MIASMA

A friend mentioned that she hated the scent of Ciara perfume as a horrid teacher had worn it when she was in school. I told her that I felt the same way about White Shoulders. When I was a girl, OLD LADIES wore it! Whenever there was a gathering where there were a number of mothers, I called it the White Shoulders miasma!

Most people who know me know about my obsession with perfume. My life work should have been as a a perfumer (or as the French say, a Nez, which means "nose" in French). Making perfume was my junior high school science project. My mother and I continued to make scents after that, but none which we wore. We used them for potpourris, sachets, and rose water for recipes! Jean Ann Miller won the science project with her knowledge, drawings, and scuptures of horses.

When I smell someone's perfume I usually do not forget it. Perfume is my favorite gift to give. I wore the same scent, L'Interdit for 30 years, until it was discontinued (see BLOG "L'Interdit" from July 7, 2011). My dream/fantasy is to own the formula, go to the House of Caron and have it blended just for me! After L'Interdit, I tried all the other Givenchy perfumes, all the Caron perfumes, all the Dior perfumes, and all of the Yves St. Laurent perfumes, Hermes, Gucci and others. I even tried "old" perfumes: Arpege, Chantilly, Bal A Versailles, but Gerald liked only L'Interdit on me! What to do? I had to settle on Chanel No. 5 which he approves.

With each new fragrance I tried, the little-used bottles ended up on my mother's dresser, as everything smelled good on her! She wanted the new ones; she didn't like OLD LADY PERFUMES!

When I was growing up, my mother's favorite perfume was Nuit de Noel, (see BLOG "NUIT DE NOEL" from July 5, 2011), but she wore less expensive ones like Wind Song ( I still remember the song with the Wind Song ad: "Wind Song stays on my mind"). My best friend's mother wore L'air du Temps which I thought was very elegant. She also had Arpege, My Sin, and Chantilly on her dresser. I remember the ads always had My Sin by Lanvin. The mother of my sister-in-law Sheila wore Shalimar. My friend Cammy and I would sniff and apply all the perfumes at the Lazarus perfume counter and take home the scent cards. I couldn't buy the expensive L'Interdit but I said, haughtily, "It smells better than Joy!" Joy by Jean Patou was advertised as "the most expensive perfume in the world". Cammy wore Tabu and as my sister-in-law Betty sold Avon, I wore Cotillion. Other girls at school wore L'Aimant and other Avon scents.

Below are introduction dates of OLD LADY PERFUMES:

1921 Chanel No. 5
1922 Nuit de Noel
1925 Shalimar
1927 L'Aimant
1930 Joy
1932 Tabu
1941 Chantilly
1945 White Shoulders
1947 Miss Dior
1948 L'Air du Temps
1952 Wind Song
1953 Youth Dew
1957 L'Interdit

I started the list with the best and ended with the best!