Your mother's fragrance?

I'm pretty much a first-generation fragrance wearer and have my online friends to thank for helping this novice.

My mom's purse often contained paper perfume samples, and they bore that leather purse overtone (is that why I like Dzing!?).

Something I've meant to mention for a long time is the smell of my mother's mother's bathroom. Loving family members would give Grandma gifts of (probably) Avon frags. And all the bottles sat on a glass shelf above the toilet, contributing to a steady mixed haze of womanly scent. The tiny bathroom also smelled like, ah, a bathroom. This made a very strong and positive impression, believe it or not.

Have to mention that the bathroom was adjacent to Grandma's pantry, which was deliciously aromatic with yeast. God, I miss that extraordinary woman who called me "Choy"(Germans have difficulty pronouncing the letter J the American way). By the way, she died on Mother's Day about 30 years ago.

My Mom wore Shalimar and I have also worn it on and off for years. She wore it when dressed up and not for everyday. I wear whatever I like no matter how dressed up or not I am (usually not too much). I still think of Shalimar as pretty elegant like my Mom. My Mom passed away last year. She would have been amazed at my large perfume collection. I think she would have enjoyed smelling my stuff. When I wear Shalimar I think of my Mom. She sure had good taste.

Krysia

My mom wore L'ar du temps, ChanelN5 (edp), Trèsor (edp), Poeme(edt) , some horribly expensive and very heady french made-by-order parfum , and i can't remember what else..
i didn't try them at first but i liked some of them. later in life, i got to try them all of course. but i do not wear any of them on a regular basis.

My mother had a lot of perfumes, but she really had no idea what smelled good on her, I think. It was very hit or miss.

She did wear Tigress, which I loved and would "borrow" (without her knowledge; I was "too young" to wear perfume then, according to her). She also wore Shalimar, but I only know this because I loved the pretty bottle with the blue tassle that she had on her dresser.

Others that I remember her wearing are Chantilly, Emeraude, Chanel No. 5, and Muguet de Bois (the Coty one).

Later, when my grandmother started giving the women in the family perfume every year for Christmas, my mother also wore Cinnabar and Youth Dew, and I can't recall ever smelling it on her, but I'd almost swear she had at least one bottle of Opium EDT at some point.

Basically, other than Tigress (which is sadly no longer available), I didn't like any of my mother's perfumes (I like muguet, but I much prefer Diorissimo to Muguet de Bois).

bonni

I've got a new leather purse. It still has that fabulous smell. Mmmm. I may have to look into Dzing.... I seriously LOVE the smell of leather (to the point of it being perhaps slightly, uhm.... unusual... *ahem*).

bonni

Diorissimo.

I have it, but seldom wear it. I do, however, demand that she continue wearing it.

'Cause that's the way my mommy smells.

My Mum wore Je Reviens and although I can't wear it
it suited her.

Fragrances that mom now wears or used to wear, working backward:

Burberry Brit - bought her for Christmas. Â*I'd wear it but don't.
24 Fauborg - I "discovered" it but she made it hers.
Bulgari Pour Femme - Hers all the way. Â*Smell so great on her.
1000 de Patou - totally hers, but she gave me a bottle. Â*Not really for me.
Allure - I bought it but didn't love it so gave it to her. Â*Smells great on her.
Versace Blonde - Was mine but she fell in love with it so I gave it to her.
Chloe - Hers. Â*I've never worn it.
L'air du Temps - Hers, but I stole it and made it mine.
Joy - Hers, but she gave it to me.
Y - hers, and she gave me some, too. Â*This one is an all time favorite of mine.
Diorella - this fragrance haunted me years after she wore it in the early 70's - so I finally bought myself some. Â*Love, love, love this fragrance.
Dioressence - originally hers but she didn't like it so gave it to me. Â*I still love it. Â*It's been changed tho.

oops - forgot to mention Bal a Versailles, this one never did much for me but she adored it.

I'm probably forgetting a few, but to answer your question. Â*Yes! Â*I have always worn my mom's fragrances, and she's worn some of mine, too. Â*Scents react similarly on our skin - genetic similarities? Â*They tend to linger longer on her, though. Â*Actually, she's the only person I know who will go fragrance shopping with me, looking for the perfect scent. Â*Hubby has the attention span of a flea in that dept.

