
The scent others will associate with me? Hmmm…*scratches head* Probably the scent of perfume in general! LOL It was originally (vintage black bottle) Colors for Men, the PS Fine Cologne *giggles*, then Drakkar, then AdG, now BY Man (when possible). Most people I know and have known for years associate the scent of Majmua attar with me as I wore it all through college and for years afterwards…still do, in fact!
I would LOVE to do a full length interview and join the Scented Life series, if you ever have the time or inclination PerfumeCandyBoy! *hugs* What a great series and wonderful way to look at perfume: As the threads in our tapestry of life! LOVE THAT…
Hehe, she definitely is classy!!
Ahh yes, I’ve heard a lot about BY Man, I haven’t tried it though. It must be incredibly frustrating that it’s so difficult to find nowadays, I feel that way about Kingdom, which was my first love.
Shame on your room mate for using it up!
Maybe you’ll find your way in to Scented Lives one day…
What a lovely blog. I will have to ask my mum what her favourite perfumes were through her life although she mainly relies on me to buy her perfume now.
Thank you Andrea!
Our relatives are quite lucky to have us buying perfume for them aren’t they?!
Do let us know when you find out what your mums perfumes were
What a wonderful interview! It’s exciting to peek inside the window to your world, and learning about the scents that surrounded your childhood has been delightful; I’m looking forward to the next installment!
Thanks Dee!
I have coerced my Grandmother to take part in the next one
What a wonderful concept and what a touching interview. I have often thought that this subject would make an excellent book, but I am not really the right person to write it (none of my family members wore perfume growing up, so I don’t really have early scent memories). Have you thought about turning this project into a book? I would buy it in a heartbeat.
Thank you Ari!
You know I hadn’t thought about putting it into a book but you’ve got my mind whirring with all sorts of exciting ideas now!
What a lovely, lovely post. How perfect you started with your mother. It makes me look forward to my next visit with my mother to talk about what scents would be on her list. Looking forward to reading more of Scented Lives..
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I’d be interested to hear what scents would be on your mother’s list too!
Really love this post and the idea T! It’s really interesting to involve people who aren’t into perfume as much as we are (most of the time anyway..), and learn about their experiences. Plus, your comments of course… Keep it up!
Thanks Guus.
I agree, it’s good to find out how the ‘outsiders’ view their perfume choices and scented memories!
I like the idea of the series in general and enjoyed reading this “interview” with your mother. I think it’s great that you have this part of your life in common. Thank you both for sharing.
I’m familiar with three out of five perfumes (Safari, Beautiful and Allure). None of them are “my scents” but all three for me are nice on somebody else.
Have you tried to interest your mother in niche perfumes (I’m just curious)?
She does tend to smell a lot of the niche scents that I buy/sample but I don’t think she’s found a massive love yet. The only one I can think of is Carnal Flower, she really liked that one.
This is so nice Thomas. Mother and son sharing perfume stories xo
Thank you
I agree. This was such a lovely post from an emotional perspective, but the intelligence with which you both discussed your mom’s perfume choices and scented memories also made it special. I’m looking forward to the next installment!
Thank you! Hopefully the next instalment will be up shortly.:)
Loved this post and it is great that you and your Mum share these scented memories. I agree that our tastes change as we hit our 40s and 50s. I always found my own Mum’s Chanel No 5 and Nahema just too much in my 20s and now I love them. Sadly, my Mum passed 10 years ago, but I still remember her absolute delight at bringing home some Nahema from the Guerlain boutique in Paris.
I’m sorry to hear about your mother, but it’s lovely that you have good memories of her an Nahema, she had beautiful taste in perfume it seems!
Pingback: Scented Lives Part 2: Pamela Bryant (My Grandmother) | The Candy Perfume Boy
Scented Lives is a wonderful idea, this is why we love perfume – all those early olfactory memories. I also wear Allure and agree with the earlier poster as to 40′s something women. I also wore Nahema, and Carnal Flower, I tried Beautiful and although I loved it, it has come to be associated for me with an unhappy time, so I don’t “like” it anymore, sadly. I also flirted with Safari (and others) at a time when working as a long haul stewardess, I had access to duty free prices! I also wore O de Lancome, one of your grandmother’s key scents.
Wow, it seems that you share a lot of scents with my ma and g’ma!
What I’ve found particularly fascinating through doing this series is that all three of us seem to share similar tastes in perfume. I wonder if there is any scientific/psychological reasoning behind that, it’s clear that we find the scents of our mothers and fathers very comforting but I didn’t really realise that they inform our very own tastes.
Indeed, and I do remember grabbing an unknown woman and asking what she was wearing, because I had a flash of (not literally) nappies! It was Chanel 5, which my mother I later found out, wore when we were all very small! It is a fascinating idea, isn’t it? That our earliest memories (which we know to be scent-based) form our likes? I also remember feeling distraught on the one hand and overjoyed on the other when I smelt Sandalwood by the Body Shop – it was the scent my father used, but he died when I was ten! xx Am sending you an email about my shopping trip to Bristol today xx
That is fascinating, especially as you made the association of No 5 and nappies subconsciously!
You’ve raised a very good point there, these olfactory memories/associations can be both joyous and painful. I’m sorry to hear about your father.
I look forward to your e-mail.