Well, you know how it is, in this Age of Internet. One minute you’re struggling to remember the name of the restaurant you only went to TWICE A WEEK because it was down the street and fabulous (it was Sole Mio, on Armitage Avenue, btw. Omg. I miss those days)…and the next you are reading this amazing post on ‘craigslostchicago’ and….well, it was weird. There are restaurants on there that, at one point in time, were the highlight of my life but when they showed up on this list I was stunned to have completely excised them from my memory. Hamburger Hamlet! Omg. I LIVED in that place both in Chicago and the Sunset one in LA and ……wow. Totally forgot. Magic Pan with my favorite Chicken Elegante’ crepes (essentially chicken pot pie in crepe form – you can take the girl out of the Midwest…) with those little burnt edges…..The Gibraltar Room and Top of the Rock, back when the Prudential Building, at 40 floors, was the tallest building in Chicago (and it had clear sightlines to the Palmolive Building at the north end of Michigan Avenue, with its beacon) 
….I was 7 when my aunt took my parents, brother and me up to the Top of the Rock for dinner. My mother fled to the bathroom to throw up, since she’d never been in an elevator that shot straight up from the ground to floor 40! I wore my favorite yellow chiffon dress and black Mary Janes. I have no idea what we all ate – but I was 7. I remember my mom had something under glass. I was 7. It was glorious. I did not throw up.
I have no idea how I could’ve forgotten all of those restaurants.
I also have no idea how I could’ve forgotten two of the iconic perfumes of my formative teens. Boobling about on Surrender to Chance’s site I found myself in the Decades group – settling into the 60s &70s, which was my threshold into young adulthood (wasn’t that just yesterday? No? Are you suuure?) – anyhoo, y’all aren’t going to believe this, but I’d forgotten about Heaven Sent! And Love’s Baby Soft! I stank the house UP with those two perfumes and wore the floppy sunhat in either pink or blue because Heaven Sent, right? 
It’s funny how just the mention of certain things or situations can evoke a visceral response. My bfffe, Missy Denise, gave a little gasp! of recognition when I said I’d gotten samples of HS & LBS. It’s an Old Lady thing, I’m sure of it….or am I? Any of you young’ns ever tried it? What about you gals of a …well, a ‘certain age’? Wanna? I talked with The Girl (who is too young to remember yesterday, let alone 1970) and She said she would be happy to poke a hot-pink pawnail at randomdogord and pull a winner. Tell me: what were your signature late teen scents? Are they still on your radar or did this post cause them to sneak up on you, much like Heaven Sent sneaked up on me? Any restaurants now-vanished that were the hallmark of your younger years? Tell me stories!
and…omg! I went back to read the notes on Heaven Sent (because it really is an indescribable mélange (to me) – maybe because it is such an iconic part of my teenhood?) and, upon reading the copy, remembered that Donovan’s 1968 pop song ‘Wear Your Love Like Heaven’ was used to advertise the perfume. For a nanosecond, I was 14 again! Not a bad thing (for a nanosecond) since, at 14, I hadn’t yet had any of the accidents that have my bones aching now..) …and I didn’t have to pay my own mortgage or car insurance. And Life stretched out before my eyes….(oh, waah-waah!, ya whiner. It still stretches out. As long as you can see (within or without). So quitcherbitchin’. 😉
I was a teen in the 80’s but never wore perfume. I wasn’t allowed to wear makeup or jeans either, so it was probably just a product being raised by a strict father and step-mother. Neither my real mother or grandmother wore any scent but my stepmother (with whom I had a mutual dislike) bathed in Paris and Opium so maybe that’s why it took me so long to get into perfume. I started wearing perfume when I was in my early 20’s and Samsara was my signature scent. I liked Paloma Picasso too. The sandalwood smell of Samsara still reminds me of when I was young and the world was my oyster. 🙂
Oh, mercy, girlfriend!! You are sending me flying in the wayback machine!! I never really wore Heaven Sent (don’t think my Eckerd’s Drugs carried it), but I liked Love’s Baby Soft. That is, until I started baby-sitting like 15 hours a week, and then it was “Ugghh — enough!!” But then Love’s Rain scent and the Coty natural solid perfumes kicked in (remember ylang-ylang and honeysuckle?), along with Avon’s Sweet Honesty. Also, am recalling visits to the late, great Marshall Field’s downtown and that restaurant they had, with those signature Frango mints. And a cool Russian tea room across the street from the Art Institute. My beloved MIL and I enjoyed it immensely. on a trip there one year to see the Monet exhibit. Thanks for the memories, darling!
