Happy Mother’s Day and a trip down Memory Lane

Hoping all you dear Posse folks have had a happy Mother’s Day! Now speaking of mother, many of us got our feet wet on perfume via our mothers, or perhaps a grandmother, aunt, big sister, or a family friend.

So what scents did you grow up smelling on your mother or other significant figure in your life? Do you like any of them and can you wear any of them yourself? And what scent(s) do you hope your children or significant other will remember you by?

In my case, raised by my elderly grandparents, I don’t recall any fragrance in my early childhood. Scent was likely a luxury that she didn’t care for or didn’t allow herself, as she was never a frilly, feminine kind of grandmother.

But after my grandfather died and my mother moved in with us, bottles of Evening in Paris, Arpege, Carven’s Ma Griffe and YSL’s Rive Gauche entered my memory. Never cared for any of them much on me, although I did come around a bit to Rive Gauche when I got a vintage sample of it, late in my perfume life. But still, nothing that I would wear with any kind of frequency. My mother was a very troubled soul, often bitter and angry, and Ma Griffe, especially, left a bitter taste on my wrist, so to speak, lovely though it might be under different circumstances.

Anyhoo, I’ve been so fragrance fickle over the past years that I have no idea what my son might remember me for. But I do hope that a whiff of Frederic Malle Carnal Flower, Chanel Coromandel, Prescriptives’/Clinique Calyx or Guerlain’s Cuir Beluga will trigger at least a moment of recognition for him. But who knows? Perhaps it’s enough if he says, “No matter what, she always smelled wonderful (and had her lipstick on)!”