Scent. Memory. Time

I've always loved how the scent of something can transport you back in time. For me, it does this more than seeing a photograph, or just looking at something (say, an object) or hearing a song from the past. Scent brings you there, right back there, even if it's only for a few seconds or a minute, it's like experiencing that block of time once again.

The feeling is more intense with scents I haven't smelled in a while. I keep a bottle of Jovan Musk Oil around, and once in a while take a whiff of it when I'm in the vault, and it's summer/fall 1984 and I'm 16, wearing my turquoise colored leopard print top, running around with my friends, playing in a band (or so we thought, lol). But the feeling isn't as strong as it was when I smelled the bottle after it had been tucked in the cellar for several years. That time it was like, Bamb!  I AM 16 again. Billy Idol & U2 playing on the radio, Aerosmith on the turntable, me turning the ringer down on that ugly green push button phone in our kitchen so my father wouldn't wake up from my friends late night calls. Ok, enough.

The bottle w/ the square cap.

Now a whiff of Spiritual Sky's Dark Musk, which I haven't smelled in, oh, say 20 years or so would bring me back to my late teens. Was it Dark Musk, Egyptian Musk or plain ol' Musk from Spiritual Sky? I can't remember but any one would do, I think. I had & wore all of them, plus their Frangipani, which I didn't wear much, thought it was too sweet. Unfortunately I know I'll never get to smell again the Sandalwood or Patchouli oils I wore for a couple of years in my early twenties. And Mango, although I can still recall the mango's sweetness, the depth and dirt of the patchouli, and the smooth & slightly sweet wood in the sandal. Sometimes I'd mix them. The patchouli smelled like actual dirt. I had dried patchouli and it smelled just like it. Mixing the patchouli and the sandal and/or mango would even it out, take the edge off the dirt. My scarves reeked of them. They were odd-ball brands I'll never see again. I bought oils at witch stores, botanicas,  street vendors. Why, oh why did I throw them out? I think there was only drops left and I was cleaning house, but that was probably real sandalwood! Might have been....

Where was I going with this? Scent, Memory and Time. There are a couple of scents and times I do not want to experience again. One is Vanille Banane from Comptoir Sud Pacifique. Nothing wrong with the scent, but it's what I was wearing on and around the time my mother died. She was in the ICU and you really can't wear perfume there, but I figured the Vanille Banane was light enough and I was loving that scent at the time. Not long after I switched to Bath & Body Works, it was an EDT with coconut, beachy and green notes, gosh, I can't remember the name. Not Il de Tahiti. Anyhoo, I couldn't stomach going back to Vanille Banane, brought me right back to that horrible time. Same with Chance by Chanel. Got that for Christmas from Hubby-but I think it was Coco Mad that I wanted, maybe it's just as well I got Chance, so I can still enjoy Coco Mad. I had a miscarriage in January, then another in April.  Don't want to return there.

 All that being said, currently, due to the state of affairs around here, I am not really wearing any perfumes. Gasp! MIL is living with us. It was suppose to be only a couple of days, it's now 14 days and counting. She is difficult & selfish and trying to cause problems between me and Hubby.  I don't want to "ruin" any perfumes by wearing them now & associating them with this, um, time. I'll spray a spritz to try something new I just got (and it's none of her business if I get packages in the mail) and wear some during the day while she's at her apartment and I'm alone and can enjoy it. Right now I'm enjoying some leftover Prada Candy from my shirt-yes it's been washed, the Candy lingers.

Speaking of laundry, I am not ironing Hubby's work clothes tonight to prove I'm a good wife. It's not working and his clothes are permanent press anyway. That's the crap I'm dealing with now. It's silent crap, she doesn't say it to me, Hubby relays it back to me. I might call a locksmith by the end of the week.



Photo of Spiritual Sky Oil from Black Cat Closet.com
The photo is of Shalimar (wonder how that smells?) and it's got the square cap. My bottles of Spiritual Sky oils had the square cap. I remember them vividly because sometimes they'd stick and that square cap was a bitch to get off! I'd have my boyfriend open it for me ;)