My Mom still talks about remembering how she and all her friends wore Love’s Baby Soft in college. As for me, when I was a teen I wore Downtown Girl by Revlon, a bunch of Yves Rocher, and somehow got my hands on Paloma Picasso, which I completely forgot over the years, and then accidentally rediscovered at almost 40. And still love, unlike the others.
Charlie, Anais Anais, and Loves Baby Soft. Sure wish I could smell them know. We didnt have lots of options. My Mom bought Avon, but I can’t remember the names. When I had a job in high school I splurged on Aromatics Elixir which I absolutely hate now.
I grew up during this same time frame. I liked Love’s Baby Soft but my go to perfume in those days was Love’s Fresh Lemon. Oh, and also loved anything by Yardley – lavender soap was heaven. I’ve often wondered if my now love for Diorella didn’t start with Love’s Fresh Lemon. Great post – great memories!
The first perfume I ever had was a tiny sample bottle of Diorissimo. I was maybe eight and my mother brought it home from a shopping trip and gave it to me. I still have it.
In high school my signature scent was L’Air du Temps. Everybody else I knew got Wind Song. And the guys wore Brut or Canoe. Ah, those were the days.
I remember Skinny Dip, Avon Sweet Honesty, Emeraude, Heaven Sent, Love’s Baby Soft, Jontue (loved this), Lauren (loved this), and Royal Copenhagen Flora Danica (loved). Mom wore Tigress, Anais Anais, Avon Occur and Timeless. Dad wore classics like Aqua Velva, English Leather, Grey Flannel and Pierre Cardin. Was given a bottle of Youth Dew as a teen by an aunt, and I hated it. Too mature for me back then.
Let’s see…Avon’s Sweet Honesty, Love’s Baby Soft, Windsong…yes. (don’t enter me – I won recently so don’t need a second bit of luck, lest karma strike back!)
Great post! Just reading some of the fun comments, and wow, memory lane indeed! Some caused me to just bust out laughing.
I don’t recall the smell of HS, or LBS, but I do remember that LBS was not a favorite, at ALL. Just a recollection of something cloyingly sweet, is all I have. Just remember I pretty much hated it. And the ads for it? Suuuuper creeeeepy. They’d immediately arrest whoever directed that ad campaign, if they were to do it today. Blechh. But the one that literally made me feel like I might puke (but not all the time thankfully), and every.single.girl (‘ceptin me) was marinating in when I was in high school, was Babe. If it had occurred to me to blowing up the facility where that toxic chemical brew was made, was a genuine option, I would have happily gone to jail for it, thinking I’d done humanity a favor. It remains, The Worst Perfume I’ve Ever Smelled.
But on to the lovelies(?) that I was wearing back then? I had my bottle of Chanel No 5 EDC, and I think a bottle of Halston. Chanel No 5 is, well, no verbiage necessary. Halston? I don’t recall it now. I might even hate it and wonder why I liked it. But those are the ones I owned and wore. In college I got a gift of Obsession, which I’m sure filled in quite nicely for inducing Babe-level hate in others. I’m sure I’d – and others – would die if I wore it now.
Again, thanks for helping my brain dredge up some ancient memories! Fun!
I also wore Anais Anais and LBS, as well as an early Armani (striped bottle — does anyone else remember that one?) and the two Laura Ashley scents. In a mood similar to Musette’s, I got a decant of Laura Ashley #1 a few years ago and was *horrified*. How could I have loved it so? How could I have worn it with those enormous Laura Ashley flannel dresses??