I loved the scents that my mom wore, except for the gardenias which tended to give me a headache. Besides the gardenias, which she wore to remind herself of the Keys, there was Scoundrel, Avon's Soft Musk, Avon's Foxfire, Avon's Odyssey, Cher's Uninhibited and Elizabeth Taylor's White Diamonds. These all smelled fabulous and feminine on my mom, who was a very pretty, rather "hip" woman and never even slightly "matronly", old-fashioned or conservative in aspect. (my mom was a painted-on jeans and suede jacket type of woman, with long, wild red hair and huge, doe-like eyes. the prettiest, sexiest woman in any room she ever went into.) I tried them all, but preferred them on her rather than on myself. I tended more toward natural scents, woods, and soapy or powdery things, which was odd because she always told me that *my* fragrance choices smelled like a "grandmother" to her. We sort of had some role reversal stuff going on...I was the conservative, old-fashioned one, she was the wild one. She died quite young, at age 43, but I always wonder if her scent choices would have changed had she been able to grow old. Mom was always such a melange of odors - leather purse, doublemint gum, cigarettes, a bit of hair product plus perfume, etc....really, there are so many scents that trigger memories of her because she always liked to mix a variety of them. The effect was always bombshell-feminine, though.

Trèsor- this was her main scent and she still wears this the most. some of my sisters wear it but it's not for me.
Chloe- very pretty, i steal a spritz every now and then.
Allure- i got her this for christmas a couple of years ago, i like it as well although it smells better on her.

My Mom says she wore White shoulders when in high school. I bought some for her but never smelled it on her. She "discovered" my Jessica McClintock, loved it, so I gave my bottle to her. This one has become her signature fragrance.

My mom uses to wear light makeup only in very special occasions, but wears scents quite often; ya know, after all it's a family vice!
Here are some she used to wear:
ô de Lancome
Dior Poison
Gucci Envi
Givenchy Isatis
Eau des Merveilles
Chanel Chance

She said that she used to wear Lancôme's Climat and Je Reviens before I was born. I remember her wearing Nahema as a signature till I was about 14, I really hated the hyacinth topnotes back then. Than because I was already into fragrances she kept changing, but always one bottle at a time: Paloma Picasso, Sable and Passion by Annick Goutal, Panthere de Cartier, First by Van Cleef & Arpels, Nanthuket Briar by Crabtree and Evelyn...
But the 2 fragrances that are most printed into my memory, and that really defined her best are Nahema and AG's Passion.

Mom used to work all her years in a shop selling cloth, and there they were not alllowed to use fragrance, as it could "infect" the bales and rolls of cloth, but when she had free, she always alternated between Je Reviens (her fave) and Mitsouko. I remember she had Chanel no 5, Fidji and Shalimar, too, but I can`t remember her ever wearing them.

My Mom loved Burberry London (1993), but I didn't like it (until recently, that is). After then, she liked Liz Taylor's Passion and White Diamonds as well as Shalimar. She mainly wore White Diamonds and Shalimar for about 7 years.

Then, she discovered Chanel No. 5, Gucci Rush, and Hypnotic Poison (thanks to the help of me). She still wears Hypnotic Poison today.

Next, I introduced her to Angel, Jaipur Saphir, and Innocent. All three are still favorites today.

And now, she's found two new loves: Lolita Lempicka and Bond No. 9's Chinatown. I think I'll be getting Mom one or the other for Mother's Day on May 14... I haven't decided which one quite yet. Maybe I'll get both. Decisions, decisions... :-/

I remember my mom wearing Climat and Ma Griffe when I was a child. I think both have been changed, unfortunately. She might have also used Diorella and GivenchyIII, but I'm not sure.
Then she got hooked on Victoria's Secret Original scent, now discontinued, and it has been a permanent search for a replace ever after. That one became her true signature scent. It smelled so good on her, that she got compliments EVERY time she wore it!
She went through my MiraBai and Anna Sui, used Romance, Angels Dream Heavenly V'sS, Caleche Eau Delicate and Artemisia Penhaligon's. I gave her some as a gift, or some which I couldn't wear myself. I think my childhood memories are the reason for my passion for chypres.

In her early teen years, she wore dimestore Blue Waltz. Then, by her marriage to my Dad at 21, she wore Emeraude & Harriette Hubbards's 'Golden Chance.' Through most of her swinging, pre-baby years 1953-1956, she wore Evening In Paris. After I came along in 1957, she wore Shulton's 'Friendship's Garden' religiously,and throughout most of the 60's.

She currently wears J.Lo's 'Glow' and it smells really nice on her in her 70's. She gave up wearing Paul Sebastian's 'Design' because she was allergic to it.

