(Just a bit of a heads up: I’m not a ‘nose’, nor even a domestic fragrance connoisseur. I know buggre alle how to talk about scents, and can’t even use them most days because of my headache spells. I just love how pretty they are on my vanity.)
At random, my father gave me a bottle of Escada Especially about a month ago. Couldn’t even try it for the first few days, because I was felling headachey. Those who suffer from migraines and trigeminal neuralgia will understand that trying out new perfumes — or wearing old, for that matter — when there’s even the slightest chance of a headache is no go. There’s always a probability of ‘pain association’ developing even with the nicest and most favourite of scents.
So my father kept asking, and I kept saying that I haven’t tried it yet. Then I opened the box, and got a tentative whiff without even spraying, and put the box away, and decided that I’m just going to call my father and say how I love it, but then never, ever, ever wear it, and maybe spritz a bit of it in the kitchen before his visits or something.
Then I decided to at least give it a proper chance.
I sprayed it on my wrists and on the back of my neck. Then I closed my eyes.
Olfactory triggers are one of the deepest one, as far as memory goes.
This one transported me right back into childhood. I could clearly see being picked up by my mother in my bedroom in our old flat. I could see spring outside the window and sunlight patterns on the carpet and myself in the mirror trying to plait my hair for the very first time tying it up with clumsy blue and pink polka dot bows. I could hear grandmother calling after my very first pair of kittens.
I never wanted to stop smelling my wrists ever again in hopes that it would just keep me enveloped in that perfect childhood memory forever.
I wish I could end this post by saying that I’ve worn this perfume ever since all day, every day, and even to bed, but that would be a lie. There’s something in it (its aquatic notes, I think) that are too much for me on most days, and I have to be really careful with my headache predictions to be able to wear this one. But I enjoy it. Love, it even. It paints that golden-lit perfect childhood afternoon in my head with such precision, it’s almost scary.
I gave my father a reserved ‘thank you’ and a promise to wear the scent. I’m kinda pants at expressing genuine gratitude.
