Nostalgia And Choosing The Right Perfume

You know when there is a "something" that hovers just out of reach and you can't quite put your finger on it? While I was watching The Joy of the Single (a documentary about 45rpm records, not marital status), there was a snippet, a mere 10 seconds, of a young and svelte Roy Wood, shimmering in blue sequins, warbling Blackberry Way, and something stirred. I had a vivid recollection of my beloved sequinned Biba tank top, but that wasn't it. It was something more … sensory. A smell. It took me a whole 24 hours to finally nail it: the scent of the Biba tank top when I put it on.

I was remembering the scent of Aquamanda. You must remember Aquamanda? We used to marinade ourselves in it during the early 70s. Everything I owned was saturated with the scent of orange blossom. How odd that I should remember a smell without actually smelling it. Then again, is there anything more evocative of time and place than a perfume? I bet Daisy Buchanan wasn't so much moved to tears by the sight of Gatsby's "beautiful shirts" as by the memories stirred by the scent of them – and him.

Scent is a very personal thing and I think we don't always give enough attention to the business of choosing and buying one. The selling of designer fragrances is a massively profitable business, worth an estimated £10.5bn worldwide and with an equally hefty advertising budget to go with it. We may aspire to dress from head to toe in Balenciaga but the bit of Balenciaga we can actually afford is Florabotanica Eau de Parfum, as advertised by Kristen Stewart. Every time we run the gauntlet of a perfume hall – strategically positioned so there's no way round it – we emerge from the other side liberally paintballed in a multiplicity of confusing whiffs, unless we are very firm about saying no. This is not the way to buy a new fragrance. Everything smells subtly different on each individual and it takes time to develop as it sits on your skin and warms up. Very occasionally it warms up and smells like the ginger tom next door, so getting a little spritz on your wrist and walking around with it for an hour or so will tell you whether it's really for you.

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