To 5-year old Lotte, being a woman meant applying an Oscar de la Renta perfume to your pulse point, touching up your makeup with an Elizabeth Arden face compact puff, and matching the colour of your boxy leather handbag to pointy leather shoes. To those born in the 80-90s this description might not come as a surprise. It was no wonder that when I flounced off to University, the first notable fragrance I bought for myself was Oscar de la Renta's Oscar, and as a post-graduate student, the perfume I wore most religiously was Elizabeth Arden's Splendor. Nostalgia, familiarity, wistlfulness or an outward expression of an inner yearning for easier, simplier times? I'm not quite sure what my motivations were. But now reflecting on if to rebuy some of the fragrances I used and loved in the past, I find myself taking a rather dramatic stance and declaring (as Shakespeare's Hamlet did), "To be, or not to be- that is the question." Perhaps a little dig into the past will help me to drawn a conclusion.
Elizabeth Arden's 5th Avenue is a fragrance I grew up seeing on my mother's vanity and smelling during the morning chaos of four children prepping for school and two adults for work. There was something about it that I immediately associated with high heels and business meetings. In my memory, it was the ultimate workplace scent. Thus when I saw it heavily discounted online, I immediately jumped on that bandwagon but surprised myself by selling it after less than 5 weeks of ownership. What went wrong? Everything and nothing at all. If I had randomly stumbled upon a bottle in a store having never known it as a young girl, sprayed a bit on a tester paper and sniffed, I would have instantly known that it was not suitable for me.
Lesson learnt: In buying fragrances that you used to know, be aware that what you once admired on others, will not always consequently work for you. And what you might have enjoyed in the past, should perhaps, be left in the past.
Ever heard of Bettina Barty? If you're German you might have, and though they've since scaled down exportation, they used to be quite the international brand in the 90s and early 2000s. My father used their Musk line of body care products and my mother, their Summer Vanilla (I think it was just called Vanilla then). During the first lockdown with time on my hands, after many hours of searching, I found and shipped the Bettina Barty Musk and Vanilla body care and fragrance products to the U.K., and discovered that my love for these products had only grown with time.
Lesson learnt: Some things ought not to be let go of. Some fragrances deserve a second chance.
We all have our rebuy wins and fails. Sometimes you have to go back to those perfumes that you used to know to discover if there is still a place for them in your present and future. Sometimes what you misunderstood and loathed may just become what you cannot live without. It is hard to make a judgement on if to move on without first putting all doubts to rest, and then there might be the question of how many times one should retest before giving up. As George Jones crooned, "sometimes you just can't win."
What are some of your experiences in returning to fragrances that you used to know? I'd very much like to compare notes.
Happy National Chocolate Macaroons Day 🎈
Lieselotte