The every day scent I have to say that I most associate with her is 'Friendship's Garden.' I remember smelling it on her skin when I was a little girl.
For evening, it was always 'Evening In Paris.' She used to have a small dark blue bottle of the parfum on her dresser with a silver cap. One particular event, the wedding of one of my father's bachelor buddies in 1962, we went shopping together for her evening dress. She tried on two & asked me, at the age of 5, which one she should get. We decided on the royal blue tafetta with the black mesh netting & black sequinned stars on it. Come to think of it, I must have associated the dress with her because of the same shade of blue on the 'Evening In Paris' bottle. She wore that dress with bright red/blue lipstick & her black hair in Liz Taylor curled bob. She had these black peau de soie toeless evening shoes & black glitter button-type earrings that she borrowed from my grandmother. We still have a polaroid (one of the first colored photos of the 60's not taken with a Kodak Brownie camera - lol!) of her & my late Dad (he passed away in 1991) at that wedding. Sadly, the couple whose wedding it was passed away the same year that my Dad did - except one followed the other.
Well, I guess that's where "I" really come from: Goth stories & funeral details, dressing up & an obsession with fragrance. It started at a really young age for me.

I get my passion for chypres from my Grandma. I remember trying on her bottle of Balmain's 'Jolie Madam.' She also owned 'Miss Dior' & 'Shocking' by Shiaparelli, and, the scent I most assocaite with her, Coty's 'L'Origan." Whenever I feel down, I sniff my vintage bottle and it always makes me feel better. [smiley=smiley.gif] Although mostly Grandma smelled like Johnson's baby powder & Dermassage lotion. LOL But when she went out on the town, she went all the way! I remember she belonged to this women's club, this Ladies Auxiliary, and they ran these "bingos" (but they called the game "Lucky" for legal purposes - lol) where the ladies would all donate the prizes to be won. Grandma always won all of the parfum extraits.

Usually nothing, since she has always suffered from allergies. But on rare occacions, Ysatis. She only has to apply a tiny bit, since it has great precense.

My mother wore My Sin and Lanvin Spanish Geranium :

We weren't exactly rolling in money when I was a kid, but mom would receive perfume as Christmas presents from relatives. Woodhue, Tigress, Aphrodesia (sp?), and My Sin were her special scents. She had a cherished lily of the valley perfume that she loved as well as Midnight In Paris. She'd often use Cashmere Bouquet powder on the warmer days, and she always smelled sooooooo good.

My Mom wore Shalimar too!!!! Also only when she went out for the evening....in the summer she just used Jean nate after bath splash......I can't smell either without having flashbacks to my childhood. My grandmother wore Chanel #5 exclusively & chanel suits every day for as long as I can remember. She had great style.......I sort of wish I had a signature scent so my son could have a scent that he recognized as ME......But I just can't do it!!
I have 100 signature scents....LOL

My mom wears:

Oscar- pretty much her all time favorite, but she didn't have it for many years since she was "trying to use up everything else" so, being a good kid with a yen to get a Burdines card, I got her a new bottle for her for Christmas about three years ago.