The 80’s can only excuse so much.
Today I put on Tabac Blond from a decant I found in the back of the cabinet, and I’m hoping I’ll remind someone from an earlier generation of what a badass teenager she was back in the day…
Growing up I had one perfume on my dresser. I don’t think I got it until I was in 7th grade or so. It was L’Air du Temps. I loved the smell and that bottle! I think in high school I got a second scent and it might have been Wind Song. I also remember a bottle of Diorissimo. I was a serial, signature perfume wearer then. One scent at a time until the bottle was used up. Then in college it started out with Youth Dew and every time I broke up with a guy I either changed my scent or got a hair cut. Then there was Obsession and Opium and later Samsara. I used to love the heavy hitters, still do except the weather never really gets cold enough out this way for me to want to cuddle in them. Thanks for asking this, I had a hard time remembering the names of some of the perfumes I used to wear, but I could remember the scents themselves and what the bottles looked like.
Back in my high school years, it was nothing but Bath and Body Works Cucumber Melon, and Clinique Happy. Even though I work both of those, I mainly stuck to Estee Lauder Pleasures. I had a bottle of Obsession (still have and it’s mostly full) that I wore occasionally. And to think that I was starting high school 20 years ago.
What a cool post! I’ll never forget Ciara which was a good friends signature scent. She was a year older and let me try her perfume and I might have used too much, maybe half the bottle lol I had a bottle of Loves baby soft and my older sister used anais anais all the time. What a fun walk down memory lane.
Love this post and the comments, and now I have the Windsong commercial as an earworm 🙂 I was in jr high when I read in Seventeen about scenting your hair, so I saved my babysitting money and bought a big splash bottle of Heaven Scent, poured some on my hair after creme rinse and rinsed again. It smelled, well, heavenly! I also bought a bottle of Norell at the five and dime w/babysitting money, and back then you were lucky to get fifty cents an hour, one cheapo neighbor only paid 35 cents, for two kids! What would the five and dime be called now, the ten and twenty? Through jr high and high school I remember wearing Charlie, Ciara, Cachet, Arpege (gift from my parents trip to Europe) and those Coty perfume solid trios, I think mine was woods. I’d love to have my figure back but man, I do not miss the acne, and the angst!
What a fun post! I wore LBS as well as Anais Anais, and Lou Lou. Mom loved perfume and all things girlie-makeup, jewelry, fashion, etc.-and passed that down to me. All my perfumes at that point were gifts from either her or my dad as funds were tight at that age! Thanks for the memories 🙂
What fun! For me it was Avon’s Honeysuckle solid perfume in a twist-up tube, Love’s Fresh Lemon and a bit later Anais Anais. I also once a had a solid compact of an Estee Lauder (unknown) fragrance given to me by my aunt and thought that was the MOST grown up and ladylike thing ever. A small oval gold-colored compact with a large green stone in the center that just had to be an emerald!! My beautiful older sister wore Wind Song and Tabu. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
At about 5 years old, I loved the little glass nips of Evening in Paris. My mother had Schiaparelli’s Shocking. & a Lucien Lelong on her dresser but I don’t remember that she ever wore it. My aunt wore Arpege, exclusively. My first job at 15 was as the gift-wrapper at a local department store over Christmas vacation. I spent my earnings on Chanel’s Bois des Isles.
At 17, I discovered Jean d’Albret’s Casaque & Wind Song by Prince Matchabelli, along with Diorissimo. Jean Nate & 4711 were what I wore to school. Wind Song fell out of favor after I sprayed too much all over the inside of the car to hide the lingering tobacco smell from a Friday night at the drive-in movie with my friends.
I stunk up an airplane on a flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles when the Casaque in a stoppered glass decanter tipped over & spilled inside my basket purse.