Mezmerize and Topaz from Avon

Pheremone and Magic from Marlyn Miglin

Ceasar's Woman

Beautiful

and that's all I really remember of my mother's mess of fragrences and body splashes. She had/has others that I really don't notice.

~~~~~

of course, my mom also wears a lot of what I wear (#5, Delice de Cartier). it came full circle, she had a mess of perfumes when i was growing up, now i have a nice pile of perfumes and body sprays....


patricia the lurker of the bad spelling.

My Mom wore Shalimar too!!!! Also only when she went out for the evening....in the summer she just used Jean nate after bath splash......I can't smell either without having flashbacks to my childhood. My grandmother wore Chanel #5 exclusively & chanel suits every day for as long as I can remember. Â*She had great style.......I sort of wish I had a signature scent so my son could have a scent that he recognized as ME......But I just can't do it!!
I have 100 signature scents....LOL[/quote]

I also can't seem to have a signature scent. Whatever I'm wearing and loving the smell of feels like the signature ... but only for that day.

Krysia

my mom wears coco chanel mostly. I recently bought her no.19, no.5 and bois des iles to expand her wardrobe. but its been coco as her sig scent since I've been about 7 or 8

I dont wear it cuz I'm a guy but I really like it

I alway stealthfully took dabs of my mother's fragrances. Â*I'm sure she knew- but she was pretty cool about it- even when I'd try her lipsticks!

My favorites on her were Emeraude and Tigress (I'm sure that's where my love of Orientals and Florientals come from.) I especially loved the Tigress on myself. Â*She had the Fabergé trio of Tigress, Woodhue, and Aphrodesia, also- Tabu, Chantilly, and Wind Song. Â*All those used to be a lot nicer before the reformulations- oh well. Â*I was never a huge fan of Tabu and I think she only wore it for special evenings out. Â*The others she wore regularly though- especially the Emeraude which I always think of as 'her" fragrance- even still today. She died when I was 13 but 26 years later I can't help wondering what she'd be wearing today. I always think it would have been fun to go fragrance shopping with her- she was dramatic and a girly-girl at heart. I think she would have enjoyed hearing about my passion for fragrance and perhaps a little concerned about my rather large collection. It's impossible to really know though...

My mothers favourite fragrance at the moment is MyQueen, which makes me happy because i spent ages trying to find one for her birthday, and this is the one i got her, thus introducing her to it the wonders of Alexander McQueen. I also bought her one of my favourite scents (Kingdom) but she thinks it's too heavy for her (my mums tiny, so she doesn't suit really bold spicey scents).

She also wears Allure by Chanel, Beautiful by Estee Lauder and used to wear Safari by Ralph Lauren (This scent will always remind me of her!! I remember when i was younger, i used to sit with her as she got ready to go out, and she'd show me her make up, and she always used to ask me which perfume she should wear, i'd always pick Safari!). I blame her for making me gay hehe!

Mummy has good taste i think

Tom

My mother always wore Joy. As a result, I cannot wear it, but it always reminds me of her. .. . .

My mother never wore perfume, when I was a child.. no money for luxury. Now she wears whatever I give her.. she says: " Ohh that smells WONDERFUL" even before she has a chance to smell it. Honestly.. I think all scents smell just the same to her.. ´not just before she is a haevy smoker.. but because she totally lacks the interest.

My mother visited me this week and she wore Shalimar every day. As I kid I remember her having Emeraude, My Sin, Arpege, Norell, Fidgi, Inoui, and White Linen.

Well, I'm a little tardy in joining the discussion, but I thought I would offer my mom's perfume. This is the only fragrance my mother has ever been able to wear. She has asthma, and most perfumes are too much for her now. But when she was younger and getting dressed up to go somewhere, she would wear Jontue.

My mother had three standybys: Chanel No. 5, Vivara by Emilio Pucci and Millot's Crepe de Chine. I can't wear No. 5, in fact can't wear aldehydes at all well, and I think it's the association. That's her smell. I do love the other two, sadly discontinued.

My mother, rest her soul, wore L'air du Temps throughout my childhood. She always was ecstatic when I would purchase her another bottle. Though I believe that the formula has been altered for more than 10 years, there remains a sufficient likeness that I am flooded with memories when I smell this now.

Jeff

The ones I remember are Woodhue, Jungle Gardenia, and White Shoulders. The only one I liked of the three was Woodhue.

Ruby

I am growing up to be like my mom. im 24, she died when i was twelve and i still remember the perfumes she wore and still has on her drawer. ( which i did not throw away, scentimental me.)

estee lauder's Â*Youth Dew & White Linen
Arden's Red Door

I miss my mom.

My mom has worn Shalimar everyday, for every occasion since she was 13 yrs old (she's now 58). I think the idea of this is really cool and romantic but there are way too many good scents out there for me to stick with only one. I tried Shalimar once when I visited her and didn't bring any perfume. It smelled totally different on me and I didn't like it because I am used to it the way it smells on her skin.

My mother didn't and doesn't wear perfume. But she said she liked L'Air du Temps (which she once got for Christmas and wore until it lasted) and Chanel no 5. She still has some EdT I gave her in 1986... :

Can't stand L'Air du Temps (it makes me sneeze violently) and I still don't feel "grown-up enough" for Chanel no 5. I certainly didn't inherit my passion for perfume from my mother! ;D

My mother usually wore Joy, which I love. My dad used to give it to her as a gift.

Lately she has been wearing Obsession, which I have been trying to wean her of. I can't stand it. I took her into the Caron boutique in Paris, and she didn't like anything, except maybe N'aimez que Moi a little.

I guess I'll just have to get her a bottle of Joy, since my dad died, and her supply has run out.

My mother wore Joy, Bandit and Fracas.

Just not at once.