Oh, those beautiful blue Evening in Paris bottles! I recall a coffret in a satin lined box in a store window display at Christmas.
I loved Yardley’s Oh! de London.
What an opportune time for this post Musette! I am wearing Tuvache’ Jungle Gardenia today, 70’s vintage. My girlfriend in High School wore this. I loved her and her perfume. It brings back so many memories, good and bad. She chose another and broke my heart, but I still love the perfume!
Thanks for that great link to the Chicago restaurants, Musette! Loved seeing those old photos & matchbook covers. (Febo’s–“Famous for Nothing” hahahaha!) Now I’ll be hunting for some old haunts in Buffalo, NY. The Mayflower Donut Shoppe, Swiss Chalet…
Not counting a host of forgettable Avons (the bottles were cute), my first perfume was Yardley Oh! de London. My older sister began giving me perfumes when I was about 16: Worth Je Reviens, Balmain Jolie Madame, Halston. I still wear the Balmain from time to time.
I remember wearing perfume to birthday parties at the age of 8 onwards. We mostly bought perfumes and perfumed deodorants on the German market from the company Ferd.Muelhens – Janine D, My Melody and Joker were the favorites among us girls. Later, at the age of 14-15, came Revlon’s Charlie and a perfume called Tramp by Lentheric. You could feel their smell everywhere in the streets. At the age of 15 I remember asking my English teacher which perfume she wore. It was Vu by Ted Lapidus. I bought it as soon as I went on a trip to Italy. At 16 I had the first Giorgio Armani and until today it is my dearest perfume. At 18 I bought Loulou on a trip to Rome, but at that time I had already a small collection at home. There’s nothing like scent memories from the younger days…
Loves Baby Soft of course! In fact, I bought a bottle for my girls a few years back and they didn’t like it lol. I thought it still smelled good!
Donovan’s “Wear your love like Heaven” is one of those earworm songs that pops up in my memory occasionally 🙂 When I was a teen, there was a store that sold miniature perfumes and I grabbed what I think was Maja. My first full bottle (and only bottle of perfume for years) was Cinnabar – still have a bottle 🙂
I never had any Loves baby soft, although I remember the ads well. I do remember having a bottle of Sunflower, Anais Anais and Coty exclamation! It wasn’t until college that I received a couple of gifts from friends in France – O de Lancome and Chanel no 5 edc (both sadly lost in a move). My first serious perfume.
What a great topic for conversation! I remember clearly; my first teenage fragrance was Cacherel Anais Anais (a gift from my Dad). I was probably about 14. Then I purchased Max Factor Le Jardin, Cacherel LouLou, and Elizabeth Arden Sunflower in that order when I had saved up enough money. My grandmother gifted me my first Chanel, Coco, a few years later when I was about 18, the beginning of my love affair with Chanel. I also have perfused the decade perfumes on Surrender to Chance. It was great fun to reminisce about all of the 70s and 80s fragrances, and sample some long forgotten perfumes. I highly recommend everyone to visit STC Retros.
In high school I’d clean my face with ten o six. The scent of it would stick with you for hours! I liked Love cosmetics and their fragrances. Love’s Fresh Lemon and their next one. It wasn’t baby soft-it was before that. Jean Nate spray cologne and Yardley English Lavender. ’74
Love’s Baby Soft! Definitely! I also spent my teens wearing Anais Anais and, somewhere around the late-Eighties, Safari (how did I acquire that? I loved it, but I couldn’t afford it — must have been a duty-free shop gift from my father).
So being born in the mid sixties, my teens were filled with stuff like Giorgio of Beverly Hills, my mom’s L’Air du Temps and Bal à Versailles, and occasional shots of Charlie and Stetson. 🙂 The first big girl perfume I bought for myself was Poison and I wore a ton of it (like everyone else). Then Ysatis, Byzance, Cabotine, Feminité du Bois, Sublime, Chanel Allure, Dior J’Adore etc.etc. Discovered niche in 2005 and having 2-3 bottles that I wore every day was OVER!